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