Barbary Corsair Madness

Originally published to Miniature Trading on November 15th, 2014

I’ve managed to acquire a bunch of Barbary Corsair ships recently, and now I have all but the Jackal’s Teeth. I have been making some 100 point fleets for each faction other than the Mercenaries (since they didn’t get any new stuff as of yet). The rules I made for myself was to limit each faction so that only NEW ships and named crew would be used.

The Corsairs were the first faction since I decided to go in semi-opposite order to change things up. My usual hierarchy of factions (based on history and my collection) is: 1. English 2. French 3. Spanish 4. Pirates 5. Americans 6. Cursed 7. Barbary Corsairs 8. Jade Rebellion 9. Vikings 10. Mercenaries. I purposely avoided using the best game pieces that each faction received, since I know I’ll use them eventually. Also, 100 points is an ideal total to try out things you’ve never used before and to try to take advantage of some of the pricier and more gimmicky combos out there! 

The Fire Djinn was the first ship selected. She is the perfect ship for Barbarossa because of her S-boarding capabilities. Add a helmsman and you’ve got 25 points, a quarter of your fleet. She’ll sail (and row) around at S+S+S shooting, boarding, and stealing enemy crew. Her guns aren’t the best, but the fact that there are four of them partially makes up for the lack of quality.

The Crescent Moon is the perfect ship with which to steal gold. With her large cargo hold and fast base move, she is the most ideal 4 masted galley the Corsairs have to run treasure with. However, when you play as one of the lesser factions, you have to think outside the box. The Crescent Moon has John Ward and a helmsman, which will help her RAM and BOARD enemy ships as much as possible. With S+L+S speed, she’ll hunt down enemy gold runners. Her size and built-in reroll will win her most boarding parties against smaller treasure runners.

Ward is a crew you don’t see often, but he is perfect for sneaking an extra treasure aboard the Crescent Moon. In an ideal situation, the Moon will take two coins from an enemy treasure, and then sail off to loot one more coin from another ship, in which case she doesn’t need to win the boarding party because of Ward’s ability.

The Splendor is another fun ship (the Corsairs are awesome if you didn’t already know!). Similar in nature but faster than the Cursed Blade, she will be stealing gold from enemy runners just like the Crescent Moon. Her smaller size and lower speed make having a captain a big bonus, and therefore Wesley is perfect for the ship. The Splendor can shoot at an enemy runner to soften her up, and then ram, board and steal. Between the +1 to boarding rolls and the Splendor’s ability, she’ll sail away with two treasures.

The Gallows is the cheapest support gunship the Corsairs have with multiple rank-2 guns, and here she is equipped with a captain to bring the fight to the enemy. With so many points on the ocean, she’ll have much to attack. The Gallows can assist the three boarding ships or slow down enemy gunships.

The Majestic carries a very costly ability that is best used in larger games. With three captains and eight overall ships, she is an interesting addition to this fleet. Again, this fleet is meant to combine gimmicky/fun aspects of the game while still remaining competitive. The Majestic’s speed will allow her to assist multiple ships at different times throughout the game, and hopefully multiple ships on the same turn. The Fire Djinn, Splendor, and Gallows will love having her around to assist them. If at all possible, at least two of those three ships may try to stick together with the Majestic at the beginning of the game to devastate the opponent. Also, the more ships there are around the Majestic, the more protected she is. With just one mast, she needs to be careful about letting an opponent ram her into oblivion.

With 16 points left in the fleet, I thought about adding one more ship with some crew. However, I decided to go with 3 uncrewed ships instead, as the points worked out perfectly. The Marrakesh, Whisper, and Dervish will all run gold. The Marrakesh has decent durability with her 3 masts, the Whisper sails out at S+L+S, grabs two coins, and comes back at S+L, and the Dervish is the cheapest Corsair ship.

I had a lot of fun making this fleet! I hope to someday try it out against the other 100 point fleets I made for the other factions. In the meantime, comment and vote! 

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