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Pirates of the Crimson Coast -
Vicomtesse Angelique de Richelieu
#086
Name:
Vicomtesse Angelique de Richelieu
Set: POCC
Card #s: 086
Type: Crew
Cost: 3 Points
Faction: French
Ability: “Once
per turn, this ship may randomly take one treasure
from any ship she touches.”
Flavor Text: “Vicomtesse Angelique de
Richelieu's exquisite beauty belies a dangerously
cunning mind. Clever and well-connected, she has
established an intricate spy network whose tentacles
reach all the way back to France. It is not known
whether her relationship with the shadowy Monsieur
LeNoir is romantic or professional, but it's safer
not to inquire.”
I out and out adore Alexandre Dumas
classic “The Three Musketeers” and it’s sequels. I
especially enjoy the Richard Lester films that were
released in the mid 1970’s starring Michael York as
D’Artangan. Now what does this have to do with this
card? Well the main “villain” of the Dumas novels
and films is the Catholic Cardinal Richelieu (and in
the Lester films, he’s played by Ben Hur himself,
Charleton Heston), who was a real Catholic Cardinal
and at one time was the Prime Minister of France.
Richelieu had no children, being an ordained
Catholic Priest (in fact his family name wasn’t even
Richelieu, that’s the name of his estate), but it’s
entirely possibly he had other family members, and
the Vicomtesse may be a relation. It’s an unusual
name to say the least. That’s what I love about
Pirates, the detail that goes into the creation of
the characters, and the back-story for the game in
general that is quite flavorful and interesting.
Now, for the crew: for three points
you get the ability to steal a treasure from any
ship she touches. Not really a great ability,
especially with the overall lack of boarding/ramming
maneuvers in the meta-game. I’ve mentioned before
that WizKids was attempting to make boarding more
interesting, and the Vicomtesse is one of those
cards that’s supposed to make ramming and boarding
more fun. She would definitely go well with a ship
that can’t lose masts from ramming/boarding, but
beyond that, I don’t really see much play value.
Now the Vicomtesse has a link,
meaning that when she’s on the same ship with her
linked character, you only take up one cargo spot,
instead of two. Her link is with the aforementioned
LeNoir, who allows you to cancel one crew ability
within S length of that ship. This can come in
pretty handy, but you’re spending an awful lot of
points for these two, and unless your strategy
revolves around ramming, it’s not worth it.
The Victomtesse is a rare card, but
surprisingly, has no completed auctions in the last
90 days. Online stores and Ebay stores have her
listed at a buck or two. Doubtful that you’d need
to pay more for this rare portrait card.
My Ratings
Playability 2.5 of 5
Pirates of the Revolution – Father
Rene Bordeaux POR#64A
Name: Father Rene Bordeaux
Set: POR
Card #s: 64A
Type: Crew
Cost: 7 Points
Faction: French
Ability:
Marine. This crew gets +1 to its gun rolls against
English ships, forts, and crew.
Flavor Text: “At Viscomtesse
Richelieu’s request, Bordeaux’s task is to shore up
the defenses of France's New World holdings. He
feels obligated to protect her holdings first, then
hunt
Marines are a new crew type that
WizKids introduced in the Revolution set. The idea
is that they can actually shoot on their own (with a
2S cannon), so any ship carrying a Marine has
essentially one extra cannon. Additionally, they
have to be hit twice before they can be eliminated,
and can only be targeted while they’re on islands!
Not only that, but they can stack their abilities!
Of course, this means you have to have more than one
marine, and thus far, the only Marines available
have unique names, and thus no Marine can actually
stack in the current rule set. Michel’s ability is
+1 against English ships, which is great for an
anti-English fleet.
And they are SEVEN FREAKIN’ POINTS!
Use this particular marine with his link, Father
Rene Bordeaux, and you’ve got 12 points of crew in
two characters taking up one cargo spot. Father
Rene though, has a great ability: healing! Whenever
a crew on his ship would be eliminated, you flip
them face down instead and they get their ability
all over again. Personally I’m dying to make a
Marine heavy fleet, but I’ll have to wait for
Barbary Coast for that.
Being a common, Michel should be
relatively easy to obtain, and shouldn’t be more
than a buck or two on the secondary market.
My Ratings
Playability 3 of 5
Collectability 2 of 5
Next time – French week ends…oho…c’est
la vie!
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