I dont understand for what reason Malta has card turn all normal expensive warships to low power xebecs. The only reason to overpop armada?
This card cost gold LOL!
Cause they look cooler
5 Likes
Do you understand how rof is represented in the ui?
Yes. Xebec has 612 dmg per 6, and the frigate has 594 dmg per 6. Xebec just -1000 HP
Maybe compare them in Fortress where the Xebec is clearly better and Malta can just rebuild the Frigates giving them the ability to field up to 6 Captial ships?
5 Likes
what he said, the card is clearly made for supremacy in mind in which this thing is a monster vs age3 frigates and lesser warships like caravels.
7 Yes.
So this is only for age 3 battles?
crossbows and pikes are usually only for age 2 battles, and most mercs/outlaws get outclassed at some point. Its not unusual to lock usefulness into one age
2 Likes
more or less- send the card after you make 2-3 frigates and try and push them off water before they can retaliate. it can be a good way to force your opponent to overinvest in retaking water, since xebecs plus maltase ships heal means its really pain in arse to get malta off water. fast speed too and malta can place a fixed gun and just own the coast for a long time in game. a niche card, but a very good one in the right circumstances
4 Likes
Exactly, it’s more of an age 3 power spike, and a later age option to have higher limits of ships.
Even if you only get 1 xebec, it’s still ok for water control, and the gold cost is because the Xebec costs more than the frigate (in age 3, the average resource value of shipments is 1000r).
Looking at the raw stats, Xebec looks pretty good in age 3.
Again, in IMPERIAL age there are probably better cards to send, the Xebec doesn’t get the imperial upgrade unlike the frigate, so it would undervalue the current frigates while allowing you to have a larger armada, so… use with caution.
The vast majority of supremacy games never last until imperial let alone a round that would prompt anyone to invest 3000 resources to upgrade ships, so in 95 % of matches the card is actually pretty good at any point, even if you don’t have any Frigates, it a slightly more expensive but better 1 Frigate shipment other euro civs get.
2 Likes
do xebecs have the mercenary tag? do they benefit from merc upgrades?
The companion app says it doesn’t while the wiki says it has the tag, and Malta has access to the Mercenary Contractor 
Testing would be needed.
I was very upset when I found out that the imperial age mercenary upgrade does not work on Xebec.
What about spies?)))
Do note that the frigate beats it with imperial upgrades. Without it, it loses stat to stat. Most supremacy games will end in either fortress or industrial age, so imperial upgrades rarely make a difference.
Also the smaller pirate ships with black sails are quite a menace up until industrial, and they fade to the frigate in imperial.
4 Likes
that’s because it’s MercType5 and not MercType4 so it should also not be countered by MercType2 units(Spies etc). But instead it gets a shadow tech into 4&5 so why would you need more buffs? That would be like Outlaws getting 50% from Tavern + 50% from Merc Contractor like they did in that one PuP.
1 Like