Blood and Plunder: Organized Play Kit

By Mitch Reed

One of the greatest things about Blood & Plunder is the rich historical background the game recreates. The early colonial Americas features some amazing stories that centered around some larger-than-life characters who still hold our imagination today. The team at Firelock brings this history to you with their organized play kit which features unique missions and characters in a linked narrative campaign which is available for free from the website. The campaign kicks off in February 1680 and culminates in January of the following year. The campaign focuses on the adventures of personalities such as John Coxon, Richard Sawkins and Bartholomew Sharp along with other colorful characters. The missions and leaders revolve around the famous South Sea voyage which was one of the most documented campaigns of the period. Players take the role of either the English Buccaneers (with French help) or the Spanish who are the target of the Buccaneers as they fought down the east coast of South American and into the Pacific Ocean.

It features six new missions into the world of Blood & Plunder that are meant to be played in chronological order and follows the key engagements of the thirteen-month campaign. The missions can be downloaded separately from the Firelock Games website; however, each battle has a dedicated webpage that details the history behind each battle. In fact, the history behind the whole South Seas campaign is well detailed on the Firelock webpage and the story of this amazing campaign drew me deeper into the history behind Blood & Plunder.

The campaign not only adds new and interesting characters to the game, but also gives players modified lists that from the original rulebook or the follow-on expansion book, No Peace Beyond the Line. Despite this link to actual historical events, players are allowed some flexibility in how they build their forces. Each of the game lists in this campaign has each player controlling about 200-points of forces which is the Army Scale for Blood & Plunder. Of the six missions in the kit, four are land battles and the other two take place on the high seas, which gives players the full experience of the game.

Each game also comes with a guide on how to design your table and feature special rules and features not found in the main rules which adds so much flavor to the game. Some of these special rules and conditions carry over the next game which is why the Organized Play Kit is a great linked narrative campaign that you and your gaming companions will really get into.

The Organized Play Kit is best used with the gamers at your local hobby shop where you can have fellow Blood and Plunder players sign up for the six games over a series of weeks which will culminate in the with the final battle in the sixth mission the Battle of Arica.

You can divide your local group into two groups, one which will play the English with other taking the role of the Spanish. After you play through the campaign, I recommend that the two groups switch sides and replay the campaign because the experience for each side is unique in each of the six missions. Another way to play is have each of the members of your gaming circle take over the role of one or more of the unique characters of the game and play only the games in which those historical figures took part in.

Yet another thing your group can do is to contact Firelock and see if you have a Quartermaster in your local area and have them arrange all of the fun. If you not have a Quartermaster near you, I recommend “gang-pressing” one since it does come with the chance at getting some plunder.

No matter how you decide to play the narrative campaign, I really suggest that you head to the Firelock Games website and download the material and get prepared to have some fun!