Today I tested out my new ten masted Cursed junk, the Delusion, at 35 points the most expensive ship in the game. I concluded that she is not usually worth the points; she lost in most of the games I played. The 40 point games were somewhat unfair, however, as I could only give her a captain and helmsman. In the larger games, however, she was ganged up on, and didn’t have enough firepower (her guns are rank 3 and 4).
I mostly tested her against my tougher deathmatch fleets, the ones the HMS Grand Temple fleet went up against, detailed in an above post. Once I tested the Delusion fleet with Nemo/Davy Jones/Fiore/Ozat along with the Fallen Angel towing the Death’s Anchor, but it fell to a combination of these deathmatch fleets, one utilizing the GT, Soleil Royal, and Bonaparte, as well as a handful of cancelers. I believe a more fair test would be to include her in a large standard game where she could more effectively use her keywords.
What was interesting to me: a 135 (random, I know) point deathmatch fleet using the Delusion, Acorazado, and Nautilus was picked apart and ruined by a good fleet of good gunships and support sloops equipped with cancelers. The Delusion had the DJC version of Davy Jones on board, to copy the Acorazado’s awesome defensive ability (or the Nautilus for that matter). The Acorazado was crewed to the max (Vega, Zuan from MI, Diaz, Castro from SM, helmsman), and the Nautilus had Nemo, Ozat, and a helmsman to steal enemy crew. However, the Delusion was sunk in one turn that saw the opposing fleet cancel her canceler, Fiore, and then cancel Davy Jones, making her vulnerable. A fleet that should’ve taken 36 hits to defeat was canceled into oblivion!
Twice I played a four-player 100 point deathmatch with the above four deathmatch fleets-the ones centered around the GT, Soleil Royal, Bonaparte, and Acorazado. The first game went to El Acorazado. In the second game, the other three fleets conspired to sink her (and did), with the Bonaparte/Longshanks fleet emerging victoriously from the carnage.
I also used the Grand Temple fleet against a 40 point Spanish fleet in a standard game (with gold). The Spanish fleet utilized the Asesino de la Nave, Joya del Sol, and Villalobos. The GT fleet actually won two of the three, although this may have been somewhat of an aberration (Asesino has cargo-wrecking and had canceler Nemesio Diaz on board).
A solid day of smaller actions that proved the worth of cancelers, and proved the downfall of unneeded cost (Delusion) and unreliable guns.