Blood and Plunder – New Activity and AAR
Blood and Plunder, a very well liked game here in these parts of Minnesota, hasn’t been seeing a lot off time on the game table. Frankly as a community up here in Minnesota things have been more than a bit dormant and while a game or two would pop up now and again, we just haven’t been good advocates for it until there was that fateful Facebook posting, you know the one, does anyone play Blood and Plunder near by …. you fill in the blank.
I’m sure you’ve seen those kinds of posts from time to time for games you care about, and the question to take to heart is what do you do about it? At a minimum responding and saying “I play and I’m located (your location here).” definitely helps and if luck is with you, maybe you’ll meet a new friend and get to play some games.
Locally what ended up happening was a new effort to get organized and promote Blood and Plunder games in Minnesota. First this resulted in the use of an existing discord server for Minnesota miniatures gaming having a Blood and Plunder as well as other Firelock games channel. The Minnesota Discord link is : https://discord.gg/U7vqZyDMRK This sparked various discussion and thankfully a number of people realized we’re not alone, we want to game, and with that games have started to happen.
Firelock DOES have their own discord server, so if you’re not in or nearby Minnesota, this is the one you want to join. : https://discord.gg/SVTkKNatAE
Getting connected to others who also want to play sure represents progress and what a time for it. Firelock did recently release 1.4 of their errata : https://www.firelockgames.com/dlc/#1583942412806-6f3d7125-7bc6
The game is in a really good spot after all, between Raise the Black, No Peace Beyond the Line, or even just the core set there are oodles of factions to choose from. Given the games wonderful support of land, sea or mixed battles, there is plenty of game play for the time period.
With the renewed interesting, thankfully it has born fruit, and the first in a series of game was played at the Dork Den in Mankato, Minnesota. The other game store is Gamez and More in Rochester, Minnesota, but I’m sure there will be some games getting together up in the Twin cities too.
Off to the force builder located at : https://forcebuilder.bloodandplunder.com
French Canadians vs Spanish
Now we don’t know what brought a New France Garrison down south and sometimes we don’t ask questions specially when there is treasure involved but that is exactly what happened. I put together a 300pt force, largely guided by the “Rule of Cool” with Louis de Buade de Frontenac as my leader. This brings Milice Canadienne and Companies Franches de La Marine as the core units.
The New France Garrison has the ability to:
“Once per turn, a single unit in this Force that is not Mounted or Assigned may take a free Move Action at the end of its activation. This action may not be used to initiate or move away from a Melee combat.”
Of course during the game I completely forgot to use it. Oh well!
For the 3o0 pts, I pulled in a couple of units of Compagnies Franches de La Marine both upgraded to Vets, and a couple of units of Milice Canadienne. The Milice Canadienne I really like for their ability to be Elusive (they like cover) and Scouts where they they move through rough terrain and not suffer from a -1″ movement penalty.
To round out the list, I added a light cannon as I’d just painted up a galloping gun with a unit of Miliciens Artilleurs and then a group of Braves.
The scene is set, the Canadians find themselves down in the tropics, and this time of year in Minnesota, who doesn’t want to be down in the tropics. The hulk on the beach may have a bunch of valuables, my French and Brian’s Spanish will figure out who gets to take it home. (Brian really does set a nice table, this scenery and his modeling skills are pretty amazing)
I set my light cannon up in the middle, with the Milice Canadienne on the left flank to enjoy the terrain and then the Marines are on the right flank figuring they’ll push through the rocks to get close to the boat. Brian sets a couple of units down on the beach, a units of peasants with bows nearest the rocks and then the rest higher up. He has a couple of units with pointy sticks, I’d rather not end up as kebobs.
A couple of exchanges of early fire, the cannon sorta forget to bring the grape shot but an early hit least takes out a single Spanish fellow. In the woods the Canadiennes and Braves move up but not too eagerly. The hope is to lure the Spanish into the woods and take them on one at a time.
Over on the far edge (IE top of the picture) the Marines have gotten into the rocks but Brian is answering with a hail of arrows. Louis is annoyed but they’ll have to be dealt with and quickly.
The Spanish leave put the bowmen behind on the beach, everyone else moves up on the hill. The Canadienne’s gulp in anticipation. The Braves fire from the edge of the woods at the Spanish militia on the edge, inflicting some shock and thinning them out a bit. But the fellows in the pointy sticks are starting to get organized.
My light cannon, a Warlord model of a galloping gun from the pike and shotte era, fits in quite well. The French artillerymen are probably a bit incorrectly dressed for the period, as they’re in F&I era uniforms but then again, it might be ok for this time. Something I need to research a bit more. Regardless the crew keeps blazing away and largely missing.
Over on the rocks Louis gets bossy laying a couple of volleys in the bowmen hiding in the rocks. Next the smaller group of Marines are command to give them the sharp end, which they do. Valuable time lost but it most be done.
They’re getting close to the ship now and with the scenario is someone is near to the ship unopposed it’s worth a strike point.
Meanwhile up on the hill the Canadiennes hold fast and the Braves take some fire losing some brave fellows. Probably not the best place to be they realize.
And to …. ram, the point home, this is what is coming at them. Brian seems unconcerned that the French might be on the booty before his Spanish, clearly he will press his advantage on the flank.
At this moment both of us are fairly close to being down a strike point do to losses. As the French have a smaller force, each loss hurts all the more.
The French gunners at this point were all, well we sorta forgot the grape shot, so, maybe next time we’ll be more effective when we get swarmed?
Getting to be about turn 4, the French marines having the confidence from ridding themselves of the petty Spanish bowmen, make their way to the ship. It’s long range shooting over the ship at this point to give their friends covering fire on the hill. Alas mostly ineffective, as you’d imagine, but Louis can smell the treasure. It will be his!
Brian’s Spanish make quick work of the Canadiennes and the Braves. Two deadly assaults through the woods which neither unit could effectively handle. Who knew, pointy sticks work really well. While both sides are at one strike point, it’s clear the momentum is with the Spanish. Question is, how much can they get done before the end at turn 6?
And with that we come to the final picture, the Spanish hoard clearly doing quite well sweeping aside all the French and allies in the woods. While the French Marines will take the ship, this flank is lost, but in the end it’s 2 strike points a piece.
A fun day and a great game for what looks to be resurgence of Blood and Plunder in the land of 10,000 lakes.