The small brown thing on top, is a Blood & Plunder Longboat, something that most players of B&P should be familiar with. There's also a 50 cl bottle of soft drink, for further scale comparison. Little might not be quite the right word to use here...
Spoiler: it's my pledge for the Blood & Plunder: No Peace Beyond the Line kickstarter (IT'S HERE! IT'S FINALLY HERE!). For further comparison, I apparently hadn't thrown away my box from the initial kickstarter, so here it is. Looks surprisingly tiny next to the new one, and that one was shock full of goodies.
It's a well packaged box as well, with only a little bit of dead space (you're free to imagine an excited fool jumping in place while looking over all this).
First out is the magnificent-looking collectors edition of the rulebook and expansion. A true old-timey feel, and gorgeous to look at.
And not exactly small either. At first, the pages looked thick, but once I dared to open it and look, they were surprisingly thin (further enhancing the feel of "old-timey bible"). I know that if I'm ever a judge in a Blood & Plunder tournament, I will carry this and dress almost like an old priest, dispensing the word of God...
I did of course also get the normal version of the book. Awesome cover, and lots of great stuff in it. Possibly too much great stuff, because I don't know where I want to start...
It doesn't exactly help that I ordered "one of everything", all four starter sets (two Pirates & Privateers, because you always need more sailors), as well as two canoas, a Piragua, cards for all of these, some random small stuff...
And of course a Fluyt (can't have Dutch without a Fluyt). This ship looks very nice, and kind of cute due to being wider at the base than on top (as a Fluyt should be).
There is also the "freebies" of various characters and new, fancy dice.
First up, the "Blood" and "Plunder" dice. I'm not sure about the Blood dice, it seems awfully dark, but I will have to test it out some before I'm certain (and if that's the case, there's an easy fix that any modeller should be capable of doing).
Here's also the five legendary characters introduced with NPBTL: Juan Corso, William Kidd, Piet Heyn, Laurens de Graff, and King Golden Kap. If they're half as good as the special characters Firelock has released so far, they will be a joy to paint (and from what I've looked so far, they're possibly even better than the original ones).
There are also various neutral characters: merchants, pilots, courtesans and guides. Three of each, since I went for the big pledge.
And the kickstarter exclusive, the female sailor. She looks utterly gorgeous, would be eminently suitable for Anne Dieu-Le-Veut, Mary Reed, Anne Bonney, or any other of the few female sailors and pirates there were, I love her, and I don't know if I'm good enough to do her full justice.... Painter's anxiety is a thing. Thank Firelock that I have several of her.
Of course, there's also the April Fools Joke turned local Meme turned into public demand turned into running joke: the Monkey with a Blunderbuss. Seen here in Firelock's interpretation: an old Mayan statue with blunderbuss leaned next to it and a local monkey on top...
Finally, there is the crown jewel, the mother of it all... well, Firelock really puts it in their order sheet:
It's not just "a" Galleon. It's The Galleon. and the capitalized definite article is certainly warranted.
I will have to admit, when I pulled it out of the box, after having cleared away everything else, my first thought was "wasn't it supposed to be bigger?". Yeah, I know. Well, let's put it next to the longboat and bottle again, to get a sense of it.
Oh, wait, not that small after all. It is just a tad longer than my forearm... It is in fact humongous. Not just long, but also tall and wide (which is probably what initially fooled me, combined with not putting it next to everything else). For a further comparison, all the miniatures shown above are on her. At the same time... I can't wait to start painting her.
And you even get a choice of decorations. Either saints and the weapons of the Spanish royalty, for a Spanish galleon, or lions and a shield if you want it to be english-built instead.
To be put in the stern, where there's a nice flat surface for it (and you can probably squeeze in the name as well).
I'm having a surprisingly hard time deciding which option to go with. I might just have to get a second one (yes, I am somewhat insane, why do you ask), so that I can have one of each. Both options look so very crisp and shiny.
I will also have you know, that I've found myself laughing (and giggling) over how utterly gigantic the Galleon is, ever since I wrapped my head around it (putting it next to my equally unpainted Frigate helped...).
/(A giggling) Fool out.
