What a week of plunder! We just finished the 11th week of the campaign and you guys have logged almost 1,300 games! This week saw the nation race tighten, our player count reach almost 150 different players, and saw a remarkable unity in accomplishing the week’s scenario objective.

Photo from Andy Hodges

Nation Report

England had a huge week recently, bringing it to a temporary lead, but Spain has pulled back into first place by a mere 1 point! The other big news is the Dutch have had a huge surge, gaining 60 points this week, bringing themselves into striking range for the top spot. They’re still almost 40 points behind, but another week like this one it could happen!

The pirates lagged a little more this week and the Natives are determined to stay in last place with only 8 points added since last week.

Photo from Michael Verity

The Scottish added only 1 game for the week and have slipped to the 11th most played faction.

Individual Report

Photo from Jason Klotz

Jason Klotz has kept the top spot but we have a tightening race for 2nd-4th.

David Nye and Terry Abbott have faithfully been playing games every single week and they have now tied up with Chris Asche for 2nd place. The graph for the top 30 has smoothed out a little. Now you need to have more than 53 points to be in the top 10 and 26+ points to be in the top 30 players.

Photo from Terry Abbott

Week 11 Objective Report – Plunder Scenario

Everyone played the Plunder scenario! It was fun to see everyone fighting for that objective. The Sea version of the scenario seemed most common and I saw some really cool objective markers, beyond just a ship used as a wreck. I promised to send out some promotional commander cards out to players who used cool objectives and I have a long list people to contact!

Photo from David Nye

I think this was our highest participation rate for an objective at almost 90%.

Week 12 Objective – Fortification/Floatification Week

This week’s objective is to play a game with fortifications on the board. This obviously narrows the field to land or amphibious games. You gain the bonus point if you or your opponent uses fortifications. You can’t both play with fortifications at the same time.

So what do you have for options for fortifications? There’s currently 8 different official types of Fortifications in Blood & Plunder. In the core rule book, you have the Breastwork, Watch Tower and Gun Emplacement, all costing only 1 or 2 points to add to your force. Fire on the Frontier added more possibilities including the Palisade Fort, Blockhouse, Garrison House, Fortified House, and an updated Stone Tower Fort.

Photo from Terry Abbot

Using fortifications can really change up the way you play the game and provide some fun and fresh gaming experiences. The historical scenarios in Fire on the Frontier feature a lot of Fortifications. That book is worth picking up just for the new fortification rules.

If you want an easy way to jump into playing with fortifications, you can spend 2 points on 8” worth of Breastworks. You can even use scatter terrain like barrels to represent the breastwork. It gives you Hard Cover for a mere two points and automatically makes you the Defender which can be very desirable in many of the land scenarios.

I hope you all give fortifications a try this week! I added a drop down menu to the submission form so you can report on which fortification you use during this week of the campaign!

Photo from David Nye

David Nye got a jump on the week with a full fledged stone fort, complete with a Trojan Rabbit siege engine.

Special Prize!

I’m offering a special prize of 10 high quality reproduction gold doubloons for whoever fulfills this objective the most times this week!

These are reproductions of the Spanish 2 Escudo coin, which became known as the Doubloon. Fortifications were always expensive to set up, so hopefully this infusion of Spanish treasure will give good fortune to one of you players who accomplishes this objective this week.

For Oak & Iron players, your objective is to play a big game! If you play a game of 200 points per side or more, you will earn the objective bonus point. At this point level, you can easily bring those big Ships of the Line.

Photo from Matthew Doerr

Weekly Photo Prize Winner

This week’s photo prize going out to Andy Hodges. This scene of one crew boarding the opposing ship while so close to approaching the objective is probably a familiar sight to many of you after this week of playing Plunder Scenario.

Photo from Andy Hodges

Andy has been a consistent champion of the French throughout the Campaign and is currently #7 in the individual rankings. I had the pleasure of meeting Andy at Historicon a couple weeks ago and playing a game against his French. He’s a great guy and he’s been taking a lot of great pictures of the course of this campaign!

The weekly prize for best picture is s the Organized Play set of 3 exclusive minis and a set of exclusive commander cards for the South Sea Adventure,

Photo from Andy Hodges

Reminder of End Campaign Objectives

M We have a lot of prizes to give away at the end of the campaign! Keep checking the The Loot list  on the Campaign Home Page. Today I want to highlight the prize for the Best Looking Table. Dexter Heide, the master craftsman, has provided several prizes for this campaign. The prize for the best looking table setup is  a set of stone walls made on Dexter’s famous workbench.

Photo from Dexter Heide

Luckily, Dexter can’t win his own prize. His tables are famous for their lush terrain and awesome buildings! Make sure to go all out on your table setups and get a good shot of the whole table so you can win some great terrain from Dexter!

Here’s a sneak peak at the walls Dexter has built for this prize.

Commander Reports

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

Spain

Watch for a update from the Spanish Commander next week.

Photo from Garrett Swader

Current Spanish Objectives

• Most Spanish  points at end of campaign- Painted Spanish commander
• Play a game that takes place during Sunrise or Sunset, and photograph that with your miniatures (bonus points for using an actual sunrise/sunset)- a Spanish Blister at the end of the campaign.

England

Commanders of England,

English Commanders we have fought hard all Campaign long and have put ourselves in a good position to win this entire Thing! But we must stay focused in these last few weeks! Or as I would like to call them the Championship rounds! The other Nations will be pulling out all stops to claim the prize! We need to show them all who is the real ruler of the New World! Still plenty of great prizes left to win!

Photo from Valery Lazerev

For England, For Home and for the Prize! We got this!!

• 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.
• Best English Spirit- Will win 4ground Ports of Plunder Medium Dock Bundle! This commander has to complete most of their matches as the English faction. I am also looking for pics of your matches, videos of sea shanties dressing up in your best English attire etc. Have a lot of fun and be creative! When you post something just tag me in it! I will be picking a winner at the end of the second last week of campaign week 13

France

Soldats de France,

We are lagging behind. The English and Dutch are resurgent, while we stand as the barrier between Civilization, and the chaos of the New World.

We are not beaten yet, however. We should not settle for a place in the lower rungs of the world – among the Pirates and Natives. We shall claim a place in the sun! It is not too late for us to finish among the Top 3. Rally around your captains and your heroes, and knock the Dutch from their pedestal.

Remember soldiers, if you do not have a fortification, you can still earn bonus points for teaching a new player the game! We can still snatch a victory from the jaws of humiliation.

Photo from Ethan Taylor

For August, current French Objectives

•  Games for France! Weekly objectives for France! A prize will be sent to the player who records the most points for France.
• There is also a prize (and title!) up for grabs to whichever player claims the most Oak & Iron games for France!
• Most French points at end of campaign- Painted French commander of your choice (please vote for favorite French commander model)

Alons-y, Soldats du Roi!

Netherlands

Watch for an update from the Dutch commander next week.

Photo from Matthew Doerr

Current Dutch Objectives

• Most Dutch points at end of campaign- Painted Dutch commander
• Sink or capture Any Nationality ship this week – reinforcement models
• A prize (civilian characters set) to the Dutch player who completes the weekly objective Support the Merchants (play at an FLGS) the most times – even if you already got a prize for capturing a ship!

Native American

Watch for an update from the Native Commander next week.

Photo from David Dzwonek

Current Native American Objectives

• Most Native  points at end of campaign- Painted Native commander
• A random player who logs games against the French (noted in the comments section of the submission form) will win a bonus prize (each participant can only qualify once).

Pirates

Ahoy there Pirates!

Well, we are officially behind all the major powers. If this trend continues, an invasion of the island by one of them is imminent. We need to double down and pick up the pace! We need to take to land and play against fortifications and use them to our advantage! Unless we want our island to become another slave holders paradise at the whim of an inbred monarch we need to start playing quickly, or we will be invaded by “civilized” men looking to shut down our way of life!

Your boisterous, endangered leader

The Boyar

Photo from Evan Hodges

Current Pirate Objectives

• 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

Bagpipe, scottish, plaid, funny hats, etc.

Here’s a friendly reminder to keep playing Scottish!

Photo from David Dzwonek

Current Scottish Objectives

• Most Scottish points at end of campaign – Painted Scottish commander (customized and with choice of clan colours)

• Play as the Scottish and get a promo card!

• Play a game as Scottish and take a picture with cool Scottish miniatures/ship flags (or other Scottish gameplay components) and win a Scottish deck of playing cards (2/5 left)

Current Unaligned Objectives

• Player with most unaligned (not pirates) games that choose natives for the points each week will receive a blister pack of native reinforcements

That’s it for the week! We’re closing in on the end of the campaign. Make sure to get your games in for your favorite nation and review the prize list on the campaign home page. Have a great week of gaming!

Watch for a midweek photo post on Blood & Pigment with more great pictures from this last week’s submissions.