Miniature Trading

This is a neat little fleet that can really work great with a bit of luck. The Rover/Hag is my standard cheese combo for an almost risk-free 3 point, no other reason.

The focus of this fleet is to find the island with Wolves on it with Raven. On your first turn, use Hidden Cove to plunk down the Raven on a close-by island and explore it. Depending on how close your opponent is, you can either load up with gold or leave it for Banshee's Cry to retrieve it.

The Eagle is in the fleet as a cheap "tweener" ship. While it won't have as much firepower as most five-masters it is tough enough that it could at least engage a bigger ship and it's cargo hold is big enough that it could be a gold-runner if need be.

The key to this fleet is finding the island with Wolves with Raven. I've found that, in general, hardly anyone plays with Musketeers or Marines. By having a Marine in your fleet you can drop him off on the island with Wolves on it which will basically give you a risk-free fort. Assuming that your opponent isn't playing with Marines or Musketeers, your opponent won't shoot at the marine because, if they do, they're making it impossible for Wolves to be eliminated. The worst case scenario would be that your opponent kills your marine and makes it impossible for anyone to claim the gold on the Wolves island. Given the speed of this fleet, that shouldn't be a big problem.

The only thing that concerns me about this fleet is that there is no way to obtain extra actions. I've had success with it "as is" but I may consider swapping the Captain aboard Eagle for the Spanish Main version of Calico Cat (same action twice on a 5 or 6).