Shutting it Down with American Guns

USS Hudson in CTO chaos

Originally published to Miniature Trading on November 30th, 2018

65 Points

This is my entry into brettb45’s Crew Targeting Fleet Challenge.

Given how difficult it is to make a very small fleet (just 40 points) that can effectively and efficiently shut down enemy crew, it was hard NOT to look at the best options for a faction right from the start. I considered a Spanish killing fleet, but decided against it because it would be rather fragile and I’ve already used the combo I was thinking about. Capturing is fun but the low build total would likely limit that strategy to one ship, or two lackluster ones. I like Switchblades for this sort of idea, but then I’d only have one ship. (and some of my favorite Switchblade combos are more than 40 points)

My thoughts shifted to the Americans and the amazing USS Kettering. With built-in cancelling and plenty of firepower, she would be good right from the get-go. Add in some flair, and a very capable gunship emerges. Perry allows me to exceed the regular build limit with generic crew for the second ship, while Mays links (all American ships) to give the ship 4 cargo spaces, allowing himself to come aboard. A helmsman would be nice, but I really wanted another crew targeting ability, hence the Stinkpot Shot. Mays’ SAT gives the fleet the element of explosive attack power and additional speed, not to mention the nice Crew Protect ability. I didn’t really want to use that ability in this challenge since it’s kinda gamey and a fun-ruiner, but my original build came to only 38 points before adding Perry, so between Mays linking and his awesome SAT ability, there weren’t many other options (since most of the other high priced American crew don’t link to all of their ships, and I had already maxed out both cargo holds). All told, the Kettering will move up to S+L+S+L with 12 3L shots, one of which could shut down an entire ship’s complement of crew if it hits, with guaranteed cancelling even if the stinkpot shot backfires.

The second ship was relatively easy after I did a search for American ships that move S+L. USS Hudson has long been a favorite of mine and other players, for good reasons. She is not all that different from the Kettering – rank-3 cannons, S+L speed, and great bang for your buck. The handy crew killing ability built into the Hudson was the clincher. She’s got the standard captain and helmsman to make her rather quick, and of course some stinky stuff to blast enemies with as well. Her ideal first attack would be using her speed to get the first strike, and then using stinkpot shot right away to disable the enemy ship’s crew AND kill one of them with a single shot.

Edit (12/10/2018 ): Added the Frontier with 3 points of crew with the increased build total and announcement of gold in play. Easy option for 20 extra points of great gold running – S+S+S speed on a hoist with 7 cargo open.

Either ship’s first strike could be so devastating that an enemy could have a difficult time recovering. Overall I think the speed, crew protect/cancelling, and firepower (essentially 10 cannons total) could make up for any 1 rolls on stinkpot shots.

USS Kettering + Captain Montana Mays , Commodore Matthew Perry , captain, Stinkpot Shot 
USS Hudson + captain, helmsman, Stinkpot Shot 

Thank you for checking out my fleet. Feel free to comment below and vote on a scale of 1-5.

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

Rare Frenchmen – BIG and small

Originally published to Miniature Trading on August 22nd, 2018

40 Points

This is my entry for brettb45’s Rare Fleet Challenge.

Checking out the rarities of all-valuable helmsmen crew, I saw both Hammersmith and “Bootstrap Bill” Turner in the Pirate corner. Thus, I assumed nearly everyone would just use the Pirates after a glut of Spanish entries in my Uncommon Fleet Challenge. I thought about going Pirate but decided against such an easy path.

English are my favorite faction and they have Thomas Gunn , so let me NOT use them. I did consider minor factions very briefly, but I didn’t want to do a typical overdone Grand Path/Grand Temple setup just to stay competitive.

Well, the French have a ton of great rare ships and crew, and plenty of players on MT hate them, so let’s give the French the love they deserve in this game. Such a fantastic faction to play.

It was pretty typical for the largest and smallest ships to be Rare in Pirates CSG, so it comes as no surprise that we see a 5 master and two 1 masters in the fleet.

Le Superbe is the big bad gunship, fitting a whopping 5 abilities (Captain, S-Board, SAT, Reroll, +1 against English) into just two cargo spaces from her crew complement. With a base move under S+L, I knew it was imperative to get some extra actions with regularity, hence the SAT with reroll combo feeling almost required. Originally I had Jordan Dumas paired with St. Croix, but then realized that I should have a “free” reroller instead and therefore switching Dumas with Surcouf. I’m not a big fan of S-Board, but in my mind I’m almost getting it for 1 point here (instead of 4) considering the original setup paid the full 3 for reroll. Besides, Dumas and the trio of Captain/S-Boarders are the only Rare French named captains. If for some reason there was a Pirate Letter of Marque, I would have used that due to the nature of this challenge, but in this case the English one makes a lot of sense too – Thomas Gunn is somewhat likely to appear, and it fits perfectly with the classic Anglo-French bias presented by history and St. Croix’s secondary ability. The Superbe does have 2 cargo spaces left in case she wants to raid an enemy ship, or pick up predetermined (already seen) “safe” coins from an island I’ve previously explored.

Here is a cropped “action shot” of Le Superbe sailing the Sea of Karkuda in Command the Oceans during 2017.

Sure the Bon Marin is overplayed, but I felt it was justified knowing the challenge and members involved. One of the best gold runners in the game, completely awesome even with no crew.

Le Pique was the final ship “added” (see below), to make the fleet even more competitive and add a second great gold runner. Her and the Bon Marin will simply get as much gold as possible.

The UT’s are nasty but useful since both gold runners are running without crew. Second copy of Natives is one from RtSS:

Tiki of the Volcano
Eliminate all but one crew from this ship. If there is a Tribal Chieftain on this ship, you must eliminate only one crew from this ship.

Originally I had La Delacroix as the 5 master, but was able to cut a point and increase cargo by switching to the Superbe. I love the Delacroix and switching back wouldn’t hurt the fleet too much.

I also had the Jeux instead of the Pique, but realized I probably wouldn’t win if the fleet wasn’t optimized for competitiveness. Oh well I guess. I wanted to use the Ébat from Return to Savage Shores at one point, but that would cost me both the Bon Marin and Pique/Jeux (though I could have used Ebat with Le Coeur du Lion , I am slightly more sick of the Coeur than the Bon Marin haha). Basically just a more expensive version of the Jeux, which I couldn’t afford in this case.

Thanks for checking this out! Comment and vote!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

Barbary Bite

Originally published to Miniature Trading on June 13th, 2018

40 Points

I know the Corsairs are often better at just running gold with their plethora of cheap and great cargo ships, but sometimes it’s fun to surprise your opponents. In which case, you’d have to NOT use the Tiger’s Eye , which has become one of the most overused ships in the entire game.

Here we’ve got a “Barbary Bite” fleet where all three ships have captains, and all three are ready for hybrid use. They will probably scatter to get gold, with each ship capable of defending itself or going out of their way to raid enemy gold runners for extra loot. (using the Galley keyword to not be pinned in the process, and maybe even using it to turn into an opponent’s ship)

Simple and straightforward, it’s not going to be the best Corsair fleet at 40 points, but it’s flexible with high cargo and accurate guns.

Fleet page at Miniature Trading