Blue Team: The Sable Odyssey

Vessel: The Sable Odyssey. The Sable Odyssey was constructed as a fishing vessel about ten years ago on Hunter Johnson Island, an island about 900 miles south of the Tormented Crest. It was recently hijacked by pirates, abandoned two months later, and salvaged by the crew of the Patience, a mercy vessel that rescues lost ships and people. The Odyssey has been staffed by a skeleton crew from the Patience and now finds itself in the middle of the fight for the Icebreaker. They believe they can salvage the Icebreaker and return it to its proper owners.

Strategy: The Blue Team is full of characters who are not so brilliant by themselves, but who can fairly reliably Call Ally (2 or 3 sides on each teammate). This means that to do well, the Blue player must develop quickly and call his whole team onto the table. Along with Orange, Blue is probably the easiest army for beginners to play.

Captain: Liam Hart. Captain Hart was first officer aboard the Patience and is proud to be entrusted with the command of the Odyssey. Perhaps a little too proud, he has probably gotten into an untenable situation in this fight over the Icebreaker. Hart is a fierce, dark-haired man in his forties, with a piercing gaze, thick eyebrows, and a generally cold attitude. He wears a hooded cloak and gauntlets, and fights with a Shrapnel Gun, a short white rifle that fires super-hot metal fragments, and which can actually process scrap metal into ammunition. Here is Hart's bio from the Diceland rulebook:

Captain Liam Hart commands the Sable Odyssey, itself a salvaged derelict. His skeleton crew, on loan from the repair ship Patience, was en route to return the Odyssey to its owners when they stumbled across the Icebreaker, and three armies battling for her.

Hart's team specializes in the resurrection of ghost ships, and unlike the other crews on the scene his is the only one with the tools to bring her back to life. Hart has decided to delay the return of the Odyssey to take a chance on reviving the Icebreaker.

Strategy: Blue has two Commanders, Hart and Crane. It's useful in a team that develops quickly to be able to command with more than one character, but remember that Commanders are immune to Command while they are Commanding, meaning that you don't usually want both Hart and Crane on a Command side at the same time.

First Officer: Helen Crane. Helen Crane is a surveyor and mechanic, as well as an experienced navigator. She is the Liam Hart's second in command, and technically more qualified than he is, which has been a source of friction on this short voyage. Helen is a slightly heavyset woman in her forties, with a conservative short haircut and thin reading glasses. She specializes in identifying derelict vessels, fixing them if possible, and salvaging the parts if not. She is used to having a team of engineers working for her, but has no such luxury aboard the Odyssey. She fights with a petite laser pistol and is also talented at hand-to-hand fighting, and stronger than she looks.

Strategy: Helen is a Commander and also a Mechanic, making her more a support die than Hart. She has a couple of nice low-point shots and a consistently high block, but she's worth a whopping 8 points, so you don't want to get her into a bad situation. It's the combination of Call, Command, and Repair that makes her such a valuable die.

Engineer: Z-Don 45. Z-Don is a similar robot to R-Dat 28, the Helmsman on the Bucktooth. However, this model is a fighting robot and more autonomous than R-Dat. Z-Don 45 has been reprogrammed to act as an advisor to Captain Hart, as well as a mechanic and fighter. He looks like R-Dat, except with a red finish and red detailing. He fights with steel darts and a strange miniature jackhammer.

Strategy: Z-Don is a decent starting die, with his best starting side probably being his side 5, an omni Poison Dart 2. He has higher Hits and better blocks, but this is the side that will strike the most fear into most enemies (unless they have two robots). In general, Z-Don is a fairly predictable fighter with the added bonus of Calls and Repairs.

Fighter: Gavin White. Gavin has one purpose aboard the Odyssey, and that's to defend it. Because of the dangers of salvage work, every vessel in the Patience's fleet has at least one dedicated fighter. Gavin is a good one, and exceptionally dangerous. He's certifiably insane and unpredictable, but fiercely loyal to his captain and crew. The crew are careful never to turn their backs on him, of course. Gavin is a tall blond man, strong and very lean, and he wears white gloves, a long white robe, and white pants with braided leather bands around the legs. His face is decorated with a mask of robotic augmentations, sort of a bionic tattoo. He fights with a pair of poisoned D-shaped blades of his own design.

Strategy: Gavin is an assassin with Backstabs, Poison, Calls, and one Jump. He has good maneuverability and a range of great killing effects, but his consistently low block (6 at the highest) makes him still only worth 5 points. Although his backstabs are powerful, Gavin's primary hits are pretty low, so you must be able to throw him accurately to get the best use out of this die.

Wizard: Mull. Mull is a large, hairy blue creature about 8 feet tall. His race thrives in the coldness of the planet, and he wears clothing only for decoration, not warmth. He is a farmer and an earth magician, and his immunity to cold makes him among the first aboard any salvaged vessel.

Strategy: With his Power Up 7, Mull is a good defensive starter die. He's also great to roll early because of his three Call Ally sides, so you may have to choose between putting him out first and throwing him next. Mull is covered in Shockwaves and Power Up magic, so he's also particularly useful when both sides have lots of dice in play. Because the Blue team tends to get more dice out than the other teams, Mull's Power Ups are more useful than they might be otherwise. All this, and his immunity to Ice, makes Mull cheap at only 7 points.

White Team - Green Team - Orange Team - Burgundy Team