Over the last couple weeks, my flag has run into the issue of having about 9-11 people that all want to pillage together. Unfortunately, that means that we have too many for a sloop, but I don't care to take out a war brig with anything less than 15, at the least. In a couple occasions, I've recommended that we take out a merchant brig and got a lot of funny looks (well, as much as an animated pirate with limited facial expressions can give, anyway). Here's my take on the matter...
Sloops are excellent pillage ships - they're easy to handle, move quickly, and just a few good pirates can keep the ship running smoothly. Unfortunately, you often need to keep the crew to 6, meaning everyone needs to do a good job to keep things going well, or you begin spawning brigs, which are far tougher to defeat in a sloop. Regardless, with 8 or more folks looking to pillage together, sloops are simply out of the question.
From there, a lot of folks want to move up to a Cutter. A poor idea, in my opinion. Cutters seem logical, but they have some issues. On the up side, they do move well as they still acquire maximum sailing speed and can place 4 movement tokens per turn in sea battle. The biggest downfall for a Cutter, however, is that you will be spawning war brigs. To max a war brig with the small shot fired from a Cutter, you need to hit them 15 times. And, of course, you're firing only one shot per round. That war brig, on the other hand, firing medium shot, needs to hit you only 5 times to max out your swordfight damage. Plus, they're firing two shots per round. Literally, you can be maxxed in about two movement tokens, as opposed to the 15 it will take to max them. I don't care how great a b-navver you are, those just aren't good odds.
So, if Cutters stink, I guess we should just go to a War Brig, right? They use medium shot and can fire twice per turn, so it would seem the perfect option. However, if you don't have enough people to staff a War Brig, things can get ugly, in a hurry. My rule of thumb is that you need about 15 pirates to run a War Brig. Even with that many, you can still get in trouble, easily. It takes far more effort to do much of anything on a War Brig - generate sail tokens, reduce damage, empty the bilge. If you're running with a skeleton crew and take even a small amount of damage, it can be difficult to recover. A little damage that can't be removed leads to filling bilge, which leads to reduced sail tokens, which leads to additional damage; wash, rinse, repeat. Without enough people on board, a War Brig is essentially a floating coffin with lots of guns.
Based on this, I turn to the Merchant Brig. Most people discard it as a pillaging vessel due to the fact that the word "Merchant" appears in the title, but that doesn't mean it can't be used as such. Merchant Brigs are surprisingly easy to sail - many folks have been known to solo them in order to move commodities around. Seriously, with 1 good carpenter, 1 good bilger, and 2 good sailors, you can stay on top of things. Any more than that is just gravy. And, seeing as we're talking about what to do when you have 8-15 folks that want to pillage, you do have more than that. A Merchant Brig simply doesn't have the effort issues that a War Brig has - they're much, much easier to keep afloat and running smoothly.
In terms of fighting capability, they're not as good as a War Brig because they only fire one shot per round. On the other hand, they beat a Cutter because they fire medium shot, rather than small shot. The "token-to-max" ratio goes from 15:3 in a Cutter to 10:4 in a Merchant Brig. Obviously, it's still not great, but it's a heck of a lot better. The Merchant Brig can take nearly double the damage of a Cutter and deals far more damage, thanks to the medium shot. The only thing you give up from a Cutter is the ability to move 4 tokens per turn. Considering that you'll only be fighting other things that can't move more than 3 tokens per turn, I find this to be only an inconvenience, rather than a real issue.
Sure, it's a niche ship only really useful when you have 8-15 people looking to pillage, but it serves its purpose. A Merchant Brig can be a useful pillaging ship, despite its name.
On a side note, a Merchant Brig carries over three times the payload of a Cutter, making them significantly better at carrying commodities.
Do me a favor. Never buy a Cutter.
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4 comments:
I agree with this 90%. I have never tried pillaging in a MB, but i have solo'd a MB and gotten it to near max speed regularly, and with a couple more mates on board, we have won battles and run from battles easily. I also completely agree that running a WB pillage is a lot of work and requires 15-20+ on board to maintain it running smoothly. However, I disagree with a couple of points:
1) A cutter will NOT always generate WBs...i have gotten cutters (and occassional MBs) in a many cutter pillages as long as only 8-10 were on board and we were in an arch like coral (some of these on board being greenies or low stat yellowies). We have even made quite a bit of profit this way (over 700 poe / battle+).
2) One of the problems with taking out a MB+ is the cost of medium shot if you are worried about losses. Not having the double shots and losing the 1 movement token is a serious disadvantage that I think might make the MB and cutter comparable.
To summarize, I think cutters have their place as recruitment and a low stat pillaging tool. Just my 2 poe.
Heh, pillaging on a merchant brig eh? First I've ever heard of that, but considering the source, I'll try it out one of these days. As for cutters, I'd agree with Sprng - great recruiting tool. I'd say never take a cutter out in Ruby, but elsewhere, especially with greenies on board, you can turn a nice profit. The other place I've found cutters to be useful is the blockade board. With the influence circle significantly greater than a sloop, and more moves per turn, you may not be able to do a lot of damage with these babies, but you CAN harass the bigger botes, and have a lot of fun.
How about the Dhow? It moves as fast as the sloop but fires medium CB. It only fires one per side per round but it's better than a sloop.
Unfortunately, this article is getting a little out-of-date. When it was originally written, ships such as the dhow, baghlah, and longship did not exist. Dhows are certainly suitable alternatives to a sloop for pillaging if you need a slightly larger boat. That said, in my (admittedly limited) experience with dhows, I find that they're difficult to keep from getting soggy when you take damage.
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