Sealing the Deal

Originally published to Miniature Trading on July 19th, 2014

This is my fleet for the Sealed Pack Fleet Challenge. A big thanks to lord_denton for all the time and effort he put in to run this great challenge!

I was quite satisfied with my packs as I got a few generic crew, some good ships to work with, and multiple options for named crew from the same factions as some of the ships. The only issue I saw was how to fit more than two ships into the 40 point total. Although I had to leave out some things I wanted to include, I think that this is the best fleet that I could put together.

USS Overton is my flagship and the primary gunship of the fleet. With a captain and helmsman, she becomes a dangerous foe, and even more so with her guns enhanced to 2L, 1L, and 2L against non-Americans. Plus, Wayne Nolan gives her a second die roll for whatever she needs it for, making it quite possible that she’ll hit all three times during a shoot action.

The Belle Etoile was one of the original ships in my collection, but unfortunately she was one of three ships to be lost and/or destroyed back in the day. Since then I’ve acquired a new one and now she’s been selected to serve in this fleet. Due to only having one captain (on the Overton) she only is equipped with a helmsman, but perhaps that is all for the better, because she will function as a kind of hybrid ship. Between her speed (enhanced to S+L+S), average cannons, and very valuable cargo-wrecking ability, she is ready for combat, and that might be her main occupation, depending on what the enemy fleet looks like. However, with that speed and 4 cargo spaces available, she can also run gold rather effectively. Everything will depend on what the enemy is doing, what the gold situation looks like, and whether or not the Overton or the Martillo de Dios are in trouble and need assistance.

The Martillo de Dios functions as the designated treasure runner. Although she’s not carrying crew and only has two masts, the Martillo makes up for this with her speed (S+L) and relatively low point cost. With three spaces available for gold, she’ll grab the best coins from an island and race home.

Although it’s one of my least favourite UT’s to encounter, I threw in Natives because it’s quite likely that my opponents will have treasure runners with crew on them, while the Martillo doesn’t have any. The Belle has her helmsman, but she’d only have to wait one turn.

As I see it, the biggest weaknesses of this fleet lie in its speed (all ships but one move at S+L) and gold-gathering ability. The Martillo doesn’t have an explorer (I didn’t pull any from my packs, plus the point limit is already full), and the Belle Etoile will be pressed to run double-duty throughout the game.

The strength of this fleet is its numbers (three ships that all have at least 2 masts) and firepower. The Overton’s guns are very accurate and the Belle’s guns are extremely destructive.

Why I didn’t use the other stuff I got in my packs:

RV:
012 Coral
134 Cannoneer (American)

The Coral was going to be in the fleet for a long time. She was originally going to be the main treasure runner instead of the Martillo de Dios. For some reason I thought I had two captains when in fact I only had one. In this way, I swapped out the imaginary captain that I wanted on the Belle Etoile and replaced him with the Cursed helmsman from my DJC pack. This lowered the point total to 39, letting me swap in the Martillo for the Coral.

Let me explain my reasoning behind this: I know that the Coral is a bit flashier than the Martillo, since she’s a pirate ship and she has the ability that doesn’t let her be shot at while docked. However, I see the Martillo as the better ship, and the better fit for this fleet. Although the Coral can’t be shot at while docked, she can be rammed. When an enemy ship rams a one master, the one master almost always loses her mast (unless the roll is a 1). This takes the one master out of the game, she can be easily sunk soon thereafter, and the enemy is not pinned. All from one move action from any enemy ship. With two masts, you still have a chance once one of them is gone (not to mention that now the enemy needs to roll a 3 on the ram). Also, for this fleet, if I had went with the Coral, I’d still have an extra point left. As you’ll see from the following game pieces I left out, there were a few things I could have done with it, but nothing as significant as upgrading my main treasure runner.

I didn’t have room to fit a cannoneer into the 40 point limit.

BC:
049 HMS Durham
066 El Toro
070 Don Rafael Y de Teresa

Some of these were considered for quite a while. As the English are my favourite faction to play, when I first got my packs I figured I’d get the Durham in there somehow. However, as I explained above, I wanted the Martillo de Dios rather than the Coral as my treasure runner. I could have used the Durham instead of the Overton, and then switched the Coral (or HMS Discovery, which I’ll discuss later) in for the Martillo. This issue with the Durham got more complicated when I realized I had made the mistake of thinking I had two captains when I only had one. The original setup wouldn’t work, because the Durham with a captain (18 points) and the Belle Etoile with a captain (16 points) comes to 34 points, not enough (6) to add a treasure runner (minimum 7 points). However, when I realized that the Belle would only have a helmsman aboard, then I also realized that I could use the Durham instead of the Overton and swap the Coral in for the Martillo. This decision might decide how successful my fleet is in the tournament.

I decided to go with the Overton. First off, Wayne Nolan is the only named crew I used in the fleet. With all of the named crew that I pulled, it seems like I should use at least one of them! Plus, his reroll ability is very valuable not only for gun rolls, but also potential ramming and boarding attempts. The Durham’s ability gives her +1 to her boarding rolls, but that really doesn’t add much at all. I kind of feel like it should have been a +2 from the beginning. A reroll of a boarding attempt can change everything (not to mention that in this case it doesn’t cost anything). As for the guns, the Overton effectively has two 2L’s and one 1L. This is about as good as guns get, and she has the reroll up to once per shoot action. The Durham has all short range guns, two 2’s and two 3’s. Overall, a pretty similar armament. However, I’d rather have the longer ranges and the rank-1 gun than the two 3S’s. In my experience, 3S guns aren’t worth much of anything, but that’s coming from someone with a history of bad dice luck. On the other hand, a 1L cannon is the best gun money can buy in this game. Lastly, I’ve played the English a lot, and I actually have the Durham in my collection. I’ve never been a big player of the Americans, and I don’t own the Overton. I felt like changing things up a bit.

The Toro is a solid two masted gunship, but she is too slow and expensive for what I wanted to do. With the Overton I get an extra cannon (a 1L cannon at that!) and more durability. One of the big reasons that I wanted to use the Toro was because of my plethora of Spanish named crew, none of which would have served me well by crewing the Martillo de Dios.

I’ve never really used doctor crew and I don’t find them to be worth 5 points, so Teresa was the one easy “no” from this pack.

SCS:
054 HMS Discovery
069 Almirante Carlos Pavon y Miranda
071 Padre Francisco/Rolling Fog

I used the Overton and the American helmsman from this pack, and the rest of the pack was decent as well. The Discovery was considered next to the Coral as to my main treasure runner. All three (including the Martillo de Dios) are close in quality, but I think I would put the Discovery at the bottom. The Discovery would add a little bit of speed while losing a cargo space. In the end, I would go with the Coral in order to haul more gold because she would be my only true treasure runner, and because of her defensive ability.

Miranda was the toughest crew to not include. He’s a captain/reroll crew for 6 points. In order to use him, I would have to use the Toro, as the Martillo de Dios is more of a treasure runner. However, in this way, the Toro would end up costing me 20 points, since the Toro needs a helmsman just to move L+S (12 for the Toro, 6 for Miranda, and 2 for the helmsman).

I didn’t think of using Francisco since I already couldn’t afford to include him, let alone using an extra point since he costs three. However, I see how valuable he could be in a challenge like this, since if you didn’t get a helmsman, you could use him to get one from outside of the game. Similarly, I couldn’t spare a point to include Rolling Fog, which would have just been a random addition anyway.

DJC:
092 Dark Fox
124 Cannoneer (English)
074 Jacques, Duc de Valois / Don Osvaldo Guillen

The Dark Fox isn’t a particularly good ship, and using a quarter of my build total on a fragile ship with one cargo didn’t make any sense.

As with my other cannoneer, I couldn’t really fit him anywhere.

Jacques would have been a decent addition to the Belle, especially if I had put one of the cannoneers on her to make her a true gunship. As mentioned, the points weren’t there for such a luxury.

Guillen was the second-best Spanish crew I got after Miranda. He’s a 7 point captain + S-boarder. The Toro would have been his ship, but the Toro probably wouldn’t have won too many boarding parties with two masts. In the end, the Toro wasn’t used anyway.

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Here’s my strategy for the game between myself and Woelf.

First off, the Martillo de Dios will head to either Dog or Monkey Island, whichever one is closer, based on which home island I end up with. She’ll simply take the best gold and head right back home. After that, she’ll most likely go back out to the next-nearest wild island that still has gold on it. She will try to avoid contact with the enemy fleet, with the exception of ramming the Carthage if possible (more on that soon!).

The Overton is my designated gunship, and she wants to take out woelf’s runners, the San Jose and the Carthage. The Belle Etoile is also going to start the game in a combat role, unless for some reason none of woelf’s ships go to Cutlass Cove, in which case the Belle will grab 4 coins from there and bring them home. Both the Overton and the Belle are faster than the scary Santo Columba, unless woelf pulls a fast one and grabs a helmsman instead of Luis Zuan, in which case hopefully I’d get the first shot since then he wouldn’t have a captain. However, since both of my ships are faster than the Columba, they will try to avoid her early on in the game, instead targeting the two smaller ships.

The Belle especially should be able to evade the Columba. The Belle’s first mission of the game is to sink the Carthage without being hit in return. With her speed and size she should be able to ram off the one mast of the Carthage. From there the Carthage can still row at S speed, so the Belle will have to shoot to finish her off. After that, the Belle will either run gold and/or assist the Overton, whichever is more convenient and makes more sense.

The Overton is going to have to make a choice of whether to hit the San Jose or the Columba. With L+S and a captain, she can easily take down the San Jose if the Columba isn’t close by. However, if the Overton has an opportunity to get the first shot on the Columba, TAKE IT! With the accurate guns and Nolan’s reroll, there’s a good chance the Columba will lose at least two masts. From there the Overton would finish her off. If the Overton can’t get the first shot on the Columba she can hit the San Jose first. If the Overton dismasts or sinks the San Jose before the Columba is even in action, the Overton can then either assist the Belle if she’s having trouble, or try to maneuver and get the first shot on the Columba.

In the case that things go wrong and the Overton is sunk, the Belle should try to get as much gold home as possible rather than trying to engage the Columba.

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My final pulls:
Pirates of the Revolution Pack
053 La Belle Etoile
012 Coral
134 Cannoneer (American)
115 Captain (French)
106 Natives

Pirates of the Barbary Coast Pack
049 HMS Durham
066 El Toro
070 Don Rafael Y de Teresa
096 Wayne Nolan

Pirates of the South China Seas Pack
092 USS Overton
054 HMS Discovery
069 Almirante Carlos Pavon y Miranda
120 Helmsman (American)
071 Padre Francisco/Rolling Fog

Pirates of Davy Jones’ Curse Pack
092 Dark Fox
070 El Martillo de Dios
124 Cannoneer (English)
074 Jacques, Duc de Valois / Don Osvaldo Guillen
121 Helmsman (Cursed)

Thanks for looking, commenting and voting!

Section: Ship #1 (4 miniatures)
		Miniature	Set	Number	Type	Rarity
1	x	Captain	PofR	115	Crew	C
1	x	Helmsman	PofSCS	120	Crew	C
1	x	USS Overton	PofSCS	092	Ship	C
1	x	Wayne Nolan	PofBC	096	Crew	C
Section: Ship #2 (2 miniatures)
		Miniature	Set	Number	Type	Rarity
1	x	Helmsman	PofDJC	121	Crew	C
1	x	La Belle Etoile	PofR	053	Ship	C
Section: Ship #3 (1 miniatures)
		Miniature	Set	Number	Type	Rarity
1	x	El Martillo de Dios	PofDJC	070	Ship	C
Section: Unique Treasures (1 miniatures)
		Miniature	Set	Number	Type	Rarity
1	x	Natives	PofR	106	Unique Treasure	R