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Gimmicky Pirate pure Spanish Main fleet:
Harbinger: (29 pts)
– Captain Blackheart
– Calico Cat
– Helmsman
– Lucky The Parrot
– Oarsman
El Dorado (11 pts)
Optional: Add Hag of Tortuga and myself on El Dorado and another Oarsman on Harbinger.
Who needs to explore islands when you can just steal stuff? This fleet very simply heads to the opponent’s HI or a wild island they’re sending their runners to. Take out one of their runners, steal it and the gold for yourself, then repair it and send it to a wild island nearer to you.
Interesting to put all the crew on one ship. Tough scenario to win with – just SM and no extra points. I suppose Harbinger could dismast one runner early and leave it for the Dorado when she eventually gets there, then the Harbinger could go after another ship. I think I’d prefer swapping out Cat for a helmsman on the Dorado and another oarsman on the Harbinger. Better to have 3 guaranteed extra actions via Sac than finally get SAT when you need an EA (to move + explore enemy derelict).
Inspired by Ben saying he doesn’t really use Marines:
French Marine Fleet
Le Favori (26 pts)
– Michel de Bordeaux
– Benoit de Marseilles
Le Bon Marin (9 pts)
– Maurice Artiside
L’Intrepide (5 pts)
What I do with the marines varies depending on the situation. My brother tends to like building fleets of small ships, which allows Le Favori to use the marines aggressively. It’s a bit vulnerable to ramming, so I wouldn’t be super aggressive towards warships, unless they carry all L-range guns.
The marines can simply serve as protection in other situations, as Le Favori has four cargo left and can easily gold run. I rarely ever see reason to drop them off on an island, though.
@Jack: Looks like a pretty solid fleet actually with plenty of gold gathering capability. Looks to me like the Favori would have 3 cargo spaces open instead of 4, though that’s still good for the main “gunship” of course. 🙂 Actually I do want to see this fleet in action.
You could swap Bordeaux for Gendarmerie Rene Moreau to get 2 extra points. Lots of good options in that case – helmsman on the Intrepide or Favori, explorers on both of those ships, or maybe oarsmen on the Favori and Bon Marin.
Although the UPS idea from darrin has been made into many fleets, I can’t remember ever seeing versions of it where the “CJS ability” is based on a non-Pirate ship. The Sol and USS Morning Star have the ability, and since CJS is a crew he can relatively easily work with other nationality ships….
Calling this one now. “English UPS 1” perhaps. 🙂
(34) HMS Swallow + William Dampier, Captain Jack Sparrow, Mullroy, helmsman, explorer
(10) HMS Patagonia + helmsman, oarsmen x4 (2 start on HI)
(1) Jolly Mon + The Hag of TortugaThis is not close to an optimal UPS build, but the English are forced to spend extra points to even make it work in the first place. An alternative to the Swallow would be HMS Durham (BC version), with 0LR reroller CRGO/Doone instead of Mullroy. However, that downgrades the ship slightly while only freeing 1 point from not having the Jolly Mon around… probably for another oarsman on the Patagonia. Brother Virgil and Lady Kamaile don’t seem like better alternatives to Dampier to get CJS in the fleet, so it might just be tough to optimize here. Unless we go for cheese and default to HMS Grand Temple? XD
UPS Ground – 1 Day Overnight to England
(24) HMS Grand Temple + CJS, helmsman, explorer
(10) HMS Patagonia + Robinson, Lord Mycron, Administrator Scott Bratley (CC)
(6) Banshee’s Cry + 2 oarsmen (English)
(5) Le Coeur du Lion + 2 oarsmen (English)
Events: Hidden CoveThere are a lot of little options to play with for efficiency. Drop Hidden Cove for an extra oarsman on both unloader ships. Play around with having 1 unloader ship that has Maurice Aristide/Genny Gallows (using Princess Arii Auraa/Jonah as needed). Swap the GT’s helmsman for Don Pedro Gilbert, which allows for tossing a bad UT along with saccing the oarsmen in case Mycron has to redock an unloader or send the BC to an island by herself (don’t want Mycron to be useless though even for just one turn).
Probably not the best idea, but you could go high risk – dump the GT’s helmsman AND Hidden Cove, giving 4 points to optimize the unloaders with – probably a +2 gold bonus on one with an extra oarsman for the last point. But in that case you might be screwed if the first island doesn’t give enough gold to win, and GT is a bit compromised with no helmsman.
I think it’s a 5 star fleet for the name alone. XD 😛
Fleet name is fun indeed, and I’ve gone with something similar for the anniversary game, using UPS with non-pirates.
Just submitted my Bonus Zeus fleet that has the Zeus sending home 2 coins per turn that all get +3’d. XD
Now I just want to do a little exercise in making competitive Spanish and American UPS builds without using CJS. Though Roanoke with CJS needs to happen now too lol. Neither Spain nor America have Sac crew, so that nearly requires the inclusion of Mycron to make it as competitive as possible.
UPS Service to Spain
(15) Sol + helmsman, explorer
(10) HMS Patagonia + Robinson, Lord Mycron, Administrator Scott Bratley (CC)
(14) La Saragoza + Dominic Freda (RotF LE version), 2 oarsmen
(4) Le Coeur du Lion + 2 Spanish oarsmen
(2) Hidden Cove
-Fort priority would be Paradis de la Mer, then Fortaleza DoradaInstead of redocking to unload coins, the Saragoza must be given explore actions targeting the home island because she doesn’t have a multi-segment base move. For added flexibility but less Spanish flavor, swap out the Saragoza setup for Sea Crane + Genny Gallows, 2 Pirate oarsmen.
UPS Ground Domestic
(23) USS Morning Star + captain, helmsman, explorer
(10) HMS Patagonia + Robinson, Lord Mycron, Administrator Scott Bratley (CC)
(6) Banshee’s Cry + 3 American oarsmen
(4) Le Coeur du Lion + 2 American oarsmen
(2) Hidden Cove
-Tons of forts availableThis is a basic brainstorm version… the USS MS would seem underwhelming without a captain and helmsman, but those could be removed to upgrade the unloaders (to incorporate gold bonuses).
I can definitely imagine a terrifying 60-80+ point UPS fleet using both USS Morning Star and the Roanoke with CJS.All American UPS
(18) USS Morning Star + explorer
(15) USS Destiny + Ralph David, 7 oarsmen (some starting on HI)
(12) Annapolis + RtSS GWL (American Mycron), Commodore Matthew PerryJust for kicks if you had to go nature pure…. The unloader process is tougher to optimize for the Americans since they don’t have super cheap ships. The problem here is that the Destiny can’t unload 2 coins per turn I don’t think…. Maybe this next fleet would be better.
American UPS 2nd Shipment
(18) USS Morning Star + explorer
(7) USS Destiny + 2 oarsmen
(8) Rattlesnake + helmsman, Commodore Matthew Perry, oarsman
(12) Annapolis + RtSS GWL (American Mycron)This might work a little better. MS needs GWL to even have a chance at getting to an island (4S<3L in a standard setup) on the first turn, but eventually some progress can be made. The MS can flip 2 coins home per turn, eventually receiving all crew from the Destiny and Rattlesnake (including Perry) except the Rattlesnake's helmsman. At that point, both the Destiny and Rattlesnake can go out on gold runs of their own. Realistically though this fleet would get trashed in truly competitive play - the MS needs Hidden Cove or a helmsman to have a chance at either getting coins home before a Zeus or GT wrecks her day, or to keep up with a proper UPS ship (Hai Peng/etc) in the early part of the game.
Bizarre Idea: Davy Jones’ UPS Shipment
(18) Banshee’s Cry + Jonah, Anamaria, Davy Jones (DJC-copying CJS), explorer
(14) Coral + CJS, explorer
(4) Le Coeur du Lion + 2 Pirate oarsmen
(2) Jolly Mon + oarsman
(2) Hidden Cove
-This is extremely suboptimal and likely not very competitive… no gold bonuses or extra actions available, and only 3 oarsmen to send to 2 different UPS ships. Still, I had to see if making a UPS fleet with Davy Jones would work lol… at a higher build total optimizing it would be amusing.Cursed UPS
Loa’s Justice + CJS, helmsman, explorerCJS is easily workable on the Shui Xian and Celtic Fury too… which is interesting because the Mercenary keyword + 10 mast length factor could reduce the need for Hidden Cove….
The Spanish DO have SAC in RtSS, but it’s attached to Marine on Sebastian Rojo. Furthermore, the SS version of Tsai is a SAC-Captain with ex-patriot, so the Americans COULD use him. Using either of them almost requires a higher build point total though.
Yeah, I don’t think Rojo would work in any kind of competitive UPS fleet, especially since Spain doesn’t have a crew like Jonah.
Good point about Tsai though… then it’s just a matter of getting CJS aboard with him, which is still difficult for Spain and America I think.
Tsai could be used on the USS Morning Star, or the Sol no need to bring Jack on either of those. If you wanted to bring Jack along, then the Americans might be able to pull that off with the Roanoke. You’d double or triple up on the captain ability, since you’d need to bring the SS version of Charles Richard to make them fit point wise.
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