This is by far the most frustrating fleet to put together. And even after I created it, I thought "huh, thats it." So why am I publishing this fleet, then? Well, I've committed myself to create a fleet from one faction in one set, plus I think that every fleet published is a great "jumping off" point for your own creation. So far, I've got the Spanish Main and Crimson Coast sets finished. When I create these fleets, I look for something that unifies the faction within the set, usually a keyword or a seldom played ability.
So, as I was forming a fleet from the Revolution, I knew I couldn't use the Spanish (they only had 4 ships and 1 Marine to help out). I didn't want to use the British because their strongest asset was the HMS Swallow and HMS Dreadnought, which are no strangers to any players here. I left the Pirates out because its normally pretty simple to form a Pirate fleet, especially with the amount of crew members they have. Finally, I wanted to use the Americans (they have the best crew from this set), but I didn't want to use any of the 5-masters (I'm pretty sure everyone has used Bonhomme Richard, Constitution, and Enterprise at least once in their life).
That leaves the French. I never play French, so creating this French fleet helped me to get accustomed to them. First, I want to tell you that if you're looking for an unusual combination of crew members and some uber-powerful abilities, look elsewhere. The French have a couple of good 5-masters (Le Superbe has sunk me many a time), but there are no strong crew to back it up. After coming up with some prerequisites I realized that speed, mega-cargo space, and simple crew (since I had no choice) were great from the French.
What this fleet consists of is what I know as the Soeurs Francaises, or the French sisters: La Vengeance and Le Lyon. When these two ships have been in the same fleet, I cannot beat them. Why? I DON'T KNOW!! I wish I did because its frustrating to be beat down by two 4-mast schooners. They are almost identical in style, cargo space, speed, and cannons. Really, the main difference is their abilities, which are just icing on the cake.
Ship Makeup and Breakdown
La Vengeance is a pretty average 4-mast schooner. Her speed is S+L and she has 5 cargo spaces. This makes her a pretty consistent ship, able to move treasure to your home island and fend off her attackers. Or, on the other end, she can be an aggressor. Her cannons are average, and depending on how you play firing arcs, you can get 3 or 4 cannons to bear (the firing arc for a schooner rarely or never lets you get all four cannons to bear down since some masts technically block the line of fire of others). A captain on board helps her to fight off opponent ships. In an offensive perspective, you could chase down the opponents' treasure runners, derelict, and take their treasure. Her cannons are average (+1 against English ships), so don't count on perfect hits with each salvo.
Le Lyon is La Vengeance's sister with the same rank in cannons (though this time they are all short range) and a tad bit slower but not by much. She has identical cargo and her ability gives you a +1 to boarding rolls, which is never scoffed at (nor desired really, in my venue). She is home to the only named crew chosen from this set: Madame LaFontaine. Madame is a 0-point crew that becomes a link to another French crew member and allows a reroll for any die roll. She could go onto either of the two schooners, but I thought that since Le Lyon has the boarding roll ability, giving her a reroll for that should help her from failing that roll. Also, there is a Helmsman and a Captain on Le Lyon to help her speed up and to defend/attack.
Le Bon Marin is a handy little ship. Though she doesn't have the Schooner keyword, if you keep her sails trimmed and her bow pointed in the right direction, she'll get to an island rather quickly. With S+L and her built in Explorer ability, she can clean up all four of the treasure faster than you can say "Sacré bleu"! This is your perfect treasure runner for 6 points. Another good runner up was Le Pique at 5 points, S+S+S speed and a 2s cannon, but she had only 3 cargo spaces.
Paradis de la Mar is a pretty handy fort. Build it on the right island and you can save a lot of time unloading somewhere much closer than your home island. And, its a great fort to protect your treasure. It has 5 cannons, so it needs at least 5 hits before its wrecked. But wait! Its ability states "The first time this fort is shot at each turn, roll a d6. The result is the number of times this fort must be hit that turn before any of its cannons can be eliminated." That means you've got a really good chance that your opponent needs to spend more than one shot to take out just one of this fort's cannons. Even if your roll were a 1, you still have 5 cannons that need to be destroyed. This fort will eat up your opponent's time if its attacked. Or, if its not attacked, it will protect all of the treasure. All this for 4 gold.
The Unique Treasures are not too bad from this set. I usually play pretty heavy with Unique Treasures, but the bad thing about that is that your opponent may benefit from these. The three listed (Cross of Coronado,Neptune's Trident,Sextant) are all really interesting. Sextant will help you move faster by going through non-island terrain, and Cross of Coronado may save Le Bon Marin, but really these are just suggestions.
Uses and Applications
So how will this fleet work? Stay focused on the gold. That will win your game. Le Bon Marin should fly solo in this game, so make sure she stays away from any enemy ships. 1 hit will ruin her, 2 will sink her. While she's running treasure back and forth, the Two Sisters will have 2 objectives: Get treasure, and fight! But, keep these two together. That means, go up the middle toward the enemy and pick up treasure as you go along. With the Schooner keyword, they can correct their direction after they move, so there should be no excuse for enemy ships getting away. Do your best to get all the cannons aimed too when you're ready to target prey (again, use the Schooner keyword).
And, while all of this is going on, you've got to set up Paradis de la Mar so you can unload your treasure. So, after the first treasure run, do either:
1. Move Le Bon Marin to a wild island where you can strategically drop off treasure, or
2. Move one of the sisters over to a wild island. This will speed up the process, but it'll take focus away from La Vengeance and Le Lyon's missions.
Simple Strengths
Well, let's try to build on what we can from this fleet:
1. Speed. This fleet is above average in the speed compartment and the Schooner keyword helps out. You can drive circles around their sluggish 5-masters.
2. Paradis de la Mar is actually a good fort to have, and I imagine its usually overlooked.
3. The simplicity of the abilities keep the gameplay going. Sometimes, I forget a much needed ability where there are too many crew members and ships to think about.
4. I think you can get the Underestimate-this-Fleet approach from your opponents, but play the ships right and the Two Sisters will sink that 5-master. 8 guns vs. 5 guns = something getting wrecked.
Weaknesses and Counter-Measures
This is a little harder for me to come up with since I haven't beaten the Two Sisters:
1. Be a wolf. Go after the weaker, lonely Le Bon Marin. This will force the Two Sisters to split up to make up for the missing treasure.
2. Focus on one of the Schooners at a time. Its easier to take apart fleets when all of your guns are aimed at one ship.
3. If Paradis de la Mar shows up, stay away from it. Its a waste of time and ships to try to destroy it. Instead, keep ships from docking at it.
4. There are no threatening speciatly crew, so the SAC crew members will make short work of the schooners.
To Sum Up . . .
1. Fast ships = victory with treasure.
2. Similar abilities and simple abilities for quicker gameplay.
3. Paradis de la Mar is one tough nut to crack.
4. La Vengeance and Le Lyon has beaten me down time and time again (I'm not the greatest player, but I've won me plenty of doubloons).
Miniature Trading
