General description:
As I mentioned in my "Lock Stock & a-Haulin Biancos" fleet, I stumbled across a review of the HMS London that said, "The Special Ability doesn't seem that useful", and I was surprised because up until the DPotC came out, the ability to steal all treasure by touching a Pirate ship was a key part of one of the most abusive combos in the game: The Gold Factory. (Click on the link above to see the fleet description.) When the previews went up for DPotC, I was flabbergasted with Governor Weatherby Swann: the Gold Factory combo would be available to almost every faction, and would be significantly cheaper.
Fortunately or unfortunately (hey, I thought it was a great combo), Woelf threw a knot into this loophole with a ruling to cut down the effectiveness of the Gold Factory. It still works, but is much slower.
However, while writing up my "Lock Stock & a-Haulin Biancos" fleet (when the combo was still horrendously abusable), something occurred to me. The original reviewer of the HMS London might be correct: this special ability really might not be that useful. One of my dirty little secrets is I hardly ever get to play this game. I've never actually used the HMS London or Governor Weatherby Swann in a game, so I really don't know how useful they are. And when I thought about it, there were only a couple circumstances where a ship with the HMS London/Governor Weatherby Swann ability would be touching a Pirate ship:
1) Running down a small treasure-runner such as Banshee's Cry or Bloody Jewel, which is just a few shots away from being captured or sunk anyway.
2) Ramming into a larger Pirate gunship, which generally doesn't carry treasure and thus there's nothing interesting to steal. Oh, and if you can't sink it or get away, it's going to light you up like a Christmas tree as soon as it gets a shoot action.
Either way, there's a pretty good argument that the ability is pointless or very difficult to use.
Uses, strategies and game play:
What, then, is the best way to take advantage of Governor Weatherby Swann's ability? He allows us to put the HMS London ability on a wider variety of ships. Ideally, we want to catch a small fast Pirate treasure runner full of gold, but in that case we'll also need something small and fast. But then we're also just as vulnerable to being captured or sunk.
Or let's say we put him on a bigger ship. Is it big enough to capture the Pirate ship, in which case Weatherby's ability is useless? Or if it's not big enough, was it really a good idea to get close enough to the Pirate ship to touch it if they're just one shoot action away from turning your ship into soggy splinters?
Clearly, the key to understanding how to make this ability work actually boils down to this: Ok, fine, you're currently touching a Pirate ship, and have taken all their gold. If you're not in a position to capture them, how do you get away from the angry Pirates?
The first thought that popped into my head was use a Smokepot Specialist to escape into a fog cloud. But this strategy has a few problems. First, once you touch a Pirate ship, your movement immediately ends, and assuming you aren't pinned, you would need another move action to get inside a nearby fog cloud. Extra actions can be unreliable or expensive. You can get around this by using a ship that can "move S after loading cargo", but unfortunately there are only four ships with this ability in the game, and none of them are English.
Also, if a nearby fog cloud wasn't close enough, you'd need a captain to provide a shoot action. That's 6 points for the captain and smokepot on top of Weatherby's 2 points, and at least 3 cargo spaces, which doesn't leave a lot of room for treasure.
My second thought held more promise: ships that can't "be shot at by ships within S". Fortunately the English have a few of these. Even better, they don't need any more crew to be effective: just plop Weatherby on board, and you can either pin bow-to-bow and slowly blow them apart, or just pull alongside and then dash away on your next turn.
The third method of getting away involves another ability that appeared in the DPotC set: Parley. Simply put, move alongside and steal all the Pirate's gold. When he tries to shoot you, give one coin back, then take the rest of his gold home. Unfortunately, there are no English crew or ships with the Parley keyword. Fortunately, there are a wide variety of ships and crew that allow multiple nationalities to use their abilities, so Parley + Weatherby can be one of the easier strategies to pull off.
There is another occasion where Governor Weatherby Swann might be useful: boarding. If you put him on a large ship designed for boarding, and you happen to run into another ship with both treasure and crew aboard, then you can use him to force your opponent to discard a crew rather than let him give you a low-value or worthless treasure. Boarding has always been risky, and when Woelf changed the rules so the loser always gets to pick treasure or crew, it didn't make much sense to me... why make boarding even LESS desirable? For only 2 points, Governor Weatherby Swann guarantees you grab all the treasure before the boarding roll, and if you win, your opponent will have to lose a crew, hopefully a valuable captain or helmsman. If you lose, just toss Weatherby overboard. He's already done his job, you don't need him anymore.
Combos with other miniatures:
If you're at a Pirates venue that isn't familiar with the Gold Factory combo or Woelf's "unload within S" ruling, and you'd like to get thrown out or banned, then the cheapest way to pull off the Gold Factory combo is 16 points: HMS Yardbird + Weatherby + Brother Virgil + Maurice Aristide. It still works, but using an explore action to unload every coin can take a while.
If you're hunting treasure runners, the ideal ship will need decent speed, a deep cargo hold, and can't be shot within S. The best candidate is the HMS Prince of Chichester, already one of the most hated English ships in the game. At 13 points she's a bit pricy, though, and you'll also need to add a helmsman if you hope to catch a Banshee's Cry or Bloody Jewel. The HMS Regent costs the same but has very little cargo space. You can add First Mate Ismail to add +1 cargo, but with a helmsman you still only have one space left for treasure. The St. George is definitely cheaper and faster, but has even less cargo space. There are many other ships with this ability, but they are usually missing either cargo capacity or speed, and to increase one you generally have to sacrifice the other.
If you're looking for a Steal-then-Parley ship, the most effective would be the Bonnie Liz with Weatherby and Damsel in Distress. This leaves three cargo open for stolen gold, so hopefully two gold coins to bring home, S+L speed to get away, and if you need extra cargo space, you have just enough points available to add First Mate Ismail or Gentleman Jocard. For 16 points, this lets you pull alongside the Bloody Jewel just as she empties out a wild island, take all four treasure, then give one of those back before you get away. Another good candidate is the Black Swan or Grand Barnacle for 13 points.
If you'd like to try boarding with Governor Swann, the HMS Pacificum is your best choice: 5 masts, decent speed, decent cargo, and +1 to boarding (or +2 if it's a submarine). The HMS Durham is nearly as good or better: 4 masts, better speed, better cargo capacity, and +1 to boarding rolls.
Another combo that works well with Weatherby: if you can't safely move away, move the other ship instead. Use Foul Winds, George Washington Lebeaux, Jean Desailly, Screaming Mimi, or Tsuro to move an enemy Pirate ship into contact with Weatherby's ship, and then use your own action to escape. You can also use this combo to get out of trouble when you're tangled up bow-to-bow or need to get out of a boarding attempt that looks to be going badly.
Two other events can be quite effective when combined with Governor Weatherby Swann. Hidden Cove can be used at the beginning of your next turn to move your treasure-stealer to a safer wild island or closer to home. And while Cursed Zone isn't a guaranteed escape, it does make shooting or boarding your ship a lot harder, which could work well with Parley: if they don't hit you, you don't have to give any gold back.
Ways to counteract it:
The easiest way to counter Governor Weatherby Swann: don't be a Pirate. He's useless against non-Pirate ships.
If you are a Pirate, the easiest way to counter his ability is don't let him touch you. Ghost Ship prevents touching, as do submerged ships such as Submarines and Sea Monsters.
Cancellers also work well, as do any crew/cargo-killing abilities.
Mermaids should work, but it's important to note that Weatherby's ability does not require an action to work, so his ship *can* use his ability while under the effects of Mermaids if it's touching a Pirate ship. But it can't move, so you can either keep the ship from touching yours, or keep it from running away, allowing you to steal your treasure back or capture the ship.
Finally, Plague is a good way to either discourage inappropriate touching or kill him outright.
Strengths/Pros:
Does not require an action to use, can be used multiple times, and does not limit the amount of treasure you can take.
Only costs 2 points, and works on the most popular ships in the game.
When boarding, takes all your opponent's treasure before the roll, and forces him to discard crew if he loses. If you lose, you can easily discard Weatherby after he's done his job.
Works with most UTs.
Weaknesses/Cons:
Difficult to use. In most situations when you're touching a Pirate ship, his ability will either be useless or get you shot at by angry Pirates.
Only works against Pirate ships.
Countered by Ghost Ships, Submarines, and Sea Monsters.
Artwork and aesthetics:
It was extremely disappointing to see the DPotC set go with photos instead of artwork, but this is adding insult to injury: not only is it a photo, but it's a photo of an ugly wig.
Overall rating:
6 out of 10. Not nearly as powerful as I first thought it would be, but after a second look, there are some interesting possibilities that I didn't expect, either.
Miniature Trading
