Keywords Everywhere!

Originally published to Miniature Trading on August 17th, 2016

55 Points

Libellule

NO STRATEGY, JUST GIT RICH QUIK!!

Tribal Chieftain & Native Canoes
RtSS-018
French
Points: 9
Masts: X (Canoes)
Cargo: 1
Move: S+S
Cannons: 3S
Native Canoe. When this ship carries no cargo, she gets +S to her base move.

Indeed. I simply used the search function to find the cheapest ship at each keyword, and then put them in the fleet. (Thus the Lightning not really being a creative choice, but thanks!) I did consider the Skipping Stone or HMS Hermes, but when I saw that the Grinder was not only the best Turbine, but also the cheapest, my decision was made easier. It was the cheapest I could have gone without adding a flotilla, which would have left room for more crew that I didn’t want to add. I felt like I was selling out a bit adding a gunship, but I would try to use the Grinder as a hybrid/escort.

This fleet started off as a complete joke, but once I realized that some of the cheapest ships of their type were actually among the best (Libellule and French canoes, etc), I realized that the fleet would turn out better than I had expected it to, hence adding the Grinder to optimize even more. And yes, Plague should be fun because I might even try to pass it off to my own ships on purpose since they don’t have any crew! (Not to mention the thought of a dismasted Grinder moving S+L with the plague as a perfect flavor touch)

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Triple Pirate Barrage

Originally published to Miniature Trading on July 11th, 2016

60 Points

This is my fleet for El Cazador’s Triple Threat Fleet Challenge.

I really like 3 masted ships, so choosing a faction was tough. I decided to make a quick decision and go with my gut, which actually said Pirates this time. South China Seas has been one of my favorite sets over the past year and a half, so that made my decision even easier. I happen to adore the Greed’s Hammer, like the Accused quite a lot, and I generally like the Madagascar. 

All three of these ships are underrated, a somewhat unfortunate hallmark of SCS’s rarity. The Greed’s Hammer is simply fantastic, boasting great cannons, good cargo, and one of the absolute best abilities in the game for a very fair price tag. She’s got Hammersmith and Coconut to help her play a hybrid role.

It would be cool to have 3 hybrids, but I wanted to maximize the Accused’s ability and cannons. Therefore I packed her with crew, and the firepot specialist will not be firing at a reduced range since all of the ship’s cannons are S range. Her point limit and cargo hold is maxed out, and with luck she’ll move L+S+L+S and rip off 6 shots at rank-2 with a firepot in the volley.

The Madagascar is the main gold runner – I really wanted to go a lot of different ways with her in terms of crew. I initially wanted a helmsman and either a smokepot specialist or smokepot shot, which would give her fog immunity in times of trouble. However, this left only 2 cargo spaces, and I didn’t want to leave the helmsman at home either. I then considered Captain Mysion which would give each ship the captain ability, formidable indeed. The Parley would help protect the Madagascar, while the captain keyword would give her flexibility. However, her rank-4 cannons seem out of place compared to the other two ships. I also considered Captain Sao Feng. In the end, I went with the tried and true option: the good ‘ol canceller. Tia Dalma will protect the ship from most initial attacks, and could cancel an annoying ability if need be. She should give the Madagascar the opportunity for the first shot, after which the Madagascar can reverse captain away. 

I personally think this fleet is a very strong entry for the challenge. Ships that cannot be shot at within S could prove to be hindrance, but I didn’t see any 3 masters with that ability. That was another reason for bringing Tia Dalma along – if there are any problematic defensive abilities, the Madagascar can sail over and cancel them. Having a canceller on a gold runner is a luxury – the two gunships are already loaded considering their point costs and 3 masted-ness. Each ship possesses one of the best abilities in the game in one form or another: +2 gold bonus, SAT, and cancelling.

Hopefully I’ll be able to test this Triple Pirate Barrage fleet on VASSAL sometime to see if it works well! Until then, comment and vote!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

Ladies Scorned Everywhere!

Originally published to Miniature Trading on June 30th, 2016

80 Points

After Woelf‘s comment I decided to make a theme fleet based on the Lady’s Scorn!

The fleet is all about the girls – no male crew in this fleet. The 5 masted Lady’s Scorn will try to capture crew and/or steal gold with boarding parties and grappling from L range. She’s also got 2 cargo spaces available if she wants to simply grab gold from an island.

The 4 masted version may not have a captain, but she’s ready for war. Tia Dalma will cancel any enemy captains that don’t have canceller support, which will allow the LS to get the first shot. She’s well-crew with none other than Calico Cat herself, who gives the ship better guns and provides an EA roll to perfectly complement the ship’s built-in reroll. Even without a captain, the LS can potentially move and shoot with an extra action, and between the Canceller and Eternal abilities, she won’t be going down easily.

The 3 masted version of the Lady’s Scorn may be the worst of the bunch, but she’s well-supported here. She can move and shoot with 6 shots if Crimson Angel gives her the SAT, and her guns are now 1S,2S,3S, impressive indeed. Even if one of them miss, Teresa can reroll it! Her boarding bonus could come in handy to steal a coin, which could be transferred to the 5 masted LS to get Gallows’ bonus. (Using Broadsides Attack is NOT recommended for either ship)

Overall, a fun fleet that has some of the best crew abilities in the game. The lack of helmsmen is a serious weakness, but it was necessary to keep the theme. (I experimented with Crimson Angel, Hermione Gold, and Vicomtesse Angelique de Richelieu on the 5 master, but I didn’t like how it turned out.) As a side note, these ladies don’t look too happy, so perhaps you should steer clear of them! 

Thanks for reading; comment and vote! 

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

Spanish Main English – Old School Fleet

Originally published to Miniature Trading on June 22nd, 2016

30 Points

I was annoyed the other day to see that I haven’t submitted any fleets under 40 points. While I do love huge games, I’ve also played numerous games under 40 points and even got started soon after the game came out, with the 30 point build total of Spanish Main.

My favorite faction is the English, and I went with two of my favorite ships.

The Bolingbroke is the main gunship, and hunts for any enemies. The Dover is a great hybrid, but will look to grab gold before fighting. For an extra cargo space you could swap the Dover for HMS King Edward, but then you lose the extra crew flexibility.

I wanted to add Thomas Gunn the Younger to the Bolingbroke, but the helmsman and oarsman is more practical. I also considered having three ships, but decided that two ships with captains and helmsmen was a better option.

Thanks for checking out this Spanish Main English fleet!

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Large Fry – Spanish Swarm

Originally published to Miniature Trading on April 8th, 2016

This is my entry into brettb45’s Large Fry Fleet Challenge.

Though 5 masters are my favorite ship type, I didn’t take long to figure out what kind of fleet I wanted to use. With only large ships available, I figured that most fleets would feature one or two large gunships with good crew. As a result, I decided to try making a swarm fleet, despite the Large Fry and 40 point restrictions.

With two of the cheapest 5 masters in the game, Spain was easily the best option. The Morning Star runs gold, with a helmsman giving her S+S+S speed with 5 open cargo spaces. The ability shouldn’t affect her since she won’t be shooting (an example of those irrelevant negative abilities).

The Neptuno is the second-cheapest ship in this fleet, and she’ll be a hybrid. Her speed is lacking, but the captain and L+L range of her cannons makes up for it somewhat. With 4 spaces available, she’ll try to get some gold as well.

The San Cristobal was the cheapest way to add fast firepower, as this fleet barely fits into the 45 point total. I didn’t like cutting corners with Zuan, but it allowed for the helmsman on the Morning Star, something that could really help this fleet. With two essential crew aboard the SC for just 2 extra points, the SC can move S+S+L and fire five cannons. Possibly even more important, she still has room for 3 coins, making her the best hybrid and a candidate to look for gold on the farther islands.

Roles:
San Cristobal: Take any major enemy threats head-on to prevent losing the main gold runners. Try to grab gold from distant islands while harassing enemy trade.

Neptuno: Gather gold from nearby islands while using the sniping ability for defense (and offense against enemy gold runners). As the main hybrid, support the San Cristobal in major battles and escort the Morning Star.

Morning Star: Get as much gold as possible. As the main gold runner, empty one island very quickly to get an advantage in the gold race, then move to farther islands.

The large cargo holds and relatively fast base moves (for large ships) make this fleet a decent attempt at a “Large Fry Swarm” fleet. Indeed, with 16 cargo spaces available before adding crew and no less than 15 masts, this fleet has great stats. The weaknesses lie in crew killers, extra actions, and the other inherent weaknesses of a “minimal crew” setup. Also, using these ships wasn’t creative at all, but that’s not my strong suit anyway (especially at 40 points).

Here’s the other fleet I briefly considered for the challenge. 
Terrox
Mourning Star + captain, helmsman, oarsman, fire shot

Thanks to brettb45 for doing the challenge, and thanks to you for reading, commenting, and voting!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

Less Than 10 American Crewmen

Originally published to Miniature Trading on March 4th, 2016

This is my fleet for Xerecs‘ Greater than 10 Fleet Challenge. Thanks for hosting the challenge!

After volt has stated that hoists are mostly unplayable in 40 point games, I felt a desire to make a fleet like this.  (He did say the Buscador could work but that he would never try that.)

I didn’t really know what to do for this challenge, so here’s what I came up with. There are numerous fleets using the ability of Captain Jack Sparrow, mostly by darrin with a variant by me. However, most of the fleets are simply quick grab-and-go fleets, without much offense and without a larger ship or two. Also, most the fleets make use of CJS, rather than one of the three ships with the ability.

And thus, a rather odd duo was born! This fleet has two ships, both of which cost not just more than 10 points, but a whopping 17 each! 

The Frontier is the gold runner, of course. She’s a decent size ship for the role, but I wanted some additional support as well. Xerecs’ usage of American hoists in This is my fleet for Xerecs’ Greater than 10 Fleet Challenge.

After volt has stated that hoists are mostly unplayable in 40 point games, I felt a desire to make a fleet like this.  (He did say the Buscador could work but that he would never try that.)

I didn’t really know what to do for this challenge, so here’s what I came up with. There are numerous fleets using the ability of Captain Jack Sparrow, mostly by darrin with a variant by me. However, most of the fleets are simply quick grab-and-go fleets, without much offense and without a larger ship or two. Also, most the fleets make use of CJS, rather than one of the three ships with the ability.

And thus, a rather odd duo was born! This fleet has two ships, both of which cost not just more than 10 points, but a whopping 17 each! 

The Frontier is the gold runner, of course. She’s a decent size ship for the role, but I wanted some additional support as well. Xerecs’ use of American hoists in VASSAL Campaign Game 1 inspired the Eternal crew, which works well with an oarsman. The oarsman in turn works well with the treasure/crew swapping ability.

USS Morning Star might be the largest of the three ships with her ability, but she’s the perfect fit for this fleet. She combines good speed with average cannons (but 5 of them!) and a nice big cargo hold.

In my opinion this ability is the most confusing in the entire game. First off, the treasure isn’t actually loaded onto the first ship when it’s swapped. However, the Morning Star still has a cargo space open, which she might use to load up a coin she could bring home herself (possibly if the Frontier gets into trouble), or more likely keeping it open for Ralph David’s flight. 

The strategy is considerably different than the other fleets that use this ability, which I think is cool. Neither ship will sit at the HI; they’ll both be out searching for gold. The Frontier will be looking the conventional way, using her hoist and speed to grab gold quickly. She has enough cargo (5 with her starting crew setup) to potentially hit two islands, though that decision will depend on how good the first island’s treasure is. The Morning Star will explore islands further out, since she has more durability and the captain. The Morning Star will have tough choices to make; she might load a coin and take up that final cargo space, but she might have to decide whether or not to send a coin to the Frontier. That’s where things get interesting. The Morning Star sends the high-value coin to the Frontier, who loads it. A crew from the Frontier is swapped to the island the Morning Star is docked at. The oarsman would be the first choice, and what’s really cool here is that when the first oarsman is swapped, that actually opens up a cargo space on the Frontier, so even if she already had 5 coins aboard, she could do the swap! One of the coolest things about this fleet for me though, is the possibility of stunning your opponent by swapping Ralph David. If the Morning Star is in trouble, she could explore an island and swap a coin to the Frontier for Ralph David, making the 5 master Eternal! This could work perfectly with a prior oarsman swap, where the MS would have both the Eternal and Oarsman keywords! I think that flexibility, combined with the speedy ships, makes this an intriguing fleet.

It’s annoying to have Perry on the MS, but I don’t want the Frontier to lose any more cargo and the MS has plenty of other crew. The Frontier’s Secret Hold keyword further improves this fleet, since any valuable gold the MS flips to the Frontier will be protected (and doubly protected with Oarsman/Eternal). Also, the Hoist keyword could come in handy if the MS wanted Ralph David or an oarsman and the Frontier was nearby.

The UT’s are designed to help the Frontier. I would place an abandoned shipwright, in the hopes that he could help the MS if swapped from the Frontier (or simply found by the MS). That and Homing Beacon add to the “teleportation” and flexibility themes of this fleet.

Thanks for reading; comment and vote!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

The Best Raiders of Spain

Originally published to Miniature Trading on February 18th, 2016

This is my entry for brettb45’s Best Raider Fleet Challenge.

For this challenge, I originally wanted to use the Pirate native canoes from RtSS, but then I realized that the chieftain would have a huge target on his back from crew such as Bonny Peel. I also considered the Renard a Ailes and Rocinante as the possible backbones for different fleets.

Soon after this challenge started I thought about how hard it would be to fit lots of fun raider stuff into the 40 point limit, because stealing things in this game gets expensive in a hurry. As a result, I decided to go with something I think is pretty obnoxious, despite how ineffective it might be. It’s more of a fun little gimmick that could become more potent with some more points available.

Spain is the only faction to have the ability to not be shot at while docked on a crew. In addition, they have some nice HI raiders, one of which is the “other” El Algeciras that nobody ever talks about, in my opinion one of the coolest ships in the game. However, if a ship is docked at an enemy HI and can’t be shot at, the opponent’s next best bet is to ram and board. Therefore, I didn’t want small ships.

To combine these aspects, I needed a HI raider to house the Haulers, and then preferably another ship that couldn’t be shot at while docked with a HI raider aboard. However, Spain only has 1 ship that can’t be shot at while docked, so I was pretty limited in that regard.

The Espada de Dios is one of the cooler ships in the game, and here she’s got 4 cargo spaces open to fill up with stolen loot. The oarsman would take up space on the Academia, so he’s on the Espada.

The Academia isn’t such an exciting ship, but she’s the secondary raider. Sanchez allows her to steal gold from enemy HI’s while her ability keeps her somewhat safe. Master Bianco offsets the helmsman so she still has 3 open cargo spaces.

The strategy is simple – send the ships out to enemy HI’s, and then raid them continuously until your cargo holds are full, all the while enjoying protection from enemy cannon fire! Since HI raiding blockades are ineffective, I would recommend sending at least one of the ships out on a regular treasure run to get some gold, which could then potentially be used to purchase one of the forts. Once you start raiding HI’s, a fort could temporarily protect the gold if one of the raiders was in trouble and had to leave the enemy HI.

The UT’s were added to enhance the overall strategy as well as theoretically drive up the average value of a regular coin.

This fleet is fragile, with no captains. Also, neither ship has 5+ masts, so losing boarding parties could be a real issue. Since both raiders have the same speed, it’s likely they would team up, and in that case have 7 cannons around an enemy HI with which to fight off attackers. It’s also susceptible to enemy ships using crew-gold capturers, since the higher value crew would be easily taken off the ships. The speed is also an issue, but the HI raiding abilities are expensive enough to deny further enhancements.

Thanks for reading; comment and vote!

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Jewels of the Fine Sea – Theme Fleet Challenge Entry

Originally published to Miniature Trading on January 1st, 2016

This is my entry into phymatine’s Theme Fleet Challenge.

This game is all about getting the most gold, so I decided upon a theme of jewels, gemstones, or precious metals. This might be the least creative fleet out there, but the few other ideas I thought of didn’t work as well. For example, a “Bloody” fleet – Bloody Spear, Bloody Jewel, Bloody Jake, etc.

This originally started out as diamonds being the only precious metal. This was a decent start, but I decided to broaden my horizons and include other materials as well. Therefore, ships like the Diamond Strike, Black Diamond, and HMS Diamond/HMS Diamond were heavily considered but eventually left out because I couldn’t fit them into the 40 point limit. Similarly, when I widened the theme, ships like the Pearl and all three versions of the Black Pearl missed out. (HMS Obsidian Sun was also briefly considered.  ) However, I was reasonably satisfied with what I came up with.

The first ship is the Tiger’s Eye. One of the best ships in the entire game, the Tiger’s Eye has gold-running duty here. She’d like a captain, but they didn’t fit the theme or the build total. Instead, she has Diamond Nelson Turner aboard. He’ll cancel enemy gunships if they get too close, and he could potentially slow or hinder an enemy gold runner if the Tiger’s Eye gets into a treasure dispute. In addition, he combos well with the Tiger’s Eye’s ability, since the Tiger’s Eye can’t be hit by L-range guns. With Diamond aboard the Tiger’s Eye will have partial immunity to S-range guns as well because he can cancel any captained ship that comes into range.

The second ship is another famous gold runner, the Bloody Jewel. She stretches the theme a bit, but oh well. The Bloody Jewel is one of the best gold runners in the game and features a Silver Explorer. This fleet is designed to find not just gold, but also silver, in addition to the precious metals added into the game with the UT’s.

The final ship is the lone gunship, USS Emerald. This ship is a somewhat underrated support gunship from SCS, and features a great ability in addition to good cannons. The standard captain and helmsman wouldn’t fit the theme, so Hermione Gold comes aboard. This gives the Emerald respectable speed and the necessary captain keyword. She’ll probably escort the Bloody Jewel, since she’s not strong enough to take on enemy gunships and the Tiger’s Eye is more durable and much more difficult to take out than the Jewel.

The UT’s deviate from the theme a bit since some of them are generic, but I wanted to include some UT’s. Jade and the Gem of Hades are in there, as well as Plunder and Buried Treasure, which could represent any of the aforementioned materials, or another one altogether.

The forts will probably detract from the main score, but they are there as well. They were included based on their flavor text, though “dorada” also means gold in Spanish.

The Spanish claim it doesn’t exist. Yet natives can be persuaded to speak of the “Golden Fortress,” the apparent source of the Spanish gold flowing along the Crimson Coast.

Informed captains know that when they dock at the port of St. Pierre, a little extra gold ensures that their cargo will be unloaded swiftly – and without a lot of questions.

Again it’s not very creative at all and it doesn’t have much combat capability, but I wanted to make a fleet for the challenge. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and vote!

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Taking Out The Trash – Garbage Cursed Fleet

Originally published to Miniature Trading on December 5th, 2015

This is my second fleet for volt’s Garbage Fleet Challenge. My first fleet is even worse, and uses the American faction.

Sure the Cursed are an easy pick, but as of the time this was submitted, nobody had utilized the terrible Cursed LE ships.

The Tarantula has almost literally no chance of using Papa Doc’s possession ability, and even if she does, he probably won’t possess any useful crew.

The Sarcophagus also moves S and has the Fear keyword, if the ship can get within range at some point. Cavendish and Stinkpot Shot take up cargo space to limit her gold running potential.

The Dance actually serves a key role – eliminating enemy crew through boarding, which forces them to be able to pick up more gold!

Severe strengths (not weaknesses!) of this fleet include the high number of cargo available, and the oars which limit the effectiveness of Odin’s Revenge. The Missionary is designed to eliminate enemy crew so they can take more treasure with the open cargo spaces.

Thanks for reading about Taking Out The Trash; comment and vote!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading