Minimal Crew – Simple 40 Point Fleet

Originally published to Miniature Trading on November 27th, 2015

I thought up this fleet on a whim. I was thinking about how, when teaching new players, Spanish Main is a great set to give away because it only has three factions (therefore increasing the chances they’ll get items from the same faction), and also because the high number of useful named crew. Not only that, but a lot of those useful named crew are simpler, easier to understand, and cheaper than some crew from later sets that are also easy to acquire. During fleet construction, new players often make fleets where a high portion of their build total is just with the cost of ships alone (35+ points for ships), and this leaves less room for the vital generic crew.

From there, I quickly thought up a fleet that’s quite simple but potentially effective, trying to use a small amount of crew.

I actually thought of the ships in the opposite order they’re presented here, but the whole thing came together within a minute or two. The Bon Marin is the easiest choice, and in my opinion the most “perfect” gold runner (not the best) in the game. The San Pedro is one of the best ships from the entire Fire and Steel set, and here she has an explorer. Her +2 gold bonus is one of the best abilities in the game, and her durability (and serviceable 3S guns) help offset the fragility of the other gold runner, the Bon Marin. Lastly, the Stephens is the only 5 master with the captain ability built in, so adding a helmsman is all that’s necessary to complete the simple gunship combo. Her guns aren’t the best, but she’s a threat, especially when you also throw the reverse captain ability into the mix.

Again, this is a simple, easy-to-use fleet designed to have as few crew as possible. This fleet has 37 points in 3 ships and the last 3 points are spent on just 2 minimal crew.

Thanks for reading; comment and vote!

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