Blood & Plunder Battle Report - Ostenders vs Buccaneers

Time for more Blood & Plunder action down at the club. This time, I'm fielding Ostend Privateers (technically Spanish, ut with significant Dutch representation, for a nice, flemish feel), up against the English Buccaneers who are swiftly becoming my most regular opponent (which is absolutely not a bad thing).

The scenario was a mix between Rescue and Escort, with the English Buccaneers having to guide a beautiful spanish senorita (kidnapped or "kidnapped", in either case she used the stats of a Captured Merchant) over the table, while the spanish privateers had to rescue her.

The initial deployment. The English have to get all the way over there, though not quite to the corner (since we had a 4'x4' battle field).

English deployment, with Forlorn Hope and Commander on the dominating hill, militia behind it, one unit of freebooters guiding the senorita, and the last one acting as advance guard

The English list:
Untested Commander
7 Forlorn Hope
2 x 5 Veteran Freebooters
7 English Militia

Most of the Ostenders deployed in a very cramped square, with the melee-centric units up front, and musketeers behind

Oh, and one sneaky unit of corsarios heading around the other way.

The "spanish" list:
Untested Commander
6 Zeelieden
6 Kapers
2 x 6 Corsarios
6 Marineros Piqueros

Both lists dialed in at exactly 150 points.

The first thing that happens, the Forlorn Hope charge off their hill and into cover behind the nearest shrubbery. And then they push for an extra action and release a volley of musketballs, shot and the mandatory grenade onto the Piqueros Marineros

Which result in two men going down before they know what's going on. Not an auspicious start, especially since there were only two hits.

The Piqueros are understandably miffed at this, and decide to countercharge, through the hedges for some cover.

Only for three of the four to be gunned down by swiftly drawn pistols, and the fourth one deciding that enough is enough and buggering off (with, I think 3 or 4 fatigue). Lets try that again. Zeelieden, charge!

Went much better, it helped that the Forlorn Hope now had two fatigue and thus couldn't do a defensive fire. Now they're tied up with Hard Charging(!), Ruthless(!!) sailors. I'm honestly amazed that only two died.

The rest of turn 1 consisted of maneuvering and long range volleys that achieved little. The Kapers beging to circle around their hill, to hopefully intercept the kidnappers (or "kidnappers") before they get away.

In the beginning of turn 2, the outflanking Corsarios turn up, trying to compensate for the suddenly disappeared Piqueros.

And I then proceed to draw not one, but two Event Cards.

Thankfully, I get away with the surprise and slightly sunnier weather. Could have been much worse.

First up, the Zeelieden proceed to draw their pistols and go to town on the Forlorn Hope in their close combat. Only two survive the fusilade of pistolshot, swords and axes, and proceed to run away in a most satisfying and permanent manner.

The rest of the english can only look on, mildly horrified, before trying to gun down the now very unprotected Zeelieden.

Said Zeelieden manage to get into cover before too many fall (only half of them...), and most of the rest of turn 2 is spent maneuvering...

With two exceptions. The newly arrived Corsarios goes on to prove that "elite" or not, spaniards shouldn't be trusted to hit the broad side of a barn (they fire and a unit of Veteran Freebooters, and of course miss with every shot).

And some too ballsy maneuvering on my part then accidentally sets up a golden opportunity. The Veteran Freebooters can mount their bayonets and charge around the corner, straight into my Corsarios (and Commander) before they can react. This is going to be painful.

It was painful, the corsarios take significant casualties, are shaken and fall back. The freebooters hold back and prepare to charge again. The corsarios barely have time to rally (thank you, 13 of spades, beating the 12 of spades of the english) before they're set on again. And this time, the Zeelieden are pulled in as well.

Of course, Zeelieden cares not one bit, and stand steady as rocks while the corsairs run away shaken. Again.

The Zeelieden the proceed to push back, making the Freebooters shaken in turn (despite they themselves being on 2 fatigue and not quite as spry as they seem).

As the last action in turn 3, the escorting freebooters push forward with their senorita, to get close to the middle point of the table and avoid a strike point. With the casualties the english are taking, and with their commander gone, strike points are becoming somewhat of a problem. But they succeed (so far).

And turn 4, it's my opponent who draws two event cards (first one, and then the replacement card is also an event)... which mostly just resets the weather. All in all, we had 4 events in this one game. I doubt it's possible to get more.

The Kapers see a golden opportunity, and rushes forward to charge the escorts 10" away (I am now bemoaning the fact that they pushed last turn to reload... spoiler: they will not get to fire their guns again this game). They're in a tenuous situation, but will hopefully be able to delay the escort for a vital turn, or perhaps I'll even manage to give them some reinforcement.

Most units who are able (the english militia, and the outflanking spanish corsarios) now rushes for the sudden, and pivotal, combat in the center of the table.

The final turn of the game. The Corsarios Command unit finally stops running around in circles and waving their hands over their heads, and advances towards the action again (much good that will do them...)

Meanwhile, the Zeelieden finish of those pesky Veteran Freebooters. Let's see how much use your pointy stick is now! Hah!

And in the center, where everything is set to be decided, a furious melee results in the escorting Veteran Freebooters being cut down to the last man by both Kapers and Corsarios, the beautiful senorita being rescued by some noble and handsome spaniards, while the English Militia is too late, and can only extract vengeance on the poor defenseless Kapers (who have two fatigue, and thus can't shoot back).

End result: the English have "way too many" Strike Points, the senorita has been rescued, and they are soundly trounced. Victory is mine.

With some hindsight, I will have to note that the two most impressive units have to be the cheapest ones. My Zeelieden held that flank quite well, wiping out two entire english units with only some command points for help. Meanwhile, the english militia did surprisingly well, being a constant thorn in the side that couldn't quite be ignored.

None of my other units behaved as expected. The Piqueros died doing almost nothing (although that one fatigue they caused the Forlorn Hope is what allowed the Zeelieden to charge home), instead of being the melee beasts I expected (they have Lancero stats, if not Lancero special rules). Meanwhile, my long range musketry (the Kapers) won me the game by charging, and my short range musketry/elite fighters (the Corsarios) played marksmen (and missed), ran around being fatigued and only barely managed to contribute (with that final charge-and-rescue)... Lesson to be learned: I think I need more Ruthless Zeelieden (or possibly try something similar with French Marins for L'Ollonais (to get that Ruthless).

The English had one major problem in that they lacked a suitable escort unit. The escort has to push forward, leaving little time for musketry. The Veteran Freebooters used were thus conflicted, and couldn't provide their full worth. Meanwhile, the Forlorn Hope would have invited being too ballsy, probably been isolated, and defeated in detail, and the English Militia wouldn't have been fast enough since they were only Inexperienced.

Since I'm planning on running a similar scenario during Easter, as an introduction to Blood & Plunder (always good to get new players, and Swedens largest gaming convention is here and then), I will have to do further poking, prodding, and balancing. Possibly reducing the distance that need to be covered, and making sure that any defending list has a suitable escort unit...

/Fool Out.

Blood & Plunder Battle Report - Natives vs Buccaneers

Time for an after-action report from my latest battle (alternative spoilery title: why you shouldn't bring a bow to a gunfight). Pictures are somewhat spotty because, as usual, I got distracted by trying to win (or at least eke out some consolation) and forgot to take pictures

I fielded my natives, using the Caribbean Tribes list:

Experienced Commander
6 Warrior Archers with Poisoned Arrows
2 x 4 Young Warriors
4 Warrior Musketeers with a Sharpshooter

Against them was English Buccaneers:

Experienced Commander
7 Freebooters
4 Forlorn Hope
5 English Militia

The scenario is Search and Recover, wiht 6 tokens spread evenly over the table.

Turn 1, most things move up, with some tendency to form lines.

The english battleline is standing steady

The natives are not so steady, especially after the Musketeers move a bit too close and wind up so that the Freebooters can move to within 12" and shoot. Only a single hit, but the save is failed, as is two of the three resolve tests (grumbling about The Sound of Thunder can begin now).

The english militia, so far a long way from any fighting.

Turn 2, Forlorn Hope moves up and fires as the Young Warriors. Two saves are failed, fortune rerolls and the dice come up 1, 2, 2... I manage to succeed at three out of five resolve tests, but two fatigue is enough for the last youngling to bugger off (more grumling about The Sound of Thunder).

The Musketeers are rallied by the chief, only to then be reduced to a single man with two fatigue in a similar way to the Youn Warriors. In Turn 3, the Warrior Archers and the Chief scamper off sideways, to hopefully not be as exposed to gunfire, and try to get some strike points back, because the natives are now up to two strike points, with only a few english having fallen to arrows.

The best option to get at the english is the militia, which are currently standing unloaded after some not too effective fire against the other unit of Young Warriors. They will soon get reduced by Warrior Archers charging through the forest, getting a valuable strike point back.

The english line turns, and the Freebooters gets a charge off against the Warrior Archers, who are only saved by Evade (and then promptly charge back in at the Militia, wiping them). Meanwhile, Young Warriors, after suffering two casualties from the Forlorn Hope, do a death-defying charge into them... only to be wiped out. The natives are now back at two strike points more than the english, and finally their resolve fails. The survivors scarper off, hoping for revenge another day.

In the end, the objectives didn't matter, the natives looked at two of them (neither of which was the wanted one), while the english ignored them in favor of charging forward and killing stuff.

All in all, two lessons can be learned here. 1, I shouldn't roll dice (failing 6 out of 7 saves and way too many resolve tests in the first two turns was... harsh.) and 2, we need more line of sight-blocking terrain. Ideally houses, but until then, we'll have to make do with hills and rocky outcrops.


/Fool Out

Blood & Plunder Frigate

After a bit too close to two years, she's finally ready to weigh anchor. My Blood & Plunder frigate is done.

Since I suspect that she will mostly be used as English, I decided to let english ships inspire her color scheme, with large areas yellow and smaller black (well, painted very dark grey, since few things are truly black) details.

And with the inside bulkheads being a very reddish brown (or possibly brownish red). The english did it to hide blood splatter during combat, I did it mostly because I had a nice color.

She's currently carrying a mix of light and medium cannons, with heavier ordnance to the rear. The cannons on the open mid-deck are attached with magnets and can be exchanged. The arrels sticking out of the gunports to aft and fore are solidly glued, but similar enough to be whatever I claim them to be (which may include "painted logs", when there's not a full broadside).

Sails are cloth, since the masts can be folded down when she needs to be transported (theoretically, at least... I have yet to actually try this feature).

Such a beautiful ship of course needs a name, and a name plate. Say hello, Virginia (something suitably english, but could also be spanish, if need be). And yes, that is two gun ports rearwards, that may or may not contain actual cannons, in case someone tries something silly.

All the flags, including the massive ensign to the rear, can be detached, both for transport and when she needs to fly other flags. My intentions are to have a full compliment of spanish flags for her as well, but I will wait to finish those until my galleon is finished, so as to not have lots of loose flags lying around (let's just hope that the galleon gets painted faster...)

/Fool out

New year and resolutions

At the beginning of the year, I posted a few new years resolutions at the facebook page of my local club. Since we've now hit the end of the year, I thought it could be amusing to see how these have managed to stand up.

• Paint two ships for Blood & Plunder

Well, I got a bit more than half way on this, the Brigantine Hermione is done, and I'm about half finished with the Frigate as well. The large ships are daunting simply by their size. And the fact that I only have one of each, and am not too used to painting ships, certainly doesn't help.

• Paint 125 ish sailors once the No Peace Beyond the Line kickstarter arrives

It arrived a bit later in the year than expected, but I've got 26 done with my natives. Next up is the 50 Dutchmen, which will soon get their time.

• Related to the above, paint three ships and 2 canoes for Blood & Plunder

The canoes are small, and thus easy and done. The bigger ships, I haven't even started with (although the Piragua is looking inviting)

• "Finish" my Norse Gaels for SAGA (where "finish" means "have 6 points painted and done").

This would be the first unequivocal success, they're done and ready, and I even managed to add some options to them.

• Paint 2 dedicated Frostgrave warbands, as well as treasures

This resolution was borne of the fact that I was getting tired of using my SAGA Vikings when playing Frostgrave, and is another success, although I'm slipping by here on a technicality. I've got two warbands painted, Cultists and Shieldmaidens (nevermind that I currently have two more shieldmaidens on the painting table, those are a pretty distraction with converting and painting something different). However, the initial idea was to paint the cultists (done) as well as a gnoll warband (current status: 10 assembled...) At least I went above and beyond on the treasures, with 4 ready to use, including one larger one.

• Paint a platoon for Chain of Command in 15mm (and decide for a nation and division for that platoon).

I'm not quite there. In the end, I decided on a panzergrenadier platoon from the 21st Panzer Division in Normandy (if only because of weird french vehicles). The core platoon has been finished, but it has exactly 0 support available (unless I scrounge some tank from my Flames of War germans... and then it would be the wrong division markings). I could try to argue that the platoon I painted for a friend should count for this, but we all know that if it isn't left with you, it doesn't count.

• Reduce the amount of unpainted 15mm tanks

This has been more of a running resolution, but I've painted up several platoons of british tanks, as well as a few germans, so some advances has definetely been made, my "to paint" shelf is now less than half full of 15mm tanks, where it was all full at the beginning of the year.

• If time and money allows, build and paint a platoon for Chain of Command in 28mm

Suffice to say, time and money did not allow. Then again, this was very much something cool to do if I didn't get distracted by other stuff.

• If I get a 28mm platoon, create a wargaming table for them

Follow-up of the above. Since that one didn't get done, this one oviously failed as well.


Of course, this isn't everything I've painted. I tried to keep to the list, but I'm me, and I suffer from a severe case of Wargamer Attention Deficit... ooh, shiny! Two major things stand out.

First, I painted a SAGA warband of dwarves (excellent now that Age of Magic is inbound)

Secondly, I've discovered The Ninth Age (5 second explanation: old Warhammer Fantasy, now handled by the fans with focus on balance instead of selling newest and shiniest models), which gave me all the push I needed to get Warlord Games Landsknecht. A few of those have been painted. Many more to come. In fact, I should probably do a review of the Landsknecht, they're some very nice kits. And useful for both historical and not-so-historical stuff.

Of course, while the old year is gone, the new year is just about to start. And it was both fun and useful to have a list of stuff to paint, so I'm going to put out a new list here.

Fool in a Hat's New Years Painting Resolutions for 2019

• Paint the rest of the No Peace Beyond the Line kickstarter
• 50 Dutchmen
• 40 generic europeans (which will be distributed among my other forces... don't know which yet)
• a Piragua
• the Fluyt "Amelia"
• the Galleon "Santa Barbara de Nicomedia"
• My Blood & Plunder Natives need reinforcements. Get those, paint them
• Finish my Blood & Plunder Frigate (this one should be easy, at least...)
• Once the other B&P ships are finished, get a Bark (tentatively named Lydia) and paint it.
• Frostgrave
• The gnolls I didn't manage to get done 2018. Aiming for 20 fellows, with useful armaments for both normal Frostgrave and Ghost Archipelago
• The all-female warband from the latest release of plastic female soldiers (all assemled already)
• At least three winter-themed treasures (all I have so far are very obviously summer/tropically themed).
• Various monsters from Maze of Malcor
• Chain of Command (in 15mm)
• The 21 Panzer Divison  platoon really needs some support. Get to it.
• Get them some opposition: a british rifle platoon (with support)
• Concurrently to the above, paint more 15mm tanks. Try to clear out the "to paint" shelf, then get started on the "to build" piles and whatever else I have scattered around.
• Finish up an understrength company of canadian Sherman tanks (5 to go, but they need to be assemled as well)
• Oathmark is set to release heavily armored dwarves. I will need at least one box of 30.
• Paint up more Landsknecht (there is a list)
• Perry Miniatures are releasing Agincourt mounted knights. Get them, assemble them, paint them. Possibly as a second army for The Ninth Age.
• If the fellows at the club get their Napoleonics going, I will probably have to join in. For that, I need to decide on what regiment of redcoats to paint.
• Time and money permitting, I'll try to get a wargaming table of my own.

This is a dire list, and I must admit to not thinking I will get done with everything. Still, it gives me a plan, and I might just surprise myself (or I will get distracted by some new game...) At the very least, it should keep new purchases to a minimum.

Feel free to share your own new years painting resolutions.

Happy new year
/Fool Out

Blood & Plunder - Native Americans

I have finally painted up the first part of my Blood & Plunder: No Peace Beyond the Line kickstarter. I decided to start with something "simple and easy" and also different, namely the native americans. Knowing Firelock Games, these are modelled on what is known about one or two specific tribes from the Caribbean, but my knowledge of such is essentially non-existent. Suffice to say, the models are very nice, and of the usual detail I have come to expect from Firelock.

First up, what is sold as Young Warriors (initially labelled as Maweiyan Awuribuhati, which I have no idea how to pronounce and would prefer to not spell again), armed with bows. I will be fielding these as two units (possibly later expanded to 6 strong each), siply because of how bows work in Blood & Plunder (they're excellent for adding fatigue to enemy units, but less useful for actually killing stuff). Optionally, I might field these as Warrior Archers as an option, for when I have need for more such.

These are then the official Warrior Archers (with an initial label of Awuribuhati, which has the same problems as the Young Warriors above). Here, I've gone with one larger unit since they will most likely be (one of) my main melee units when such is needed. I can also use them as the chiefs' unit, and thereby get more extra elite warriors.

If I am fielding the Young Warriors as Warrior Archers, these will serve as ordinary Warriors instead (armed with bows, and possibly other upgrades), giving my force more of a melee punch (and a unit that I wont fear will fold at a wet sneeze in melee).

Some natives got their hands on muskets, giving a bit more punch to the force. Not as good as european musketeers, these still have some nice special rules (such as being almost impossible to hit when more than 12" from their foes, while still being able to shoot back). And they're still the only way to get a decent shooting weapon for the natives. These of course also had a thematically appropriate name that I can't quite get my head around: Dúdutu Mutu...

The final unit isn't strictly native to the americas, but instead represent some of the many africans who found themselves unwillingly on the wrong side of the sea. Getting away from their white overlords, many of these joined with native tribes and integrated, gladly taking up arms in times of conflict. The thematic name would be Aginene Awuribuhati.

Finally, we have the leader(s) of the force. One generic commander, in loincloth and not much else (as are most natives) and one representing the historic figure of King Golden Cap.

All in all, a nice little force, I will definetely have to get another starter box of these (especially since I can't quite field 200 points with only these fellows). I might also have to investigate some better way to take my photos of these, they seem awfully dark (the force is not nearly as dark in real life)

Of course, natives were quite famous for their canoes, so I can't have natives without canoes. Only two for now (once again, something I might have to get more of, especially since canoes can be useful for other forces, and even other games, as well).

I went with relatively simple decorations for the canoes. First one only have  two red lines along it (and a few passengers to show general size).

Second one instead got blue paint at the fore and stern. Usually, canoes were easy to make, and didn't always get any decorations at all (which certainly makes them quicker to paint)

/Fool Out

SAGA - Norse-Gaels

Finally finished another SAGA warband (Well, they've been finished for some time, but I got around to taking pictures of them). This time, a mix between vikings and irish (and irish vikings) who've settled around the irish sea: the Norse-Gaels. Most known for founding Dublin and settling on the Isle of Man (which remained under the norwegian kings until the 13th century).

The main force will, as is common in SAGA, be ordinary warriors. Some of these Bonnachts will be norsemen, or of norse descent, and armed with great dane axes.

Others will be irish, or favouring their irish descent, and use javelins instead.

In either case, these are all free men called to arms by their chieftain or jarl.

There are also the thralls (levies in SAGA terms), who don't get a choise in the matter. Currently, these will be fielded with 4 additional models to the last warrior unit, but when I get back to expanding my Norse-Gaels, there will be a dedicated levy unit (or possibly two).

There is also the hearthguards, loyal men to the jarl and often norse themselves. As with most viking societies, these men would have the best maille they could get, often swords as well as dane axes.

In compensation, they were expected to always be ready to protect their leader, with their lives in necessary.

And then there is of course the leader himself. Often the jarl, although it could be a more local chieftain, he held his position and the loyalty of his men by gifts as well as force. Here seen holding up the head of a recently defeated foe (I started on this model in SAGA v1, when Norse Gaels had a "challenge" mechanic which this would be eminently suitable for. But he's too good to be removed just because that has changed).

All in all, a nice little warband, but currently somewhat limited in how it can be fielded, just barely hitting the standard 6 points, with a choice between a unit of levies or an extra unit of warriors. I will most likely expand these next year, but the fact that more than three quarters of them has some kind of green stuff (mostly cloaks and similar) or kitbash (two-handed axes are surprisingly rare in plastic) in them delays it somewhat. The fact that I've recently recieved a lot of "other" stuff might delay it further...

/Fool Out.