Miniature Trading

I designed this fleet to see how much abuse I could squeeze out of Captain Jack Sparrow's crew/treasure swapping ability and some other DPotC pieces. Not only can Jack trade away bad UTs or minimize drawbacks like losing actions, you can maximize gold value by funneling your bigger coins through a +2 gold ability and applying multiplier UTs.

Strategies and game play

This fleet is designed primarily for pure speed rather than combat. Avoid any stand-up fights, or if you can't avoid them, stall for time while Jack scrambles to send more treasure home.

Ship #1 - Hai Peng: Your primary treasure-runner, although with Captain Jack Sparrow aboard you could get into a fight with move+shoot. However, with only two masts and mediocre guns, stay away from combat unless you're trying to scare off or sink a smaller treasure runner. With Captain Jack and Cotton aboard, the Hai Peng moves a blistering L+L+S+S, which means unless there's a lot of terrain in the way, you should be able to dock at a wild island on your first turn and probably even build a fort (always start with Devil's Maw, so you can recycle crew eliminated via UTs or enemy abilities). Pick two wild islands that are close enough together that you can move between them with a single move action, put a fort on both, and you can dock+explore every turn, shipping the best treasure home to L'Intrepide, until both islands are stripped clean.

Ship #2 - Longshanks: This ship is included mostly for utility and trouble-shooting. I've added Captain Jack Hawkins and an extra Oarsman to help scare off crew-dependent gunships, but you may prefer going with just a Captain+Helmsman. The Longshank's first job is to keep anything nasty away from the Hai Peng. It doesn't really have the guns to stop anything really big, but it may buy the Hai Peng a couple more turns. If something happens to the Hai Peng, then Longshanks can dump her crew and try hauling some treasure home for the win. If you run out of Oarsmen back home, she could also ferry some of them back to help fuel more treasure transfers. If you get into trouble, don't be afraid to sacrifice the Longshanks to buy some time, that's what she's there for.

Ship #3 - L'Intrepide: Keep this ship docked at your home island as the main delivery point for treasure transfers. Since your French Oarsman is the only one that won't take up any space, transfer him last. Try to keep two cargo spaces open until you find Sunken Treasure or Jade. While docked at your home island, you should be safe from shooting, but you can still be rammed. Two masts means you'd have to be rammed twice before L'Intrepide could be captured, but if you think L'Intrepide could be in trouble, make sure there's a fogbank close by that you can ditch into.

Ship #4 - Jolly Mon: Your second utility ship, the Jolly Mon has three functions: First, as a safe place to dump bad UTs such as Plague, Rats, Rotting Hull, etc.; Second, building more forts; and Third, ferrying an occasional Oarsman back to L'Intrepide if you start to run short.

Strengths:

Very fast, racks up the gold quickly. Relatively immune to most bad UTs. With all those Oarsmen, not really bothered by Becalmed.

Weaknesses:

Large gunships, particularly those with extra actions, will eat this fleet alive. It has no defense against Mermaids. L'Intrepide is vulnerable to ramming, particularly "when pinned, eliminate one crew" or "eliminate one crew and one mast" abilities.

Variations:

13 points can be a bit much for a 2-masted treasure runner. If you switch the Hai Peng with the Raven (10 points), you can upgrade the Longshanks to the Eagle+Captain+Helmsman, which has a better chance going toe-to-toe against larger gunships.

L'Intrepide could be switched with Le Coeur de Lion+Maurice Aristide+Princess Arii Aura, but while this would save you 3 points that could be spent on events or upgrading the Longshanks to something with more teeth, your cargo space becomes a little harder to manage.

Note: I originaly had Ahura Mazda with Gentleman Jocard on board with the Hag of Tortuga on Jolly Mon, but then I realized you get an extra mast and double the cargo space with L'Intrepide+Maurice Aristide for the same points, as well as bring in two more French forts. I also considered trading in the Jolly Mon for another Oarsman, since it's no longer necessary to put the Hag there, but decided to stick it back in the fleet as it can now take on more of a utility role, in addition as a dump-off for nasty UTs.