Pirate Empire

Captain Mysion – RotF Super Rare version

Originally published to Miniature Trading on September 9th, 2013

“A group of shipwrecked pirates stole a ship to escape their island prison, not realizing it was a secret Cursed vessel. Taking it to Captain Mysion’s pirate “kingdom”, they received a hero’s welcome.”

“The self-proclaimed King of Pirates is either a genius or a buffoon, depending on which side you are on. Though many of his actions are inexplicable, they seem to work out for him in the end. And when it’s all said and done he lords over the only defensive pirate haven in the world.”

Captain Mysion – An Epic Pirate

Ever since I read the flavour text for Captain Mysion’s ROTF release, I’ve been intrigued by him as a character in our favourite CSG. Characters like Fantasma, Jack Hawkins, Calico Cat, Blackheart, Barbossa, and Captain Jack Sparrow have ruled over the seas as Pirate lords and appeared numerous times throughout the expansions. However, none of their exploits are quite as grand as those of Mysion. Not even “Emperor” Blackheart can claim to have an entire kingdom, or “defensive haven”. Mysion doesn’t even make an appearance until later in the series, first appearing in MI, yet he obviously had some kind of back story before the events of this set. We don’t know how he built his pirate kingdom, but we do know that he had substantial power up until his last appearance in F&S.

This Pirate Empire fleet is loosely based on Mysion’s given flavour text (I don’t have access to the flavour text of his MI version, but I recall it being similarly arrogant and anti-mercenary). This is my attempt at re-creating his kingdom, his defensive haven for all things Pirate. I would have made this fleet bigger, but between the fact that most people aren’t willing to comment and vote on fleets over 100 points and the fact that the Pirates can fit tons of stuff into a build with any point limit, I kept it to 100. There are treasure runners, gunships, and hybrids. It showcases the best of the best that the Pirates have, and why they are regarded as the best faction. I imagine that if a player used this fleet as designed, they would be able to create their own “pirate empire”.

The Ships and Crew

The Revenant is the flagship of Mission’s Pirate Empire fleet, especially since the “self-proclaimed King of Pirates” is aboard. She will sail through the carnage inflicting massive damage upon the enemy while using Parley to remain relatively unharmed. The helmsman gives her respectable speed while the oarsman gives her a crew defence.*

The Darkhawk II will be a hybrid ship, ready to run gold or fight (or both) at a moment’s notice. She still has 5 spaces for treasure (or 4 considering the ability, still enough to empty an island). She also moves at L+S, and has good enough cannons to take out any opposing treasure runners heading for her islands. Jack Hawkins makes her more effective in a fight to the death for essentially just one extra point.

The third ship, the Neptune’s Hoard, is another classic pirate ship, harking back to the days of old Norvegia. She’ll zip out at S+L+S+S+L+S on the first turn and return back almost as quickly, possibly trading away any bad treasures she finds. She could keep them just for Parley, especially if the opposing fleet(s) look gun-heavy.

The Eagle was actually the last ship picked for this fleet. For just 14 points, you get a four master with good guns moving L+S with 3 cargo spaces left over. Not a bad deal at all, she’s one of the more underrated ships the pirates have.

The last three ships are the bread and butter treasure runners (does that rhyme?) that make this fleet lethal, if not very predictably. I don’t think there’s any further explanation needed.

For the most part, I don’t like using events, and I wanted this fleet to be a bit more realistic, as if there really was a pirate kingdom back in the 17th or early 18th century.

This is the fleet as it stands now. I may change it. I definitely need to playtest it at some point. Probably the biggest weaknesses would be a lack of speed (no extra actions) in the gunships and a vulnerability to a simple canceller on an enemy gunship. Also, since the “pirate kingdom” is described as a defensive haven, there would probably be more gunships, maybe even big slow ones to guard the harbour. Can woelf or anyone else familiar with the flavour text from Wizkids elaborate on the text?

The only issue with adding more would be that either the points would exceed 100, or the treasure runners would have to be cut out, giving it a strictly deathmatch approach. What do you guys think I should do with it?

*What are people’s thoughts on describing generic crew and their functions on a ship in a fleet? I usually give a description of the entire complement of crew on each ship, at least mentioning the less important ones. Most readers will know that L speed isn’t good enough, and that the oarsman is just there to protect against crew-killers. Just wondering if I should still include this much detail in my fleet descriptions.

Thanks for reading; comment and vote!  If you want to see a much more massive Pirate Empire in a real game, check out this record-breaking fleet from my Command the Oceans game:

Fleet page at Miniature Trading