Spruce up your Plunder: Accessories from Firelock Games

By Mitch Reed

As gamers we often know the basic requirements for the games we play; models, terrain and a rulebook. However, many games also require game aids that not only help you play, but they also add to the aesthetic experience of the game. Gamers often pride themselves on items like tokens, dice and decks, and with all of games’ in catalog, you have some excellent accessories to choose from.

On A Roll
Dice is a constant component for most of the games we play, not only do they determine actions like combat, they often can be used to track status of a unit or remind the player to take an action in a subsequent turn. Blood & Plunder and Blood & Valor uses a numbered d10 to figure the outcome of things like shooting and to see how successful a save is. While players can use any d10 they own, they would be missing on some great looking dice the Firelock produces. Not only do they carry unique dice for each of the major factions, they also have a d10 with a Skull and Crossbones icon instead of the number 10. I love their “Blood” dice which are a very nice shade of red.

Oak & Iron uses a d8 with unique characters in place of the numbers which it seems you can never have enough of.

Unit status tracking also uses special d6 which has icons instead of numbering. These come in two varieties, Fatigue Dice which tracks how much fatigue a unit as picked up during play and can be used for both Blood & Plunder and Blood & Valor. My rule for how many Fatigue dice you need is to have one for each unit on the table. The other set of dice you will need is the Dice Marker Set. These dice indicate your reloading status, unit posture and critical hits that your ship can take during a game. These dice are so crucial in game play, they quickly inform you of a unit or ship’s status and I feel they speed up gameplay quite a bit.
When Blood & Plunder first came out the status and fatigue dice were 14mm dice. However, many wanted smaller dice to not distract from a good-looking table, so a few months ago they re-cast all of their dice in 12mm which is the perfect size.
Clear the Decks

In Blood & Plunder, each player uses an activation deck to bid for initiative during each round or gameplay. While a standard deck of cards can be used, you would be missing out on some very cool looking cards. Each faction in the game has a unique activation deck with their national symbol or flag on the back of the card. The card front has some really neat artwork and if you look closely you do not have to go back to the rulebook to see which suit beats another suit. These cards also have how many activations your units have by quality level and the info on these cards makes activation determination quick and easy.
Unit and character card decks are not required for play; however, I find them so much easier to use than to refer to the rulebook all the time. Each card gives you all of the stats, special rules and info on each unit and character in the game. You can also use the upgrade cards in these decks to see what weapon or trait is applied to each unit. I like to have these cards laid out in front of me so I can keep track of who I activated during that turn and who is still alive on the table.
Not a Token Effort
Blood & Valor has its own token pack that has all the special tokens needed for tracking unit status and for activation bidding. I have found that the activation tokens make life so much easier in game play and the colored status tokens gives you a quick visual to see what is going on all over the table.
Blood & Plunder also has a template set which I find so useful when moving my ships and when hurling grenadoes at my enemy among other things.
Oak & Iron’s tokens come with the Core Box set, however you can upgrade your movement, wind and range templates to a deluxe set which comes in plastic. Since I know I will use these a lot, I got the upgrade, which also gives me an extra set of templates when I am giving a demo of the game.
Even More Plunder
The previous mentioned accessories are must purchases for all fans of Firelock’s games; however, they still have more accessories to enhance game play and to make your ships look even better. The Civilian Charter Set is a pack of miniatures I found myself using way more than I expected to and can really add some great capabilities of your units and ships.

Ship accessories have items such as fighting tops, a tiller and rigging for your ships which just adds to the wow factor of these great models.
Gamers like me love the cool “bling” that adds to effects of the game and in the case of many of these accessories they ease and speed up game play. I so not even want to think about having to play the game without these great add-ons.