Name:    HMS Cheshire (England)

Card:    SC #049 (Uncommon)

Points:  14

Masts: 3

Cargo: 4

Moves: S+L

Guns : 4L,4L,4L

Hit %: 100 (S), 100 (L)

Ability: After this ship resolves a shoot action, she may move as a free action.

Ahh, the infamous reverse-Captain ability! Why WizKids thought it was worth 6 points when a normal Captain is only half that, is a mystery to me. It raises the prices of decent ships and makes them poor values, HMS Cheshire among them.

I usually think of reverse-Captain ships as fighters, but this boat lacks the cannons for such a role. What she does have is the speed and cargo to run gold. And here, her ability actually makes sense. If a small enemy fighter tries to shoot or board her, she can try to punish him with her lousy cannons and then run like the wind. This would work great, except for the abovementioned lousy cannons and her inflated price tag, which would be only 8 or 9 points if it weren't for her ability. I wouldn't give her any crew, but use her to clean out high-risk wild islands. If I could afford her, that is.

HMS Cheshire could have been a good little gold ship; three masts give her an extra measure of survivability compared to most gold ships. Alas, she costs too much. For fourteen points, I could get two equally speedy gold ships (Bilge and HMS Antelope) with more total cargo capacity, and with three points left over for Mermaids or something. I can't call this ship a good value, but she could spring a nasty surprise on an enemy who likes to pick your gold ships. If you can afford her!

Goldship rating: 3.9 / 5

Gun Ship rating: 2.8 / 5

Boarding rating: 3.0 / 5

Value for points: 2.9 / 5

Name: HMS Cheshire Masts: 3 Cargo: 4 Speed: S+L Firepower: three 4L cannons Cost: 14 points Ability: After this ship resolves a shoot action, she may move as a free action.

We continue this week with HMS Cheshire from SC. A very capable and excellent gold runner, especially for the English. If you’re looking for such a ship then look no further, especially if you’re in the mood to go wasting points.

She starts off looking promising, good cargo space and excellent base move. Then it all goes pair shaped. She’s grossly over-priced, for two reasons. One; Her cannons, it doesn’t matter too much about accurate guns on a gold runner. So the rank four’s are fine but if they were S-range and not L-range you would save one and a half points, making the ship a bit more affordable. Two; her ability, WK overpriced it to begin with, which I could never understand. On one hand you have the captain’s ability (move + shoot), costs three points and next to the helmsman it’s the most widely used ability. The shoot + move ability on the other hand costs twice as much and is half as useful.

For fourteen points you could buy HMS Apollo from R/F. An excellent five mast multi-task ship or HMS London with a captain. That’s just two examples, so you have to ask yourself. Why would I want to put fourteen points into this ship?

Well I’ll tell you. If you are a bit insane, she does offer something if you wanted to surprise your opponent though. She’s got the cargo and speed to do it. And then all you’ll need is some careful manoeuvring and one or two crew.

First decide to use her for gold or offensively. If gold then all you need is a smoke shot and decide whether or not you’ll need a helmsman. You can use equipment for the smoke shot or crew, choice is yours. If equipment, don’t forget that it has been unofficially updated to three points with no negative effect. Then send her out alongside a gold runner, she has the speed to keep up and has the cargo to finish clearing that wild island. If an unwelcome guest comes along in the form of an enemy gunship, shoot the smoke and engulf the gold runner. Then move and hide in the smoke alongside. Now you may think that spending over fourteen points on HMS Cheshire is a lot and not worthwhile. But if she’s able to provide complete protection to herself and that gold runner, it must be worth it. Say for example she’s escorting Banshee’s Cry that’s loaded up with high value coins. That ship is vulnerable, she maybe fast but so is a lot of other ships; ships which want what she’s got. With HMS Cheshire with her, there’s no ship that can touch her or your expensive cargo.

The same can be done offensively. For example, need broadside insurance? San Cristobal annoying your fleet? Team HMS Cheshire up with HMS Swallow and if she misses that broadside then Cheshire can just shoot her smoke to cover both ships. Put a helmsman and you have the speed to close down even the fastest of ships. Don’t forget if you have Thomas Gunn F/S in your fleet he can give any ship +1 cannon rolls. And if you have the points put aboard Hermione Gold MI. She has the captain’s ability and gives +1 cannon rolls to non-English ships. Now she can shoot three cannons all on rank two. Both those do stack, the effects might be the same but the trigger is different. With the captain you then have the choice of move + shoot or shoot + move. All expensive at 21pts, but gives great flexibility. Other options are; HMS Grand Temple + Benito de Soto, 24pts; HMS Gargantum + Hermione Gold MI, 23pts. Both are slower and don’t offer gold running attributes.

That’s take a look at the breakdown of costs.

Masts – 1.5 points Cargo¬ – 2 points Speed – 3.4 points Cannons – 2.49 points Ability – 4.6 Points Total 14 points.

Something remarkable happened when I was writing this review. I started off not liking this ship, thinking that is overpriced and useless and as I thought more about it, as I carried on with this review. I found that she is really quite good.

Gunship rating 2/5
Gold ship rating 3/5
Fleet support rating 5/5
Value rating 2.5/5