It’s time to take a look at the Spanish pirate in the Pirates of Legend Captains Box! Of the 10 legendary minis in this box, Amaro “Pargo” Rodriguez Felipe is the only character not found in the Pirates chapter of Raise the Black. Spain has been a bit light on “Legendary Commanders” in this game so it’s great to see a new high powered character with a great sculpt and a really fun special faction.

Let’s take a look at the miniature, the paint choices, then a bit about how Pargo players in the game.

Pargo’s miniature has a more formal pose that some of the other pirates like Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet. With his sword in his hand, he appears to be ready to fight a gentlemen’s duel. He looks like a swordsman to me!

His super fancy feathers are easily painted with contrast/speed paints. His hair seems closely modeled after the portriat we have of Pargo (see below), and it takes contrast paints really well. I should have painted it black to make him look more Spanish, but black hair under a black hat is boring.

This is a fairly staightforward paint job. Red coat with blue trim and yellow buttonholes (copied from the painted miniature from the Raise the Black book). I used an off brand of red paint (AK) that turned out pretty bright. For the waistcoat under the coat and sash, I used some metallic blue to give it a sheen. Only partially comes through, but it is fun to have some variation in finishes and textures on your miniatures.

I used GW Zandri Dust for the trousers and the GW line of yellows for the sash.

I was lazy and just used Army Painter Crusader Flesh speed paint for the skin and it looks out. It came out smoother than some of my layered attempts, but there isn’t as much variation.

Short Bio of Amaro Pargo

Born into a wealthy Spanish family of the Canary Islands, Amaro “Pargo” Rodriguez Filipe had a remarkable and controversial career. Taking to the sea early, he was captain of a merchant ship by the time he turned 25. Soon Pargo was capturing merchant shipping from enemy nations, but it seems doubtful that he actually had a privateering commission. He was accused of acts of piracy on more than one occasion but Pargo (nicknamed after a red snapper fish) seemed to be able to avoid consequences.

As a “merchant captain,” Pargo gained substantial wealth through “liberating” goods from merchant ships from enemy nations, and the Spanish courts regularly turned a blind eye since he seemed to effective and “patriotic.”

His life seems to be full of colorful events! He’s rumored to have fathered several children with different women on different sides of the Atlantic. He seems to have been a devout Catholic and we have records of him donating large sums of (sketchily gotten) money to charity, church building and religious orders. He cultivated a friendship with Sister Maria de Jesus who was rumored to give him spiritual guidance and even miraculously saved him once with through “bilocation.”

Living in and around shipping all his life, Pargo oversaw some ship building efforts, most notably the La Potencia, a large, heavily armed merchantman/man-of-war armed with 58 guns that he commanded himself before being acquired by the Spanish Navy.

He was dramatic even in death, leaving enigmatic references to a chest of wealth stored in his cabin which has never been located. His sarcophagus is an elaborate affair, covered in both his family crest and a winking skull and bones! Pargo is an unknown name to most people today, but in his time, he was as famous as the Drakes, Morgans and Blackbeards of their days.

His body was recently exhumed and studied, paid for my Ubisoft, the video game company that produced Assassin’s Creed!

Amaro Pargo in Blood & Plunder

In Blood & Plunder: Raise the Black, Amaro Pargo is a 34 point commander with 3 Command Points and a 16″ Command Range and armed with a brace of pistols. His Special Rules include Inspiring, Commodore, Broadside!, God’s Blessing or the Devil’s Luck, Felicitous, and Well-Equipped. That is a lot of rules! Commodore and Broadside! are useful rules at sea, letting him command multiple ships with ease and letting him release devastating coordinated cannon shots that increase the likelihood of scoring painful critical hits on enemy ships.

The combo of God’s Blessing of the Devil’s Luck and Felicitous is amazing! He starts with 4 Fortune Points instead of 3, then if he ever runs out of those Fortune Points, he regains a Fortune at the start of each turn that he has no Fortune! He truly leads a charmed life! His wealth gives him the Well-Equipped rule which is not a huge deal, but mitigates that Spanish curse of the Poorly Equipped penalty.

Pargo can command the updated Guarda Costas faction in Raise the Black in addition to his own legendary “Pargo’s Marineros faction. The Guarda Costas in the Raise the Black aren’t half bad! They have some fun rules that make them more similar to the Spanish Corsairs found in No Peace Beyond the Line expansion. They get that bonus on sweeps so they can zoom around the board regardless of wind and they get free rerolls on unsuccessful grapple tests which is great for any force looking to board. Core units also get to upgrade from Sailors to Expert Sailors. Spanish haven’t ever had Expert anything before! The Force also gets Corsarios as a core unit, which would be a great place to put Pargo. He’s got that sword!

Pargo’s Marineros is a really fun looking faction! It gets a +3 bonus to the Attacker roll, retains the Expert Sailors rule, gets those Grapple action rerolls and gets a crazy cannon upgrade rule. If Pargo uses a size 3+ ship, he can bring up to 3 pairs of Heavy Cannons beyond what a ship could usually carry (with a penalty to top speed applied). You could put Heavy Cannons on a Brigantine! There’s all sorts of fun ways to use this rule. He’s going to be very strong commander! His Grapple bonus makes him good at boarding and his gunnery rules make him good at cannons!

I think Amaro “Pargo” Rodriguez Felipe will be Spains best Legendary Commander so far. Pardal is cool, but not super strong and Corso has some fun tricks, but this red fish of a Spaniard is good! I’ve been a Spanish player since day of the game and this is exciting for me!

Force Building with Amaro Pargo

You can go lots of directions with Pargo when building a force. But here I want to feature a big cannon list.

300pt Pargo Light Frigate

This Light Frigate packs a punch! With 3 heavies and 2 medium cannons, this little frigate should be able to pound a smaller ship to pieces pretty fast!

At 300 points you could be up against a bigger ship like the 6th Rate Frigate or Galleon, but this should would still put up a fight.

You could just as easily build a speedy speedy Pirate list that is perfect for boarding with Amaro Pargo.

Final Thoughts on Amaro Pargo

This new Spanish commander seems like a great addition to the Spanish player’s arsenal. The previous Spanish Legendaries haven’t always been super tempting, but this guy is really a fun character in the game. Spain missed out on all the fun in Fire on the Frontier, so I’m glad that a Spaniard snuck into the Legendary box of Pirates this time round. Que viva España!

The sculpt is solid and paints up really simply. Red, blue, yellow. Nothing complicated so I’m not even going to list out the paints I used. I have another copy of the model I’m going to paint up in a blue coat and bold waistcoat, similar to the original Blood & Plunder Spanish Commander. You could use this Pargo model as a Hildago character for Spain as well.

What do you think of Pargo? Is he worth the 34 points? What point level would you play him at? How do you plan to paint up your Pargo?

Suggested Additional Reading

• Check out the legendary Stede Bonnet and Charles Vane miniature showcase articles.
• Check out Blackbeard in this Edward Teach preview article.
• Check out our other painting related articles here on Blood & Pigment.
• Check out a detailed look at the Pirates of Legend sprue in this Raise the Black Sprue guide.
• Check out this guide to assembling the new multi-part plastic models from Raise the Black.
• Read up on the Spanish nation and faction here.

Article and paint job by Joseph Forster