I got another game of Blood & Plunder in, and hopefully, I can tell its story (it was a bit hot when we played, so memory might be faulty and overheated, as can the pictures). But it was a 200 point game, first one in a bit too long for me.
I wasn't fully prepared, but wanted to try out something fancier than the usual Experienced (or Untested) Commander. And I wanted to try out the frenchmen, because I haven't used them in too long. So what would be fancier than Francois L'Olonnais (he of the many mispronounciations)? (well, maybe Laurens de Graff, but I haven't painted him yet, and there were one other thing I wanted to try out...)
End result:
Flibustier Nau
L'Olonnais (also known as Hollandaise)
6 Flibustier
7 Flibustier
(the main fighting force, being good at pretty much everything... if they survive)
4 Engagés
4 Engagés
(and some cheap support for the Flibustiers)
11 Marins with
- 3 Blunderbusses,
- Grenadoes
- a Grizzled Veteran
(these are interresting. A Fight Skill of 5, Hard Chargers, Ruthless, and enough Firepower to put some fatigue on whatever they're charging first, if they have enough actions... means 11 angry sailors hitting on 3+)
Up against me were some Black Caribs (all converted from various plastic kits)
Seasoned Southern Tribes Commander
4 African Warriors with bows
4 African Warriors with bows (these two will be referred to as the bowmen)
8 African Warriors with Pistols (pistoleers)
8 African Warriors with Muskets (musketeers, accompanied by the commander to remove Slow Reload)
6 Native Warriors
- Veterans
- Throwing Weapons
Scenario was Rescue, with the Black Caribs defending ("they've captured some poor merchant and are going to do unspeakable things to him. We must stop them, he's ours to do unspeakable things to")
A nice village in the middle, with Africans (and natives) spread out in it, most of them in the biggest house.
In total, the big house had 4 out of 5 units, with the musketeers (and commander, and merchant) on the balcony, archers in the upstairs room, Native Warriors downstairs and pistoleers in the covered entrance.
The last unit of bowmen were up on the roof of another building nearby, having an excellent view of the area.
The frenchmen were split (to prevent the Caribs from just running away), with some Flibustiers and their servant Engagés coming in from the "north"...
The southern Engagés gets the honour of opening the firing, with a salvo into the bowmen in the big house... and 3 out of 4 hits. They're even within 12", so they get Ball & Shot on those, although the shot fails to do any more hits.
Then the Flibustiers follow up, and eager to not be overdone by their servants, get another 3 hits (and more chances for Ball & Shot).
Suffice to say, that unit of bowmen weren't a problem any more after that salvo.
The Black Caribs spent most of turn one getting rid of the Fatigue generated by L'Ollonais "Terror" special rule. And then, on turn two...
Thirsting for vengeance, the pistoleers charge through the house and into the Flibustiers with the hated L'Ollondaise.
Their pistols firing, there isn't much left of the Flibustiers afterwards. But H'Ollondaise isn't that easy to kill, he jumps over to the Marins with a Fortune Point...
And then leads them into a countercharge where everything goes of as intended. Blunderbusses and pistols leave the pistoleers on 2 fatigue (and somewhat fewer than before), and the the sledgehammer of 12 attacks hitting on 3+ arrive.
The end result is a red smear among the crops.
The rest of the turn is spent maneuvering. The Black Carib Musketeers move down as the Native Warriors move out to deal with the northern flank.
The northern Flibustiers countermove to deal with the Warriors.
And the northern Engagés move in to start a longrange firefight with the bowmen who have harried their southern brethren (essentially preventing that unit from ever doing anything useful again by making them shaken every now and then).
And then it was Turn 3.
The northern Flibustiers do what they do best, going in close and blasting things away with Ball & Shot. Only two Native Warriors are left. But these swiftly rally, and tries to get vengeance...
... Only to be shot down by the pistols of the (thought to be unloaded) Flibustiers... oops?
The Black Carib Musketeers goes the other way, and charge into the (actually unloaded) northern Engagés. Amazingly enough, they manage to stay alive and not too badly shaken.
Turn 4!
Doing a swift about turn, the northern Flibustiers rushes to their servants' aid (as do the Marin sledgehammer, but they're just a bit too far away).
Getting pounded from two directions by angry frenchmen that seem just a bit to insistent, the Black Caribs run away, and then finally fails a Strike Test.
Victory for the Hollandaise and his angry frenchmen, with surprisingly few casualties.
A few things I took away from this game:
-The Black Caribs, while potentially nasty, can get beaten, and quite well at that. Still, the list seem to work, which is good (since I designed it in large parts for my friend).
-L'Ollonais is fun with all his many special rules (and I even forgot one of them, should have had a fourth Fortune Point... that I never would have needed).
-As are Ruthless Marins with blunderbusses. They worked exactly as expected, I will have to paint up some of these "for real", instead of using dutchmen and a few copies of "Comment Parler Français".
-Engagés were surprisingly good for their points, almost like the English Militia I have had the "joy" to encounter a few times. Cheap enough to not care too much about (and wasting resources on killing them is almost always non-optimal), but annoying enough that they can't quite be ignored. I will have to paint a few of these as well, although dutchmen can serve for now.
-Ball & Shot is an actually useful rule, and not just something fluffy and nice to read. I think I rolled more 10s at short range this game than all my other games combined...
-French Buccaneers (and offshoots like Flibustier Nau) are fun to play, I need to do it more often. Perhaps time to give the Dutch a break.
/Fool Out.
