General description:
In Pirates of the Frozen North the choice of named crew is very limited: just two for each standard faction (and the Viking ones are not that much better). This was disappointing for me, at least until I noticed this German guy: the ability is quite new, quite unique (unless I'm mighty mistaken), and very useful! The cost is standard, at four points we could build an interesting strategy around him!
Uses:
It seems simple: check the enemy ship’s plunder and choose an unique treasure of your likings. It’s plain we want Jeremy only in heavy UT games, especially when we put one we want badly! Besides he has an interesting side effect: revealing treasure on ships, he shows which ones are worth hunting! He might be a key crew, or simply a spy to be used as a bonus... There are lots of possibilities, each different.
Strategies and game play:
First I’d use this crew only in one-to-one matches, so that we don’t need to much time to get to the chosen victim... What's more, with a single opponent we have a limited control on the treasures in game: the more the opponents, the less the chances of getting the UTs I put in!
part from this, the main need here is speed: speed to reach the target, speed to get back home, speed to avoid enemies!
Combos with other miniatures:
Placing Jeremy Rothschild on the right ship can be more tricky than it seems. First of all don’t even think of using his first link: PotFN HMS Granville is a slow tank with no cargo space and a suicide vocation, good only against large ice packs (hey, that would be a good scenario indeed: not icebergs, but a broad ice-shelf that needs to be broken in order to reach the treasure!). The other, BC HMS Granville (yes, there are two of them) comes from Barbary Coast: she’s a crew-killer fighter, with decent speed and good cargo... Might prove a good pick after all, but in my opinion she’s too slow to take full advantage of Jeremy’s services.
But let’s keep to the topic... As I was saying, we need some specific characteristics:
- Very good speed to reach our opponent’s treasure haulers (I wouldn’t consider anything under a base of S+L);
- A cargo space that let us to carry some other crew, and of course the stolen UTs (in this regard First Mate Ismail, with his extra cargo space, might prove a very close friend of Jeremy’s);
- If possible a special ability that allows us to maximise our touch-and-steal tactics.
I will examine some possible combos, in order of speed.
S+S+S+S: HMS Gibraltar + Helmsman + Ismail. Lightning fast Home Island raider, 2 cargo spaces, 21 points. Good as key ship in heavy UT games, where we know there are high point treasure coins around. In case we are after something really special (Sunken treasure, 7 points coins...) we might invest another cargo and 3 more points to buy Sir Christopher Myngs as well: a SAT (same action twice) can boost HMS Granville and Jeremy to a S+S+S+S+S+S+S+S movement! That’s 18 inches (or 45 cm if you prefer)! If we really want to maximize this ship a good investment might be the Limit crew as well: at no cost we can link BC Commodore Rhys Gryffyn Owen to Myngs to get a reroll and that SAT 2/3 the times...
S+L+S: HMS Lady Provost + Helmsman + Explorer + Ismail . Here’s a good treasure runner with a thief attitude. At 24 points we have 4 cargo spaces, and again a HI raider ability. After the Islands are explored we might leave the Explorer ashore to improve our cargo space, and keep digging treasure until we decide to try and steal something!
S+S+S: BC HMS Granville + Helmsman. Cheaper solution (17 points) for a fast all-purposes ship: 3 clean cargo spaces, good long cannons, crew-killing ability. Not my choice to build my strategy around, here Jeremy is more of a bonus in case fortune smiles. With the addition of a Captain we could have a good secondary gunship to spy out the best victims for our main one!
- What about the best UTs to use? That’s too a wide subject to discuss here... In case I decided to rely on plundering and stealing (here my picks would be Gibraltar, some Gunships and Divers), and leave WIs alone, I would throw in as many UTs as I can, being careful to choose ones I can recover and use, or nasty ones for my opponent’s treasure ships! From PotFN I would use (and in case try and recover) Runes of Death, Runes of Defence, Runes of Loki and Thor, Runes of Wealth... For other ideas on UTs please add your on the discussion!
Ways to counteract it:
Negators and crew-killers are the standard defence against annoying crew...
Otherwise using a good UT as soon as possible might leave Jeremy with nothing to steal.
Strengths/Pros:
Good, and original ability.
Fair price
Weaknesses/Cons:
In order to be activated Jeremy needs to touch the other ship. This in many cases means ram. After ramming there’s boarding...
Many interesting UTs can be revealed and used immediately after loading...
Artwork and aesthetics:
With his moustaches and his white fur hood Jeremy looks exactly what he is: an angry raider from the North!
Overall rating:
High marks here! 9/10, but more for the chances of new game tactics than for the ability in itself.
Miniature Trading
