May 2018 SMG Club
Game: Blood & Plunder
For our May 2018 club game we were lucky to have Mike from
Firelock Games come to our Fort Lauderdale Florida club house (Das Krieg Haus) and run a large demo game of their Caribbean Pirates game
system called Blood & Plunder. Mike is an awesome guy and their company
sells great products.
Mike from Firelock Games
First impressions:
Rules Review - Blood & Plunder by Firelock Game
Blood and Plunder is a set of 28mm miniature wargame rules
set in the 17th century during the golden age of piracy. These rules are a
glossy type set, beautifully produced, with great photos, and easy to
understand. I like the card driven movement sequence system with command points
to allow for extra actions and re-rolls. The slight nuances for the different
troop types really provides the right feel for this period and creates unique
tactical challenges for the players of the different nationalities and troop
types. Each troop type has a different attack and defense value based on the
national characteristics of the time, historical accounts, their armaments, and
their level of drill and training.
Some units can move more while some have
special attacks, or better morale, etc. The unit cards contain the specifics particular to each nationality and troop type for movement and combat and are referenced throughout the game. Each unit of several figures is activated by a command/action
card which denotes their number of actions it may take based on the unit's level of experience and in what order of play based on the card suite and number. A standard card deck can be used instead, but these are a lot more fun. In the larger game
version which is what we tried each command of 2-3 units had one action card per turn with the
overall commanders having their own card as well.
Action Cards
As with most wargames the GM designs the scenario and the
players pick sides. The GM gives the players and commanders of each side the
action cards for their units or commands based on their nationality and troop
type. If there is no GM The players choose their action cards from their action
decks.
Each turn begins with the drawing of a hand of the action/movement
cards, each player throws out an action card from their current hand. These cards are
then played against their opponent to try and get the advantage of either
moving first or undertaking more actions. The players decide if they want to
try and get the jump on the other player or try to make them go first to be
able to react to their opponents.
The player with the higher number card goes first, ties are
broken with a comparison of color, suite, number, etc. Once its confirmed who
goes first the player consults their action card for the number of allowable actions and their unit cards to see if there are any
special actions, movement, attacks, etc, that the unit can carry out this move. When done
the opposing player does the same thing with the loosing card they threw and then the next movement cards are thrown against each other. This
procedure is followed until all the cards from the players current hands are thrown and
all the units / commands have executed their actions or chosen to hold, this ends the turn. The commanders pick another hand of cards from their action decks based on
the number of commands or units they have and start another turn by throwing out a card against each other. This procedure is repeated until the game is
over based on the scenario and objectives.
I like the combat system, it’s simple and fun. The units
build up fatigue based on hits and after so many fatigue markers are accumulated
the figs perish or fail a morale roll. I’m not a big fan of saving throws, however in a
very small-scale skirmish game like this it has its merits. I really like the
command points, they can be used to add an action, change the cards in your
hand, or even a re-roll as desired. The number of command points are finite and
represented by a miniature copy of an old coin, which is very cool indeed.
Status Marker Dice Set
This game system has some similarities to the “Congo” rules
set in the use of the action and movement cards to determine the number of
actions taken, who goes in which order, as well as the unit cards which contain
special abilities or actions the units can take. The other similarity is the
game scale with small units of 5 to 9 figures and their tight formations.
Unit with "Status Marker"
There are many products from this company which are
specially produced for this game system and all of the accoutrements for the
game is very well done and adds to the fun. There are ship turning gauges, movement
cards, unit action cards, command coins, dice, markers to track all game
effects, and a plethora of very detailed miniatures and amazing boats. The
scale of the figures is quite large even by today's heroic 28mm standards, but
are very well done. The boats are also excellent and can easily be used with
any 25 to 30mm figures on the market today.
Ship Movement Template
For our first game we concentrated mainly on the infantry
actions so we only had one ship for our test game. I would really like to try
another game with more of a naval contingent. For many years we’ve used the old
“Limeys & Slimeys” rules for all of our naval and pirate actions, though we
have used a supplement for “The Sword And The Flame” for pirate land actions in
the past. Having said that I do like these rules and very much look forward to
playing them again sometime soon. Check out their awesome website or FB page to
see instruction videos, historical background, picture gallery, products, etc.
Here's the Blood & Plunder official website:
