Blood & Plunder - Dutch Navy painted

We're taking a short break from the usual battle reports (because I'm busy gearing up for the convention of the year here in Sweden, Gothcon... there will be a Blood & Plunder demo table, look for Yggdrasil Figurspelsförening if you're there, and say Hej). Instead, here's a showcase of my recently painted Dutch Navy.

They're a bit low on ships, but I'm sure I can "borrow" some from the spanish...

The crew is the better part of two boxes. Delightfully, the Pirates & Privateers box make an excellent expansion for a Dutch Navy (or Dutch Privateers), giving some variety of sculpts as well as more bodies in general.

First up are of course the commanders. Both a generic commander, and Piet Heyn for a legendary commander. As the rules currently stand, I dislike the generic commanders, because Strict is too much of a punishing rule. Rumours has it that it will change soon, though. Looking forward to that, and until then, I will have to make do with an Untested Commander and some characters as back-up.

The elite and vanguard of the Dutch is the Enter Ploeg. Armed with approximately all the pistols, as well as explosives, boarding axes, some more pistols, blunderbusses, sword and daggers, these fellows are very short ranged, but lethal at that short range.

Extras to the left, originals to the right.

They also serve as an excellent example of how I expanded the force with Pirates and Privateers. There is only 4 Enter Ploeg included in the Dutch box. But P&P also has "Sailor Upgrades", giving me another blunderbuss and a fellow with explosives (well, you get two of each... don't worry, I have plans for the remaining two). Add in two suitable sailors, and the Enter Ploeg has doubled in size. Although in hindsight, the Enter Ploeg models were such a delight to paint, I might just have to get an extra blister...

Of course, normal Zeelieden are also a must, and preferably plenty of them. I'm somewhat limited (since I have yet to master the art of conjuring infinite sailors), but in groups of 6, they're good enough for a Fluyt, at least. And worse comes to worst, almost all Dutch can do a good enough job working artillery and sailing a ship. In the middle is one of the exclusive figures from the latest kickstarter. She serves excellently as a special character, be it a Master Gunner, Son (daughter?) of Neptune, Sailing Master, or what have you, or she can just be a normal sailor that looks a bit special.

The third group of Zeelieden can do double duty as Militie Artillerie (militia crewing artillery), with slightly less guns and more tools for handling guns (and massive balls of iron...). And of course they're bringing along a cannon as well.

All the Zeelieden are a mix between official Zeelieden and European Sailors models, meaning that (so far) all the models in each unit are unique. It will also allow me to use these as European Sailors in good conscience (as if I would be bothered...) if needed.

Since the Dutch Navy is officially the Dutch Navy, and not just any random bunch of Dutch pirates (a distinction I'm sure the Spanish appreciated...), they of course have some official Dutch Soldiers (European Soldiers models). These look surprisingly nice, with the more uniform look.

Finally, there is some Kapers in support. Similarly to the Zeelieden, these are half official Kaper models, and half European Sailor Musketeers. This means that in each unit of 8, there are still no repeats of sculpts. And just as with the Zeelieden, I can freely and in good conscience use these as European Sailors upgraded with Muskets. Or as Dutch Boslopers, if need be and I get a Dutch Militia force going...

In total, this amounts to close to 300 points if I were to field everything (and that's with minimal upgrades), giving me plenty of options for the more normal 200 points games.

All in all, the Dutch were a joy to paint (aside from going slightly nuts over all the striped pants). The only models left unpainted from those two boxes in the beginning, is 8 Militie, two European Sailors with extra weapons, and a European Commander. But I have plans for all of these, not to worry. And I did have to add 4 extra Zeelieden, as well as the 8 European Soldiers. How did the Dutch suddenly become my largest crew? That wasn't part of the plan.

And as I'm writing this, I'm realizing that these would make excellent Danes, if I ever were to want to test them out...

/Fool Out