By Joseph Forster
The Boucanieres are here! Blood & Plunder fans have been waiting for these models since No Peace Beyond the Line was published 3 years ago! This unit represents the capable wives of the French Boucaniers. The Boucanier unit has been a great unit that I’ve used a lot but I must confess I’ve never used the Boucaniere and that’s almost entirely because I didn’t have an appropriate model. And now we do!
The Boucanieres were just released in metal after a successful Firestarter campaign on the Firelock website. I preordered them and they arrived 8/25/21.
I’ve been slow in getting minis painted lately but a new set of models inspired me and I worked on these for a couple of nights and here’s my first completed set.
Here’s my unit mid-way through the painting process. The models are really great! They are clean and required very minimal clean-up before priming. The most difficult part was getting their Buccaneer Guns straight.
When the unit was included in No Peace Beyond the LIne, the art was clearly inspired by the great 19th-century French painting by Eugène Delacroix.
And that pose made it into the set! This is my favorite pose of the set.
I copied the color scheme straight from the painting.
The next two minis are classic firing poses and share basic style.
I took my color schemes from various paintings (including the one below) and…
from Firelock Games’ studio painter’s Instagram.
Beautifully painted!
The last mini appears to be closely related to the Local Guide miniature released with No Peace Beyond the Line. But this time she means business with a musket!
I used a mix of Citadel and Vallejo colors, using mostly my standard base-wash-highlight method. But a couple Contrast paints snuck in there as well…
As far as using this unit in the game, they are currently only legal as a Support Unit in both the French Caribbean Militia and the Chasseurs. There are one of the 3 units in the entire game with that coveted 5 Shoot number. The Boucanier unit has become famous/infamous for their lethality on the game table. These French ladies lack some of the martial expertise of their husbands, but they still seem pretty good for 5 points.
They have exactly the same stats as the Boucanier but they come as Inexperienced for 5 points instead of Trained for 7. For one point each, you can upgrade them to Trained, which is steal 1 point less than the Boucaniers. At that point, the only difference is in the special rules. And the Boucanier unit has a lot of special rules.
The Boucaniere retain Elusive, which, combined with that 6 Shoot Save, makes them very difficult to hit while they remain in cover. But Elusive is the only Special Rule they have! The Bocuanier have Marksmen, Fast Reload, and Ball & Shot, which certainly makes them faster and more dangerous. The point balance seems fair. But one unit of Boucaniere in a French force of Chasseurs would help increase your model count without having to rely as much on the timid Engages.
I’m excited for these models and how they can be used beyond their inclusion in those two French forces! If you want some more (maybe pushing beyond historical) female representation in your armies, you could put a couple of these models in many of your units.
They will also be great “villager” models, either as just a fun visual addition to your battle boards or representing the Friendly/Hostile locals you run into from time to time on the land event table in No Peace Beyond the Line. It’s possible we might see some new scenarios featuring villagers as the game moves into Queen Anne’s War in Raise the Black.
That’s it! It’s always fun to get a new unit and this seems like a good one! Great sculpting, clean minis, a unique unit, fun history, and plenty of potential uses for this set of minis!
You can order this set of minis straight from Firelock Games now! Pick up a pack or two if you haven’t already!
I believe this pack actually completes the line of units necessary for No Peace Beyond the Line so congrats to Firelock Games for completing that huge project! The sequence of Indian Fighters, Canadian Militia, Coureurs des Bois, Pikemen, Warriors, Braves and Boucanieres has been great to see. Great to see the game get those units!
Thanks for reading!