Blood & Plunder - Factions

In my last post about Blood & Plunder, I mentioned that there are 4 nations of 2 factions each. What are these factions, one may ask. Ask no more, I will make everything clear (or clearer, at least. No murkier than a dark and foggy night)

The 4 nations are Spanish (of course, the Caribbean and associated coast lines were called the Spanish Main for a reason), English, French and "unaligned" (a mix of mostly french and english that doesn't really care about the politics of nations). 

A quick word on force composition: each faction have Core Units and Support Units. You can only ever have a maximum of half as many Support Units as you have Core Units. While each faction within a nation have more or less different Core Units, they can usually have the Core Units of the other faction as Support Units, thereby allowing you to easily expand your collection to contain two different forces, that may play surprisingly different.

While the game hasn't been out long enough for a true and tested theory of how the different factions work to be formed, and I have not been able to play enough games to get a solid grasp of everything (yet!), some things can be gleaned. I will now try to use this incomplete knowledge to summarise the different factions.

Spanish Lanceros. Image by Firelock Games

The Spanish generally have cheap models, allowing you to field large forces, but at the price of each model not having as much equipment as their english or french counterparts. Their gunpowder is poor, which occasionally causes problems for units armed with pistols or muskets, and they're the only ones currently to field a unit with no ranged weapons at all (the Lanceros, farmers and hunters armed with machetes, knives and lances. They're lethal if they manage to actually use these). Also, they have a tendency to, if given the upper hand in a fight, grab hold and not letting go until they've won. Most of their units are specialised to one degree or another. 

They can be fielded as either Spanish Militia, protecting one of the many spanish settlements in the Caribbean (or invading their neighbours), or as Guarda Costa, the coast guard. The coast guard might not sound overly exciting, but when your superior is of the opinion that any ship transporting goods made, mined or grown "here" and not flying your flag is an obvious smuggler, and any settlement not flying your flag is equally obviously illegal, things quickly get exciting.

English Freebooters. Image by Firelock Games

In contrast with the Spanish, the English field fewer, more expensive models that have more and better equipment. Their units are more generalist to the spanish specialists (with the exception of their sailors, English Sea Dogs are artillerymen par excellence), and their signature unit, the Freebooter excels at both long and close range shooting, while still not being completely useless once the powder is expended and it's time for swords. When they get to melee, the English seem to be characterised by toughness, they're both more likely to avoid being killed, and to stay put and give it back when they do take a hit.

The English can come as either Militia, who, just as the spanish equivalent, defend their settlements, and occasionally invade their neighbours to preemptively defend their settlement, or they can come as Buccaneers, sailors always willing to assault and capture spaniards wherever they find them (usually under a letter of marque, most often but not always from the english crown or their duly appointed governors of the Caribbean). Interestingly enough, they can have a few french units as Support, as French and English were quite willing to cooperate against the Spanish in the Caribbean (as long as France and England wasn't at war, at least, and possibly even then).

French Boucaniers. Image by Firelock Games

The French, the last of the "real" nations, will most likely field even fewer models than the English, with expensive, but well equiped and trained specialists. The only thing better than a unit of Boucaniers at long range combat, is a cannon (and using artillery for long range is kind of cheating). But if those same Boucaniers are forced into melee combat, they're moderately boned. As a rule of thumb, the French will hit hard, but they can't really take it in return and will rely on never giving the opponent the chance to fight back effectively (games between spanish and french will be... interresting, in every sense of the word).

As the English before them, they can come as Militia (Caribbean Militia, technically) defending (preemptively or not) their settlements, or Buccaneers for the more navally inclined. Just as the English Buccaneers can have French units supporting them, the French Buccaneers can have English units in Support, for much the same reason. Do note that the French Caribbean Militia is not available in the book, but can be downloaded from Firelock Games' homepage.

Flibustiers. Technically French, but can be used by the Undivided.
Image by Firelock Games

Finally, there is the "Unaligned", folks who pledge to no nation but mostly want to live their lives (and make money, peace is optional). They field a combination of English and French units, as well as a few spanish ones. This means that they have mostly expensive(-er) units, but they have the option of making these cheaper, but worse. They do have a good mix between specialists and generalists, allowing players to tailor their force as they want, to a certain degree.

They're also available as "militia" and "sailors". The militia is Logwood Cutters (available on Firelock Games homepage), basically the lumberjack version of poachers (Logwood is both a thing, and was apparently insanely valuable). The sailors are the Brethren of the Coast, pirates who, while more than willing to attack the Spanish under whatever letter of marque they can find, aren't too bothered about the details, nor over whom they actually attack and plunder.

As an addendum, there are special 3 factions (one each for Spain, England and France), that are defined by their commander. The short version is that each nation have a Legendary Commander, and each Legendary Commander can field a force special for something he did. There is Manuel Rivero de Pardal for the spanish, who can field the Corsairos de Pardal, which can be summarized as even cheaper and more plentiful spanish sailors (excellent for crewing the larger ships cheaply). There is Henry Morgan (yes, Captain Morgan, as in the rum), with his Morgan's Buccaneers, basically a slightly mixed up version of the ordinary Buccaneers, but with more Militia (soldiers) and less sailors. And finally, there's Francois L'Olonnais (real name Jean David Nau) and the Flibustier Nau, French Buccaneers with a few limits on the actual sailors, but utterly Ruthless.

Commanders, both normal and Legendary, will get a bigger look at in an upcoming post, as will the different nations once I've managed to get in enough games to get to know them.