Ship Stealing Fleet

Originally published to Miniature Trading on September 12th, 2015

This fleet is designed to steal all of your opponent’s ships, and then use them yourself. There are ways to make this work better, such as negative UT’s and putting a lot of gold on islands so the game will last longer.

This is a gimmick fleet, but I tried to make it as relevant as possible if things don’t work out. It just so happens that all of the ships with the necessary ability are Pirate and American, but I had to throw Commander Temple in there at the end for nostalgia, not to mention the perfect EA combo with the Europa, also from the first set.

The Harbinger is inevitably the flagship, and she’s decked out to be purely efficient. She has enough oarsmen to be a force. The Harbinger can go after the opponent’s largest ships. She’ll also act as a way to dismast enemy ships and then leave them there for other ships to teleport home, since the Harbinger should always be on the front lines. The Harbinger is the best boarder to take out enemy oarsmen that prevent dereliction, so she’s very important to this fleet.

El Dorado only has 2 cargo spaces, but she’ll likely tag team with the Harbinger and bring any derelicts home. With three masts and reasonably serviceable guns, she can ram and board any ships that the Harbinger can’t dismast, and then go from there. With one cargo space open, she also has the option of stealthily grabbing the highest value coin from an island or stealing a treasure from an opponent not worth teleporting home.

As I mentioned above, I tried to make this fleet as relevant as possible despite its gimmicky nature, hence the Philadelphia’s explorer. She actually makes for a decent treasure runner, and she won’t be able to assist the Harbinger with a couple of 5S cannons. That being said, capturing ships is still important, so the Philadelphia could abandon her trading routes at any time to go after a fresh derelict.

Unlike the Philadelphia, the New Orleans actually has offensive capability. She also has enough cargo space and a high enough point cost to accommodate a nice crew combo. The captain and helmsman let her move S+S+S and attack enemy ships. While the Harbinger and Dorado go after the bigger ships, the New Orleans will probably work on her own, hitting the enemy gold runners. With a well-timed 6 from Preble (enhanced by Nolan’s free reroll!), the New Orleans could dismast and teleport a gold runner in one turn! This would be a great way of getting gold home quickly, since the derelict would immediately dock at the HI and unload her gold. Lastly, a “fleet admiral” crew (like Preble) was something I really wanted to include in this fleet. The Pirates don’t have a 0LR reroller, but the New Orleans is perfect for the combo. Extra actions are key for this fleet since you can’t explore a derelict immediately after ramming. Preble can give EA’s to the Dorado and Philadelphia as well to increase the speed and stealth with which this fleet steals ships!

The Europa/Temple combo is a classic, and like I said before, that EA can come in very handy. It will also help the fragile Europa get out of trouble, which she’ll probably be in. The Europa is probably the least important ship in this fleet, but she works perfectly to include Temple (the only crew ship stealer) and add another weapon.

When I saw the fleet at 89 points, I wanted to include one more ship. I was looking for a ship that could fight and grab gold. However, it would have to be a cheap ship with minimal crew. The Hound is perfect to round this fleet out to 100 points. She has a captain and explorer, able to fight when necessary and grab a few coins. At the beginning of the game, she’ll probably leave her captain behind and take 3 coins from a nearby wild island. Afterwards, she’ll pick up the captain and go off in search of enemies and/or more gold. The Hound adds another flexible ship to this fleet, and keeps the Pirate/American/English theme. Last but not least, her ability complements the fleet perfectly as well. Seeing what treasures your opponent has can determine which ships the stealers will go after.

I included Neptune’s Figurehead for two reasons: I don’t want to sink my opponent’s ships, so once I capture them, the UT will be mine; and if one of my ships finds it, one of the fragile ship stealers could remain in the game longer. Rum and Natives will slow down my opponent’s ships, which will allow the ship stealers more time to get to them and take out their masts while not affecting my gold runners for very long. Dead Man’s Chest serves a dual purpose: this fleet has no way to counter submersibles, and with so many ships joining my fleet I may acquire it even if my opponent loads it first (plus my opponent can’t benefit from using it against my fleet). Wet Gunpowder can prevent my opponent from returning fire against my ship stealers, while my gold runners either don’t want to shoot or (in the case of the Hound) won’t be far from the HI where they can repair.

The forts are not really a priority, but they could help if my ships need to repair.

Thanks for reading; comment and vote!

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