General description:
Enemy of the State can ruin a goldrunner's day but GOOD. The Mercenary keyword isn't half bad... if you're the one who chooses a ship with it. If it suddenly and unexpectedly becomes imposed on your ship, a ship's in-game value quickly drops and strategies are hastily rethought. They have to be. Other anti-goldrunner UTs in previous expansions do lots of tricky things but this is the first that forbids home island docking, a fundamental to any successful gold victory. Best of all is that since this is a unique, it doesn't cost you a thing pointwise.
Uses:
Home island banishment means no unloading gold there and no repairs. If your opponent only had one real goldrunner that found EotS, he or she will be forced to reassign a different ship to the task of exploring. Suffice it to say that his UT carries its own weight well.
Strategies and game play:
Ooh, this one's easy. Put this in your contribution to the treasure pool. If your fleet is an all-out gunship fleet, EotS is just what the doctor ordered.... along with some leeches. If you're doing some goldrunning of your own, do it with a good Spanish goldrunner like La Monarca or La Santa Isabel (both of which are from Revolution) and have Bianco's Haulers as a crew. For those of you who are new to the Pirates universe, Bianco's Haulers allows the ship on which he is aboard to unload cargo at your home island if she's within S of it. This is an ability that's useful in and of itself and when you've accidentally revealed your own EotS. Using a crew that came out six expansions ago as an insurance policy against a UT from a recent expansion is just one of the many joys I've discovered from playing this game. 
Combos with other miniatures:
To Hades with Plague and Missionary, Enemy of the State is the new UT of choice for Pandora's Box. Your opponent can choose Spices for one of his two 7 gold value coins aboard his ship but if he can't unload it, it's useless cargo; counterproductive cargo as well, since your opponent can then derelict, explore and steal the gold which your ship harvested without having to worry about the EotS. The best treasure runners aren't all that devastated by the loss of all of their crew. Being a ship without a country is a lot more brutal. Most goldrunners are counterbalanced by having cannons with uncomfortably high ranks and/or just one or two cannons so they don't make the transition to gunship well at all. Only the very best hybrids (and there aren't that many of them) have the merit to be reassigned to gunship duty without too much difficulty... but without a captain aboard (which goldrunners are not normally in the business of toting around), it will need some luck. Make that a lot of luck.
Ways to counteract it:
- You can refuse to load treasure coins worth gold aboard her along with the EotS. That way, if she is derelicted, there will be no booty for another player to plunder. Of course, it's still up for grabs to any of your opponent's ships but at least they'll have to spend a turn docked there to explore on their next turn and they may have to leave crew behind to cart off the treasure coins worth gold since the majority of gunships have low to moderate cargo ratings.
- Have a non-Mercenary ship of yours explore your EotS ship and cart the gold back to your home island.
- The Raven's Neck ability can peek under coins prior to committing to an explore action.
- Mercenary ships can dock and unload treasure at friendly forts.
- Having a cheap tough non-Mercenary blockade runner riding shotgun as an escort. You can "football" the gold to it and use your EotS ship as a sacrificial nuisance to send your opponent's way.
- Bianco's Haulers gets around the gold unloading aspect while a Shipwright gets around the repair aspect, sans the added benefit of home island cannonfire protection, .
Strengths/Pros:
- makes a goldrunner unwelcome at your home island until further notice.
- can frustrate an opponent who was counting on a favorite ship for a quick victory.
Weaknesses/Cons:
- makes a fine candidate for your opponent if your ship discovers a Pandora's Box UT.
- won't mean jack if the ship which discovers it already has the Mercenary keyword.
- has little or no impact if not found by your opponent in the early game.
Artwork and aesthetics:
The burning flag brilliantly illustrates the clash of ideals between a separatist's machinations and national pride.
Overall rating:
As UTs go, Enemy of the State is one of the hardest anti-goldrunners to deal with once revealed. Wolves, one of my favorite anti-goldrunner UTs, only affects the "explorability" of the wild island, leaving the ship no better or worse than it was before it revealed Wolves. Might I have a new favorite? Dang skippy I do! Forts don't discriminate against ships with the Mercenary keyword but one needs the gold on their home island to afford the fort in the first place so if you stumble across EotS on your first wild island, you have a problem. I don't do tournaments but I would not be the least bit surprised if this UT's popularity spread like wildfire, making life miserable for Pirates players across the country. For its ability to turn a player's game plan upside-down once it's turned right side up, I rate Enemy of the State an 8.5 out of 10. Why not a perfect 10? I'd like to give it a 10 out of 10 but EotS won't have any effect on an armed-to-the-teeth all gunship fleet that could care less about exploring wild islands. Conversely, an all goldrunner fleet won't (and shouldn't) be thrown for that much of a loop if a single ship loses its docking privileges. I feel a 10 should be saved for a game piece that serves a purpose all the time against any fleet.
Miniature Trading
