Cameron the Cabin Boy

[shawnloew]

I was wondering if one of you kind-hearted souls can explain the mechanics behind Cameron the Cabin Boy. What is the point of this card? You're paying 3 points to bring in a 2-point crew member? Does Cameron allow you to bring in a crew member of a different nationality than the ship or something?
Pirates rox!!

[WildWill]

Yes, doesn't make a lot of sense does it. Until you think about using him on a sac-captain boat...

Welcome to Pojo me hearty...

[topnwe]

Like Wildwill said, someone like Blackheart can really make use of him. If only the British had such a crewman. The French happen to have creman like Cameron, who with the proper crew can result in a combo that allows you to reuse him, and allows you to have extra crew to sacrifice to Captain Aratheil.... :D

[richardl]

Sorry if i'm being dumb here, but I still don't get it... So you can use Cameron (or similar) to bring in another member of crew for your sac-captain to kill, for which you are (in effect) paying one point, and not occupying a cargo space... But you can use this only once, not repeatedly. Can't you? Then you can sacrifice Cameron too. So, 3 points for two sacrifices. Is that it? The sac-captain strategy par excellence is surely to pair your sac-captain with Stump, De Brissac etc (ie. a 'reduce all other crew by 1 point' ability) - whereupon, you can load an infinite number of oarsmen aboard (1 pt reduced to zero pt, and don't take up cargo space), and have as many extra moves as you like. Which obviously, is why they introduced mermaids, as we know. Don't see how Cameron and the like are that much help.

[topnwe]

Actually I thought that one worked too, not so much. Generic crew abilities (such as the oarsmen not taking up a cargo space) do not stack. Only one of the oarsmen will not take up a spot. No, I have another setup in mind, it does involve Captain Arathiel, Claude Perrier, and one other very specific crewman... can anyone guess who it is?

[swiftcutter]

I believe the point of Cameron's ability is that it allows you to choose crew on the fly rather than having to commit a particular crew to a ship at the beginning of the game.

[richardl]

Hmm. Topnwe - interesting. I read the oarsman ability as providing a short move if derelict. I don't read the fact that the oarsman takes up no cargo space as an 'ability' per se - it's just an added feature of that crew type. I know this sounds like semantics, but it's kinda important! What do other people play?

However, checking this out led me to another interesting facet in the official rules, which says that abilities of SHIPS and CREW do not stack either - ie. if a crew ability replicates a ship ability, you can't use both abilities (in the same turn presumably) - so... all those people elsewhere in these threads, gloating over the killer tactic of placing a 'roll 5 or 6 for an extra action' crew character aboard a 'roll 5 or 6 for an extra action' ship, and getting possible triple (and even quadruple) moves, are not actually following what it says in the rules.

Thinking about it, that also puts paid to my favoured anti-English tactic of putting Gaston St Croix (+1 against English ships) aboard Vengeance or better still, Dauphin Royal (both +1 against English ships) - meaning that on the latter 5-gun vessel at least, you only need to avoid rolling a 1 on all cannons, in order to hit English targets. Looks like that cunning (and oh so rewarding) plan is out of the porthole then... :(

[WildWill]

The Oarsman specifically has the ability to not take up a cargo space, it's in the rules. However, it does not stack. So if you have more than one oarsmen on board your vessel, only the first one takes up no cargo space. The rest do. And they don't provide any additional abilities beyond the first one.

You are correct in assuming that abilities do not stack from ship to crew. HOWEVER, you are incorrect in assuming that similarly worded abilities are the same. They are specifically NOT the same. Unless they are worded EXACTLY the same.

[topnwe]

Exactly, so using St.Croix, Dupuy and Arathiel is fine, they'll all get their abilities. And i'm disappointed, no guesses on the crewmen that allows you to reuse Claude Perrier... no guesses at all?

[richardl]

Go on. Tell us...

[topnwe]

Father Rene Bordeaux. My friends and i have been trying to find the flaw but cant find it. After flipping little Claude to pull someone in (face down) and sac them for Arathiel. Then on the next turn target Claude, he is flipped face down, every other turn you have a new crewman to feed to Arathiel! :D