Foray into Blood and Plunder

As mentioned in my previous post Blood and Plunder was on the agenda at ROCKCON this year.  While I did not actively participate as a judge, I did get to watch Phil and his bothers James and Will host a very nice event Saturday evening.

Eric's Spaniards at the weekly gathering

At the same time our weekly gaming group just so happens to be playing Blood and Plunder so I was able to watch and learn last week before ROCKCON.  It is like the gaming gods are telling me I really need to try this game.  DUH!

ROCKCON scenario hosted by Phil

The only thing I hoped to purchase at ROCKCON was a copy of the rules for Blood and Plunder so I could follow along better after watching last week at Mark's.  I was successful when my friend Mike won an extra copy in the raffle and happily sold it to me.

Spanish town for the taking

After a quick skim of the rules while watching Phil's event Saturday as well as watching a few of the YOU TUBE tutorials I felt confident enough to take on a command last night during the weekly gathering.  My son, Justin, and I attended and were each given a command.

Well defended beach

I was assigned a French command that included three units of veterans, (two Marines and a support unit that included grenades) along with a commander.  My units were only armed with pistols and melee weapons, so getting in close would be key.  The scenario was a combined Dutch, English and French raid on a Spanish held town to find treasure and take hostages.  My French contingent had just landed on the beach when we started and the Dutch and English were attacking from inland.

Well executed landing

Knowing I had to get in close, I took to the woods using a hill and trees for some cover. The initial intent was to execute a double envelopment with my Dutch ally.  No plan ever survives first contact though and I was quickly accosted by some natives who bloodied a unit of my marines.  They were then joined by some Spanish spear men who successfully routed my lead unit of Marines, but not before taking some casualties themselves.  This is probably the time I should have used a fortune token to re roll and try to save my marines, ahh lesson learned.

 

Where did those natives come from?

My commander took note of the threat to the rear and quickly adapted, commanding the support unit to throw grenades and shoot the spear men.   He then lead a charge which effectively eliminated one threat.  Shortly after the French were able to drive off the natives as well scoring a 2nd unit killed.

When in doubt charge!

While I regrouped another group of natives came out of the woods.  They would prove no match for the well led marines and bombardiers.  Apparently natives do not like grenades...Who knew!  Having dispatched a 3rd enemy unit there was only one more threat, a will armed Spanish militia unit who fired  on me at range. The well lead French rolled excellently and were able to save all hits and avoid extra fatigue. 

Finish them lads!

This insolence would not be tolerated.  My reduced support unit advanced and shot them in the face with a blunderbuss and grenades scoring 4 hits and killing 3 leaving only one man and the commander.  The Spaniards decided retreat was the better part of valor and made a run for it.  The French blood was up though and I was able to chase them down like the dogs they were and deliver the knock out blow claiming my fourth unit of the night.

You can run, but you cannot hide

Fortunately my allies were also having success, although they were finding treasure and fair maidens while my French were doing the heavy lifting.  As it was getting late we all agreed the result would be a decisive victory for the attackers who had found all three treasures and two of the three civilians.

Dutch allies on my left

Having watched the game a couple times now and played once I am very impressed.  So much so that a will be making the jump and acquiring at least one 100pt force and adding another to my X-mas wish list.

Captured field gun

I am sure we were not doing everything exactly as intended as we were trying to make it work with 8 players.  It did seem to flow pretty well though even for a large game.  I did like the activation system with the varying amount of actions based on troop quality and the activation card suit being played.  I also liked the reload and fatigue system.  It took some thought and planning to make sure your troops were in the right status to do what you wanted.  Of course being hard charges, that meant my French mostly attempted melee combat every chance they could.  The grenadier also proved very effective when he hit.


Remaining unit consolidated as the action ended

I look forward to playing again maybe on a smaller scale to try the rule out as intended instead of making them fit for a larger group.  My son approved and is willing to give it a try which is the most important part, so I will have an occasional opponent when he is home on break.

Thanks to Eric and Mark for hosting such a great game.

I am confident there will be more Caribbean adventures to come......