Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I would pay/trade way too much for a copy of Nemo’s Plans, just in case anyone here has one they’d part with. Also Slipstream/Thane Hartless
Alternatively, if I had Conseil link to all mercenary ships instead of taking up cargo space, would that work? ? Probably not.
The intent behind me putting dories on it besides just simply making him have the Bianco’s Hauler’s ability was to reward people for making “lore correct” combinations, and provide more incentive for players to make use of ExPats’ +1 roll on mysterious islands if they’re on their linked ship. I also wanted something of a nerf, as an ExPat that could let you unload within S and takes up no cargo space would probably get splashed into a hole bunch of ships.
Makes sense to me, but if I were to make actual copies of these I might just change it to be word for word Bianco’s Haulers just to avoid potential confusion.
Whoops, meant crew, not ship, for Delahaye.
The way I imagine Conseil working is that he encourages you to use the other named Mercenaries and their linked ships. So for example you put Conseil and Nikos Chelios on the Fathom.
Surprised Anne Dieu-le-Veut and Delahaye have already been done lol thought those were pretty deep cuts in pirate history.
I’ve never posted in this thread before, but I have a few I’ve thought of over the years.
Laurens de Graaf
Type: Crew
Nation: Pirates
Point cost: 5
Ability: Born Leader. This ship gets +1 to its Cannon and boarding rolls against the Spanish.
Flavor text: De Graaf fancies himself a mercenary. Admiral Morgan holds him in higher regard than any other pirate. The Spanish, however, see him as the Devil himself. The entire Armada de Barlovento is on the lookout for him, and de Graaf may just be daring enough to take them head on.
Anne Dieu-le-Veut
Type: Crew
Nation: Pirates
Cost: 0
Ability: Limit. Ransom. Choose one pirate crew at setup. This crew is linked to that crew. If that linked crew is eliminated or removed from the game, replace this crew’s ability and point cost with the linked crew’s.
Flavor text: Anne Dieu-le-Veut never imagined herself going on the account, until she fell in love with a dashing pirate captain. While for now she stays in the shadows, her sharp eye watches her husband’s actions closely. She knows if the worst were to happen to him, that she would be able to fill his shoes.
Jacquotte Delahaye
Type: Crew
Nation: Pirates
Cost: 7
Ability: Marine. At the end of one of your turns, if this crew* is on a wild island, you may remove this crew from the game, place a pirate fort on this island. You do not need to have a ship docked at this island in order to build the fort. Follow all other fort building rules.
Flavor text: Many people insist that the pirate base this Haitian woman is supposed to lead does not exist. Those who know better know that Delahaye would sooner die than allow her paradise to fall.
Conseil
Type: Crew
Nation: Mercenaries
Cost: 4
Ability: Ex-Patriot. Dories. This crew takes up no cargo space.
Flavor text: Once an aide to famed French biologist Pierre Arronax, Conseil found a new calling when Captain Nemo took note of his exceptional organizational skills, and put him to work making sure his submarines operated at their full potential.
What’s extra weird about Fear is it’s only one or two points for Captain Davy Jones. He has the 4 point ability to impress eliminated crew, then if the kraken target ability is one point, fear costs two. And vice versa.
If Fear worked at the start of *every* player’s turn, then maybe it could be fair at 6. Even then though I’d put it at around 3.
I’ve house ruled my DJC ability as meaning I can move, then shoot and move again as free actions. That seems fair at 9 points, but doesn’t work here obviously. Considering Benito de Soto to be worth 5 sounds fair. I’d love to use him as the real de Soto was such a notorious pirate. Wouldn’t be all that big of a stretch, cause I let my brother use The Unblinking 99 at 1 point already.
I know the answer for the canceller questions:
S-cancellers extend out from the ship they’re on, they do not include their own ship. A captain does not help on the USS Stephens because the no stacking rule still applies, the backup Captain still can not use its ability.
Is there any link in the game as worthless as Benito de Soto and El Tejon? You can’t even use them together without Jonah! Wth??
Does “on the turn this ship is pinned, eliminate one crew and one mast from the enemy ship” ability (El Villalobos, Beast’s Belly) stack with my Spanish Main ability to eliminate just a crew on the turn my ship is pinned?
Also, does this apply only on the initial turn, or is it that if the rammed ship does not leave and I’m pinned still next turn, it goes off again?
@woelf I have a hunch that “eliminate a cargo” abilities usually meant just treasure, not treasure or crew. Every crew killer ability I can think of is only once per turn, so if cargo killer abilities were always meant to affect crew as well as treasure, I would assume they also would have gotten a OPT, no? Similar to what you said about Hidden Cove initially being a previously explored island and getting changed along the line. Is that at all possible? Otherwise, any particular reason why the cargo killer ability was made so much stronger?
Decent with SAC. It can be a versatility play. Say you’re unsure whether to put a firepot specialist or cannoneer in your fleet, a recruiter will let you wait until the moment’s right to decide. Pirates have the best options imo. You can bring in Fidel Zuan if you see Spanish ships, or Lian/Park to protect your own crew. Genny’s Red Rampage for boarding, Skyme the Monkey to steal something. Whatever comes up during the game. Not super useful but I play them a fair bit.
Funny that Hidden Cove might be literally a typo. Only reason I can imagine for the effect changing in production.
I have a soft spot for Banshee’s Cry because I remember going to my local game store around the time DJC came out and specifically asking the teller if he had any Barbary Coast packs left, because I wanted a historical set and not a fantasy based one. He said something to the tune of “that’s awesome, don’t see people preferring historical games that often,” grabbed some BC packs, and threw in the two display ships they had from POTR. The Pride… And BC. So imagine my shock when I looked up BC’s stats after I got home…
I’d also consider eliminating Missionary, because EVERY TIME I put it in a game it only ever hurts me.
I’m after ships from older sets primarily. If you have a rare ship from Spanish Main through Mysterious Islands that I don’t, I’d gladly trade the Black Swan for it. As long as it’s a usable ship and not something like Le Solitare lol
Hidden Cove: How was this ever seen as anything but absurdly broken?
For “stupidity reasons,” Marques Miguel Antonio. The definition of useless, and I own three copies of him.
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.
Oh yeah, Dreadnought’s on her way now actually. One setup with L’Hercule I might try is simply putting 2 marines on her. I typically stick to 40 point games and Marines add up really quickly, but that hasn’t stopped me from using them a lot.
Purchased some Revolution packs and these are duplicates I’ll put up for trade/sale:
Black Swan
HMS Lord Cauldwell
La Vengeance
Kikowa
Hades Flame
La Belle Etoile
Lynx
Tiger
Becalmed
Christian Jefferson Esquire
The Devil’s Maw
I’d rather use pieces I could get physical copies of, though I do like that setup. Without Romiata, France doesn’t have the 3 point SAT options England/Spain/Pirates have :/Arathiel could serve a similar purpose but he’d have a limited amount of crew to work with.
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.
No love at all for the Dreadnought? I suppose it’s just too expensive.
Just bought a bunch of SM packs. Hoping for one of the five masters in there and not too many repeats. Really don’t need a third Leicester…
What are the best English 5 masters? Seems to me they peaked in SM with Titan and Lord Algernon. Goliath is okay. Cheap. Dreadnought is potentially super powerful but basically too expensive (and slow) to play. Swallow is very good.
What pieces would you put on L’Hercule (22 pts, 3 cargo) to deck her out the best? Overall fleet build total isn’t important here. I’ve been thinking maybe
Guy LaPlante (F&S) 7 pts, Captain, S-Board
Capitane Arazure (F&S) 5 pts, choose two of destroy mast, eliminate crew, steal a treasure
Amiral Dupuy (CC) 5 pts, EA
Mademoiselle Josephine Godiva (DJC) 0LR reroller
Oarsman
Or perhaps
Jordan Dumas (OE) 5 pts, Reroller, crew of any nation can serve on this ship
Hermione Gold (ROTF) 5 pts, Captain, Helmsman
Calico Cat (OE) 6 pts, EA, +1 cannons vs non pirates
Gentleman Jocard (PotC) 3 pts, +1 cargo
Shipwright
Oarsman
Finally managed to hook my brother on the game. We’ve had a few games and I don’t remember the full details, but here’s two highlights:
300 IQ Self-explosives
I’m Spain, my brother Pirates. I’m winning a standard game, needing seven more gold to win via the more than half rule. Problem is, La Bahama, which is close to my HI, is only carrying four gold. My other ship, El San Francisco, is trapped at El Puerto Blanco, blocked in by the Panda, El Ladron, and Venture. EPB carries 13 gold. The 3 I used to build it plus a 3, 2, 4, and a 1. I loaded the 3, 2, and 4 on El San Francisco to make a break for it, but it doesn’t look good with the three ships nearby.
That’s when I notice there’s 3 face down treasures on the Venture. I put explosives into the game, and so I realize he’s picked it up. So, I act like I’m trying to fight my way out of the fort and ram the Venture. He flips explosives and it works, sinking my ship… and by rule, magically depositing 4 coin on my HI, allowing me to win next turn.
The Twelve Trials of L’Hercule
I finally tracked down a cheap copy of L’Hercule a while back, and broke it out for its first game against my brother using a Spanish fleet, with El Neptuno as its flagship.
This was a quick game settled by battle before any coins were on home islands. I took out El San Francisco with L’Hercule, losing no masts in the fight. Castro gives Neptuno a second action, allowing my brother to move it 6S and shoot at long range. Two shots hit. I send L’Hercule into the fray and take out two of Neptuno’s masts. He fires back, taking out a third mast of L’Hercule. My next shot takes two more masts off of Neptuno. He rams L’Hercule, making it derelict, except…
I flip up my Oarsman. L’Hercule is not derelict after all, and all four cannons are still live. Neptuno sinks and the game ends. I was really happy because that was exactly the kind of fight I expected when I brought L’Hercule in for its first game.
What’s the most unlikely string of luck you’ve had in a game? I just had one where I got an extra action off of Admiral Morgan 6-7 times in a row, with no re-rollers. And I still lost lol.
Ayyyy more fleets thread posts.
I agree that the Hellfire is underrated. Very solid fighter. The behemoth is also really strong in games like this.
What could you do with Tabitha McWarren (DJC) on the Divine Dragon? You only have room for one oarsman right now, and I feel it may be stronger to load up on crew on your flagship instead of having the executioner. Maybe something like El Fantasma, helmsman, a couple oarsmen, Tabitha McWarren, Calico Cat (OE)
A couple of house rules I may try:
Boarding RISK style:
Whoever initiates the boarding is the attacker. The other player is the defender.
Boarding roll is number of remaining masts + remaining crew + die roll.
Winner of a roll eliminates a crew on opponent’s ship. Tie goes to defender. Then you repeat, and you can continue until one ship loses a boarding roll while having no crew remaining. The attacker may call the boarding off between any given roll. If a ship loses a boarding roll while having no crew, it is captured. It can not be given an action for as many turns as it has masts remaining. (Crew like the Inquisitor eliminate all crew on a single successful round of boarding. Capture crew work the same way.)
Ghost ships, more like GOAT ships:
Ghostly ships can not shoot, but opponents need to to roll a 6 to hit them.
Mercenaries get paid:
The Mercenary keyword now includes the line “for each mast this ship eliminates, place 1 gold on your HI.”
Should be fixed now.
In a test game against a similar pirate fleet led by Don Gilbert and the Panda, LSR’s extra durability came in big because Panda was able to swoop in and get two shoot actions off. But then again, LBE is faster than Panda so it might have avoided being hit in the first place so :shrug:
There’s a couple of threads I suppose this could go in but I’d love this one to be more active so I’m putting it here now.
One of my favorite fleets is a hybrid French fleet using ships from PotR. I’d long used La Belle Etoile as the flagship. But recently I got Le Soleil Royale, and I’m wondering which ship people would think is better. Both are 13 points with 5 cargo. (Side note, can someone summon volt here because he’s also a Francophile who loved the French faction if I remember right.)
LBE: S+L move, 3S-3L-3S guns, cargo killer, schooner.
LSR: L-move, 2S-3L-3L-3L-2S guns, once per turn crew kill.
La Belle Etoile has a speed/agility advantage and even a more devastating potential. Le Soleil Royale is sturdier with better guns.
