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!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

The Best Raiders of Spain

Originally published to Miniature Trading on February 18th, 2016

This is my entry for brettb45’s Best Raider Fleet Challenge.

For this challenge, I originally wanted to use the Pirate native canoes from RtSS, but then I realized that the chieftain would have a huge target on his back from crew such as Bonny Peel. I also considered the Renard a Ailes and Rocinante as the possible backbones for different fleets.

Soon after this challenge started I thought about how hard it would be to fit lots of fun raider stuff into the 40 point limit, because stealing things in this game gets expensive in a hurry. As a result, I decided to go with something I think is pretty obnoxious, despite how ineffective it might be. It’s more of a fun little gimmick that could become more potent with some more points available.

Spain is the only faction to have the ability to not be shot at while docked on a crew. In addition, they have some nice HI raiders, one of which is the “other” El Algeciras that nobody ever talks about, in my opinion one of the coolest ships in the game. However, if a ship is docked at an enemy HI and can’t be shot at, the opponent’s next best bet is to ram and board. Therefore, I didn’t want small ships.

To combine these aspects, I needed a HI raider to house the Haulers, and then preferably another ship that couldn’t be shot at while docked with a HI raider aboard. However, Spain only has 1 ship that can’t be shot at while docked, so I was pretty limited in that regard.

The Espada de Dios is one of the cooler ships in the game, and here she’s got 4 cargo spaces open to fill up with stolen loot. The oarsman would take up space on the Academia, so he’s on the Espada.

The Academia isn’t such an exciting ship, but she’s the secondary raider. Sanchez allows her to steal gold from enemy HI’s while her ability keeps her somewhat safe. Master Bianco offsets the helmsman so she still has 3 open cargo spaces.

The strategy is simple – send the ships out to enemy HI’s, and then raid them continuously until your cargo holds are full, all the while enjoying protection from enemy cannon fire! Since HI raiding blockades are ineffective, I would recommend sending at least one of the ships out on a regular treasure run to get some gold, which could then potentially be used to purchase one of the forts. Once you start raiding HI’s, a fort could temporarily protect the gold if one of the raiders was in trouble and had to leave the enemy HI.

The UT’s were added to enhance the overall strategy as well as theoretically drive up the average value of a regular coin.

This fleet is fragile, with no captains. Also, neither ship has 5+ masts, so losing boarding parties could be a real issue. Since both raiders have the same speed, it’s likely they would team up, and in that case have 7 cannons around an enemy HI with which to fight off attackers. It’s also susceptible to enemy ships using crew-gold capturers, since the higher value crew would be easily taken off the ships. The speed is also an issue, but the HI raiding abilities are expensive enough to deny further enhancements.

Thanks for reading; comment and vote!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

Jewels of the Fine Sea – Theme Fleet Challenge Entry

Originally published to Miniature Trading on January 1st, 2016

This is my entry into phymatine’s Theme Fleet Challenge.

This game is all about getting the most gold, so I decided upon a theme of jewels, gemstones, or precious metals. This might be the least creative fleet out there, but the few other ideas I thought of didn’t work as well. For example, a “Bloody” fleet – Bloody Spear, Bloody Jewel, Bloody Jake, etc.

This originally started out as diamonds being the only precious metal. This was a decent start, but I decided to broaden my horizons and include other materials as well. Therefore, ships like the Diamond Strike, Black Diamond, and HMS Diamond/HMS Diamond were heavily considered but eventually left out because I couldn’t fit them into the 40 point limit. Similarly, when I widened the theme, ships like the Pearl and all three versions of the Black Pearl missed out. (HMS Obsidian Sun was also briefly considered.  ) However, I was reasonably satisfied with what I came up with.

The first ship is the Tiger’s Eye. One of the best ships in the entire game, the Tiger’s Eye has gold-running duty here. She’d like a captain, but they didn’t fit the theme or the build total. Instead, she has Diamond Nelson Turner aboard. He’ll cancel enemy gunships if they get too close, and he could potentially slow or hinder an enemy gold runner if the Tiger’s Eye gets into a treasure dispute. In addition, he combos well with the Tiger’s Eye’s ability, since the Tiger’s Eye can’t be hit by L-range guns. With Diamond aboard the Tiger’s Eye will have partial immunity to S-range guns as well because he can cancel any captained ship that comes into range.

The second ship is another famous gold runner, the Bloody Jewel. She stretches the theme a bit, but oh well. The Bloody Jewel is one of the best gold runners in the game and features a Silver Explorer. This fleet is designed to find not just gold, but also silver, in addition to the precious metals added into the game with the UT’s.

The final ship is the lone gunship, USS Emerald. This ship is a somewhat underrated support gunship from SCS, and features a great ability in addition to good cannons. The standard captain and helmsman wouldn’t fit the theme, so Hermione Gold comes aboard. This gives the Emerald respectable speed and the necessary captain keyword. She’ll probably escort the Bloody Jewel, since she’s not strong enough to take on enemy gunships and the Tiger’s Eye is more durable and much more difficult to take out than the Jewel.

The UT’s deviate from the theme a bit since some of them are generic, but I wanted to include some UT’s. Jade and the Gem of Hades are in there, as well as Plunder and Buried Treasure, which could represent any of the aforementioned materials, or another one altogether.

The forts will probably detract from the main score, but they are there as well. They were included based on their flavor text, though “dorada” also means gold in Spanish.

The Spanish claim it doesn’t exist. Yet natives can be persuaded to speak of the “Golden Fortress,” the apparent source of the Spanish gold flowing along the Crimson Coast.

Informed captains know that when they dock at the port of St. Pierre, a little extra gold ensures that their cargo will be unloaded swiftly – and without a lot of questions.

Again it’s not very creative at all and it doesn’t have much combat capability, but I wanted to make a fleet for the challenge. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and vote!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

Taking Out The Trash – Garbage Cursed Fleet

Originally published to Miniature Trading on December 5th, 2015

This is my second fleet for volt’s Garbage Fleet Challenge. My first fleet is even worse, and uses the American faction.

Sure the Cursed are an easy pick, but as of the time this was submitted, nobody had utilized the terrible Cursed LE ships.

The Tarantula has almost literally no chance of using Papa Doc’s possession ability, and even if she does, he probably won’t possess any useful crew.

The Sarcophagus also moves S and has the Fear keyword, if the ship can get within range at some point. Cavendish and Stinkpot Shot take up cargo space to limit her gold running potential.

The Dance actually serves a key role – eliminating enemy crew through boarding, which forces them to be able to pick up more gold!

Severe strengths (not weaknesses!) of this fleet include the high number of cargo available, and the oars which limit the effectiveness of Odin’s Revenge. The Missionary is designed to eliminate enemy crew so they can take more treasure with the open cargo spaces.

Thanks for reading about Taking Out The Trash; comment and vote!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

American Garbage

Originally published to Miniature Trading on December 2nd, 2015

This is my entry into volt’s rather amusing Garbage Fleet Challenge.

I came up with a few preliminary ideas, including the Pirates, the Cursed, and the Americans. The Pirate ships generally had way more cargo than I was willing to have, and their selection of pricey named crew was too useful. The Cursed were a bit too easy, so I decided on the Americans.

At one point after reviewing volt’s rules for the challenge, I realized: why not make it even more difficult and try to force myself to use the absolute minimums? This would prove to be a great starting point in limiting how effective my fleets could be.

The next section details my thought process as I went through each rule.

So, ideally to make the crappiest fleet out there, we’d want a maximum of 2 ships.

On those 2 ships, one has to have 1 mast and one has to have 2 masts. Or, have a fleet of three 1 masters.

The one crew should be as useless as possible. Anything that grants abilities like helmsman, captain, Eternal, or any action generating abilities is completely out of the question. Only utterly horrible abilities (preferably expensive ones) can be used in the fleets I make. Even crew like Tariq the Black are extremely useful in a challenge like this because that captain ability is simply too good, even at a 2 point premium. The standards need to be lowered beneath the floor. As a result, compared to what I would expect to see in this challenge, any fleet with a captain ability is going to be a “good” fleet.

Not a big deal. Definitely a good restriction!

Okay, so we’re aiming to have ONLY ONE open cargo space in the entire fleet.  Anything else is too good!

Alright, now onto the fleet!

Some of these choices may look exceedingly random, but there was actually a bunch of strategy that went into figuring out this fleet.

Assumption: All the fleets that this fleet faces will also be Garbage fleets. Therefore, I’m just going to assume that the other fleets also tried to go with the minimums described in the rules.

What does this result in? A bunch of fleets with exactly one open cargo space in the fleet. That ship tries to run gold, while the other ones can’t. All they can do is fight. However, when fighting, I want my ships to have the absolute lowest possible chances of winning. Therefore, the Burning Man is the perfect flagship. The Burning Man is slow, expensive, and weak. The Ghost Ship keyword is huge: if the ship is ghostly, opponents can’t kill the one crew (Pierce Hollow, LOL) on board the ship via boarding. Why don’t we want opponents to board? If they do, they’ll eliminate Pierce and open up a cargo space! What?! An open cargo space! What a nightmare! We can’t afford to have any cargo space open for gold, since then we would have a chance at winning the game, and we don’t want that!

Not only is Pierce Hollow’s ability completely useless on a ship with only two cargo spaces, but she’s also the only crew on the ship in the first place, so there’s not even any other crew to reduce values on!

I originally had some grape shot, grapple shot, and Letters of Marque on the different ships, but since they can easily be eliminated from the game (freeing up cargo spaces), I went with Stinkpot Shot instead.

Next up is USS Seminole. It doesn’t get much worse right here: 13 points for a 1 master with a 5S cannon and only one cargo space. The Seminole is incapable of doing just about anything: she’s just here to provide that single open cargo space. She was originally empty, but I had to add an oarsman to fulfill the rule that each ship must have a crew on it.

The last ship is the Plymouth Rock, owner of one of the most hated abilities in the entire game. Half the time she moves L, half the time she moves L+L. This is quite fantastic for a garbage fleet, which is why I was hesitant to include her. I originally had the Plymouth Rock with the only open cargo space, but then I realized that she would be one of the better gold runners out there. As a result, I switched the equipment and crew so that the Seminole was the “gold runner”. Now the Plymouth Rock can sail around aimlessly, although she can use her L+L speed and explorer ability to find a UT that you may have already seen. Hopefully a ram will take her out of the game to speed the game up so this fleet can lose more quickly. Also, to my knowledge Perry’s ability is completely optional, and you could bring in 3 extra points rather than 5 if you wanted to. Instead, he’s not bringing anything in. He’s just a crew waiting to be eliminated or captured to give your opponent more gold!

The Burning Man is just about useless. With no captain and only L speed, she’ll have a hard time using her Stinkpot Shot. If it hits, the useless crew on the opponent’s ships probably won’t be worth cancelling, especially since it’s only on their turn. The Seminole is a treasure runner with L speed, 1 cargo space, and extreme fragility. Lastly, the Plymouth Rock is a ship that can’t run gold or fight, and is easily eliminated from the game.

…

Now, for the ace in the hole:

Odin’s Revenge!

And with that, all of the ships are derelict and the Burning Man and Seminole are stuck moving S with no guns to use. 

Thanks for reading; comment and vote!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

Minimal Crew – Simple 40 Point Fleet

Originally published to Miniature Trading on November 27th, 2015

I thought up this fleet on a whim. I was thinking about how, when teaching new players, Spanish Main is a great set to give away because it only has three factions (therefore increasing the chances they’ll get items from the same faction), and also because the high number of useful named crew. Not only that, but a lot of those useful named crew are simpler, easier to understand, and cheaper than some crew from later sets that are also easy to acquire. During fleet construction, new players often make fleets where a high portion of their build total is just with the cost of ships alone (35+ points for ships), and this leaves less room for the vital generic crew.

From there, I quickly thought up a fleet that’s quite simple but potentially effective, trying to use a small amount of crew.

I actually thought of the ships in the opposite order they’re presented here, but the whole thing came together within a minute or two. The Bon Marin is the easiest choice, and in my opinion the most “perfect” gold runner (not the best) in the game. The San Pedro is one of the best ships from the entire Fire and Steel set, and here she has an explorer. Her +2 gold bonus is one of the best abilities in the game, and her durability (and serviceable 3S guns) help offset the fragility of the other gold runner, the Bon Marin. Lastly, the Stephens is the only 5 master with the captain ability built in, so adding a helmsman is all that’s necessary to complete the simple gunship combo. Her guns aren’t the best, but she’s a threat, especially when you also throw the reverse captain ability into the mix.

Again, this is a simple, easy-to-use fleet designed to have as few crew as possible. This fleet has 37 points in 3 ships and the last 3 points are spent on just 2 minimal crew.

Thanks for reading; comment and vote!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

What Lurks Below – Second Entry

Originally published to Miniature Trading on October 12th, 2015

This is my second and therefore unofficial entry into notalwaysyou’s What Lurks Below Fleet Challenge.

I’d like to think that many of you have seen Mind Control, although it only has 3 votes right now! 

You can almost think of this as “Mind Control 2.0”. It’s not nearly as effective or fun, but the sheer amount of stuff happening and the nature of this specific challenge let me make a fleet I couldn’t resist posting.

The Seleucis is an absolutely perfect fit for this meeting of the Mind Control strategy and this particular fleet challenge. With at least one sea monster present in the opponent’s fleet, Seleucis will always have a rival beast to toss around. If enemy monsters are eliminated, Tsuro can effectively be given a move and shoot.

Tsuro is a gimmicky Cursed serpent that relies on a die roll to control it’s enemies, but it does work on a 5 or 6. Again, Tsuro could receive a move action from Seleucis at some point during the game, and then be given a regular action to attack. However, especially in the early stages of the game, Seleucis and Tsuro will stay docked at the home island, causing chaos in the opposing fleet while remaining immune to shoot actions.

The Bloody Jewel is outfitted with an explorer and none other than Lady Baptiste. Lady Baptiste may seem out of place with no EA/SAT crew or even a captain, but she serves a vital purpose. Baptiste will be the one to bang on the infamous Kraken Gong. Her reroll will give her a second whack at the fickle instrument, hoping for a deadly Kraken to emerge from it’s lurking below and freak out the enemy ships. Especially in a smaller game like this, the presence of a new Kraken could be a real game-changer. Lastly, rolling a 1 early on could be great for this fleet, since it could eliminate a Kraken in another fleet for this challenge.

The rest of the ships were chosen with the sole purpose of finding UT’s. I generally try to maximize the potential of my gimmicks working, and if a fleet suffers in creativity as a result, so be it. All four ships (and probably not the Jolly Mon) will swarm out and try to find the UT’s. Maps of Alexandria will aid in this process, and if the maps reveal that an important UT such as the Gong is within reach of the enemy, all available ships (including the Bloody Jewel) can swarm the enemy and try to steal it back, which could be effective with so many potential rams. In this case of a UT panic (I invented a new strange term! lol), Seleucis adds flexibility by allowing Tsuro to move L+L per turn to catch any opponent that has a desirable UT. Also, with so many runners available, it’s likely that at least one good UT will be found. The goal with Chariot of the Gods was to put Baptiste on Tsuro to reroll the controlling ability, but bringing in a Kraken is more important. If everything goes right, perhaps Baptiste could command Tsuro after she summons a Kraken. (Maybe she’d even like her new role more than the Golden Medusa (despite her flavor text lol) and become the new Hag of Tortuga!)

For those of you who will complain about the potentially detrimental effects of the Cursed Conch and Elizabeth’s Piece of Eight being used against me: this fleet is all about maximizing the gimmick, and that’s about it. Those two UT’s a great for mind control, especially with this challenge.

I hope to test this fleet sometime. It doesn’t have a true gunship, but with the amount of possible scenarios (even just winning by having more gold with all the runners), it will be fun and chaotic. Thanks for reading – comment and vote! 

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

Shot To Pieces – What Lurks Below Challenge Entry

Originally published to Miniature Trading on October 10th, 2015

This is my entry into notalwaysyou’s What Lurks Below (WLB) Fleet Challenge.

After going with numerous gimmicky entries for past challenges, including the most recent Small Fry challenge, I decided to go with a more practical approach for this one. This may be surprising to some, since sea monsters are some of the most gimmicky pieces in the game. I’m full of surprises! 

However, to make this a practical fleet at just 45 points and still include a sea monster, I had to think cheaper. Ophidious is considered to be one of the best (if not the best) sea monsters in the entire game. With L+S speed, a cheap point cost, and fantastic offensive capabilities, Ophidious will be a nasty attacker. Ophidious is cheap because of that strange ability, but between the high number of sea monsters in this game and the fact that having a pricey sea monster limits the number of large boarding ships, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Ophidious also has Eternal, so opponents may want to think twice about attacking it or stealing its body parts!

I wanted to make a faction-pure fleet if possible, and the Pirates are a good option with their variety of creatures available. The second ship is absolutely perfect for this fleet and challenge: the Prussian Crown. A little-known 5 master from MI, the Prussian Crown is average in every way except for her submersible-hunting ability. The Prussian Crown is the main gunship in this fleet, capable of hunting down enemy sea monsters that lurk below the waves.

For crew, I originally only had Hammersmith and the explorer. However, seeing that the fleet was at exactly 45 points, and seeing that the Crown still had plenty of cargo space available, I decided to make the Crown even more deadly and add canceller Tia Dalma with Cannonball Gallows (for those purists who like to see the original versions of crew, I counter that Gallows is from the same set as the Crown, making it more fitting, not to mention that Hammersmith was also introduced in MI). I still like the original crew setup, since it allows for 3 total cargo spaces on the Crown, making her a surprisingly good hybrid, capable of getting gold, fending off attacks, and hunting down enemy sea monsters. Although I like the gold-oriented approach, I feel that Dalma makes this fleet even more practical, since it almost guarantees a victory for the Crown against most opponents in this particular challenge. If the opponent has two sea monsters, the Crown could cancel one to the surface to shoot at it and shoot at the other one with “torpedoes”! Also, I kept the explorer, for the Crown still has a cargo space open. That could actually come in very handy, since if the Crown explores an island and takes the highest value coin, that could be enough to make the difference. Lastly, although I like the Crown running gold and fighting, my final ship makes it more reasonable to use Dalma and decrease the total cargo space available.

The Raven has always been a classic. For my main treasure runner, I wanted a ship that was relatively cheap that could make good speed. The Raven doesn’t really need a helmsman, so an explorer bumps her total cost to 11 points. With a nice ability and good guns, she should be one of the better treasure runners in this challenge. It’s entirely possible that Ophidious would escort the Raven while the big bad Prussian Crown went after the opponent’s ships and monsters with submersible hunting and cancelling. However, Ophidious is also a potent offensive threat, and could get tangled up with an opposing sea monster. Lastly, if Ophidious directly teams up with the Crown, there may not be a lot of things in other fleets for this challenge that could stop such an onslaught.

I added the Cursed Conch, which is a nostalgic UT for me. There were a few others that I considered, but they would probably hold more potential benefits to other fleets than to mine. The forts were added since the Raven could get gold home quickly, and the Crown may want a place to repair.

This fleet’s biggest weaknesses are a lack of extra actions, and the potential vulnerability of the gold game. The fleet won’t be receiving extra actions other than through the Conch, and the Crown can still be hit easily by enemy gunships with L-range guns. If a Sea Dragon preys on the Raven, this fleet could have trouble winning. However, that’s part of the reason I added Dalma – she could come in handy cancelling some of the more annoying sea creature keywords, such as Kraken. However, I think this fleet is pretty well off in terms of guns and gold, so hopefully it can win the day!

Thanks to notalwaysyou for running the challenge, and thanks to you for commenting and voting! 

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

Mercenary Empire

Originally published to Miniature Trading on September 21st, 2015

This fleet was inspired by xerecs’ idea.

The Mercenaries have a unique advantage in deathmatches in the form of submarines. This is an all-sub fleet besides the Celtic Fury.

The Celtic Fury is loaded up. I dislike her cannons, and the more masts you have the greater value there is in putting a world-hater aboard, so Barbinais enters the fray. O’Brien provides a potential SAT and more firepower against the powerful English. Lenoir provides the first of three cancellers in this fleet, almost as many as my American fleet. Herr Fuchs adds captain and cannoneer, so between the cannon bonuses, SAT, and cannoneer ability, the Celtic Fury will be dishing out some damage. I don’t like relying on 10 masters, but unfortunately she has to lead the pack and weaken enemy ships (especially 5 and 6 masters) so they’re more vulnerable to being rammed by the subs. Therefore, she may purposely go after multiple targets and not concentrate on sinking individual ships, at least in the early game. She also has a funny-looking shipwright, who could see action with the SAT and/or if the cancellers can “hide” the Celtic Fury for a turn or two.

With this many points it would be a shame to exclude the Nautilus. The Nautilus is rather obnoxious, with Submarine, Canceller, and the Acorazado ability.

I finally acquired Count Gustov for my collection, so I wanted to showcase him. Only a 16 point ship could hold what I wanted to do, and the Terror is an underrated sub. With Thane’s reroll, the Terror will be just that, a terror of the high seas. Fear can augment the numerous cancellations going on, while the captain and helmsman help the sub ram and shoot at enemy ships. The Terror would likely be the first submarine to surface, and possibly the only submarine to surface willingly.

The Hephaestus completes the trio of the most powerful Mercenary combat subs. She’s moving slowly, but her ability and guns make her a considerable threat if an opponent can bring her to the surface.

Last but not least, I really wanted to include Shaihulud, but the cancel ability is simply too important. The Mobilis resembles a junior version of the Nautilus, and it’s possible that these two submarines will surround the Celtic Fury for a devastating triple-canceller wave of destruction!

Thanks to xerecs for the idea, and feel free to comment and vote!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

American Empire

Originally published to Miniature Trading on September 20th, 2015

This fleet was inspired by xerecs’ idea.

The strategy is simple: use defense to exhaust all opposing ships. 4 ships with cancellers, 2 submarines, 2 eternal crew, and oarsmen everywhere.

The Kettering is a great flagship, capable of firing 6 shots per turn. With an oarsman and Eternal, she’ll be hard to capture.

The Ghost Walker isn’t Eternal, but does carry the cancel ability and a powerful complement of guns.

The Mercury is definitely the toughest ship to deal with. It’s an Eternal submarine with immunity against boarding parties, and the oarsman prevents capture. She also has an annoying defensive ability, in addition to more than capable guns.

In order to help the Mercury’s quest to invincibility, the Lizard and Hessian can surround the sub to provide considerable support. They’re vulnerable to ramming, but two cancellers (or 4 with the Kettering and Ghost Walker leading the charge in front of the Mercury) should help fend off any sub hunters or opposing cancellers. In addition, the Hessian has an oarsman so she’ll still be a mobile canceller moving S+S until sunk. Last but not least, both of these support ships have captains and solid guns, making them even more difficult to take down and get to the Mercury.

The Paul Revere and Minuteman add some much-needed S-range guns to the fleet, although that ability could easily be cancelled into oblivion! The Paul Revere is one of my favourite ships and includes a nice S-boarding option. Although the Paul Revere is the only “normal” ship in the fleet with no defenses, the combo still adds 8 cannons to the fleet.

Lastly, just to make things even more annoying for your opponent, the Lamon will also be underwater and ram weakened enemy ships. She could be in the middle of a “canceller sandwich” like the Mercury for maximum protection.

Thanks to xerecs for the idea, and feel free to comment and vote!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading