General description:
The Hai Peng is honored with two distinctions: 1) it appears in the third PotC movie (World's End), and 2) it is one of the fastest ships in the game. And not just fast in a Banshee's Cry or Deliverance sort of way, but with neck-snapping dock-in-one-trip sort of way we haven't seen in previous sets.
We've seen ships before with +L movement abilities, but most of these ships only moved S or L to begin with and had certain restrictions like can't carry cargo or if all masts are intact. The Hai Peng is the first ship to feature S+L movement to begin with in addition to +L with a captain aboard and the capability to add a helmsman for another +S. That's S+L+L+S for 18 points, which means, assuming most islands are about 3L away from each other, you could move from one island to another island with a single move action.
Uses, strategies and game play:
Aside from speed, let's take a look at Hai Peng's other capabilities. With 4 cargo spaces, she makes a natural if somewhat pricy treasure runner. Her two short-range cannons are on the poor side of mediocre, but having two masts does give her an advantage over one-masted treasure runners and some survivability against ramming or Odin's Revenge. If you need more firepower or utility, there's plenty of room for a musketeer or equipment. The Junk keyword on a two-masted junk is a meaningless waste, but an ability that relies on a captain can be combined with an awful lot of crew.
There may be some confusion on how to interpret what is meant by a captain on this version of the DPotC ability, "If this ship has a captain crew, she gets +L to her base move." As of the December 2007 FAQ, this applied to any generic captain crews, any crew with "Captain" in the name, and any name with foreign versions such as Capitan, Capitaine, and even Rais. In the RotF expansion, the wording on ships such as Hades' Realm and San Cristobal was changed to "If this ship has a crew with the Captain keyword, she gets +L to her base move." According to the latest FAQ, any crew with the "move and shoot" text now count as having the captain keyword, so those should count for Hai Peng's ability as well.
Getting back to the issue of speed, the real question with the Hai Peng is not holy smokes is it really that fast (and maybe what were the designers smoking?) but what do you do with all that speed? A couple things spring to mind:
Build a Fort
Assuming most islands are about 3L away from each other, the ability to move to another island and dock in a single move action means it becomes rediculously easy to build a fort. Adding just a captain, helmsman, and explorer onto the Hai Peng means you only have one open cargo space, so you'd have to hope for a coin at least worth 3 gold or more, but bringing it home is only a move action away. You can leave the gold in the fort and use it as a jumping-off point to explore another island, or bring it home to satisfy the end-of-game conditions. With a little luck on island placement, you might be in position to put forts on all of the wild islands.
Home Island Raiding
One of the biggest problems with any HI raider is even if you do manage to get a ship close enough to grab one of your opponent's coins, it's very difficult to get away without getting shot at. If your opponent's HI is only about 3L away from your own, then you can put El Fantasma (original PotSM version) or Captain Villanueva (counts for +L!) on board and the Hai Peng is fast enough to get back home (or back to a friendly fort) with only one move action.
Combos with other miniatures:
Obviously, to get the most out of your movement, you can start with a generic captain and helmsman, which gets you S+L+L+S for only 18 points. You have 2 cargo spaces open, but you can improve that by adding Gentleman Jocard for +1 cargo, and then maybe an explorer.
Things get more interesting when you look at crew with "Captain" in their name. Adding Captain Blackheart (PotSM) and a few oarsmen or Amos on board lets you move S+S+L+L+L+L+S+S, not to mention shooting twice, which pretty much means no enemy ship is safe and there's almost nowhere they can hide from you.
I already mentioned Captain Villanueva for Home Island raiding. If you're going that route, add the UT Wine to take an additional coin.
Woelf has ruled that any crew with the "move+shoot" ability counts as having the Captain keyword, so that opens up more possibilities (although the Pirates tend not only to have every ability, they often get them cheaper than other factions). Adding Anamaria or Crimson Angel (RotF) lets you use any captain from the other factions, such as Duque Alfonso de Castilla or Thomas Gunn (RotF, Captain+Helmsman).
The stand-out best choice, however, has got to be Captain Jack Sparrow (DPotC #058 ). Not only does he count as a captain, but he has a new ability that allows him to explore a wild island and trade one treasure with a friendly crew on another ship. This has several important applications:
1) UTs which are only useful to large gunships can be immediately transferred to the ships where they'll have the greatest impact. Fast treasure runners don't really have any need for Power Cannons, Dry Gunpowder, or Metal Hull. Big slow gunships usually have better things to do than explore islands, but toss an extra oarsman on board and now they don't have to.
2) A ship parked at your home island with a handful of oarsmen can be used to instantly put gold on your home island, which can be used to build a fort on the same turn (including your first turn!) or count towards victory.
If that isn't stupendously useful enough, Captain Jack Sparrow can be linked to all pirate ships, freeing up another cargo space for a SAT, SAC, or EAC. Put the Hai Peng between two islands 3L from each other, put a fort on each, and you can bounce back and forth between each fort with every move action, sending one treasure home every time.
As I may have mentioned previously, another piece that works well with Hai Peng are forts. The Devil's Maw, for example, lets you recycle eliminated crew (although if you eliminate them yourself with a SAC captain, you don't get the extra action). If you do get nailed with a crew/cargo-killer, you can return to the fort and pick up the Ghost Ship keyword along with your crew. This would let you ignore terrain that could slow down the Hai Peng, such as sargassos. Another useful fort would be St. Pierre, which gives you an extra action for unloading at least 4 gold.
Ways to counteract it:
With only two masts, Hai Peng isn't a terribly sturdy ship, so shoot it twice and it ceases to be much of a threat. Mermaids will most likely shut it down for at least a few turns, and while Becalmed might slow it down, a Hai Peng/Capt. Jack Sparrow combo can counter it with a spare Oarsman. If you don't have any events handy, the best way to stop it is to cancel it's movement. You might get lucky with Fear, but you'll probably have better odds with a Chainshot or Stinkpot Specialist. Although it might look like a ship with only two masts might be a perfect target for a Firepot Specialist, the Hai Peng still gets its full movement and is one of the few ships in the game that can get back home in a single move action.
One of the easiest ways to make trouble for the Hai Peng, however, doesn't cost any points. When placing islands at the start of the game, just make sure you do whatever you can to place islands farther apart. If the islands are still too close, put down sargassos in between the direct routes to each island. Stick with sargassos since they have the best chance to affect the Hai Peng, and avoid fog clouds (the Hai Peng can use these to escape), icebergs (they can move out of the way), or reefs (only 1 in 6 chance to damage).
Some UTs can also be used to slow down or hurt the Hai Peng. Crew-killers such as Plague and Missionary are particularly effective, but Cursed Natives, Runes of Death, Volcano, or Scurvy would also work. UTs which slow down or prevent the Hai Peng from taking actions (such as Buried Treasure, Plunder, or Rum) might allow you to catch/pin it with a gunship. Since most builds will have at least a captain and helmsman aboard, Natives should be particularly effective.
Assuming you could catch it or slow it down, any hit by a crew/cargo-killer that removes a captain or helmsman would slow it down in addition to eliminating a mast. A sea dragon such as Shal-Bala might also give the Hai Peng some trouble, since you can't outrun a sea dragon's unlimited movement, and Shal-Bala's Fear keyword has a chance to reduce Hai Peng's base speed to S.
Strengths/Pros:
SPEEEEEEEEEED. Incredibly fast. Did I say it was fast? Yes, extremely FastFastFASTFAAAAAAST.
Special ability works with a variety of different kinds of Captains, and the 13 points, while pricy for a treasure runner, allows some higher-point combos.
Good cargo capacity.
Great excuse to dust off those forts and actually use them in a game.
Weaknesses/Cons:
Only two masts with mediocre/poor short range cannons. She can take on a smaller one-masted treasure runner, but shouldn't press her luck with anything bigger.
Heavy reliance on crew makes her vulnerable to crew/cargo-killers, Missionary, and Natives.
Careful placement of sargassos can slow it down.
Artwork and aesthetics:
At first glance, the Hai Peng looks extremely drab and uninteresting. Grey everywhere, no bright colors, a very drab and uninteresting ship. However, from what I can see of how the ship appeared in PotC: World's End, it has exactly the same color scheme used in the film. And despite the fact that the die-cut patterns for junks were developed before the Disney movie, the ship looks exactly like the two-masted junk used in the movie. In an expansion that was done as a quickie license cash-in, it surprised me to see such attention to detail.
Overall rating:
With the right crew on board, this can be one of the most effective Pirate ships in the game. With Captain Jack Sparrow and a Helmsman on board, it starts listing toward the deeper end of "teh borken" pool.
9 out of 10.
Miniature Trading
