Okay, my first CC fleet is going to be a pure Grabber type (I wanted to do a scatological fleet with Gilded Monkey and Stinkpots, but I don't have any Pirate Stinkpots).

French: Le Triton with Explorer and Helmsman (13)
Pirate: Raven with Explorer and Helmsman (13), 2x Rover (4)

Triton can go S+L+S, Raven can go S+S+S+S, woot. The Rovers are really just there because I didn't want to put any more crew on my other ships, and had two Rovers. They might even do some good. Raven will drop off its Explorer so it can grab a full island's worth of treasure unless one or more treasures is Unique.

---Dave, just wants to see the look on his opponents' faces when he moves a ship FOUR S.

Well, it works pretty well, and I learned something: sticking this kind of fleet out in the boondocks and spreading all the islands apart is a bad idea. You want to cluster the islands tightly, to negate the speed advantage. That fourth S becomes wasted points when all the islands are 2L away from each other.

Meanwhile, I've made a backup fleet in case anyone refuses to play against this one again. :)

---Dave

Amity could also stand in for Raven. It costs 2 more points, but it has another cargo space, it has Ghost Ship capability, and it has another mast which helps if you get into combat.

</GaymBoi>

Amity, however, has rank-5 cannons, so it has no more business getting into a fight than the Raven. :)

---Dave

Should've clarified my position. Amity is better defensively in that it can take one more hit before being crippled. Your treasure runners should never shoot unless they cannot move.

Your 'fastest ship on the board' is a good idea, one I intend to try out sometime. Now, if I can just figure a way to combine a S+S+S+S strategy with a fort...

</GaymBoi>

OTOH, I found the Raven's and Triton's ability to be unpinnable came in handy in a game where I had to go grab gold from an enemy ship to make my 13+. Ram, board, survive one turn of fire, run the heck away. :)

---Dave