General description:
I found this ship while searching a decent gold-runner for my English fleet. To be honest, I never used treasure runners before: I play only English ships, and they are made for fighting, not for treasuring.
But this seemed promising: massive cargo space, good speed, thief ability made HMS Lady Provost worth a try... And she proved herself an invaluable companion for my gunships!
Uses:
In my opinion this is the best treasure runner of the whole Royal Navy. There are obviously better ones in other fleets, but not in the British.
Strategies and game play:
I use HMS Lady Provost with some gunships. While they do the dirty job and attract the attention of the enemy, she can steal your opponent’s highest coin.
I’ve seen this strategy used very seldom, and with good reason: it’s difficult and pays little. It must be done in the second part of the match, when good tokens are taken, and it requires perfect timing and surprise (if a guy lets you do this more than once he might as well rethink his strategy). So Lady Provost must mind her own business digging gold from wild islands (and she is pretty good at that) and wait. At the right moment, when that 7 gold token is safe on our opponent’s Home Island, she starts her death run (with a possible S+S+S+S+L+L movement it shouldn’t take long), grab the gold, and leave!
I know what you think: “why take so much trouble for a single coin?”.
There are good reasons to try: it’s fun, and it pays very much in psychological terms! An opponent robbed of his best prize will be angry, and make errors trying to recover it. Besides, in a low point game, a valuable token can really change the sort of a match!
Combos with other miniatures:
As for most treasure ships, you want an Helmsman and an Explorer on.
Beside this there are many things we can do (if we can afford to improve an already 16 points ship…):
- Adding First Mate Ismail brings the available cargo space to 5, enough to empty most Islands.
- Sir Christopher Myngs (or an equivalent, but I wouldn’t waste points in that, unless Myngs is busy already on your gunship…) could make Lady Provost move twice S+S+L. That’s about 40 cm (or 16 in) for you, almost half your regular playing mat! If I wanted to improve the odds, I would add Commodore Rhys Gryffyn Owen, for a free (in points and cargo terms) second roll, again had I no better uses for my Limited crew...
- This is a ship where a Shipwright might be useful as well: in combo with Myngs he could repair all the masts in a single turn.
- Hidden Cove, besides bringing you on the nearest wild island at the beginning of the game, could also save Lady Provost from angry gunships coming to defend their Home Island!
Ways to counteract it:
She’s a two masts. A couple of well aimed shots and she’s history.
Strengths/Pros:
Good speed;
Great cargo capacity (maximum available for an English ship);
The small size makes it easy for your opponent to forget how much she can load (eheheh…);
For what’s worth, she’s a Common, so you probably own her already, or can get one for a few pennies…
Weaknesses/Cons:
A two masts can hardly survive an encounter with your opponent’s average Gunner/Escort;
Symbolic cannons (I rather had two 5S ones and pay the ship a bit less);
A little expensive if compared to Pirates or Spanish average treasure haulers.
Artwork and aesthetics:
I like it! Two mast schooners have a good design, the Union Jack on the sail is really nice. And the black stripes near the masts give an overall impression of speed.
Overall rating:
7/10 For a good, solid gold runner.
Historical curiosity:
The actual HMS Lady Provost was a schooner indeed, she is recorded for fighting in the Battle of Lake Erie (Put-in-Bay), September 10th of 1813, one of the bloodiest naval actions of the war.
Miniature Trading
