Ranking: Top 10 Spanish Named Crew
You can find all the game pieces in the Master Spreadsheet, but I’ve included them for ease of reference. No 0LR+5 crew for these lists.
The Spanish can make a strong case for being the 2nd best faction in the game, and being one of the Big 4 factions along with England, France, and the Pirates, it’s no surprise that their ranks of named crew are impressive. Once again I found it to be kind of a crapshoot to rank these. It really just depends on what abilities you need and prefer for fleet building – in which case feel free to throw the numbered rankings out and just look at this list overall rather than in order. If you see something you like, feel free to click the affiliate link to see if it’s available on eBay. Let’s see the Top 10 for Ranking Spanish named crew!
1. Capitán Alarico Castro (SM version)
Point Cost: 3. Link: Castro’s Loyalists
Ability: Once per turn before you give this ship an action, roll a D6. On a 5 or 6, this ship may be given the same action twice. (aka Born Leader or SAT)
Castro was the top dog for Spain since the early days of the game. The cost effectiveness and versatility of SAT brings him slightly ahead of the more specific use cases of the rest of this list.
2. Victor De Alva (F&S version)
Point Cost: 8
Ability: Loyal:Spain, Captain. Once per turn, roll a d6. On a 5 or 6, this ship can be given an extra action.
Combining two of the best abilities in the game into one crew and therefore one cargo space, this version of de Alva is the perfect crew for a hybrid or gunship. He is perfect for the insanely good San Cristobal.
3. Duque Marcus Vaccaro
Point Cost: 0
Ability: Limit, Ransom. Choose one Spanish crew during setup; this crew is linked to that crew. Once per turn, you may reroll any die roll you make for this ship; you must use the second die roll result.
The perfect crew to pair with any EA/SAT/AA crew is a 0LR Reroller. Vaccaro is of course easy to fit into any fleet and very commonly used when Amore is not in a Spanish fleet.
4. Nemesio Diaz
Point Cost: 5. Link: Fernando Sanchez
Ability: Once per turn, cancel the ability of one crew or ship within S of this ship.
The original Canceller, Diaz is a great fit for a number of Spanish ships, notably El Acorazado and the San Cristobal.
5. BC Castro, BC Dominick Freda, CC El Duque Rafael de Moreno y Rivera
Point Costs: 5-6
Ability: EA or SAT for about 5 points
I ranked these together even though they’re not quite equal; the BC version of Castro is the best of the trio. However, Freda provides SAT for 5 points (still a good cost for such a great ability) along with a cannon bonus against the Corsairs, while Rivera provides EA for 6 points. Seeing their artwork all in a row kinda makes me feel like they’re all part of the same family. XD
6. Master Bianco (SS version)
Point Cost: 7. Link: Bianco’s Haulers
Ability: Cargo Master, Secret Hold.
As much as I don’t like the Cargo Master ability, this version of Bianco definitely deserves a spot on this list, and could arguably be higher. Being able to give all Spanish ships in your fleet +1 cargo is incredible, and is clearly a broken ability in large or campaign games. Secret Hold is always nice to have on a gold runner or hybrid, with Bianco being the kind of “grand” crew sometimes missing from the Spanish ranks compared to the other Big 4 factions. (for example, the Spanish don’t have a single AA crew, while the English and Pirates got 2 each)
7. Dominic Freda (RotF versions)
Point Cost: 4
Ability (common version): Explorer. This ship gets +1 cargo spaces. This crew takes up no cargo space.
Ability (LE version): Explorer. One of this ship’s treasures is worth +2 gold when unloaded at your home island.
Consistently one of the best named crew across expansions, Freda ranks up there with Castro and Bianco as Spanish “all star” crew. It’s worth saying that you’ll probably use these versions of Freda more than the BC version if you have SM Castro, but as I said in the intro, using this list for fleet building is somewhat futile if you need specific abilities for specific setups. In this case both secondary 3 point abilities are extremely good; the +1 cargo version is of course a cheaper card to obtain, but +2 gold on something like the Joya del Sol could be a game winner.
8. Luis Zuan (MI version)
Point Cost: 7. Link: La Colera
Ability: This ship may move and shoot using the same move action. This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls against any non-Spanish ship.
I realize I’m a bit biased since this is one of my favorite named crew ever, but I really think that combining these two great offensive abilities into one cargo space gives Zuan the edge over his older self. (by age not by set heh)
9. Luis Zuan (RotF version)
Point Cost: 2
Ability: Hostile: Pirate, Loyal: Spain. Captain.
The only 2 point captain in the entire game, this Zuan might appear in the top 3 on others’ lists. However, it’s not usually that hard to fit Captains into fleets (you generally need to, after all) at their regular 3 point cost, and I’ve actually seen the Hostile: Pirate become a problem when making mixed nationality competitive/”meta” fleets.
10. Roberto Santana
Point Cost: 6
Ability: Loyal:Spain. Once per turn give any ship in your fleet +1 to all of her cannon rolls.
This final pick feels like a total wild card. I wanted to go with the SS version of Bianco’s Haulers, but that would be letting my Guichuan doom setup bias me too much, and this is a Spanish crew list. XD
Santana gives Spain a very valuable “global World Hater” crew, who just like AA crew can generally thrive more and more the bigger the game gets.
Extremely Honorable Mentions: Bianco’s Haulers (SS version; This ship cannot be shot at while docked), Almirante Devante del Nero (BC version; World Hater for 4 points), Duque Alfonzo de Castilla (FN; Captain+Crew Killing)
Other Honorable Mentions: Almirante Carlos Pavón y Miranda, Comandante Antonio de Silva (SM version), Master Bianco (SM version), Joaquin Vega
Feel free to comment below your version Ranking Spanish named crew! 😀