The Jades can use Calypso too!

Originally published to Miniature Trading on December 27th, 2017

40 Points

Got this idea during the 12th episode of the podcast.

The perfectly costed Tiger’s Paw allows the use of Pirate crew, providing a niche use for one of the game’s lesser ships. Calypso comes aboard, with Ms. Cheng providing a “free” reroll for the ability to maximize the number of whirlpools put in play. Ms. Cheng would be linked to the captain of the Virtuous Wind, since it does not say that the crew have to be on the same ship. The TP will sit at home and create as many lanes as possible to provide opportunities for the other ships. The Turtle Ship keyword should provide insurance against ramming and boarding, making it a relatively safe place for Calypso.

I originally had the East Wind with a captain and oarsman as the main gunship, but then I didn’t have enough points to add the Sea Crane AND the Tiger’s Breath. Well, at that point, why not substitute for the best Jade Rebel ship in the game, the Virtuous Wind? She has a hybrid complement of crew, with 3 spaces left open for treasure. She will be tasked with a big workload – protect Calypso and the Tiger’s Breath, grab gold from islands (including enemy home islands), and fight the best enemy warship if necessary. What I like about the whirlpool exploration strategy is that you don’t need as much speed: since the whirlpools are placed within L of wild islands, you don’t need much speed from there (just S can work depending on the length of the ship’s hull measured out from the whirlpool) to reach the wild island. Hence the explorers instead of helmsmen (my usual preference) on the gold runners. By placing a whirlpool L away from a wild island and as close as possible to an enemy HI, it could be very easy to allow the Virtuous Wind to steal gold. However, as soon as Calypso is revealed, your opponent will know this.

The Tiger’s Breath completes the unintentional “tiger” theme of this fleet, but more importantly gives a true gold runner. The Tiger’s Breath will go into a whirlpool and out of the other on one turn, and then move to dock and explore an island on the next turn. The oarsman was transferred to the TB so she can get home even with bad whirl rolls on the way there and on the way back.

UT’s are pretty basic – I’m counting on the speedy whirlpool travel to allow me to find Jade, and Marksman’s Map could determine where future whirlpools are placed (and help me to know if I should bother raiding an enemy HI). The Protection will make the journeys less treacherous, since a couple bad rolls could really mess with the crew setups and even dismast the Tiger’s Breath.

One weakness would be fellow HI raiders – they can raid easily with all the whirlpools near the Tiger’s Paw, and could use the same whirlpools to make fast getaways.

I definitely want to test this fleet out at some point, since I think it has the potential to get some gold quickly. I was surprised by how effective the concept worked in this game.

Please comment and vote!!!!

Fleet page at Miniature Trading

The fleet in action on the VASSAL module.