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!

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