Extra Action Gold Runners

Originally published to Miniature Trading on August 21st, 2011

I wanted to create a 40-point standard fleet using at least two fast ships with good cargo holds that would utilize the same-action twice/extra action capability. Here it is.

12/19/14: I’ve edited this fleet to make it better. Now both crew are extra action crew rather than SAT crew because it’s harder to use SAT crew with gold runners.

The fastest ship is the Pirate ship Star of Siam (originally the Raven), and she has Gallows on board for the possibility of moving 6S (S+S+S+S+S+S) per turn, and still has three cargo hold left to take treasure from the island that is farthest away. The oarsman is insurance for the potentiality of becoming derelict or losing a boarding party.

The second ship is the Spanish ship (it is a mixed fleet) La Joya Del Sol, and she is equipped with a helmsman, Capitan Alarico Castro from BC, Vaccaro to help him with the EA, and an explorer.

These are the main ships, and the other is for support.

L’Intrepide was the original support ship for this fleet with a captain and Cissey, but when I decided to use Vaccaro instead of Cissey I needed to cut costs. I wanted to add the Algeciras with Luis Zuan, but since Zuan is hostile to Pirates I had to use a regular captain. In this way I switched out the Raven for the Star of Siam in order to save two points, which let me put a captain on the Algeciras and add Raft back in.

I added UT’s that hopefully I will discover first because my ships are so fast. I also included Raft to fill in the last point and try to provide my runners with any emergency assistance.

When I finished this, I was quite satisfied because I didn’t have to think too hard about how to configure it. Now for the problems that I quickly realized:

1. Counting on the 5-6 die roll at least once in the game isn’t good, I might not get any help from those two.

2. Not enough firepower/no true gunship. The Star of Siam could easily be sunk/dismasted, and if captured with gold on her, I could easily lose the game. The Joya Del Sol is more durable, with four masts, and since she will be carrying the most treasure, this could be very important. This is good, but she can’t really fight back, as she has no captain and all her cannons are rank-4.

3. Bad UT’s. Something like Wolves/Missionary would really throw me for a loop. That would wreck my gameplan while allowing my opponent enough time to sink my runners.

4. All but one ship only takes two hits to be dismasted. A couple of well-placed broadsides from any enemy gunship could destroy my strategy and I would lose. This is where I bank on the EA-bolstered speed of my two runners.

5. The important runners, the Star of Siam and Joya, don’t have escorts. They will be all alone and will have to rely on their speed/Extra Action capability to evade enemy gunships(not easy in enemy territory), mostly because the Algeciras is not designed to keep up with them.

It’s unlikely, but in a best case scenario I can take almost all the treasure in the game while using the L’Intrepide to occupy the gunships while my runners get 5’s and 6’s to zoom to the islands and get back to my HI, ending the game in the blink of an eye!

Edit (12/23/14): This fleet was involved in a game!

Check out this battle report.

The final two games have been played: Battle Report

After this series the fleet is now 1-2.

Another series was played: Battle Report

After this series this fleet is now 1-5.

Edit (9/10/2016): This fleet is participating in VASSAL Tournament #1!

Edit (6/1/2017): After winning a 12 fleet game and participating in both T1 and T2, this fleet’s overall record (counting the 4-4 record before it was modified) is now 9-13 in 22 total games (5-9 as it appears in the fleet below against very tough competition).

Old description:

In terms of options, thought about using the Longshanks with a helmsman (8 points) instead of the Algeciras+captain (6) and du Lion (2). Then I wouldn’t have a single captain, though. I could use the the English ship Plantagenet with Bratley/captain/helmsman while doing away with the Crow and explorer, but I wanted more than three ships. I also could go back to having SM Calico Cat on the Raven, and have the Pirate ship Cutlass with better guns than the L’Intrepide, but I figured that the EA was better than SAT because of the explorer deficit. Options, but I like how it is now. I am testing the fleet very soon, so there may be quick changes made accordingly.

Edit: I tested this fleet against a 40-point fleet with the Asesino de la Nave and the Monte Cristo (both beefed up with crew), and this fleet beat that gunship fleet two out of three times. The fleet was the older version of this fleet, with the Coeur du Lion, Carrion Crow, and Algeciras instead of the L’Intrepide and Dominic Freda. The Joya Del Sol was a target, and not everything worked out. The Algeciras and Le Coeur du Lion were the surprises, the Algeciras doing good damage to the de la Nave, while the Lion’s treasure was the winning treasure once. I noticed that the Sol attracted the most attention, because she had the most gold-carrying capacity, and was captured once and sunk another time. Raven’s SAT wasn’t always relevant, I would roll a 6 but would not need all of the 8S to get to the island. Therefore I think it would be best to use a crew that gives an extra action instead of SAT/helmsman, but I don’t have any crew like this in my collection of pirate crew. The Crow did almost nothing, but the fleet performed admirably, hopefully will run it out again soon.

~~~~~

Like all my fleets, this is by no means a finished product, and I am open to suggestions. I’ve already edited this fleet multiple times and I’m willing to do so again.

Thanks for reading all this stuff…

Comment and vote! 

Section: Ship #1 (2 miniatures)
		Miniature	Set	Number	Type	Rarity
1	x	Sean “Cannonball” Gallows	RotF	020	Crew	R
1	x	Star of Siam	PofR	142	Ship	SR
Section: Ship #2 (5 miniatures)
		Miniature	Set	Number	Type	Rarity
1	x	Admiral Alarico Castro	PofBC	071	Crew	C
1	x	Duque Marcus Vaccaro	PofBC	072	Crew	C
1	x	Explorer	PofSM	SC-EX	Crew	C
1	x	Helmsman	PofSMU	111	Crew	U
1	x	La Joya del Sol	PofSM	SS-005	Ship	U
Section: Ship #3 (2 miniatures)
		Miniature	Set	Number	Type	Rarity
1	x	Captain	PofSMU	106	Crew	U
1	x	El Algeciras	PatOE	067	Ship	U
Section: Events (1 miniatures)
		Miniature	Set	Number	Type	Rarity
1	x	Raft	PofR	037B	Event	C
Section: Unique Treasures (5 miniatures)
		Miniature	Set	Number	Type	Rarity
1	x	Cross of Coronado	PofR	107	Unique Treasure	R
1	x	Homing Beacon	PatOE	103	Unique Treasure	R
1	x	Screw Engine	PofMI	107	Unique Treasure	R
1	x	Trees	PofCC	096	Unique Treasure	R
1	x	Turtles	F&S	094	Unique Treasure	R