Regardless of how ineffective these ships might be at the 40 point level, I like pretty much all of them. They’re loaded up for better or worse, but of course become more viable at 100+ points. The Denver is the only one I don’t have, but she did well in limited service time for the Americans in CG3.
Original thread on Miniature Trading
1. Deliverance
2. Fool’s Hope
3. Behemoth
4. Angelica
-Flexibility/speed, ability
5. A Fearsome Creature
6. Gog-Clocthoth
-Never had much success with squids, let alone ones that go S+S for 19. Have had some success with dragons and krakens. These three at the 4-6 spots feel like personal preference more than anything else.
7. Lurker Dessous
Original thread on Miniature Trading
1. Enterprise
2. HMS Leicester
3. Muninn
4. Naegling
-those two are very close
5. Kalmar
6. Brachyura
7. Bombardier
8. USS Springfield
-Springfield is only great in ludicrously massive games. Bombardier can be decent at most build totals.
9. Wodin
-Solid package, but disappointing price point. To your point, she’d be incredible at 12 for the Vikings. On par with some hybrids of other factions.
10. He’e
-Can I rank this #100/10? It’s so much worse than all the others it’s truly shocking. Being #001 in the set (should have gone to Ophidious or a hoist) just adds insult to injury. Disgusting.
Original thread on Miniature Trading
1. Paradox
-More cargo than points spent; you can have 4 cargo at S+S for just 6 points.
2. HMS Patagonia
-I often add Administrator Scott Bratley to effectively decrease the overall cost of this combo to 5 points, which is criminal.
3. Lezard
-One of the more underrated gold runners in the game, and great flexibility with various French crew. Can make a solid case for #1. Definitely more overall effectiveness than the slow support gunships that are unlikely to affect a game.
4. Nightmare
-The combination of cargo and guns sets her apart, making her one of the best and most-used Cursed ships.
5. El Afortunado
-Underrated option due to the Patagonia outshining her.
6. Carrion Crow
-Speed wins games, and combat engagements. I’ve just never had good success with a gunship moving only L.
7. Devil’s Pay
-Sounds great, looks cool, but perhaps overrated at this point. The Algeciras, Intrepide and others don’t help. Both this and the Crow are a risk, but if I’m going to go with a super cheap support gunship, I’ll take the speed since I can’t rely on the ship anyway.
8. Dervish
-We agreed in the BC set review that this one is actually worse than she looks.
9. Marianne
-Not much you can do with her.
10. Venture
Original thread on Miniature Trading
1. Banshee’s Cry
2. Algeciras
3. Coeur du Lion
4. Mermaid
-Speed wins games, and 2 points for 1 cargo at S+L (Rover) or better is just awesome for an empty gold runner, not to mention the ramming and flotilla effectiveness.
5. Rover
6. Jolly Mon
-More useful than the two below in my opinion. As to Woelf’s comment, in my experience a 0LR +5 crew is often safer at home than on a gunship, so the four free points is a big advantage for this ship.
7. Fureur
-One more mast and 2 more cargo than Raton for just one more point.
8. Raton
-If you think you have to spend 7 points on Bianco to make this ship acceptable, it just illustrates how poor she is. The above are far better as empty gold runners, so this thing gets left in the dust as a subpar flotilla tug.
Original thread on Miniature Trading
1. Shayna Deux
2. Sigurd Andersen
3. Grim the Savage (realistically would be 5th in terms of utility to the Vikings)
4. Ethan the Farseeker
5. Lars Valgard
-Overpriced ability, but only by one point and I find this more useful than the two abilities below.
6. Olof Linstrom
7. Skuld Blood-Axe
-7 points? Pass 10 times out of 10.
Original thread on Miniature Trading
My ranking:
1. Shap’ng Tsai
2. Christian Fiore
I adore Fiore, but taking both 40 point standard games and larger games into account, a sac captain is still a more viable option that’s more purely effective.
3. Count Gustov
4. Eileen Brigid O’Brien
Can’t deny, SAT is one of the best abilities in the game and any nation that got shortchanged on it will gladly pay the 2 points extra.
5. Thane Hartless
I like Nemo WAY more since he’s so unique; this is a tough choice.
6. Captain Nemo
7. Herr Fuchs / Queen Teresa Pavon
9. Ibrahan Ozat
-Epic and devastating with Nemo on 10 masters (see my campaign games lol), but pretty meh outside of that. Involved in some classic moments and captures through the years. He’s at his best when expenditures are borderline irrelevant.
10. Osvaldo de Deus Celemente
I’ve used him on his linked ship (ignoring the silly firing arc rule) and the Bashaw Folly with mixed results. Just too risky of a bet on ships with more than 3 masts.
11. Eileen Brigid O’Brien
12. Luc Savard
-English>Americans, and the Mobilis is a bit more of a combat ship than the Matuku, which I see as an underrated treasure runner.
13. Yeshaji Angria
-It’s barely more expensive to get Grim the Savage on one of the Merc 10’s.
14. Nikos Chelios
-He may have appeared in one of my big games, but I don’t think I’ve been able to use his ability yet.
1. Zheng Li Kwan
2. Katsura-chan
3. Shap-‘ng-Tsai/Warlord Cavendish
5. Chang Pao
-I’ve played a ton of games, and high cannon accuracy makes eliminating cargo less important. Still a close call though.
6. Kian Ng
7. Admiral Zheng He
-Abilities are technically worth 9 points; the Treasure Ship keyword and link accounts for the essential +1 cargo.
8. Dragon Eyes
-Surprised to see him this low, but a testament to how well the JR’s did with named crew.
9. Zheng Li Kwan
-WAY better when built-in to a ship, but not nearly a useless ability like the recruiter often is.
10. Sensei Xu/The Nameless
-Although I will always argue that +1 to boards is overrated, Xu is a crew I haven’t used yet and don’t see a use for in the future either. Not much reason to use either of these except when “completing the fleet” in a big game. (JR’s playing on their own in VASSAL Campaign Game 4, so that should be interesting)
1. Jack Hawkins
2. Murat Rais
3. Kheir-ed-din
4. Aruj Barbarossa
5. Wesley
6. Uluj Ali
7. John Ward
8. Dragut
Kind of a tossup between the bottom three, but with Ward you can get a guaranteed coin without needing to win a board, versus Dragut’s ineffective +1 to a board you still might not win for 2 more points (with a second ability that is mostly irrelevant).
1. Zeus/Blackheart
derp
2. Baochuan/Zheng He
I almost always throw Chang Pao aboard, at which point her cannons become quite formidable at 3S,2S,2L,2L,2L,2L,2L,2S,3S,3S, and considerably better than the Guichuan. The Jades have SAC, multiple versions of SAT (hello Pirate crew), and a mandatory AA crew who is easily improved.
I’m not even sure the Guichuan has her beat as a warship; the Baochuan gets world hater for 5 points less (like a free captain and helmsman for the comparison), and can move better. As a hybrid/runner it’s not even close, with the Baochuan having more cargo and better speed for the same cost.
3. MiaB pack
Wanted to rank all the 10’s at the top but this has got some really good stuff. I like the usage of abandoned crew in general, but they can be very confusing. Slipstream is very versatile and interesting.
4. Guichuan/Headhunter
To me, S speed on a 10 master is a disaster. Even at L+S speed for most of the others, maneuverability is pathetic. S+S is very difficult to even use with a ship that long that swings wildly when turning.
5. Polaris / Serpent’s Fang / Odin’s Revenge
Similar to an SR pack, and a pretty good one at that. Polaris is often the ideal spot for Sigurd Andersen in big games. (including CG3, where my Americans just hired him yesterday!)
Quantity matters in a ranking like this, and getting 3 solid game pieces (including two that stand out well in their faction) instead of 1 mediocre or bad game piece makes them deserve a reasonably high slot.
6. GF9
Solid ship but nothing remarkable. Love the gallery picture.
7. Obago
8. USS Denver
9. Specter
Don’t know why they didn’t just make it better. 5 cargo with 3L,2L,2L,2L,3L guns would be more worth the cost.
10. Chum Maker
Just stinks!
11. Sleigh/Whitebeard
