Pirates with Ben

Knowledge is Power

Originally published to Miniature Trading on March 14th, 2015

This is a quick fleet I made up to try and win by stealing gold rather than collecting it. The goal is to use the different abilities to know exactly where all of the highest value coins are, and then steal them to win with just a few coins. Due to the unique treasures, this fleet would use two 7’s and a 1 in addition to the 5 UT’s in order to contribute the correct amount of gold. This fleet is meant to be played in a standard game with preferably two players.

It’s rather depressing how fast point totals escalate when you try to use the non-standard crew – Devereaux and Yeshaji Angria are all but unplayable in a 40 point game. The Matuku and Angria come to 20 points, so they can be swapped out to make this a 40 point fleet.

The fleet waits for the opponent to find gold, and then using their abilities and UT’s will then steal the two 7’s and another coin that is worth at least 2 gold. The fleet is well-prepared to do such a thing. From the beginning of the game, the Raven’s Neck, Lucky, Devereaux and Yeshaji will all be scouring the board for the high value coins. Once they find them they will act to take them and end the game quickly.

The Raven’s Neck is ready to shoot and board, with Skyme the Monkey letting her take three coins instead of 1. Without Lucky she would have 4 spaces available, which is likely to be the entire cargo hold of the enemy ship.

The Raven is the speedster and has the primary duty of raiding the enemy’s home island. She can get in and out quickly. The Raven can also raid enemy ships if need be. Her ability lets her get away after the ram and board and she even has good cannons for defence. With 3 cargo available she could even raid the enemy HI for multiple turns if it’s deserted.

The Matuku is set up exactly the same as the Raven, but has slightly slower speed and a more useful ability. She is a hybrid between the Raven’s Neck and the Raven – she can either HI raid or take treasure from an enemy ship either by ramming and boarding or using the Schooner keyword. She will have to transfer any stolen gold to the other ships since she can’t dock; however she is still a cool addition to this fleet between her ability and the lack of usage that Yeshaji Angria has experienced.

The UT’s are huge for this fleet. It would be amazing if the opponent found Maps of Alexandria or Pirate Globe very early in the game. From there this fleet could potentially steal the right gold and win the game before their opponent even gets gold back to their HI!

Shipping Charts and Marksman’s Map won’t help the enemy since this fleet won’t have any gold aboard ships that they haven’t stolen. Enemy of the State slows down enemy treasure runners and forces them to stay at sea with their precious gold, leaving them vulnerable to the dangerous raiders.

I’m not really satisfied with this fleet yet and I really wish I could have a very similar setup for 40 points. I could ditch the expensive crew and Matuku and go with more ships that can randomly take treasure, but I wanted to have the “omniscient” factor to be a part of this fleet, as well as HI raiding in addition to stealing from actual ships. Again, the point is to identify the 3 coins that are needed to win, steal them however they can be stolen, and then run home to victory.

Thanks for reading; comment and vote!  Do you think that Knowledge is Power in Pirates CSG, or is this just kind of a weak fleet for 60 points?

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