Week two of the 2022 Summer of Plunder campaign has come to a close with more 300 games reported by 85 different players so far. Those numbers are higher than the entire summer event last year! It’s been awesome to see everyone getting games in, be that a home, or at a game store, solo or with a partner or friends.

Photo by Daniel Loych

National Report

Spain, Pirates and England all locked in battle for the lead. Spain and England traded places several times in the first half of the week, but the Pirates have snuck up and gained a good lead on both of them now! France has improved it stats substantially, passing the Dutch at one point,  and yes, the Native Americans are still solidly in last place. The underdog Scottish minor power has still been gaining points and is up to around 20 points..

Individual Report

Possibly creating a new record for the most games in a single week, Chris Asche has rocketed to first place with 54 points. Jason Klotz is close on his heels at 48 points and Dexter is in third place. Chris’s efforts have nearly single handedly kept France in the race! In fact, we have an exclusive photo from his chiropractor who has concerns about his back health after carrying the entire nation of France this entire week.

Chris Asche has been gaming hard!

Oak & Iron Report

We’ve logged 17 games of Oak & Iron so far. Somehow France hasn’t logged any Oak & Iron games at all yet! I’m hoping we get some tiny frogs reporting in this week.

Weekly Objectives – Bark Wars

Photo by Tyler Stone

Wow there were a lot of Bark Wars on peoples’ tables this week! We saw ships taken and sunk, and one clever bark just sail away to Control the Field this week.

Photo from Preston Jacka

In the Oak & Iron world, we saw an entire fleet engagement of 20 Barks plink away at one another! The lowly Bark has never enjoyed the spotlight so much!

Week 3 Objective Update

When first announced, this week’s objective was going to be writing and sharing a battle report. After enjoying the first two weeks’ objectives, that seems a little dry and like a lot of work for players so we’re switching it up and turning up the temperature! This week you’ll score an extra point if there was Fire in your game. There’s lots of ways and reasons to make this happen and it can change up the way you play the game and we’re hoping it will be good fun!

Photo from Steven Cyrus

Objective of the week: Blood & Plunder-  “The Fire of War” – Have a Fire happen in your game. Burning ship, house, fort, torches, firepots, anything burning on your table!

Oak & Iron: “The Fire of War” – Use the “Fire Ship” upgrade card when building your squadron.

Fire can happen several ways in Blood & Plunder. Here are some hints on making this an interesting week.

The Raze scenario from No Peace Beyond the Line requires the Attacker to start something on Fire and would be a good place to start. The Land version gives some Attacking units free Torches, and they have to start a building on fire. The Amphibious version rewards the Attacker for starting a Gun Emplacement on Fire and the Sea version of the scenario rewards the Attacker for setting their enemy’s ship on fire as well.

The Great Swamp Fight historical scenario from Fire on the Frontier can be a good Fire Inferno scenario too!

Here are some ideas for making this objective fun this week. Include several buildings in your land games. Using some of the Fortification structures from the core book and Fire on the Frontier can make this very interesting. If you’re attacking, you can add the Torches equipment to any unit for 3 points. Starting a Fire is a Dedicated Action that requires a 10 to succeed. Torches give a unit a -2 bonus, bring that down to 8. If you do a big dedicated action with a Club, you can get that down to a 6. It’s a pretty hard thing to do, but fire is very dangerous for anyone within that structure!

An easier way to start fires and cause general fiery mayhem is using Firepots! These can be added to several of the elite boarding party units like Enter Ploeg, Forlorn Hope and Les Enfants Perdus can add Firepots to every 4th model for free. The generic sailor units of each nation (Marineros, Sea Dogs, Marins, Zeelieden, European Sailors) can add a Firepot to every 8th model in a unit for 2pts, as can the more professional soldier units (Soldados, Musketeers, Infantrie, Soldaten, European Soldiers). Every time you throw a Firepot, even if you don’t score any hits on enemy models, you have a 30% chance of starting a structure on fire. And if you can light up all their structure sections at once and start one more fire, the entire building or ship is destroyed along with all models in it!

Natives don’t get access to fireworks, but any unit can add Torches for 3 points and it doesn’t even affect their Hidden/Elusive sneaky rules!

Sorry, I got too enthusiastic about Fire there. I feel a Strategy and Tactics article coming on!

If a fire was present in your game, no matter if you started it, put it out, or got burnt by it, you can claim the extra objective point for the week.

Photo by Jason Klotz

For Oak & Iron, you need to use the Fireship upgrade card to score the bonus point.

Weekly Photo Prize Winner

It was hard narrowing it down to one winner again this week with all the good photos submitted but this week the prize goes to Jonas Jacobi. His image of his Dutch Oak & Iron fleet was a well composed shot of a well painted squadron.

Photo by Jonas Jacobi

Our normal prize for best photo is the Organized Play set of minis and cards for Blood & Plunder, but we will adjust for Oak & Iron players. Photo winners will be contacted via email.

Commander Reports

Now, here are the important messages from your beloved commanders.

Spain

¿Cómo le va?

We are now at the end of the second week and Spain has done so much. We won the first week, but are now behind the hated English. The outpouring of support for Spain has been amazing.

I have introduced a few new Campaign Rewards to spur more players to play for Spain:

Most Blood & Plunder units in Melee for June- Spanish Blister

Most Spanish Oak & Iron games played for June-  2 Oak & Iron ships

I am looking forward to what you all can do. Remember that to conduct your games with Dignity and Honor, as you are ambassadors of New Spain. Cuídese.

Martín Antonio Álvarez de Sotomayor y Soto-Flores “Buen Tipo”

Photo by Robert Guyton “El Baron”

England

English commanders Keep moving forward! Keep your eye on the goal and build on what we have accomplished! Keep playing those weekly challenges, play in your local clubs, as well as teaching the next generation of commanders! For England for home and for the Prize!!

Photo from Twan van Tilborg

This message was brought to you by your guide to victory, fame and riches!

France

To the Soldiers of New France –

This is the week to show the world the passion which blazes so brightly in your hearts! Our torches and firepots shall burn away our rivals as the Radiant Sun burns away the morning fog.

Amongst your number, there is one who I must single out for his particularly remarkable contributions. Captain Asche has gathered his French Navy and Chasseurs to lead the charge, becoming the preeminent commander of the entire campaign! For his exemplary service, our radiant sovereign has seen fit to ennoble him. Let him henceforth be known as Chris Asche, Marquis d’Antilles. He can also expect a packet ship bearing his reward for these efforts.

The remainder of you, follow his example and continue completing your weekly objectives, as the monthly prize is still up for grabs.

Photo by Ethan Taylor

I must also single out one of our rivals. In my opening statement, I talked of a truce with the Natives, and their agreement to aid us in this war. And yet, they lag behind us, contributing nothing! Indeed, their chosen spokesman Black Kettle is a puppet of the English! As allies, they promised us “war unto death, without quarter,” let us now demonstrate what that means, upon them.

The player who records the most games fought against Native Factions between now and the 1st of July, shall receive a special reward.

Allumés, soldats de la Nouvelle-France!

Netherlands

Photo by Mark Stigter

Native American

Black Kettle stared out at the gathered warriors, at once stunned by the sight of the myriad of tribes and People that had journeyed from far and wide to attend his war council and deeply moved by how many had answered the call.

But the pride he felt only made it more difficult to deliver the grim news.

“So many of you honor us by having journeyed so far. We raise our voices in praise of your glories, and shed tears in sorry when hearing of your loss. For all that stands between us, we all share one common understanding – that this is not our land, not our ‘territory’ to possess as the foreigners seek to, but our homes, our families.

This is not a war for gold, or skins, or land, this is a battle for survival. This is what we must do to protect our ways and our people!”

He gritted his teeth, falling silent as he recalled the contents of a message he had received. “The French have declared us their enemies. They see our trade with the English as some great betrayal. We only sought to arm ourselves as equals, but the French have never considered us such, only as tools, weapons to be used against their enemies, and when we chose to be otherwise, they turned their guns against us.”

The French have made their declaration, they have demanded war, and we shall answer their challenge. I call upon The People to raid their settlements and their boats, to set fire to their homesteads, leave the rivers and lakes ablaze with the burning husks of their trade ships. Drive them from these lands, choking on the smoke and tears of their ruin.“

**I want to once again thank all of you who logged games as Native players this past week. So many different tribes and nations! Week three’s new bonus goal is one I suggested, and I think it’ll be a lot of fun! So, pay those 3 points per unit for some torches (Pg 166 of NPBTL) and start setting the frontier ablaze!

The bonus prize is a bit more focused this week – in response to France’s callout last week, I’m urging my Native players to unleash their fury on King Louie’s men. One random player from amongst those who log games against the French will earn this week’s bonus prize! And remember, Unaligned players who declare for the Natives in their submissions in games against the French are also included in the random draw!**

Pirates

Congratulations my glorious sailors of the black! We have caught up to the incompetent Spanish and the Perfidious English! They mocked us for our smell and considered us vermin, but here we are, neck and neck with the big dogs! If we keep at it, our victory is assured! I was glad to see so many barks out in force attacking other barks this past week! We really showed everyone how deadly these most humble of ships can be! This week’s campaign objective will be a little spicy….as we will be focused on setting things ablaze! Ships, Structures, Spaniards, Dutchmen, all of these are fair game!

Now, for those who may be stranded at home, there are still ways to play! Solo games are able to be submitted, and are even more fun at the 50-100 point scale! While there are rules for “Solitaire” play, if these seem intimidating I have a tip for you! At these smaller scale games, build your opponent’s list and figure out a playstyle. Then, after you draw your activation cards,and just flip over the top card of the deck as you play your card! Just remember that only *your* side counts (No mannequin games here!). Per usual, I’d like to remind everyone that at the end of every month the player with the most logged games will be getting a 4-man blister of their choice, so log those games! There may be more prizes in month two, but per the Pirates Code: No Prey, No Pay! I wanna see more of you scallywags playing and submitting!

Your Cutthroat Consul,

The Boyar

Scottish

Scottish points are progressing, but is it fast enough? We currently have 19 out of the needed 36 for this coming week. Rally your comrades and play more Scottish games! Maybe we can even beat the Natives if we try hard enough!

Two of the prizes for Scottish flavour have been claimed this week. Both Joe Pelfry and Jason Klotz will be getting Scottish playing card decks to use during games. Their themed submissions can be seen below.

Joe Pelfry included some Highlanders during Bark wars!

Jason Klotz made a custom flag for the Scottish colony!

There is still one remaining card deck prize to be claimed by the next player who submits Scottish themed miniatures/etc.

Photo Gallery

Photo by Paul Pickles

Photo by Pete Nielson

Photo by David Nye

Photo by Jason Klotz

Photo by Jeremy Sobczak

Photo by JJ Cherrison

Photo from Chris Asche

Photo from Guy Rheuark

Photo from Joseph Forster (same game as above)

And finally, here are the current active nation objectives you can work towards.

•  Spanish
  • Most Spanish  points at end of campaign- Painted Spanish commander
  • Most O&I games played in June- 2 core set ships
  • Most units in Melee (b&p) for June- Spanish blister

• English
  • Most English points at end of campaign- Painted English commander
  • Best painted army at end of campaign – spike defenses
  • Most games at end of campaign – wigwam
  • Most games played as an English commander during week 7 “Frontier Wars” – painted Benjamin Church model.
  • Most games played as an English commander during week 10 “Upgrade the Flagship”- painted Bark rigged with sails and a flag.
  • Most games played as an English commander as well as answering the flash question correctly, details will be on week 3 episode of my YouTube channel the Plunder Den. There will be a first and second prize. First place 4ground Colonial Port Shed and second place will get wild beast shipping crates.

• French
  • Most French points at end of campaign- Painted French commander of your choice (please vote for favorite French commander model)
  • Most games against Native factions by end of June – painted & converted standard bearer

• Dutch
  • Most Dutch  points at end of campaign- Painted Dutch commander
  • Sink or capture Spanish ship this week – reinforcement models

• Native American
  • Most Native  points at end of campaign- Painted Native commander
  • Random player who accomplished weekly objective this week  – “Special Prize”

• Pirates
  • Most Pirate points at end of campaign- Painted Pirate commander
  • At the end of each month, the pirate with the most played games will receive a 4 man blister

• Scottish
  • Most Scottish points at end of campaign- Painted Scottish commander customized and with choice of clan colours
  • Score enough points (18 more points to go) from Scottish games by the end of this week, and a random Scottish player will receive a prize
  • Play a game as Scottish and take a picture with cool Scottish miniatures/ship flags (or other Scottish gameplay components) and win a prize (max 3)

Thanks for reading and enjoy week 3 of the Campaign! Light up those torches!