General description:
I must confess: I love Wolves. I don’t love that it portrays a magnificent creature in a negative light as has been done unfairly to wolves throughout the history of civilization but apart from that, I do love this unique. Unless a player can Castaway a Musketeer from outside the game, they are not loading that island’s treasure, period. Marines are largely unpopular due to their high cost so it's unlikely that your opponent would think to use one.
Uses:
Makes an entire wild island's worth of gold inaccessible to your opponent by conventional means.
Strategies and game play:
Wolves will make an unprepared gold runner's trip to a wild island a wasted effort. It's an anti-gold runner unique that produces a negative effect for your opponent but not so negative that you can't bypass it should you discover it yourself. Wolves will not win you the game so you'll still need to have your act together to halt your opponent's next move after he finds it.
Combos with other miniatures:
- Natives can turn a fruitless visit into an extended vacation.
- If you don’t want to pay the 3 points for a Musketeer of your own, you could contribute an Abandoned Musketeer to your treasure pool but this carries two risks:
1. Your opponent might find the Abandoned Musketeer on another island, load it, return to the wild island with the Wolves and then shoot the Wolves.
2. The Abandoned Musketeer might be on the same wild island as the Wolves, making them just as unloadable as the other two treasure coins.
If Wolves is a unique you want to try out, you should really break down and carry a Musketeer on any gold runner. They're useful crew in and of themselves should a gunship come by but less so if the gold runner is a 1-master and the gunship has a Captain.
- Do have a Duel event in waiting to swat an opponent's Musketeer.
Ways to counteract it:
- "Don" Pedro Gilbert's ability can trade out treasures on a different wild island with those from the wolfy island in the hope of getting something more valuable.
- Kharmic Idol will wipe out Wolves along with any other face up unique.
- Castaway can bring a Musketeer into play.
- Pandora's Box will allow an opponent to grab a Kharmic Idol and wipe out the Wolves.
Strengths/Pros:
- Marines are generally considered to be expensive and as such are not widely used.
- Even a Musketeer still needs to fire a shot successfully and Musketeers have a 50/50 chance of hitting/missing.
Weaknesses/Cons:
- Musketeers cost half what a Marine does and it is not the most uncommon crew out there.
- One of your ships might reveal Wolves on a wild island closer to your home island which your opponent might not have attempted to explore anyway, robbing you of a coin that could have been one worth gold.
Artwork and aesthetics:
These wolves look more like bears to me. A daylight painting might have been a better choice.
Overall rating:
I give Wolves a 6 out of 10. I would like to see more uniques where a crew is required to eliminate that unique. Wet Gunpowder and Rotting Hull aren't quite examples of this trend since you can give your ship a repair action at your home island or a friendly fort (which shouldn't be that difficult to build).
Miniature Trading
