Miniature Trading

First of all, my first fleet was over the limit, and if non-editing is enforced, I understand. Egg on my face with that one, apologies to everyone.

This is a modified version of the previous fleet, and is unbalanced for sure. The treasure runners are pathetic, but are cheap, and one is really there to allow for the extra build total (the Rover) who holds the Hag of Tortuga.

Both gunships have great speed, L + S + S, and the Deliverance can double that twice thanks to the two sacrificial explorers (no oarsmen for the pirates in this expansion). The only other faction capable of SAC is the French I believe, although there are SAT out there, and could be an issue a third of the time. Depending upon the opposing fleet, these two will work in tandem or separate, and we will discuss that further on.

Treasure Runners(?): The Mermaid and the Rover, both at two points, are not going to be bringing the gold home, but both have decent if not great (for the Mermaid at L + L) speed, and could be used as sacrificial ramming instead of gold running. Depends.

Primary Gunship: Deliverance. I know, its expensive, but her speed for a 5 master is unmatched in this set. Actually there is but one 4 master, the American Providence that can match her speed with a helmsman. The Americans are woefully underrepresented in this expansion however. There are 3S speed ships, but the only "fighter" might be the Amity, but with 5S cannons, she's a gold runner for sure.

Unique Treasure: This fleet does not really rely on picking up treasure, so anything that may hinder the opposition seems warranted. Scurvy and Ghostly Encounter do that pretty well. However GT may backfire of course, speeding the endgame.

Secondary Gunship: Royal James. I love this ship. With identical speed to the Deliverance and a nasty ability, eliminate crew on a hit, she's a good support.

Tactics1:: Against the English, Spanish, Pirates (who do not have the same set up), and Americans, with careful play, I should always get off the first volley against the opposing gunship, thanks to the LSS + LSS +shoot with Havana Black and a sac explorer. Or better yet, if the Royal James can get in there first, a few volleys that may take a crew or two, may leave the opponent not quite as intimidating. The fleet's speed helps here.

Tactics2:: The two one masters run a blocking scheme. Kind of like putting a punter and a kicker to run interference, but hey it may work. The point for these two is to use up one maybe two actions of the opposing gunship, whether a simple move+shoot from a captain, or a SAC in the case of the French, or SAT on the odd occasion. Waiting behind the blockers are the gunships. Here's where the Ghost Ship ability really aids this offensive position. The Deliverance ran simply run through its blockers, if they are still around (following the football theme, like Jerome Bettis or someone from my era, Earl Campbell saying, get the heck outta my way will ya!) and hopefully open fire twice, 10 cannon volleys at rank 3 is nothing to scoff at.

Counteract: Opposition with lots of gold runners may simply put the game away, especially if their holds are large. In that case, running straight at them with tactic two may help.

As with anything, SAT rolls can cripple this fleet (as with any other), which is why tactic two tries to "eat up" those extra actions.

Fighting another SAC captain is akin to the previous point.

A well balanced fleet, smaller but effective gunships, with good speedy gold runners may have a difficult time against this fleet since it's primary purpose is to seek and destroy, which it can do very well.

Again I want to thank Dakmor for setting up this challenge, it has been a blast so far.