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Pirate Piece of the Day

HMS Royal Shaft
 

Piece Ratings: 1.13

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.
3 is average.
5 is the highest rating.


Date Reviewed - 04.01.08

 
Cadet-Captain Mike Name: HMS Royal Shaft (English)
Card: SM #401 (Unlikely)
Points: 27

Masts: 7
Cargo: 6
Moves: S
Guns : 5S,5S,5L,5L,5L,5S,2S
Hit %: 383 (S), 150 (L)
Ability: Once per turn, roll a die. If it falls off the table, hits a ship, or knocks a treasure off an island, eliminate this ship from the game.

This remarkable ship was a promotional piece for a WizKids convention that was canceled by Nemesio Diaz. As a result, she is extraordinarily rare. That's a shame, because there are a few English fanatics out there who would love to bring this brute to the table if they could.

She has one good cannon and six not-so-good ones, and huge cargo holds.
Her speed is low, but it's realistic for something this big. Her ability, which I'd love to see more often, is aimed at those Pirates players who lob the dice without regard for the havoc they cause. With her deep holds and high cost, you can fill her with useful crew. For maximum mayhem, I'd suggest Ken Wang Cho, Sir Jeremy Rothschild, Sir Watkins Defoe, and James Cook. Maybe a Captain, too, if fighting is your goal.

You could run gold with this ship; no enemy would dare mess with her. Or you could go out ramming and boarding; you'd win almost every boarding action, if you could catch the enemy first. But with seven cannons, this ship should be used for fighting; she'd be almost as effective as the legendary Maman Brigitte. If you have the good luck to find her, and if you can afford her sky-high point cost, by all means use her, and give all your enemies the Royal Shaft.

Goldship rating: 1.3 / 5
Gun Ship rating: 3.1 / 5
Boarding rating: 3.3 / 5
Value for points: 1.4 / 5
Draco Starcloud HMS Royal Shaft

When I saw this ship's picture, I thought it was a joke, but to prove it was real, photos of it from several perspectives were included with the list of reviews. Looked like promotional materials to me.

This unusual and amazing ship has seven masts! Not as great as a 10-mast junk but far better than your average ship. Unfortunately, the cannons are not great at all: three 5S, three 5L, and a 2S. I'd say it was meant for flight and not fight, but its speed is a mere S. It has a disappointing 6 cargo spaces, but at least you can boost the speed and firepower a little. Its ability is one of those detrimental powers that cheap boats have, which is surprising considering this is a horrendous 27 points!

Get this card only if you're a serious collector. It's ugly and almost totally useless in every way.

I give the HMS Royal Shaft a 1/5.
Vladsimpaler From what I recall, only several of the HMS Royal Shafts were ever made, I think that they were supposed to be Prize Support for PotSM, but were never really produced. It was mostly in part due to to the fact that a lot of fans complained about the mass errors they made with it.

Here, we review this little known ship in Pirates history!

HMS Royal Shaft, 27 points, English
Masts: 7
Cargo: 6
Speed: S
Cannons: 2S 5S 5L 5L 5L 5S 2S
Abilities: Once per turn, roll a die. If it falls off the table, hits a ship, or knocks a treasure off an island, eliminate this ship from the game.

I don't remember the flavor text, but it was pretty funny. Something about the English trying to make the Titan into a super monster (even though it already was) but the shipwrights failed miserably, and the English were left with this huge ship that was pretty terrible and hulking.

Let's see...why would you use this? It's huge, that's one thing. If you use the MI Hermoine Gold on it, then its cannons become rank 4 and 1. So we have that fixed up. You will also want to include a helmsman.

Also, if you include something like Brother Virgil, then you could have all sorts of cool crew on this ship. Carbon Charlie, a rarely used English crew, could see some use on this ship. The RotF Trevor van Tyne would be cool, too. But really. Why use this ship? It's terrible, and I can see why WK never really produced these. I think that when they decided to not make this ship an LE, they actually listened to the fans. Too bad that it doesn't really happen anymore.

Oh well.

Actually, why not just pay 3 points more for the Guichuan? The Guichuan has no negative effects.

I give this ship a 1/5. Not as bad as the Maman Brigitte, but I'm sure that 2 of them vs. one of this would give this ship a run for its money.

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