Miniature Englishmen 2.0

Originally published to Miniature Trading on October 27th, 2014

When I made my Miniature Englishmen fleet, I found so many different ships that I wanted to use that I was inspired to make another one! 

The flagship for this fleet is HMS Regent, a one-masted longship from the Frozen North. I also considered HMS Bartlesville, but decided to go with the extra speed and better ability.

The Regent will sail up close to enemy ships and hit them with her doubled 2L cannon. Between her ability and enhanced S+S+S speed, she should function reasonably well as a gunship. However, she is very dependent on her ability to protect her. If an enemy rams and boards the Regent, this fleet will be in bad shape.  However, these fleets were “small fry” (thanks lord_denton!) theme fleets and not meant to be super-competitive. Also, this fleet isn’t as good as the first version. With that said, the Regent could chase down enemy treasure runners since she’s fast, so maybe it would be better if she didn’t engage any enemy gunships.

The Comet is the second gunship, though she’s more of a hybrid. She needs a helmsman to boost her speed to L+S, but since it would be a shame to waste her 2L guns, Hermione Gold comes aboard to combine the captain ability with the helmsman ability. Her built-in explorer ability makes her a hybrid, although she only has one cargo space. She can pick and choose which island to explore, aiming to get the highest value coin possible. Other than that, she’ll mostly function as a gunship, backing up the Regent if she needs help and/or escorting the treasure runners.

The treasure runners were much harder to decide on. I wanted to use the Patagonia since she’s cheap and has plenty of cargo space. With a helmsman she moves S+S with room for two coins. She also carries Bratley, who normally would go on the Regent, but she didn’t have space. He can’t go on the Comet either, since I want to make use of her explorer ability. The Patagonia’s job is to hit the nearest island or two and avoid combat.

The second runner was much harder to choose. I originally wanted to go with HMS Swiftsure because of her speed and L-immunity, which would fit well with the ability of the Regent. However, I only had 15 points when you consider Bratley, and this would run it up to 46 points. Alternatively, you could swap the Bartlesville in for the Regent to save a point and use the Swiftsure.

I also considered the HMS Trepassey, HMS Starbuck, HMS Discovery, and the Honu Iki. They are all one masted sloops and therefore quite fragile, just like the Patagonia.

In the end, I decided to go with a classic, HMS Rye. I wasn’t aware of her until sometime in 2013, and she immediately went on my want list. I have acquired her and now she is a staple. The Rye combines a built-in canceller with blazing S+S+S speed, so although she has no explorer and only 2 cargo spaces, she can zip out and back without being harmed by an opponent’s gunship with a captain. The problem becomes when your opponent rams her or comes with 2 gunships. She also functions well as an escort for a large gunship in higher point games.

The UT’s are designed to help the Comet find a high-value coin (which becomes more likely since the UT’s drive up the average value of a coin you put into the treasure mix). Forged Papers may help the Rye and Patagonia explore islands further away from your HI, and if the Rye finds Homemade Flag, she becomes just about invincible against enemy shoot actions.

So there you have it! This fleet is very fragile and not as competitive as the first “Miniature Englishmen” fleet. It’s more for fun and could be very frustrating if your opponent can’t deal with the Regent’s S-immunity and the Rye’s canceller.

Thanks for reading; comment and vote!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading