Miniature Trading

General description:
Bilge is a ship I’ve been waiting for a long time... I play English fleets, and up to now my choice of Turtle ships was limited to the capient, yet slow Pandora’s Box (HMS Obsidian Sun has the shape of a TS, but alas not the keyword...).
I’m not afraid to say that we have here one of the best Turtle Ships in the game. She has the lowest price we can pay for a TS (quite strange considering it’s English!), the best cannon we could wish for, a very good S+L movement, and three more than honest cargo spaces. Her only drawback (the lack of a special ability apart from the TS keyword) is actually a further advantage: it keeps the price low. There are wonderful ships out there, but some are saddled with over expensive abilities (Reverse-captain, Fear, Cheerleader...). Bilge sticks to her first purpose: she’s a honest, simple ship to be sailed into battle.

Uses:
Thanks to her low price and her good stats, Bilge is a good pick for many roles: either a small Treasure Runner, Hunter, Support Gunship, Escort... She can almost do anything!

Strategies and game play:
Bilge has a cargo above average, but not impressive. At most we can hope to take three coins for each voyage: they better be worth it! I’d use her as a Runner in a heavy Unique Treasure game: throw in some high value coins, Spices, Jade, Runes of Speed, and with a bit of luck Bilge will bring back home a good plunder.
But a 2L cannon means fighter as well: Bilge can be used as a wonderful escort for our treasure runners, very dissuasive if we add a Firepot... Actually I use her as a little all-purpose gunship, ready to defend, hunt, fight as soon as the need arises.
We can also play an innocent trick with Bilge... See Combos.

Combos with other miniatures:
As I said before, we can give Bilge two interesting configurations.
- As a Treasure runner we want aboard: the omnipresent Helmsman, an obvious Explorer, and First Mate Ismail to add a bit of cargo. This way, at 12 points we get S+S+L move, free explore, two cargo spaces (that quickly become three leaving the Explorer ashore after he has finished his job...), a good armour against our opponent, and there’s always a long cannon to deal some punishment...
- As a Fighter the first thing we need is a Captain.
Now we have three points and two cargo spaces to spend... An obvious choice might be a Helmsman, to get a lightning fast pest to hunt small treasure runners.
Or, if the focus is on damage, a Firepot Specialist is a good combo with TS, and we might invest our Limit crew to get a reroll and add BC Commodore Rhys Gryffyn Owen. At 11 points we get a ship everybody will do his best to avoid!
- There’s another fun thing we might do with this ship: a little surprise to an overconfident opponent. Put aboard a covered crew, and make her follow our main gunship, just as if she was a small supporter with a captain ready to shoot. But hidden under Bilge’s shell we have Commodore Temple (you own any derelict this ship explores; both ships become docked at your home island). Due to his fearsome ability and his high cost (6 points), the good Commodore is often considered no better than an expensive fire magnet: “if you are after derelicts, Harbinger is a much better choice”. Well, I’ve often wished for a suitable ship for him, with good speed and decent armour. Bilge fits the bill pretty well. All we have to do is wait for our gunship to have derelicted something, then go and take it home.

Ways to counteract it:
Turtle ships are small yet tough... It’s my modest opinion that the best way to deal with them is ramming to take that cannon out of the way. Then ignore her as the harmless turtle she became.

Strengths/Pros:
Excellent cannon;
Good price;
Good speed;
Good cargo;
Turtle ship keyword.

Weaknesses/Cons:
Strange to say: none.

Artwork and aesthetics:
Turtle ships became immediately popular also for their nice look. Bilge’s an exception. With her ultramarine sail (to say nothing of that black doodle), blue-grey hull, brown deck, green panels she wins the prize for the worst looking Turtle Ship so far. It’s the infamous colour-blind Wizkids designer who strikes back. I’m ready to bet anyone he's the very same who draw USS Stephens.
I have only one word for him: keelhauling.

Overall rating:
Within the Turtle Ship category I give Bilge 9,5/10. Difficult to do better.