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French 40 point Marine Fleet
My only regret is that Marines are so damn expensive.
So I wanted to make a fleet that made use of France’s great Revolution ships as well as their two marines. The end result is… not good. But it could be fun.
La Belle Etoile (26 pts)
– Benoit de Marseilles
– Michel de Bordeaux
Le Bon Marin (9 pts)
– Khaleed Yousef
Becalmed, Divers
Marin runs gold, Belle Etoile heads to the opponent HI and unleashes the Marines on some poor unsuspecting treasure runner. You can use its ability to knock out crew or UTs, or if you can sink the ship you can ignore the ability to steal all of the gold with Divers. (The ship’s ability won’t work with the marines, though) The marines can then be dropped off at a contested wild island to hold things down until the Marin can come and pick the gold up.
This is NOT how I would normally build a French fleet. I’d typically do something along the lines of using Le Favori as another gold runner and putting a captain and helmsman on board the Belle Etoile, ditching the Marines and Events. But I wanted to try finding a build that will make decent use out of the two marines.
This fleet will go up against Barbary Corsairs and a Jean Laffite-led swarm fleet soon.
HMS Grand Temple is really neat. Only 6-master I own is Grand Mountain which is probably the worst one.
Not the best results out of the MI packs. I was hoping for a sub and some Ex-pats. I managed to get one Ex-Pat, Osvaldo de Deus Clemente, who is one of the “Captain, Broadsides Attack” crew. No subs.
I pulled L’Aube which will probably be a staple in my French fleets as well as the neat Periscope UT. Tombstone, Duncan, and HMS Iron Prince round it out. All underwhelming.
Le Bon Marin arrived, so expect a French fleet based around Marines soon. I’ll consider these purchases worth it if I get a new 4-mast Corsair ship or Barbarossa in the Corsair packs.
UPDATE: My copy of Bon Marin is misprinted!! The holes for the port hull are a few millimeters closer to the center than they should be, so I’m not sure if the hull will fit.
Woelf lists Captain Jack Hawkins and DJC Jack Hawkins as being the same for the no-duplicates rule, but maybe link rules aren’t quite the same.
I do like the Captain Jack and DJC Skyme pairing a lot, regardless.
some dude that would steal all of a ship’s gold upon a successful boarding action
That’s my monkey Skyme!
Skyme and Hawkins are linked too, so they work well together, though they’re pricey. Reverse Captain used to be my favorite ability until I realized it didn’t work with normal Captain.
I also have a copy of Le Bon Marin on the way 🙂
Looking to match a Marine-focused French fleet vs a Corsair fleet soon. Really hoping I get something that lets my Corsairs attack better.
Were certain factions planned to have a certain style? Obviously the Corsairs were designed as a gold running faction and the Mercenaries were entirely battle focused, but I always felt like in the initial Spanish Main pack, the pirates were gold-focused, the Spanish were balanced, and the English were battle-focused. Then again this might just be based on what I happened to pull.
I would rather the shipwright make repairing a free action at sea, but if you use its ability it reduces ship speed to S and/or raises the rank of the guns for your turn. Crews can multitask!
I found out that Gaspar Zuan was illegal when I tried to make a Captain Jack Sparrow fleet with Zuan and infinite Oarsmen aboard a boat. (Also illegal because Oarsmen don’t stack, but I found that out only later lol.)
Woelf, let’s say I load Ghostly Encounter on a ship with one crew, and I roll for its effect then. Can I transfer Encounter to a ship with a whole lot of crew and use that ship to dump Encounter on the HI without risking any crew?
I’ve about exhausted Spanish Main fleets. Moving on to Crimson Coast, which is the pack I have the least of sadly. Don’t have much to work with here. I’ve been trying to track down Crimson Coast packs online, as I don’t think I ever bought more than 6-7, but I’m only seeing single ships/crew.
40 pt. Pure French Crimson Coast fleet:
La Magnifique (29 pts)
– Capitane Arathiel
– Helmsman
– Cannoneer
– Shipwright
– Oarsman
– 5 pt dude whose name escapes me
L’Auguste (16 pts)
– Helmsman
– Explorer
I don’t like investing so much into one warship, but these are literally the only two French ships from CC I own. Luckily Magnifique/Arathiel are my favorite French ship/crew.
40 pt Pure Crimson Coast Pirate fleet
Duke (29 pts)
– Geoffrey Flores
– Jack Hawkins
– Helmsman
Rover (2 pts)
Bonny Liz (14 pts)
– The Hag of Tortuga
– Commodore Rhys Griffin Owen
Spanish Main’s Bonny Kate would have to play surrogate for Bonny Liz, as Rover/Duke are the only two pirate ships from CC that have survived the years for me. I like this fleet much better, though the Liz could could do with being faster.
I found these rules here
The mast destroying mechanic is definitely just there for balance. Otherwise A) what would you do with large ships without crew? and B) this would obviously be overpowered af. Perhaps you could find a middle ground where the captured ship must sail back to your home island before it can be given anything other than a move action or something like that.
One boarding roll per turn would mean that you can’t conduct this action all at once. You eliminate one crew/mast a turn. So in the example above it would take the Zephyr four turns to finish the boarding action and capture El Leon. Over the course of those 4 moves, El Leon can’t move or shoot, and Zephyr can’t shoot and can’t move unless it becomes no longer pinned.
Alternate Boarding Rules
This is an alternate way to conduct boardings which I’ve seen online as a house rule: It makes boardings more like real life and way more powerful, but potentially unbalanced:
If a boarding is declared, each player rolls a d6 for every mast and crew on their ship. The players compare their highest rolls, and the loser eliminates one mast or crew, and then eliminates a die. If the players tied for the highest roll, compare their next highest. Nothing happens if every die is the same. When a ship runs out of dice (so has no crew or masts remaining) it is captured.
– Ships/Crew that add +1 to boarding rolls add an extra die instead.
– I’m not sure what to do with Inquisitor-type cards that eliminate all crew on a successful boarding. The doc I read didn’t offer any ideas. I think perhaps you could say they eliminate all crew with a successful roll, instead of just one at a time, but that’s really strong. I do like it though…
Example:
The Zephyr, carrying Captain Jack Hawkins and an Oarsman, rams El Leon, carrying an explorer.
The ram does no damage due to Leon’s ability. The Zephyr shoots and misses. Hawkins’s ability eliminates the explorer on El Leon immediately, and then the pirate player declares a boarding.
Zephyr begins with 4 dice, one for each crew, one for its single mast, one for its ability.
El Leon begins with 3, one for each mast. It would have begun with 4 had the explorer not died.
The Zephyr rolls 6, 3, 1, 1
El Leon rolls 4, 3, 3
Zephyr wins, El Leon doesn’t have any crew to eliminate so must eliminate a mast.
Round 2:
Zephyr: 4, 4, 2, 1
El Leon: 5, 3
Zephyr obviously doesn’t want to eliminate a mast, so the oarsman is sacrificed.
Round 3:
Zephyr: 4, 2, 2
Leon: 4, 1
Zephyr wins. A second mast is eliminated from Leon.
Final round:
Zephyr: 6, 4, 3
Leon: 5
The final mast is eliminated from Leon, the Zephyr captures it.
EDIT- This wasn’t in the doc I read but spitballing some possible restrictions on here:
– Only one boarding roll can occur per turn
– A ship which is being boarded can not move or shoot. The attacking ship may not shoot, but can move away (and call off the boarding) if they are not pinned.
Oh, I updated my whirlpool-hopping Cursed fleet. I don’t expect it to be all that strong, but it tested well the other day.
Boneyard (28 pts)
– El Fantasma (OE)
– Trogs
– Helmsman
– Explorer
– Oarsman
Snipe (12 pts)
– Calypso
Banshee’s Cry (5 pts)
– The Hag of Tortuga
– Explorer
The Devil’s Maw
Treasure: Pandora’s Box, Plunder, Buried Treasure, Ghostly Encounter, Dead Man’s Chest, 7, 7, 1
UTs to use for Pandora’s Box: Kraken Gong, Homing Beacon, Protection from Davy Jones (if I load it) Bad Maps, Maps of Hades, Missionary, Enemy of the State (if my opponent picks it up)
Islands to contribute: The mysterious island that moves all treasure to another island if you roll badly, the one that lets you play a UT from outside the game if you roll well.
Pretty simple strategy. Use the UTs to slow your opponent down. Whirlpool hop the Boneyard right on top of them and steal all the UTs your opponent finds first.
Though I’ll always favor a ship like the Leon over a ship like the Duque.
I like speed above all else. Interesting how styles can differ like that.
@Mechavelli where you thinking of using any UTs for your game? Rum and Ghostly Encounter could work well.(I like to shoehorn Snipe or Zephyr into my fleets and Rum is really good with them.)
You can tow the flotilla with the San Pedro like Ben said and use the spare 2 points to upgrade Leon into El Duque for better speed and cargo.
Looks solid though, especially for 1v1. I like control based fleets even though I refuse to use flotillas.
Hmm. The definition for Galley in Barbary Coast was worded the same as the original Oarsman effect. “If derelict, this ship gains a base move of S.” Must’ve changed since I’ve been gone.
England got really lucky as Ramsgate was built on an island that had 12 gold on it (6/4/1/1) and then the Albion transferred 4 more.
One thing which hurt the pirate fleet unexpectedly is Longshanks. She’s usually a great treasure runner despite her effect but Shadow explored the first island, hoping to pick up Ghostly Encounter. Which it did, along with 2 other UTs, meaning Longshanks couldn’t pick up the last coin.
Well this was a dumb ending:
England vs Pirates, nearly pure Spanish Main game. (I used OE Calico Cat and Griffin because I love how they work together, as well as forts.)
Pirates: Shadow, Longshanks, Zephyr. Griffin, Calico Cat, Helmsman and Gaspar Zuan aboard the Shadow.
England: HMS Leicester, HMS Albion. Admiral Morgan, Governor Lynch, Lynch’s noose, Helmsman, Captain aboard the Leicester.
England had the advantage at first. Admiral Morgan put in work, going off three times in the first five turns. They captured the Longshanks and were towing it to a nearby island when Calico Cat went off allowing the Shadow to catch and, by a miracle, land four shots in a row.
The Albion is able to plop down Ramsgate. The pirates ignore it. It’s clear they’ve won. The Zephyr eventually catches the Albion and rams it, ending the game.
But this game has weird rules about the end of the game. The pirates should not have rammed the Albion because between their HI and fort they only had 12 gold. There was 16 gold in Ramsgate. England wins.
Corsairs are my favorite minor faction by far, and probably third or fourth overall. I have a pretty large collection of Corsair ships (though not as large as Ben’s apparently) but I never pulled one of their named crew sadly.
They specialize in gold running and boarding. Boarding’s pretty underpowered in this game though. Still, they often have really fast ships with deep cargo holds and their ships all look amazing. Also, underrated bit about the Corsairs is since they’re all galleys, you can’t tow them since they’re never derelict.
Hi hi.
I would die if I found a store that still sold any Pirates CSG stuff. I honestly always have this little bit of hope whenever I go into a store that I’ll find one.
I got into the game after Crimson Coast came out, my aunt and uncle gave me a pack of it and Spanish Main and I was hooked instantly. I also play more than collect. I finally got my hands on a copy of Zephyr last night and I popped that sucker out right away.
95% of my games were on my own or forcing my little brother to play with me lol. I had two friends that got into it but I moved across country about six months after hooking them on it.
My first several dozen games were with one pack of Spanish Main and one Crimson Coast. I got a lot of mileage out of it. IIRC it included…
– El Dorado
– Snipe
– Santiago
– El Castillo del Infanta
– Ghostly Encounter
I think Thomas Gunn the Elder came in my first Spanish Main pack, but I couldn’t use him. I generally had the El Dorado act as though it were a Spanish ship and have it go up against the Santiago and Snipe.
No not that Fantasma. If I’m hopping through whirlpools I’ll need to be ready to give up some crew if I roll badly.
I had the oarsmen on the MB to be sacrificed to whirlpools and Dead Man’s Chest. But the no-stacking rule kills that idea…
I’m not sure how else to protect Brigitte when she hops through whirlpools. She actually doesn’t need any cargo room if she’s just trying to steal UTs, but I guess I might as well go full broken event cards and lose 2 oarsmen for Hidden Cove right? Maybe an explorer on MB and BC.
I don’t particularly care for events either but I’m trying to make one of the worst ships in the game playable here lol.
Trying to think of a gimmicky Maman Brigitte fleet right now. Right now I’m thinking…
Maman Brigitte: (23 pts)
– El Fantasma SCS
– Helmsman
– 3 Oarsmen
Snipe: (12 pts)
– Calypso
Banshee’s Cry (4 pts)
– Explorer
– The Hag of Tortuga
Events: Mermaids, Foul Winds (6 pts)
Treasure contributed: Cursed Natives, Dead Man’s Chest, Pandora’s Box, Whirlpool, Maps of Alexandria, 2, 7, 7
UTs to potentially use with Pandora’s Box: Kraken Gong, Homing Beacon, Dead Man’s Chest, Ghostly Encounter, Lost (if I load it) Maps of Hades, Cursed Natives, Whirlpool, Bad Maps, Enemy of the State, Buried Treasure, Plunder, Rum (if my opponent loads it.)
Banshee’s Cry obviously is your main explorer. Snipe plops down whirlpools for the Brigitte to jump through to catch haulers. El Fantasma allows you to go ghost to break pins once you ram and snatch all the UTs. The events delay your opponent, allowing you to catch them easier. The UTs delay them. You’re looking for the 7’s and Dead Man’s Chest.
I don’t have nearly enough pieces to make this (I have sadly few UTs) but I somehow think this could be not the worst Maman Brigitte fleet ever.
I always do this thing where I assume SAT crew are 5 pts instead of 3 >:(
That frees up some space, doesn’t it. Swap out the Captain on Darkhawk II for Captain Blackheart then. I like that a lot, actually.
