The Ultimate PCSG Gunship — Redux

[Josh]

Long post but I promise it’ll be interesting. Sorry for any misspellings.

I’m really big on the combat aspect of PCSG and have done a lot of research on Bens top 10 gunship ranking and the corresponding battle reports. Really great reads; I’m in the Army so things like this are right up my alley.
I discovered that (unless I missed something) neither Spain nor the Americans (the nations that have perhaps the best and second best gunships in the game) have crew that offers “all nationalities of crew” abilities for ships; only the English, French, cursed and pirates have this ability through their crew.

I’ve used the HMS Endeavor (a relatively recent acquisition) loaded with Affiliated (all nationalities) crew Brother Virgil with DJC Davy Jones. In addition I had Hermione Gold (Captain Helmsman) and three oarsmen.

Now I know what you’re thinking; really disadvantageous having no “extra action” crew on board. But that’s where Jones comes in. He can be whatever is present in the game.

Thats the reasoning behind his use despite his high cost. Due to the games nature, it’s literally 100% guaranteed that my opponents will always put capable ships with capable crew in play; ie guaranteed use of things like extra action capabilities; SM Chris Myng, Calico cat, etc.

Most of the time the decision on what ability I give jones is rather academic because it’ll always be circumstantial.

Early game (initial moves) may be movement bonuses, which will always be abundant (an extra S or even an L movement augmented by Hermione golds presence depending on who or what enemy capability is present) to give my current L+S Endeavor a good boost to closing speed for first to fire engagement on an isolated enemy. (San Cristobals special ability is a fun one to steal and only possible thanks once again to Hermione gold).

Like I said it’s all circumstantial, and possibilities are only limited by what everyone brings to the table, which will always be their best. Anything else can by filled by my OWN crew choices for other ships. This last part is extremely important, as it allows me to cover all of the bases in case my opponent doesn’t offer certain niche pieces with combined capabilities.

For example Derrick the Red is a fun near-world hater AND sac ability crew to load onto any other English ship of mine (allowed by Lady Kamaile) and have jones use via endeavors oarsmen when she’s in particularly tough situations. LE Griffins another fun one.

I could go on with crew combinations since choice is literally limitless and in some ways eye rolling; (afraid Endeavor might actually get sunk? Assign Jones the Eternal keyword lol). Joaquin Vega? Oooo, Lord Mycron… two ships with two actions each..

Lastly the straightforward go to options for opponents for defeating a ship like this will almost always be gunships that either.. sport abilities that they garner most of their strength from that jones can use as well… or, niche ships like Le Bonaparte or Jarvis.. that jones can assign to himself too; again all depending on current game circumstances.

An ability like Jones’ necessitates heavy research on the part of the player who controls him as knowing and understanding the capabilities of your opponents ships and crew by name directly correlates to Jones’ usefulness in the right situation.

The point of this whole wall of text isn’t to brag about how great Endeavor is with Jones enabled by Virgil (although a strong case could possibly be made), but to make the case that use of Jones on ANY major gunship in the Cursed, Pirate, English or French roster, enabled by an all nationalities crew member could potentially wildly redefine what is and isn’t the strongest gunship in game.

The mighty 10 mast pirate junk Zeus, with an any nationality crew member like Anamaria enabling Jones? England’s Grand Temple? Le Soleil Royal? Wait a minute..

Funny thing about Jones, his expense ironically makes a high cost ship a GOOD thing for his use as that allows extra crew augmentation instead of just him being there, which despite his ability is still a risk. Anything less than 18 points might be too much of a risk. Keep in mind unless it’s a cursed ship, it’s not just jones’ 11 point cost but the 3 point all nations crew enabler cost as well.

Spain and America have no crew that offer all nationality crew use (again, as far as I’ve researched). Surly this could affect the rank of their premier gunships.

Depending on the point cost and other factors of some of the best gunships in PCSG, I would figure it would be a great and cool idea to relook at the rankings of every gunship that could theoretically work with jones’ without too much risk being involved due to lack of other modifiers.

It’d be a heck of a project, one I’ve already kind of looked in to. But I feel like DJC Davy Jones’ ability, all things considered, could potentially radically alter not just gunship rankings but general game winning tactics as well.

I’ll end with this interesting thought. If Le Bonaparte has a 3 point all nationalities crew alongside DJC Davy Jones, and IF the Jarvis is present in game in an opponents fleet for Jones to mooch its special ability off of… then excluding in range cancellers, you’ve got yourself and actual invulnerable ship…

[Ben]

I’m really big on the combat aspect of PCSG and have done a lot of research on Bens top 10 gunship ranking and the corresponding battle reports.

I love when people read my battle reports, so thank you!  🙂

I’ve used the HMS Endeavor (a relatively recent acquisition) loaded with Affiliated (all nationalities) crew Brother Virgil with DJC Davy Jones. In addition I had Hermione Gold (Captain Helmsman) and three oarsmen.

Only two oarsmen will fit in that setup as-is, because adding a third would put the ship over the point limit (22 for crew vs 21 for the ship) and the cargo limit (only the first oarsman takes up no space).

For example Derrick the Red is a fun near-world hater AND sac ability crew to load onto any other English ship of mine (allowed by Lady Kamaile) and have jones use via endeavors oarsmen when she’s in particularly tough situations.

Derrik is great, but keep in mind that copiers can only copy one ability at a time – you’d have to choose either World Hater or Sac.

Spain and America have no crew that offer all nationality crew use (again, as far as I’ve researched). Surly this could affect the rank of their premier gunships.

That is true, they don’t have crew like that.  However, I think it’s kind of shortsighted to knock a faction’s gunship choices simply because they find it hard or impossible to use a very specific (and expensive, with Limit) named crew from a different faction – one that dramatically reduces the existing faction’s named crew you can put on the gunship in question because of the point cost and cargo occupancy.

without too much risk being involved due to lack of other modifiers.

Such as other international crew?  You could make a similar case about some of the other best named crew, such as a faction’s access to 058 Captain Jack Sparrow, SS Bianco’s Haulers, or even more common things like Sac or Parley which can transform a ship’s “peak”.

It’d be a heck of a project, one I’ve already kind of looked in to. But I feel like DJC Davy Jones’ ability, all things considered, could potentially radically alter not just gunship rankings but general game winning tactics as well.

Perhaps, but keep in mind that you’re going down a rabbit hole full of theory and hypotheticals. Part of the reason I keep the rankings threads relatively simple is because you can go crazy with the “what ifs”.  Maybe Endeavour is the best gunship in the game at 100 points with Davy Jones aboard, but Bonaparte has more relative strength at 60. But hey, not if you use X combo! A lot of this relies on what DJ can copy, which forces you to either more aggressively protect parts of your own fleet from being eliminated, or even delaying sinking an opponent because you need an ability they have in order to dominate.  Countertheories are endless.  The variables are essentially infinite.

Not trying to throw you off the idea, but I would expect a little pushback from another angle as well – game sizes and types. DJ is usually best on the biggest and most expensive ships. That would lead to those ships being ranked higher. However, a lot of times the best gunships in most “normal” games (40-60 point non-deathmatch) are more budget friendly, such as HMS Oxford, Soleil Royal, Grinder, etc.  DJ skews massively towards the big gunship, big build total, and big multiplayer game stuff.

I’ll admit I haven’t used DJ much on non-Cursed ships and non-10 masters.  I’m just not sure that the endless hypotheticals of how he can optimize a chunk of specific ships is worth the time investment of the project.

I’ll end with this interesting thought. If Le Bonaparte has a 3 point all nationalities crew alongside DJC Davy Jones, and IF the Jarvis is present in game in an opponents fleet for Jones to mooch its special ability off of… then excluding in range cancellers, you’ve got yourself and actual invulnerable ship…

Not against flotillas with S range cannons and Extended Range. Which the English have two of.  😀  The other problem there is that the French don’t have a 3 point crew like that, though they do have Jordan Dumas but he’s 5. So the ship’s entire cost is taken up by those 2 crew, leaving no point cap space for captain, helmsman, canceller, etc.  One canceller would be enough to shut down one of the defensive abilities and then the ship could be shot at normally.  See how it’s just a game of endless counters? It’s part of why I like to play so much – anything that can go wrong often will go wrong, so I try not to get overly hyped about specific setups.

[Josh]

Thank you for the corrections. Forgot oarsmen cost points too.

That’s a bummer it’s only one ability even if a crew has two but “rules is rules”.

I didn’t mean to knock the other factions crew capabilities though, although I have noticed certain ability combinations with certain crew of certain nationalities can be extremely advantageous, even if they require “all nationalities” crew enablers.

Yeah in hindsight I suppose you’re right. Especially if DJ only copy’s single abilities instead of complete crew abilities.

[Ben]

I have noticed certain ability combinations with certain crew of certain nationalities can be extremely advantageous, even if they require “all nationalities” crew enablers.

Definitely. I think that’s one of the last “less-explored frontiers” of this game too. There are probably some brilliant international setups and creative ideas that have barely (if ever) been tried.

[Author]

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