Blood & Plunder: No Peace Beyond the Line

As one can guess from the headline, the kickstarter for the first expansion of Blood & Plunder, No Peace Beyond the Line, has launched. And was funded in 79 minutes (I did say it would be less than 12 hours... and that was in case they had a truly ambitious funding goal). It has since then merrily trundled along and is slowly gathering up stretch goals.

Image by Firelock Games.

So, what's included in the kickstarter? Well, the main draw is the two new major "nations", the Dutch and the Native Caribbeans, and of course an expansion book with various new and interresting ways to play the game. There are also new generic miniatures and forces, that can either be used to expand one of the other nations, or as their own forces as stand in for any of the minor nations that haven't yet gotten their own rules.

Everything I say within this post, especially when trying to describe the new stuff, is to be taken with a grain of salt, since it's mostly rumours, hearsay and the impressions I've gotten from when the good folks at Firelock Games have been writing about it, and can of course be changed between now and release date. So it might be completely wrong, but I don't think so.

Image by Firelock Games.

First of, the ones that initially had me the most excited: the Dutch. These will be available as "sailors" and "militia", just as most other nations, and will presumable be focused in a similar way between "mostly land-based" and "amphibious". Rumour has it that they will be sailors beyond all others, even the "land-based" versions, and will excel at close to very close range, and/or be a very resilient force.

The dutch will not only be available as a separate nation, but can also be used as allies with the French, the English, or, as Ostenders, with the Spanish. And units will of course be available for the unaligned.

Image by Firelock Games.

The other new "nation" is the Native Caribbeans. The indigenous population of the Caribbean islands did not go down without a fight, and were in fact known to swim out to passing ships, intending (and surprisingly often, succeeding at) taking it. They will not have as much staying power as their european enemies, but will instead rely on ambushes, skirmishing and fading into the jungle once things go tough. They have limited access to modern equipment, such as firearms, and can only field smaller boats (the largest being the Piragua, also launched with this kickstarter). To compensate, they'll be the only ones capable of swimming (meaning they can move models through deep water).

Just as the Dutch, they will not only be fieldable as their own force, but also taken as allies with the various other nations.

Image by Firelock Games.

Finally, there is the new generic forces. First of these is the European Land Forces, with a mix of musketeers, cannon crew (and a cannon on a field carriage) and cavalry. These will mostly be useful with various land forces, since neither horses nor guns on field carriages will be all that useful on a ship. That said, nothing has so far prevented the "sailing" factions to field land armies, so they might find a fair bit of use surrounded by sailors.

Image b y Firelock Games.

 And then there is the Pirates and Privateers, with sailors, sailors armed with muskets, sailors armed with blunderbusses, sailors armed with explosives, and sailors servicing a cannon. One can kind of detect a theme with this force...

Both of the generic forces can either be fielded as their own force (European Land Force or Pirates and Privateers, depending on your inclinations), or seamlessly integrated into the already existing nations (I assume the Dutch are included in this, but not the Native Caribs). When fielded by their own, they will serve as one of the minor players of the Caribbean, such as the Portugese (though these could feasibly be represented by the Spanish), Prussians, or (and this is where I get excited for real), the Danes or the Swedes (!!).

Image by Firelock Games

There will also, of course, be new ships. The Piragua, mentioned above, is the smallest ship, with only a single deck and minimal armament (well, more than a longboat, but not even close to what real ships could bring to bear). It was used by the natives, but also by pirates and privateers, who favored it for its small size (making it harder to hit) and agility, especially around islands).

On the other end of the scale, there is the massive Galleon. Built by Spain and the wet dream of plunder for any pirate, these huge ships will be, in scale, more than half a meter in length, with 4 decks and a devastating 14 cannon broadside. Approach with caution.

Finally, the Fluyt is of middling size, at least compared to the ginormous Galleon. Of course, middling size compared to a Galleon still isn't all that small, and it appears to be of comparable size to the larger ships currently offered by Firelock Games, the Brigantine and the Light Frigate. And believe me, that still isn't small.

Image by Firelock Games.

Since the kickstarter's managed to reach $100,000, canoes will also be made available as an even smaller boat, supposedly even smaller than the longboats currently available (but more robust).

There will also be a grand total of 5 new Legendary Commanders, for both old and new nations.

• Laurens de Graff for the French
• Captain Kidd for the English, and can also be used by the Unaligned
• Juan Corso for the Spanish
• Piet Heyn for the Dutch
• King Golden Cap for the Caribs

Sadly, not much is currently known about how they will act and interact with their forces and the game.

And finally, because I am utterly amazed at how mindboggingly huge the Galleon is:

Image by Firelock Games.

Those tiny little specks on the decks are 28mm figures... I have no idea how to transport this once I've got it and it's painted (because of course I'm getting the galleon), but that problem will have to be solved.

/Fool Out, time to find out if there existed any Scanian pirates