IVORY STAR (#002)
Card Type: 4-masted galley
Nationality: Barbary Corsairs
Rarity: Rare
Cargo Capacity: 3
Base Speed: S+S
Cannons (fore to aft): 3L, 3S, 4S, 5L
Point Cost: 12


Rules Text
Galley. L-range cannons cannot hit this ship.

Flavor Text
The Ivory Star’s hull is covered with polished ivory. From a distance, she looks like a cresting wave, entrancing opponents into a state of vulnerability.

Additional Notes
The Ivory Star highlights both the strength and weakness that plagued the Barbary Corsairs. This ship has the galley ability, so she’s maneuverable and quick:

A ship with this keyword cannot pin or be pinned. If this ship rams, she cannot eliminate a mast from the rammed ship. As a free action, this ship may rotate on her stern (the rear of the ship) in any direction after she completes a move action. If derelict, this ship may move S.

Her S+S base move gives you plenty of options, and her special defensive ability means that you have a free pass to get in close for a ram attack or other short-range attack.

Her weakness—the weakness of all galleys—is that she has to get in close to do her worst. Sure you can stay at long range, but in many cases the long-range cannons of galleys just aren’t any good (the aft cannon here is 5L). Unlike the big ocean ships of the European fleets, which preferred to use broadsides attacks and to destroy their enemies from a safe distance, the galley was made for getting up close and personal.

The Barbary Corsairs’ power came from boarding and from small-unit attacks on ships. To them, the value of a ship was how much someone would pay for it, its crew, and any passengers aboard. Cargo, of course, was theirs. So they wanted to use their small, fast ships to get in close and use their fore cannons. That tactic, by the way, is also your best bet (3L in the case of the Ivory Star).

You really have two choices with this 12-point ship: Assign no crew to her in order to grab as much treasure as you can, or use her three cargo slots for crew and go ship hunting.

For those who don’t know much about the historical significance of the Barbary pirates, check out this historical article here.

That's pretty interesting. I'm a little disapointed that the designs haven't changed much. I'm not sure I dig the yellow... looks too much like the asp.

This ship is ok; it's not something I would use, to little cargo sapce for gold running and not good enough guns to be a gunship. Unless you know your going to see long-range cannon's I think you could find a better gunship. Were I think this ship could shine is in Sealed events. It has many differnet abilities which is great for Sealed.

And for the other stuff. Couple of interesting things here, I like the flag for the Barbary Pirates, and the design isinteresting as well. Also interesting that a 4 masted galley is rare... The card background looks to be almost the same as PotSM's were.

great, yet another nationality to compete for space! presumably my orginal guess in that they would displace Pirates for this set was right. which gives them an increadibly limited life span of only one set.

i supose this is wizkids trying to force people to use multi-national fleets. which seems odd in a game like this, where national affiliation is one of the most important features.

sadly it just puts me off the game. i don't care much for the historical element to this game. the truth is real pirates aren't interesting. they lead drab and dull lives with short spells of interesting events happening to maybe one or two of the many thousands of pirates that exist at any one time. the romantic imagery of pirates from books and films is hardly realistic. but its loads cooler. i just wish wizkids had stuck to that.

as a commentry of the ship though, its pretty banal. its ability is hardly exciting and new, is it? and for the second ship in the set that's a little disappointing. presumably this will be one of the largest ships in the Corsairs fleet, along with 001. but i think there are three possible explainations as to why this ship is so drearily common place:

1) there's something yet to be revealed, that makes the ship much more exciting. this could be a new rules mechanic in the game, or form of crew that can do something more exotic when they board than eliminate a crew and steal treasure.

2) they don't want to spoil the surpirse of their best ships in the first week. so they will reveal the fairly mediocre ships first, giving you a glimps of what's possible, rather than a full on look at what's actually comming our way.

3) Wk are just plain, old rubbish. they didn't really put any effort into this ship and that will me the common feature of all the ships, because this is one of the best.

i would like to think that it is one of the two former, but given the pirates track record, i wouldn't count on it.

Huh? That's a horrible ship. I love how Wizkids never pays attention to the continuity of sales-pitch copy. They basically state that the galleys cannot do any good ramming, then go onto to say "...you have a free pass to get in close for a ram attack..." Yay! I get to do a boarding roll! Goofy.

I like the galleys better when it was rumored that they get full speed when derelict.

"You really have two choices with this 12-point ship: Assign no crew to her in order to grab as much treasure as you can, or use her three cargo slots for crew and go ship hunting."

As much treasure as you can? Wow! 3 coins! Woops it's a fruit.
Ship hunting??? With those guns? Yeah right...
They left off the third choice...don't play with it.

-Q

Choices 4 through 17,000 include burning it, trampling on it, using it as a tea-coaster or applying plaster to a bathroom wall with it. It's really that rubbish...I hope that there's a balance of ships in this set, i really do, becasue if there are six factions I'll be angry Hulk-style, which is no good for anyone.

don't forget #17,001 which is, "Build the ship, place it behind your car, and run of it-- repeatedly. i think i might be done collecting this. what the heck kind of nationality is sword with a **** looking flag? :mad:

what? i cant even say c r a p ? *rolls eyes*

I think, this hip was not shown becuase it good but for a number of other reasons. Such as so we could see the new fraction, introduce the 4 masted galley and it's desgin. I wouldn't get to worked out over it.

Based on the outcry over the lack of Spanish ships, and things like your HUGE thread about new ship/crew abilities. I thurly believe that there will be a lot more balence in this set. They don't want to lose costomer's just because thier fraction doesn't have alot of ships in that set.

Yeah, I obviously had nothing to do during that period...Like to think I created things of worth though, stuff that could actually be put into the game and bring something to it. Watch as everything I designed is shamelessly stealed and put into the game...

Yeah and because they claim rights to everything posted there you get no money for your ideas!

But anyways, I think that that thread did have a impact, becuase WK saw how much people wanted a more balenced number of ships for each set. Hopefully thery will carry through on that.

Well, my opinion on that thread was always "It'd be so cool if I could play with XXXX that I'd designed!" But I think everyone who contributed deserves a good pat on the back. It's an impressive thread.

Back on topic though, is this ship really that bad? I mean -

Ivory Star w/ Helmsman, Wesley, Genny's Red Rampage

And it becomes a ram/board machine? I thought of using Captain Jack, but you have to pin something and Galleys can't pin...

I guess it depends whether or not the mechanics of the game change. At the moment, it's safer to depend on cannons to damage an enemy ship. If there's a "capture-the-enemy-ship-with-a-boarding-action" introduced then not damaging the ship with a Galley is a plus, because you'd get a fully working ship. Maybe introduce something like "If a ship rams another ship you must roll to remove a mast" into the rules so that Galleys are better for it than the regular ships.

I think we'll have to wait before passing judgment too strongly. Also, bear in mind that it's ability is definitely a good one, and it's on a four-masted ship, so it will definitely last out the game. Maybe it was designed to have stamina, and that was all. With the right new crew from the set it could become a serial ship-napper.

We can but wait and see...

Another thing to note about the Ivory Star is that it's the only four-master (so far, anyway) to have the "L-range cannot hit" ability.

That's a very good point! It may not have the greatest guns, but it'll be able to take quite a beating before it goes down.

Aside from a few exceptions like Enterprise, it will be all but impossible for the vast majority of 4- or 5-mast ships in the game to sink Ivory Star with a single shoot action. Even the feared HMS Titan will need a great deal of luck to disable it with TWO shoot actions. Le Superbe won't be able to touch it at all without LeNoir's help.

Yeah, and add on te fact that it's a Galley so it can't be stopped from moving when derelict...Very durable indeed. The problem, though, is whether or not it can do anything worth having in your fleet. It might last the game, but it needs to be able to do something that justifies it's presence in a fleet.