Sneaky French Raiders

Originally published to Miniature Trading on May 31st, 2017

86 Points

The French have plenty of good ships and crew for boarding and stealing gold. This isn’t so much a fleet as a combo-building exercise; for more ideas, see my Gold-stealing fleet.

Dumas is a proxy for:

Lady Roimata
RtSS-043, Super Rare

French
Points: 6
Link: Fetu

Ability: Captain. Once per turn before you give this ship an action, roll a d6. On a 5 or 6, this ship can be given the same action twice.

Flavor: Suspicious and not very welcoming of the newcomers to her ocean-bound land, Lady Roimata has made overtures towards France for the benefit of her people. French cannons may be put to even better use against neighboring islands.

The Charlemange is a strong boarder, and here has S boarding and a reroller to help steal up to 3 coins. The Triton is one of my favorite underrated ships and has the ability to not be pinned after ramming, which should help Leander Arnaud get away with maximum loot (up to 4 coins at once). The oarsman helps to protect him, with a similar goal in mind for L’Heros. She has a really good combo, moving S+L x2 with rerolled SAT’s (I wish I could reroll my SAT score… lol XD). She can rob enemy HI’s of a couple coins, with Parley protecting her from the counteroffensive. The Vengeance setup is almost a combination of the others – rerolled EA’s with a boarding bonus, and the Schooner keyword should help her get to enemies. Perhaps the greatest part of these combos is that 3/4 have the captain ability and are capable gunships and hybrids that can thrive even if they’re not able to steal gold from the enemy.

Feel free to comment, vote, and share your own gold stealing strategies and combos!  Watch out for these sneaky French raiders in a port near you!  XD

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Spelling A Victory: W-I-N

The mighty Asgard

Originally published to Miniature Trading on May 21st, 2017

45 Points

This is my fleet for volt’s Spelling Bee challenge.

Once I saw that you could combine the minor factions into one fleet, I knew I wanted to do that. I also knew that I wanted to use at least three of the minor factions. Naturally the Mercenaries get left out for now, but some of their ships could have worked reasonably well. This is a challenge with endless possibilities and combinations in terms of the theme, so I had to stop at one point and just stick with what I had.

I wanted a big bad Viking flagship, and here I’ve chosen the Asgard. She has the crew to make her dangerous, but since I wanted to maximize how many ships were in the fleet and how many letters I would have available, there aren’t any double action crew in this fleet. The Asgard provides the D in GOLD.

The Noble Swan is next, providing the O in GOLD. Li Quin was added at the end due to the Noble Swan having solid defense to protect him between her ability and the Turtle Ship keyword. Quin allows for a captain and helmsman to be added.

The Agha’s Whip gets the G in GOLD, while the Glorious Treasure gets the L. The Agha’s Whip is the main treasure runner after having to remove the Winds of Vengeance. The Glorious Treasure will be a bit of a hybrid, and can assist the other for a three pronged attack if desired (a nasty attack at that, for only 5 masts total you’d have 7 shots and some nice abilities). These ships also help with other words:
Seadog
HAR!
Treasure (LOL)
ARRRR (yes there are 4 R’s)

I found that bcym were the letters I needed more of, but I couldn’t find better combinations in the time I had. Let me know if I missed any good words to use!

At the end of the day, my fleet spells two words that might not count for anything, but are still important:
WIN (the goal of Pirates!)
WOW (hopefully this fleet wows you)

The strategy is relatively simple – the Agha’s Whip grabs gold while the Asgard and Noble Swan likely stick together for a decent offensive, with the Asgard potentially nabbing some gold. The Glorious Treasure explores her own island near home and then heads out to cause havoc. I included some piratey set-specific UT’s, just for fun.

Other ships considered:
Kalmar + captain, helmsman (23)
Winds of Vengeance (6)
Divan’s Punishment (11)

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Using What You See

Originally published to Miniature Trading on April 16th, 2017

50 Points

I peeked in a Pirates tin yesterday and found my duplicates of these three ships, and realized I could make a nice fleet with just them.

It’s basic but uses some effective ships – the Leicester attacks the other fleets, while the Frontier and Coral get lots of gold.

Let me know what happens if you try just “using what you see” in your collection box sometime!

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Another Pirate Rescue Attempt!

Originally published to Miniature Trading on February 17th, 2017

60 Points

This is my entry for xerecs’ Free the King Fleet Challenge.

Most of my fleet was chosen for efficiency, but it just so happened that a lot of flavor ironies occurred with the prevalence of PotC pieces.

First off, the main ship is the Flying Dutchman. Against Fortaleza Dorada, and with 30 extra points in the allied fleet, it’s not likely that a 60 point fleet would be able to survive long enough to destroy the fort AND explore the island to rescue Mysion. Therefore, winning a single boarding party against the fort is likely the way to go. The FD has Ghost Ship, SAT with reroll, world-hater, and the necessary captain and helmsman abilities. She also has that nasty built-in boarding massacre ability, which pairs perfectly with Jack Hawkins’ crew-protect ability. In addition, Genny’s Red Rampage adds +1 to all boarding attempts, making the FD an even more dangerous boarding foe. If any allied ships get in the way of the Flying Dutchman, she will simply steamroll them like Captain Salazar!

Jack Hawkins is my required Pirate Lord, though he’s joined by two other Pirate Lords – Captain Barbossa and Elizabeth Swann/Turner, not one but two literal Pirates of the Caribbean. Barbossa and Elizabeth both found Mr. Hawkins to be somewhat suspiciously familiar to another pirate they had known in the past….

~~~~~

A dark cloud of gloom seemed to settle over the small collection of motley pirates, who looked down at the old wooden floor of the Flying Dutchman.

Ragetti: “Never another like Captain Mysion.”
Elizabeth Swann: “He was a good man.”
Bootstrap Bill Turner: “Part of the crew, part of the ship.”
Tia Dalma: “What would any of you do? Would you sail to the ends of the earth and back to fetch back witty Mysion?”

Ragetti: “Aye.”
Barbossa: “Aye.”
Jack Hawkins: “Aye.”
Elizabeth Swann: “Yes. Aye.”

Tia Dalma: “All ‘right… but if you will brave the weird and haunted shores at world’s end, then you will need a sheep that has sailed dose waters.”

Suddenly the waters next to the Flying Dutchman began bubbling… a metallic spine slowly emerged from the depths….

Hawkins and Barbossa frown, while Elizabeth gasps in shock.

Ragetti: “S’ Mysion’s submareen!!”
Jack Hawkins: “Where did you get that?”

Tia Dalma simply smiles and walks to one of the Dutchman’s boats to board the submersible.

~~~~~

The sudden, unexpected appearance of Mysion’s former ship, the Coleoptera, gives the Pirates hope! With canceller Tia Dalma aboard, the submarine will give the Flying Dutchman valuable protection while staying submerged and therefore immunity to the entire allied fleet.

The basic strategy involves the Flying Dutchman ghosting through the allied fleet, while the Coleoptera goes underneath them. The FD arrives at the fort and blasts as many flags off as possible, after which she tries to board. Ideally the FD would get relatively close to the fort before getting an SAT on the next turn, so as to blast the fort with a full broadside before smashing into it and firing another 2 or 3 shots before boarding. However, a single 2 or 3 shot volley could be enough between the +1 to boards and potential reroll. The toughest part will be keeping the FD healthy enough for a boarding attempt, which is why the Coleoptera must at least slow the allied fleet with Tia Dalma, the overlapping rules, and probably some submerged ramming. Finally, if the FD gets an SAT and can rip off 10 shots at the fort, it’s possible that she may simply blast away until the fort is gone, at which point the Coleoptera will surface so Ragetti can jump on the island and grab Mysion (yes, he’s there for more than just flavor heh).

It’s not likely to work against 3 super gunships armed with rerolled double actions, but between the similar speed of the Flying Dutchman and Tia Dalma’s help, it’s the best strategy I could muster in a reasonable time frame given only 60 points. The FD’s cannons are all short range, while her boarding ability could really help if things turn into a chaotic melee.

Thanks for reading; comment and vote!

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Bumper Cars Game – Fleet Challenge Entry

Originally published to Miniature Trading on December 8th, 2016

50 Points

This is my fleet for selvaxri’s Bumpercars Fleet Challenge.

When I saw that the challenge would focus on ramming and boarding, I immediately thought about the French. While other factions (especially the Pirates and Cursed) have fun and numerous boarding options, France has always seemed to me like the best faction for ramming and boarding, especially boarding.

A few of the obvious behemoths immediately came to mind, namely the Saber and Le Gaule. However, between the 50 point build total and my history of using those two ships, I decided to embrace the “bumper cars” theme and go with some smaller ships.

I originally had Le Republicain (one of my first and most nostalgic French ships) in this fleet, but then realized that the ship would be the ultimate party pooper given the theme of the challenge. I had similar thoughts about turtle ships, considering them for their “bumper car” nature and their resistance to ramming and boarding, but decided that I didn’t want to spoil other fleets on purpose. Ram and board at will and let the best crews win! 

In essence I had some small ships (bumperships) ready for a small fry type game. However, changing up my original ideas may have lead to a more interesting fleet.

The first ship is the only ship with a captain, Le Mercure. She was one of my first French ships (possibly the first), and is somewhat underrated given her speed and cannons. Those cannons will be augmented by some firepots, which fire at the full cannon range (rather than using the specialist with L-range guns). Though fragile, the Mercure is the main defender of the fleet and will look to harass enemies in general. She also cannot be pinned, so if there’s even a remote chance of an enemy ship losing a mast to a ram, the Mercure will crash and burn (quite possibly literally!). The specialist isn’t indispensable so she can afford to lose a boarding party.

The second ship is where I went a little overboard. Le Descharges has always been one of my favorite French ships, and is simply stacked with great stats and combos. Even without crew she would be a reasonable threat in a game. Here, two underused crew come aboard to maximize her effectiveness. Cartier provides extra actions, and gets rerolls from Mr. Rousseau. The general idea is for the Descharges to board an enemy ship, take all her gold (up to 3 coins!), and then use Parley as necessary to get as much home as possible. Cartier adds a bonus to make the boarding more likely to succeed, while an oarsman comes aboard to fill out the build total and protect the valuable crew. If the ship gets in trouble, she’s got great guns, extra actions, and even Parley to save her (if it’s optimal to use Parley). Having half my build total invested in a ship without a captain OR a helmsman is risky and odd, but I wanted to think outside the box on this one. In addition, all the abilities on the ship (essentially 6 different ones) complement each other quite well.

With 11 points left over (I hadn’t yet added the oarsman to the Descharges), there wasn’t much room left for more excitement. I very nearly went with La Belois and a helmsman, or even her near-clone La Moulin Rouge. The alternative was the Intrepide, an overused ship I’ve certainly seen enough of. However, at this point in my Pirates CSG career I simply hate what I consider to be “boring”, so another named crew was fit into the fleet (barely). I believe Leander Arnaud links to Cartier (not that it matters here), and either way it’s fun to have a crewfer twofer in the same fleet! Maybe the Intrepide wasn’t the best choice for the final ship (Libellule, anyone?  ), and maybe she’ll never win a boarding party, but she has the speed and cargo space to not only take full advantage of Arnaud’s capabilities, but perhaps more importantly serve as the main gold runner. That said, she’ll definitely see some ramming and boarding usage if the Descharges falters, and could even harass enemy gold runners by herself (or tag up with the Mercure and leave an enemy gold runner formerly laden with treasure on fire and penniless!).

The UT’s were added to hopefully aid in stealing treasure (hoping the enemy gold runners don’t have many crew and that the Intrepide might find one on her first gold trip), and to add to the theme of the challenge.

Overall I think it’s a fun fleet and fulfills the challenge theme reasonably well. It’s also a bit quirky, with no helmsmen present. In addition, I never even considered a 0LR +5, which could certainly be a weakness against other fleets. Lastly, the Descharges’ lack of speed and the fragility of the other two ships could spell doom, but this fleet is worth a shot when playing.

Thanks for reading and thanks to selvaxri for making the challenge! Comment and vote! 

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

Mercenary Fleet that won a game!

Originally published to Miniature Trading on November 18th, 2016

52 Points

Here’s a pure Mercenary fleet that actually won a game! 

The Santa Molina is the flagship. She can dish out some decent punishment, especially with the right UT’s. It’s important for her to survive and protect the submarines, since Fiore is the only way to get gold home. The Santa Molina will often shadow the Barracuda to a nearby island, and let the Devil Ray explore a further WI.

The Devil Ray and Barracuda run gold. The Devil Ray will go long, with S+L+S speed underwater. It’s quite possible that both subs might do some submerged ramming. In addition, the Barracuda’s ability and cannons make her a decent support for the Santa Molina in a close battle.

The biggest strength is that each ship has some form of defense. The Santa Molina has a canceller, while the submarines will be submerged for most of the game, only surfacing to dock. Partway through the game, I realized that a shipwright on one of the two subs (probably the Devil Ray since she’s faster) could be beneficial, instead of having the two one point crew on the subs. That’s why I left it out there as an option (plus his look is just priceless so why not put him in the fleet lol). Originally the Barracuda had an oarsman, but the explorer can be left on the island if needed, although I dislike that rule. Also see the battle report for crew and treasure transfer shenanigans – Fiore and the UT’s can make this fleet flexible under fire.

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Fun Pirate Fleet

Originally published to Miniature Trading on October 30th, 2016

50 Points

I thought I’d submit this fleet after it won a game.

The Shadow is the flagship, and tries to steal gold from enemies. Her guns aren’t much good, but the captain and helmsman abilities are there, and with enough shots fired she can defend herself a bit, especially with a double action. Mysion’s Parley is the real steal here at just one point, and it should help the ship get away with stolen loot. With 3 cargo available, the Shadow could do any combination of regular gold running, raiding HI’s, and stealing from enemy gold runners.

The Greed’s Hammer is one of my favorite ships, and a fun hybrid. Hammersmith is perfect to save a cargo space, while Le Requin gives a second ship the chance for double actions. Both larger ships also have oarsmen, to protect all the valuable crew that make them effective.

The Fancy and Mermaid round out the fleet and provide some gold running options. All ships can run gold. The Shadow can potentially transfer stolen coins to the GH to get the bonus on them. In the game I played, the Fancy managed to find an abandoned captain, so some UT’s could make things more fun.

All in all, I think it’s a decent fleet that has some fun hybrid options, two ships with SAT, and uses a few Pirate ships that aren’t quite as popular as they deserve to be.

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Spooked into Oblivion – Spooky Challenge Fleet Entry

Originally published to Miniature Trading on October 26th, 2016

85 Points

This is my fleet for volt’s Spooky Deathmatch fleet challenge.

Especially once I saw that the challenge would likely take place in actual gameplay on VASSAL, I decided to go brutal effectiveness on this one. The 18 points of crew didn’t leave much room for exciting, scary crew anyway, and I barely had enough points there for the necessary generic crew. However, with no point limit, the ship choices would be interesting indeed…

The first ship is actually the Faerie Fire from Return to Savage Shores.

Faerie Fire
RtSS-024, Common
Cursed
Points: 15
Masts: 3 (B)
Cargo: 3
Move: L
Cannons: 2S-3L-2S
Ability: Ghost Ship.
Flavor: Sailors claim the Faerie Fire glows not from any ethereal light, but from the burning hatred gathered in life and now harbored by the men who crew her.

This ship satisfies the Ghost Ship requirement, and from the flavor text you can tell that she’s a good choice as my scary ship. It’s a good Halloween ship! 

The second ship starts the canceller brigade. Longships are a great choice for this challenge, since they’re extremely expensive for their mast count, but very powerful offensively. The Kettering is the best of the bunch, and only needs a captain to keep up with the rest of the fleet. As for volt’s second requirement, I don’t think many ships are scarier to face than the Kettering. 

America had the great fortune of getting multiple ships with built-in canceller abilities, and the Ghost Walker is next. The second canceller in the fleet provides some awesome firepower with all 2L guns.

The third canceller keeps the Halloween vibe by adding another Cursed ship. The Guinee is often overlooked, but any source of the canceller ability is extremely valuable. She’s definitely the weakest gunship of this bunch, moving at S+S and possessing only mediocre cannons, but at 12 points it’s a very fair deal. If the Kettering isn’t scary enough to fulfill volt’s requirement, the Guinee’s flavor text can: Literally a repository for souls who died on the ocean, the Guinee is a sinkhole of evil that drains the will to live from those she encounters.

You may have noticed that I have a quartet of 3 masters so far. For the final mast in the fleet, why not add a whopping 4th canceller?  HMS Rye is a ship I’ve commanded on many occasions at this point, and here she can serve as a scout ship. With basically zero combat ability, the Rye will quite possibly go out in front of the fleet and act as a sacrificial ship. The hope is that she can maneuver out in front of another canceller (like the Kettering) and essentially extend the “blanket” of cancellation so that enemy gunships have a harder time hitting the cancellers from L range. An opponent will likely capture the Rye to use her canceller ability, but this fleet should have enough cancelling and firepower to eliminate the Rye if she is turned.

I’ve had such extensive history with cancellers (example) that I may actually overvalue them a bit. That’s part of the reason I wanted to do this fleet like I did, to see if it can win some games. It will be interesting to see if the cancelling advantage is that important, or if a fleet with superior firepower can simply overpower it.

At one point I really wanted to use El Rayo in this fleet, but that ship is something that you would build a fleet around, whereas here I’m building around the Faerie Fire (as the core ship, and the one that should go in the middle of a formation) and the canceller element.

In addition, since the Guinee is rather slow and unspectacular, it would be possible to replace her and the Rye with the Paso and Mobilis (in that case with a captain on the Paso and helmsman on the Mobilis). This would potentially be a better idea, but keeping a Cursed theme felt better for this challenge. That duo would mean having only one Cursed ship, and adding two more factions to the mix. Also, the Mobilis is kind of OP in general, especially in a deathmatch scenario. It’s bad enough that your opponent would need 2 cancellers to attack the Mobilis – imagine those 2 cancellers having to go through the other 3 in this fleet first! I felt that the Mobilis would just be too lame and cheesy for the existing setup, and I would hate to go against a fleet like that, so I decided to keep things more reasonable and thematic.

The biggest strength of this fleet is obviously the cancelling. Any submarines will be dealt with, as well as annoying abilities. An opponent with lots of L-range guns and some extra actions would cause the most problems, especially if they also had a few cancellers of their own.

Thanks for reading; comment and vote!

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El Acorazado – My Preferred Setup

The best gunship ever?

Originally published to Miniature Trading on September 13th, 2016

42 Points

As the title says, this is my favorite setup for the best gunship in the game. Just hadn’t posted it as a fleet yet! It works well in terms of points; either make it a 45 point game and add El Algeciras, or take Vaccaro out and put Contessa Anita Amore on the Algeciras to make it a legal 40 point fleet.

This fleet is meant for deathmatch games. This fleet is currently 26-11 against extremely tough competition in deathmatch games: 6-0 against my HMS Grand Temple fleet, 11-1 against various gunships, and 9-10 against HMS Endeavour (though effectively 9-7 in that series).

Edit: This fleet is now 30-12.

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Battle “Ships” of the Deep

Don’t let Behemoth get you!

Originally published to Miniature Trading on September 6th, 2016

85 Points

This is my entry to El Cazador’s Battleship Fleet Challenge.

I managed to come up with this fleet very quickly. I think it was because El Cazador DID allow the use of the Limit keyword, unlike in the previous incarnation of the challenge. I had desired to use Davy Jones in my Odd fleet, so when I saw that we could use Limit stuff, my mind shifted to the other copier, Behemoth. As a 5-masted “battleship”, Behemoth is often considered the best sea monster in the game due to its versatility and the option of copying the captain keyword. However, I’m going to use him for something more sinister, as you’ll soon see… 

Maxehebel is a proxy for Namazu from Return to Savage Shores:

Namazu
RtSS-003, Rare
Cursed
Points: 15
Masts: 4 (Sea Serpent)
Cargo: 2
Move: S
Cannons: 3S-3S-3S-3S
Ability: Sea Monster. Give this sea monster a shoot action. A wave S wide and 2L long leaves the sea monster in one direction. Up to 2 masts of every ship in the path of the wave are eliminated. Eliminate one of this sea monster’s masts.

Flavor: Old sailors shiver at the mention of Namazu. Few who have survived its tidal attacks can return to the sea, so paralyzing are the nightmares of the memory.

That takes care of the 4 master. The 3 master was actually the final ship to be added, and at that point I really needed a gold runner lol. The Fiddler’s Green was originally the gold runner, equipped with a helmsman and explorer, but then I realized I could get the best Cursed ship in existence for just a point more. I’m in the helmsman>explorer crowd, especially when not playing by the standard setup rules. The extra speed allows the Grinder to move a very fast S+L+S, and she’s capable of being a bit of a hybrid if needed. Her secondary ability could help her raid any enemy gold runners with high value coins, and said runners will be less likely to fight back in the face of her effective cannons. If you prefer explorers, that would allow an oarsman on another ship or possibly an equipment aboard the Serpent’s Fang. The Grinder packs a punch, and I thought it was fitting to swap her in for the Fiddler’s Green (which happens to be one of my favorite Cursed ships), because it’s the Battleship Fleet Challenge after all! 

For the 3 masted submarine, it was an easy pick. Staying faction-pure, the Locker is a support ship. She carries the Hag of Tortuga and her +L sea monster speed bonus as well as a helmsman.

The final ship was another easy pick – the Serpent’s Fang is the only ship in the game with the +L sea monster speed bonus ability built-in. It also happens to be a longship, and the perfect support gunship in this fleet.

At this point it may become obvious what my nefarious plan is. On the first turn, Behemoth and Namazu dive underwater and move at incredible speeds of L+L+L and S+L+L respectively due to the double bonuses. The Serpent’s Fang and (submerged) Locker follow at L+S, taking care to stay behind the monsters. Then, at the perfect opportunity, both come flying to the surface! Namazu unleashes a massive tidal wave upon the opposing ships!! Behemoth copies Namazu’s ability and a second tidal wave is unleashed!! 

The enemy fleet could be in tatters at this point, but why stop there?   Your opponent might be able to do some good harm to either or both of the monsters, but eventually your turn will come up once again. If both sea monsters are still alive, time for another double wave attack!! I checked with woelf, and he said that Namazu’s ability hits everything in the path of the wave, even stuff that is submerged or ghostly. The Locker could do submerged ramming, while the Serpent’s Fang has some considerable firepower of her own, with 4 shots at 3L. Now the possibilities become even scarier… beyond Behemoth simply copying the captain keyword (which might be the best option depending on the situation), imagine if Behemoth copies the Longship keyword!  That’s up to 10 shots at 2S, similar to the Zeus firing a full broadside with a world hater aboard!!

Even in a worst-case scenario, the sea monsters could possibly retreat if a second wave attack isn’t practical – the +L bonuses give them a lot of speed and flexibility, and using the bonuses to catch, ram, and then pin enemy ships in place becomes an option as well. It’s unlikely, but Behemoth could even copy the +L ability to give Namazu a speed of up to S+L+L+L or copy the Locker’s ability, making her a bigger threat when boarding. Either way, Behemoth’s flexibility is very important to this fleet, so I’d make sure the first strike was devastating. I won’t even go into the potential enemy abilities Behemoth could copy, but there’s probably some that would be rather effective to use!

In a longer fight, the Grinder’s 2L guns and the Locker’s potential immunity to enemy fleets (while submerged) become more important, because it’s likely that at least one monster and the Serpent’s Fang will fall. Also, fleets are required to have a 3 masted sub for this challenge, but 3/5 of this fleet can submerge to avoid the ramming, while the Grinder can move her full speed no matter what. Finally, the Serpent’s Fang has 2 open cargo spaces and the Locker can submerge, so this fleet could potentially do some extra gold running in a pinch.

Curse of Davy Jones was added to make things even more nasty for my opponents, especially if Behemoth manages to copy the Longship keyword. Plague is another great option, partly because this fleet doesn’t rely on crew as much as most of the other Battleship fleets likely will. Even if Grinder found the Plague, she has the base move to catch enemy ships to give it to them, and the Serpent’s Fang is the only ship to worry about with Plague since the Locker can just submerge if needed.

Let me know what you think of the fleet! Comment and vote, and thanks to El Cazador for running the challenge – this is one of my favorite challenge fleets I’ve submitted! 

Fleet page at Miniature Trading