For standard play, this is the fleet I end up fielding more often than not. It pretty much exemplifies my playing style: sac captain + firepot + decent runners + Becalmed + Favor of the Gods.
Le Dauphin Royal is one of the more powerful overlooked gunships in this game. Her cannon bonus against English ships comes up huge against Titan / HMS Endeavor cheese builds that I encounter frequently at my venue.
Le Bon Marin of course is a fantastic runner. Between her and L'Intrepide, this fleet can gather a decent amount of gold quite quickly. Le Coeur du Lion follows behind these two main runners and picks up the scraps.
This build relies on quickly immobilizing enemy ships with Becalmed and then cleaning them up with Dauphin Royal. Beclamed should usually be played on your opponent's second or third turn, as soon as his main gunship enters a two foot radius of movement from Le Daupin Royal. That's right, you get S+L+S+L from your first turn by sacrificing an oarsman, then your opponent (unless he has FOTG) loses his turn thanks to Becalmed and you get to move and sac again. Once you dominate your opponent's main gunship (hopefully you can firepot her), go after his treasure runners and finish the job.
Running into a 'pocket canceler' gunship build could leave this fleet in a rather unfortunate position so if you notice that your enemy is holding back with his main gunship in an attempt to get you to come to him, definitely do not try to use the above tactic. Instead, use Becalmed to get within S+L of his ship, then sac next turn to move up to her. He will cancel your first shoot action by taking out your captain, but your second shoot action from the sac will be right on target.
Probably the biggest threat to this fleet is a submarine or seamonster rush against your runners. Becalm your opponents for a turn and try to block them with Le Dauphin Royal.
For a great pocket canceler variant, replace Arathiel with a standard captain, remove the two oarsmen, and swap Becalmed for Mermaids so you can afford Monsieur le Noir.
Hi Dano! Your fleet is wonderful, i'm temted in starting doing the french! Still,i'm sorry but it wouldn't work against my titan, nor against most of the gunships. And i'll explain you why: Becalmed states "unless she can move when derelict." Most of the expensive gunship carry a SAC Captain. And what is usually SAC Fodder? Oarsmen. My challenge fleet, in fact, contains an oarsman on the titan. So, you'd win the first round of a tournament, but then no SAC would be done by my Headhunter, and with my possbility of 3 actions per turn, i could surprise your Gunship. The oarsman wouldn't be thrown away with the SAc, and so becalmed wouldn't hurt.
Instead, with your pocket canceller version, i would experience a lot of issues with my poor titan Mermaided, and the match would probably end with your victory!!!
ciao, and great fleet...especially if you work out that caceller version!
First off, let me congratulate you on limiting yourself to a single extra action crew. Whether or not you win the game, you have won my respect for fair play. Also, your fleet is good. It'd be a tough one for me to beat, given the three runners and Becalmed. In fact, of all the fleets posted, this one might actually be the toughest one for me, as I am not well equipped to handle events. If you got the first turn and Becalmed me for a two-turn headstart, I likely wouldn't be able to catch up. The Devil Ray could either slow down your Dauphin Royal or go after runners. I would almost certainly repeatedly cancel the helmsman on Dauphin to slow your chasing of my ships. Even sac-ing every turn, L+L would have trouble catching La Santa Isabel. Still, there's all those runners. I am not giving odds, because I have no idea how this game would go, but it would be a very close game either way. Excellent fleet!
It seems that we are fairly matched on treasure runners, which is good.
The problem is that you seem to rely a bit much on Becalmed, which would not be able to slow the Cristobal down. (S for oarsman, +S from helmsman, +L from ability, for a total of S+S+L.)
All in all though, this is a great fleet and I commend you on making a highly competitive fleet that only has one faction! (Even I was seduced by the Pirates...)
Hi Dano! Your fleet is wonderful, i'm temted in starting doing the french! Still,i'm sorry but it wouldn't work against my titan, nor against most of the gunships. And i'll explain you why: Becalmed states "unless she can move when derelict." Most of the expensive gunship carry a SAC Captain. And what is usually SAC Fodder? Oarsmen. My challenge fleet, in fact, contains an oarsman on the titan. So, you'd win the first round of a tournament, but then no SAC would be done by my Headhunter, and with my possbility of 3 actions per turn, i could surprise your Gunship. The oarsman wouldn't be thrown away with the SAc, and so becalmed wouldn't hurt.
Instead, with your pocket canceller version, i would experience a lot of issues with my poor titan Mermaided, and the match would probably end with your victory!!!
ciao, and great fleet...especially if you work out that caceller version!
Fede
That's a great point! Maybe I should swap out Becalmed for Mermaids ...
Strange that I've never run into that problem before ... probably players just get used to using oarsmen as sac fodder and never consider their potentially helpful ability.
If the Pocket Canceller was your American Power fleet, this would be the French Power fleet.
You're right, Le Dauphin Royal is often overlooked. Most people recommend Le Superbe as the best French 5-master. Swapping Le Dauphin + Firepot for Le Superbe would be an easy switch. But Le Dauphin Royal is definitely a Titan-killer if you know you're going up against the English.
I actually prefer Le Soleil Royal. Cannons aren't quite as good, but nobody likes losing crew.
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