Name : Assassin

Description: Target player randomly loses 1 captain or 1 admiral or 1 merchant


Discussion Topic: As far as I remember, if this card is used and kills an admiral; the only consequence for the target player is that they have to buy an extra admiral next time they make a new fleet(i.e. they would buy 2 admirals instead of 1). I propose that instead a fleet should be disbanded, as the player will have a fleet with no admiral.

This can apply to the other two officers as well e.g.
If a Captain is killed a ship cant leave port or is left at port if the ship is part of a fleet running a trade route
If a Merchant is killed then a trade route is cancelled


- SPAZTUC -

-1.

If this is the case then ship stealing becomes a lot easier. Cast a lot of assassins and commandeer the ships.

-1

Like warrior said stealing ships becomes easier. Card is powerfull already since officires are too expensive as they are and that's strong impact for every player

I do agree on one part, but lets say you are a pure merchant... And only have trade ships level one ( Jim Hawkins style ) Not much to loose...

Merchants
Firstly this will not likely affect merchants due to merchants having a high number of fleets usually made up of low level large merchantmen (some times other ships as well); therefore, trying to steal a lot of ships from them is not likely to be profitable. Hence, the only reasons to target a trader with mass assassin + commandeering would be
1. due to spite/revenge or strategy(ie. if one guild wanted to hamper major traders in a guild from supporting attack fleets during war) or to try and nuke someone from the game
2. They would have to be a relatively large player other wise the damage can be quickly recovered from with support from friends

In all of these situations a large number of assassins and an equal large amount of commandeers would need to be employed.

I'm guessing that 100+ assassin and an equal number or more of commandeers would need to be used to really make a large impact (of course it also depends on the size of the player). Sure you could do it with less but it is likely that this will cause little impact on the target. But the point is you will need a large amount of cards to do this and therefore this could only be a few guilds. I also speculate that this could only be done a couple times effectively by maybe one guild (from by limited knowledge of the new guilds/player these days).
But the major flaw in using this against a trader is the cost. Who wants to use that many commandeers for little profit.

Pirates
Pirates, however, are a different story. Each Pirate has their own way. Some have small trade fleets, some have one fleet but the prevailing trend among pirates is low officer numbers (generally speaking). Therefore it would only require a few assassin cards and commandeers to nullify a pirates offensive capability or worse, a pirates booty is stolen back from under them (ie. re-capturing ships lost from a raid).

However that can be easily countered by simply buying more officers. I know what you're saying "Spastic, you're telling me to buy more officers even though the last one cost me my one good leg and me last gold tooth".
Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.
"The injustice, how dare you suggest something that unbalances the already horrible unbalance pirates"
Its ok young pirate, you still have other options like re-investing some of that raid money you got into future protection, perhaps considering a loan, contacting a benefactor or using bribe or one of the 10 voodoo cards that give you gold.

I know some will be thing why change the card at all. Well because its completely useless. Its only use is to cause a small annoyance to a large trader next time he builds a new fleet. It is a rare card after all and probably the only rare card that has literally now valuable use.

Cliff Notes
- This change will not effect traders as using such a tactic to steal their ships will not be valuable enough to warrant the cost
- If you are a pirate buy more officers and you wont be affected
- Why it should be changed: because assassin is a rare card and currently its effect is pretty much useless

personally, I think anyone who makes any profit over a 24hr period should have a random ship taken off them ; anyone who successfully fights off an attack should face a random 50% chance their ship sinks : any banker with more than 2 gc should find their vaults empty each morning : all goldsmiths should pay a tax of 115% of their turnover : oh, any pirate can do what they want anytime to whoever and get a 10mil credit prize just for logging in.

Danik wrote:personally, I think anyone who makes any profit over a 24hr period should have a random ship taken off them ; anyone who successfully fights off an attack should face a random 50% chance their ship sinks : any banker with more than 2 gc should find their vaults empty each morning : all goldsmiths should pay a tax of 115% of their turnover : oh, any pirate can do what they want anytime to whoever and get a 10mil credit prize just for logging in.

Sounds fair...

Roberts wrote:

Danik wrote:personally, I think anyone who makes any profit over a 24hr period should have a random ship taken off them ; anyone who successfully fights off an attack should face a random 50% chance their ship sinks : any banker with more than 2 gc should find their vaults empty each morning : all goldsmiths should pay a tax of 115% of their turnover : oh, any pirate can do what they want anytime to whoever and get a 10mil credit prize just for logging in.

Sounds fair...

Yeah, being as I am heading towards the pirate life.. my thinking is becoming ... ahem ... re-adjusted ?

+1
to be honest it is very realistic if a player has 10 ships and 10 captain and an assassin kills a captain how is the ship supposed to leave port or sail at all so if a captain is killed a random ship of the player becomes unable to sail tell a captain is hired and if it takes out an admiral same thing the fleet just stops tell it has a admiral

I disagree with this one.

If a Captain is killed the crew can still sail the ship as in real life. The crew cannot afford to buy a ship so you need a captain to buy the ship.

same rule applies to Admirals. fleet will continue but cannot be reformed.

Jim