Name:    A Fearsome Creature (Pirates)

Card:    PC #200 (Value Tin)

Points:  19

Masts: 8

Cargo: 0

Moves: L

Guns : 4S,3S,3S,2S,2S,3S,3S,4S

Hit %: 400 (S), 0 (L)

Ability: Kraken.

This is the first time I've tried to review a kraken. No one in my gaming circle owns one, so I've never seen one in action (aside from in the movies, of course), and I'm not 100% sure how the rules work for them. So if I bungle this review, chalk it up to inexperience.

The first thing you notice when you look at a kraken is all those arms.

Way too many arms! Each arm equals a cannon, and that's a lot of shooting, even if the cannons are somewhat lackluster. If I understand the rules, the kraken has to engulf a ship by touching it before it can shoot, but once it gets its suckers on a ship, that ship can't get away until it or the kraken is dead. With eight cannons, not many ships can expect to survive such an encounter. But if they hurt it badly enough, it might think twice about attacking anything else, and who needs a 19-point ship that's good for only one battle? So your targets should not include big fighters, Broadsides Attackers, or three-masted longships.

The real key to taking down a kraken is to sink the ship that carries the Kraken Gong, without which the kraken's owner can't choose targets for it. The other key is to use fast ships so the kraken can't catch them, but that may not always work. If an enemy put one of these monsters on the game table, my tactics would involve staying as far away from it as possible, which would give the other admiral an advantage.

For nineteen points, it BETTER do something good! And this is the least of the krakens; the others are even more expensive.

I don't see how A Fearsome Creature could ever be worth the points, compared to ships with fewer cannons but the ability to carry crew. This isn't a "ship" that you would use all the time; it's something you'd use now and then to scare the enemy and throw his game plan into a cocked hat. Other ships certainly lack a kraken's terror factor, but most of them give better value for their point cost.

Goldship rating: 1.0 / 5

Gun Ship rating: 3.4 / 5

Boarding rating: 3.1 / 5

Value for points: 2.3 / 5