Blood & Plunder - Native Reinforcements

I have also managed to get some more troops painted, because a miniature painters work is never done...

One box of Native Americans, which provides quite a decent mix of forces from the ones available to natives. The only thing missing is Warriors (with no ranged weapons), since these were released after the box.

First up, 12 Warrior Archers, or possibly Warriors upgraded to have Bows, depending on mood and which faction of natives one wants to use.

Then 4 Young Warriors, slightly less sun-tanned, and in general slightly less than the Warriors/Warrior Archers that will serve most natives as their bread and butter forces. Still, they're a nice option to have. (The sharp eyed will have noticed that another 4 Young Warrior models are pulling duty as Warrior Archers in the image above this one. Because I had more Young Warriors than needed, and not enough Warrior Archers... and they do have the correct equipment, which is the most important thing).

4 African Warriors, because some escaped slaves can be incredibly useful when it comes down to the finish line (they're the one Native unit with good melee saves, for a finishing blow and a chance to survive the retaliation).

And, to round it all up, 4 Warrior Musketeers, a.k.a. something that doesn't have that infernal Bow bonus to enemy shoot saves, but which might actually kill something.

But Fool, I hear you think, haven't we seen these already? Didn't you paint these natives last December?

No, that was my first box of natives. This is my second (yay, one new years promise taken care of). Which of course means that I now have a quite decent band painted and ready.

This allows me to field up to 3 units of Warrior Archers, with up to 6, 6, and 8 men in each, 2 units of Young Warriors (6 boys each), and a unit of 8 each for Warrior Musketeers and African Warriors. And of course, with a cacique in charge (or King Golden Cap himself).

All of that allows for an army list, with no upgrades but a Seasoned Commander, of over 250 points. Add Poisoned Arrows, and you have 270. Some fiddling with equipment, training levels, and characters, and it's a decent 300 point force. Not bad, from nothing but two starter sets. I just need to do something useful with the extra commander I have. Possibly give him a musket (somehow), since there are several historical native leaders who have that as an option. The only thing missing, is some of those melee-only Warrior models. Knowing myself, I will probably get them "soon" (they may or may not deserve a blog post by themselves... possibly if they do something unusually spectacular during a game).

Now, if only I could win with them as easily as I paint them... I won't say that I've never won with natives, but it's a rare thing and I probably need to get some more games in before I start to master them.

/Fool Out

Blood & Plunder Battle Report - Flibustier Nau vs Black Caribs

It's been quiet for too long. Quick, grab my Jolly Roger and bring me that horizon...

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"...

 And the other unit of Flibustiers, with L'Ollonais, their servants and the horde of angry sailors coming in from the south.

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.

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 - 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