Small Fry – Boarders
Originally published to Miniature Trading on September 10th, 2015
This is one of my “backup” fleets in brettb45’s “Small Fry” Fleet Challenge! Thanks to all who participated and to brettb45 for running the challenge. It was great fun to think about all of the possibilities. This was one of the last fleets I came up with, but it’s likely more practical than my original fleet. My other ideas for this challenge can be found here, here, and here. Also, the Devil’s Maw isn’t included in the fleet cost, so the real total is 45.
This is a boarding based fleet, which is normally tough to pull off with “small fry” ships. However, Jonah and Cannibal King allow for a reasonably good boarding strategy despite the nature of the Fleet Challenge.
The Bloody Jewel carries a full crew complement, which includes Bonny Peel and Genny’s Red Rampage, which makes the Jewel a scary opponent indeed. Her cannons can soften up a target for Bonny, and there should be a boarding advantage as she takes aim at enemy crew. Once a few crew are captured, the Bloody Jewel will return home to deposit them. Forgetting about Bonny’s built-in captain, I originally also had a captain on the Jewel. I was going to take it out for the Banshee’s Cry, but instead I decided to go with Calico Cat, which could let the Jewel capture two crew in one turn!
The second ship is the Cannibal King, which is one of my favourite ships to put Hammersmith on. He gives the Cannibal King (like the Jewel) the captain ability to hit targets before they’re boarded, and move fast enough to catch some of the runners in the other fleets for this challenge. The oarsman provides nice insurance.
With the Jolly Mon and Hag coming into the fleet, it opened up space for the Rover and Mermaid to run treasure, since this fleet doesn’t have any true gold runners. They’re weak, but three extra ships for 5 points is a lot better than keeping the fleet at 2 ships for 40 points. Additionally, I still could edit the Cry back in for Calico since I’m using cheesy tactics (0LR +5, tiny fast gold runners) anyway, which would give a considerable boost to the treasure running capability of this fleet, but severely decrease the “creativity” score.
Thanks for reading; comment and vote!
| Section: Ship #1 (6 miniatures) | ||||||
| Miniature | Set | Number | Type | Rarity | ||
| 1 | x | Bloody Jewel | PofR | 008 | Ship | C |
| 1 | x | Bonny Peel | PofDJC | 043 | Crew | R |
| 1 | x | Calico Cat | PofSMU | 029 | Crew | R |
| 1 | x | Genny’s Red Rampage | PofSMU | 039 | Crew | C |
| 1 | x | Helmsman | PofSMU | 108 | Crew | U |
| 1 | x | Jonah | PofCC | 029B | Crew | C |
| Section: Ship #2 (3 miniatures) | ||||||
| Miniature | Set | Number | Type | Rarity | ||
| 1 | x | Cannibal King | SS | 045 | Ship | SE |
| 1 | x | Hammersmith | F&S | 022 | Crew | R |
| 1 | x | Oarsman | PofSMU | 112 | Crew | C |
| Section: Ship #3 (1 miniatures) | ||||||
| Miniature | Set | Number | Type | Rarity | ||
| 1 | x | Rover | PofCC | 018 | Ship | R |
| Section: Ship #4 (1 miniatures) | ||||||
| Miniature | Set | Number | Type | Rarity | ||
| 1 | x | Mermaid | PofCC | 020 | Ship | R |
| Section: Ship #5 (2 miniatures) | ||||||
| Miniature | Set | Number | Type | Rarity | ||
| 1 | x | Jolly Mon | DPotC | 005 | Ship | R |
| 1 | x | The Hag of Tortuga | PofCC | 027 | Crew | C |
| Section: Forts (2 miniatures) | ||||||
| Miniature | Set | Number | Type | Rarity | ||
| 1 | x | Dead Man’s Point | PofCC | 031 | Fort | C |
| 1 | x | The Devil’s Maw | PofR | 022 | Fort | C |
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