Intro

Welcome to the Week 8 update for the 2023 Summer of Plunder. We had another 159 games entered, bringing the total to 1,270 games logged so far this campaign!  This week saw lots of participation in the weekly objective to use Native units in forces, along with a little boost of the Native American forces in general. Spain further solidified its lead in both player numbers and the campaign map, while all other nations seem focused on fighting for second place.

We’re moving into the last week of the campaign with an objective to use some of the biggest and greatest commanders in Blood & Plunder and Oak & Iron!

If you’re just joining us in this campaign, or returning after participating in previous years, we have added some new elements this year, foremost being the campaign map tracking the power, progress, and strategic skill of each nation and its commander. You can check all the basic info and rules for the campaign here and all the higher level map info and rules for the campaign rules here.

In this weekly update, we’re going to go over some participation stats, check the change in status on the campaign map, show off some pretty pictures of some players’ games, give away a prize or two, and check in with our national commanders who will be fearlessly leading their players through this campaign.

Table of Contents

1. Intro
2. Nation Report
3. National Battle Report
   1. Attack 1 Boston – England repels the Pirates
   2. Summary of Changes:
4. Raid Report
5. How is Spain Winning by So Much?
6. Faction Report
   1. Final Factions to be Played
7. Individual Report
8. Oak & Iron Update
9. Week 8 Objective – Indian Allies
10. Week 9 Objective – Men of Legend
11. Weekly Campaign Prizes
    1. Weekly Random Drawing
    2. Weekly Photo Prize Winner
12. New Prizes! more Prizes!
13. Campaign Sponsor Spotlight – Doubloon Lagoon
14. Jamaica Campaign Event
15. Spain
    1. Current Spanish Objectives
16. England
    • Current English Objectives
17. France
    1. Current French Objectives
18. Netherlands
    1. Current Dutch Objectives
19. Native American
    1. Current Native American Objectives
20. Pirates
    1. Current Pirate Objectives
21. Final Thoughts

Week 8 Nation Report

The Spanish continued to pull in the most player points, but the Pirates came in second with an additional 64 points added. English were slow this week with only 12 points and for once, the Native Americans weren’t in last place! A little boost of 17 points helped the Natives, but their slice of the pie remains small.

Here are the numbers for all of the player generated points so far in the campaign. Spain has a REALLY solid player base this year!

Spain’s slice isn’t shrinking!

If we move over to look at current total Victory Points that each nation has accrued, the situation changes a bit, but not in relation to Spain. Most nations simply defended their current holdings in the New World, but the Pirates were bold but their attack did not succeed. The French have moved up to second place after the Dutch took a nasty beating last week and the Pirates failed their one attack.

Let’s check the campaign map!

National Battle Report for Week 8

This section outlines the changes on the campaign map and is a narrative of the battles that happen at a larger scale.

There was only a single attack among all 6 nations this week.   Everyone but the Pirates opted to hunker down and defend their holdings rather than go on the offensive.

Attack 1 Boston – England repels the Pirates

With all the recent repeated conflicts in Boston, their shipping lanes began to flow with goods and materials to help rebuild the region. Knowing this would mean an influx of prize ships, The Flying Gang decided to take advantage of the situation. Their brazen raids were easy pickings and profitable.  The raids’ success instilled fear among traders, prompting heightened efforts by the English Navy to combat the lawless marauders and restore order to the crucial port city.

A small fleet of pirate ships clashed fiercely with English Naval warships. Outgunned and outmatched, the pirates were on the verge of being overwhelmed. Amidst the chaos, a mysterious fog rolled in, briefly obscuring the combatants from view. The eerie atmosphere seemed to have a profound effect, momentarily halting the fighting on both sides. Taking advantage of the English hesitation, the pirates slipped away into the midst.. When the fog cleared, Boston remained securely in the grasp of the English. (English 220 vs Pirates 145)

Summary of Changes:

1. Boston- English repel the Pirates

—–

Raid Report for Week 8

Each commander has the option of launching a “Raid” against another nation. The result is randomly determined with a simple die roll.

• Dutch raid Pirates
  • 5.  The raid was a draw.

• English – no Raid
• French raid Dutch
  • 8. Success.  The attackers captured a number of goods and supplies.  Transfer +10 VP.
• Natives –  French
  • 9.  Success.  The attackers captured a number of goods and supplies.  Transfer +10 VP.
• Pirates raid the Dutch
  • Captain Kurtis Fraley sails from Tortuga seeking prizes along the southern Hispanola coast.   He matched to capture a small brigantine laden with sugar and rum. Rolled a 6.  Transfer 5 VP from Target to Attacker.
• Spanish – no Raid

How is Spain Winning by So Wide a Margin?

Ok, we need to talk about Spain! The Spanish have been winning this year and it hasn’t been close. This campaign has been substantially different than previous years and several factors seem to be playing into this runaway leader issue.

• Lots of players are playing the Spanish this year
  • The Pirates have more unique players, but the entire Spanish player base is participating very consistently.
• Spain is determined
  • The Spanish have almost won two years in a row. Last year they snatched a loss from the jaws of victory and they seem determined to not let that happen this year!

Spain has not been vigorously looted!

• Our new campaign map system was carefully devised to help balance the national race, giving smaller nations with fewer players a better chance of “staying in the race.” The Natives, for example, started with extra locations on the map to make up for their lower number of games played in previous years.
• The Attack/Defend system gives commanders an opportunity to attack the front-runner and keep things more balanced and competitive. But somehow, through Spanish political genius, or treachery, or lack of unity among other nations, or through a fear of being retaliated against by the Spanish Empire, Spain has not been attacked enough. More points have been spent attacking the Dutch and the English, and almost as many points have been used to attack the Natives (who have scored just a little more than 10% of Spain’s points) as have been spent attacking Spain. Spain showed its strength early in the campaign, and it would have taken some level of coordination from most of the other Commanders to stop them and that has not happened. Yet.
• Attacks that were made against Spain seemed to focus on the larger, juicier target Locations rather than the areas with lower Defense that are easier to take.

Raids were not Employed With Consistency

• There is a Raid mechanic in the game that allows nations to specifically take points from a nation and transfer them to another nation. It’s weighted more toward success (50%) than failure (30%) or a Draw (20%).
  • Spain has not been raided since Week 3 by ANY nation.
  • The Dutch have been raided more than any other nation.
• During both of our 9-week playtests, 80%+ of the raids were used. In this session, only 25 of 56 raid options, 44.6%, were used. In fact, there are some nations that have only conducted 1-2 Raids during the entire campaign. That is an unfortunate opportunity to transfer points lost.

Again, the raids were likely avoided by fear of retaliation or diplomacy, but a coordinated effort could have robbed points from the Spanish with much lower risk than an outright attack.

Those are some thoughts on the runaway Spanish leader this year. They certainly deserve the win but I hope their big numbers have not diminished enjoyment or discouraged participation this year.

Why aren’t you Fixing the Balancing Issues?

We did take a balancing measure in Week 5 to try to help keep the map balanced based on participation. As campaign organizers, we discussed multiple options of throwing some more campaign events into the mix to help even things out, but decided not to meddle too much and let the game play out (I pushed for that). Jamaica’s destruction was an effort that removed 200+ points from Spain in the final weeks. However, it seemed to galvanize the Spanish players even further!

In the final 2 weeks of the campaign, it is difficult to want to change the course of events and steal a win or push a nation down. We (mostly I) made the tough decision to let things play out as they will this year.

But know that we as campaign organizers have taken note of the imbalance and will be working hard to improve next year’s campaign!

Only 1 prize (other than bragging rights) is based on the winning nation. Most prizes are geared towards other objectives, so don’t lose heart! There are plenty of prizes to go around. You can review the full Summer of Plunder prize list here.

It is technically still possible for a coordinated effort to take down Spain as the front runner, but pretty unlikely. Garrett Swader has done a great job as Spanish Commander this year and the Spanish players have been awesome!

Faction Report

There are a lot of factions to enjoy in Blood & Plunder. Here are the most played and the least played faction for each nation so far.:

1. Spain
   1. Spanish Militia 68 (+25 Reformed Spanish Militia), with Armada de Barlovento in second at 48
   2. No Spanish factions remain unplayed! Spanish domination!
2. England
   1. British Privateers (23
   2. Church’s Raiders, New England Privateers, & New England Militia have not been played yet.
3. French
   1. French Buccaneers (42)
   2. All French factions have been played at least twice!
4. Dutch
   1. The RTB (56) and NPBtL (15) versions of the Dutch Caribbean Militia lead the way when combined, followed by the Oak & Iron Dutch Faction at 51
   2. All Dutch Factions have been played at least 4 times!
5. Native American
   1. Yamasee and Caribbean Tribes tie for most plays at 10 each
   2. Chickasaw and King Philip’s Alliance have not been played yet.
6. Pirates
   1. The Flying Gang leads the pack at 80
   2. All Pirate factions have been played at least 4 times!
7. Unaligned and Minor Powers
   1. Miskito Zambo have the most plays at 37
   2. Factions unplayed include the Black Caribs and Brandenburg Privateers

The Natives checked several factions off their list and it’s possible we can get all factions in the game played in over the next week before the campaign ends!

Final Factions to be Played

• Church’s Raiders
• New England Privateers
• New England Militia
• Chickasaw
• King Philip’s Alliance
• Black Caribs
• Brandenburg Privateers

Individual Report

There’s a $100 gift card prize for the player who earns the most points over the course of the whole campaign. Tyler Carlson, the campaign leader racked up a bunch more points this week with an incredible stint of demo games at a board game cafe/pub. With an audience motivated by earning a beverage discount by playing a game, the new players just kept coming! Tyler’s lead is remarkable and well nigh insurmountable at this point!

Matthew Doerr remains in second place with 280 points earned from 95 games and Zeph Garcia-Reyes is in 3rd place at 133 points. Roger Gilbert is 4th at 100 points and the rest of the top 30 have between 65 and 31 points.

Oak & Iron Update

Right now the total number of Oak & Iron games logged so far is 91 and we should be able to break 100 before the campaign is over!

We’ve seen some more great games of Oak & Iron with fully painted ships this week.

James and Ginger Monson printed and played the Native American faction from Timber & Sail! So many canoes!

Week 8 Objective – Indian Allies

This past week’s objective was to include at least one unit of Natives (or “Native-style”) in your Force, or play the fan-made Native faction from Timber & Sail.

132 of 159 entries accomplished this week and we got lots of pictures of Native units on the board.

We had lots of pictures of Braves, some Spanish Mission natives and plenty of the new plastic natives.

Week 9 Objective – Men of Legend

For this last week of the campaign, our objective is to include some of the biggest and best commanders in your forces!

In Blood & Plunder, you need to either include a Legendary Commander, or a historical Commander that costs at least 30 points. For smaller gamers or more streamlined play, players often use the simple generic commanders with 1 Special Rule that helps keep your force running smoothly. But Blood & Plunder has a wealth of historical Commanders that can bring a lot of fun and interest to our games! This week we get to focus on the most famous and most powerful of the commanders in the game.

In general this will mean playing slightly larger games at a higher point level to make good use of these big Commanders.Most Legendary and 30+ point Commanders have 3 Command Points, making them best for forces with 4+ units. I recommended playing at 150-250 points per force to make these heavy hitters really work well.

This objective might bring up the question “What is a Legendary Commander in Blood & Plunder?” The definition has changed a bit over the course of the game. Most Legendary Commanders are high powered, high cost commanders that have unique models and unique factions that only they can command. The Core Blood & Plunder book included Manuel Rivero de Pardal for the Spanish, Henry Morgan for the English, and Francois L’Olonnais for the French. Each book has since added a handful of Legendary commanders.

With the publication of Raise the Black, there is a large selection of new Legendary Pirate Commanders that are much cheaper that can easily be played at lower point levels. These Legendary Commanders all have unique models but do not all have a unique faction.

Here are the qualifying commanders for each nation for this objective. Commanders in Bold have unique factions.

The scenario “A Wanted Man” from Raise the Black has a crazy scenario option where players can include any commander that’s legal for their force for free which can sometimes make that high, high cost less of an issue for force building.

As you try some of these big commanders, maybe for the first time, make sure to actually read the short bios found in the expansion books to get a good feel for your character before you play. Knowing the history makes playing the game that much more enjoyable!

Weekly Campaign Prizes

Each week we have two regular prizes to give away. First, one of all the entries of the week will receive a custom made chest objective token from Tyler Stone, one of our campaign sponsors from Dead Man’s Chest blog. Secondly, each week one of the photos submitted during the week will be selected to receive an awesome reproduction piece of eight from St. Augustine Mint.This prize can only be won once during the campaign for each player.

Weekly Random Drawing

This week’s winner for the random drawing is Derek Taylor.

Derek has logged a good number of games for the Dutch. Games on epic boards, some on carpet, some on Warhammer boards, Derek has played in all circumstances!

Weekly Photo Prize Winner

This week’s photo winner goes Christopher Dorscheid for this shot of a Pirate naval battle. Great ships, great flags and sails, and great “spyglass” effect with the vignette effect. Nice work Christopher! A quality replica of the Spanish piece of eight from St. Augustine Mint is on it’s way to you!

New Prizes! more Prizes!

As the campaign comes to a close, we’re adding a handful of new categories to the prize list to spread the plunder around! In a campaign like this, it’s hard to design a set of prizes that can cover a wide variety of players and go to players that can really use them. We’ve awarded a good 40+ prizes so far, and have a bunch more to send out at the end of the campaign!

• Part Time Pirate – Random Player with ONE Entry
  • Resin Piragua
• Random Player with “Rough Terrain”
  • Set of 4Ground Young Oak/Beech Trees
• Silver Gamer – Random Player with Unpainted Armies
  • Set of Organized Play Miniatures and Cards
• The Plunder Club – Random Player whose Photos Portray a Club or Large Group
  • RtB Plunder Sprue

The Prize Page has been updated!

Campaign Sponsor Spotlight – Doubloon Lagoon

We have a long list of generous sponsors for this campaign, donating lots of the great prizes that players will receive over the course of this event. This week we’d like to thank Tyler Carlson from The Doubloon Lagoon blog for his support of the campaign and the Blood & Plunder/Oak & Iron/Firelock Games community. For this campaign, Tyler has donated a custom dice tower (awarded to the winner of the Epidemic Campaign Event).

Tyler Carlson, brother to Blood & Pigment’s own Dan Carlson, has been playing Blood & Plunder and Firelock’s other game systems for some time, has more recently launched a blog, The Doubloon Lagoon. You can currently find several articles up there including some Blood & Valor content as well as a lot of good Blood & Plunder material.

One particularly helpful article compares the metals to the new SiOCAST minis.

Donating prizes to the campaign doesn’t stop someone from participating in the campaign as well, and Tyler has certainly done that! Leading in several categories including Most Games, and Most New Players Taught, Tyler has played an insane amount of games during this year’s Summer of Plunder event! Every game needs it ambassadors to bring new players in, and Tyler has done an exemplary job of getting Blood & Plunder and Oak & Iron in front of new players this year.

You can find a full interview with Tyler Carlson from back in April, including pictures of some of his impressive painted miniatures here on Blood & Pigment.

Thanks Tyler for helping sponsor the campaign and for your community contributions. You can check out The Doubloon Lagoon here.

Jamaica Campaign Event

Jamaica has fallen! You can read all about the campaign event here.

Commander Reports

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

Spain

¡Saludos desde la Habana!

        Finish strong my brothers and sisters. We are on the verge of victory! This is the final week and we have plenty of legendary leaders to get us over the finish line. Our hard work is about to pay off.

Last week’s Spanish challenge was to conserve our powder supplies. Wet Powder: play the most games with no firearms in your list! This means no pistols, no muskets, no artillery. Please indicate that your list had no firearms by checking the “completed a national objective” box (this really helps me sort through entries). The winner is… you guessed it Tyler Carlson Spain’s MVP and a man of true reputación.

This week’s challenge is to score the most points in the last week! I don’t give out major prizes to individuals two weeks in a row, so everyone who isn’t Tyler Carlson gets a shot at the last sprue. Keep in mind that the player who plays the most Spanish factions will get an 18th century replica activation deck. And the player who plays the most Oak & Iron games will receive a painted Castillo de San Marcos O&I scale. 

The answer to last week’s trivia question is Santa Fe New Mexico! Congrats to everyone who got it right. This week’s question is: Where was a vast silver mine discovered in 1545? Submit your answers in the comments of your entry. I’m still giving out commander cards and 3d printed terrain for correct answers..

-Gerardo de Guale

Current Spanish Objectives

• Score the most points in the last week! Winner will receive a Soldier sprue.
• Trivia Question: Where was a vast silver mine discovered in 1545? Put the answer in the comments of your submission.

England

Conflick Approaches Resolution

Papists Die in Droves

Jamaica Calamitie Ruins Island

Fighting with savage and rebellious Dutchmen dwindles as both enemys recognize theyr inferiority. Savages in North America have been routed in every major engagement of ye war, the strength of English arms over ye heathen can not be overstated. Mohawk allies in the north stand to eradicate hostile Huron peoples entirely. Theyr adoption of English policy is admirable. They may yet be civilized.

An GREAT earthquake hath demolishd ye stolen isle of Jamaica. Ye idolotrous Spaniard hath met with ye wrath of the Almighty. Sinful men, women, and childryns hath been crushed in theyr homes and drown in theyr streets by ye HOLY deluge. Noah’s chosen only, in ye poorest quarters of ye city, those Englishmen left on the island, survived the calamity. Ye greedy Spaniards homes hath been pilfered by animal and vagrant alike. God hath chosen not to show mercy to ye perfidious papist and ye GOOD Englishman need not break with the Fathers chosen path.

Current English Objectives

• Complete the “Men of Legend” global challenge to be entered to win this week’s prize, a “Box of Plunder” sprue. Every entry will count as one “ticket” in the raffle.
• Additionally, email in a picture of your painted Regulars or Musketeers to be sent a copy of this year’s English commander cards. (bandpcampaign@gmail.com Subject: Soldier)
• Finally, Congratulations to Erich Goebel for winning last week’s prize! An email will be sent out shortly but if for some reason it doesn’t reach you, please contact us.

France

Captains of France, the lord our God has blessed us with favorable wins, accurate muskets, and steady hands. Our enemies stumble and fall before us. Be sure to bring a legendary commander into the fray this week to keep up the pressure on our foes. May we all take a moment and reflect on our victories during this long campaign. Keep in mind that there will be a drawing at the end of the campaign to reward a loyal captain with a new ship. Remember that there is also a reward at the conclusion of this campaign for the captain who brings the most new sailors to our cause. Continue to recruit new captains who will also log victories for France!

We have fought well and with honor. Let us now finish strong.

-Capitaine Albatros

Current French Objectives

• This week’s objective is Celebrate Early: make the most of celebrating the end of the campaign and tag @firelockgames in it. Send a link to the post to randolphandrewp@gmail.com. My favorite post will win a custom terrain piece. Every other entry will receive a commander card of capitan albatros. Be sure to include your address in the email. Talk about your favorite opponent, thank the organizers, show off the coolest picture from a game, bust out some rum (or wine and cheese), give a huzzah to other French captains, whatever you want to do to celebrate.
• Every French game and completed objective will be entered into a drawing for a painted bark during the last week of the campaign.
• Most French new players recruited by the end of the campaign will win a painted French commander.

Netherlands

Landgenoten,

We had a quiet week. The alarm bells stopped ringing. We were happy to catch our breath.

Only 1 week to go till the end of the Summer of Plunder. Let’s try to get good finish. We can finish strong. Get your chance on some nice 3d printed object markers.

Hartelijke groet,

Maarten “kielhaler” de Kruif

Current Dutch Objectives

• Most Dutch points at end of campaign – Painted Dutch commander
• Board Any Nationality ship this week – Commander Card
• Raffle for a custom object marker.

Native American

This was a quiet week of rebuilding for the Natives after the massacre we suffered last week.  No attacks, just regrouping and massing our warriors for the last few weeks’ push.  It is vital that our way of life must survive in the face of this European invasion, so stay strong my Braves and get in whatever games you can to boost our numbers.

Also, remember that we do encourage unaligned faction alliances. We are giving away a custom objective marker for such a player that successfully raids our enemies!

Current Native American Objectives

• Moving into the final week, the Objective is to play a Legendary Commander or any commander of 30+ points.  Natives have a number of good options to choose from.  One player using a Legendary/30+ Commander will win a Natives sprue.

Pirates

Captains, as we approach the final week of the campaign, we’re still holding a very strong second place. Our port numbers have increased which means we’ve been doing pretty good. We won more battles than the losses along with a raid or two.

This past week I wanted to see how many games of Oak & Iron you can get in with a Legendary Admiral, and you did not disappoint. Lots of good pictures of your games were really inspiring. Unfortunately, my time to game didn’t allow me to get an O&I game in, but a few of regular Blood & Plunder. It was a nice change-up to add natives to a force; especially their use of the bows. Love them bows! I saw a couple of game pics of your natives in the pile of photos I sorted through. How did you fare using Natives in force? Will you use them in the future in your Pirate factions? Post your comments in the FB chat. I think I will.

Secret Pirate Communications!

Just a reminder, the Pirate faction had established a base of operation via FaceBook headed up by my First Mate Dan aka Sir Admiral Pirate Bastard. Dan will be out for the next week, so please convey your thoughts and requests though the FB chat.  Also I’m always available for direct contact. I try to check the chat about a couple of times a day. Remember our Attacks and Defenses will be communicated there along with other insider information. Come join the chat!

As this is our last week of this crazy and exciting campaign, my final weeks’ objective is to dial up your points and game play for the final push of the last three rewards to be given out! In next week’s report (Week 9), I’ll announce the winners of the Pirate faction and their rewarded booty!

Current Pirate Objectives

• First up, as mentioned in the “Call to Arms” at the beginning of the campaign, will be for the most victorious (top scoring) Pirate Captain, They will be rewarded with an Exclusive Pirate Captain model of yours truly, “Don Gregory de Padilla” and his card. I painted up this bad boy for the B&P painting contest they had prior to campaign start.  The model came from the Pirates of Legend plastic box set with a small mod (bottle). In addition you’ll get a 3D resin printed set of scatter terrain (barrels, crates, etc.).
• Next up is to earn a Special Commanders Card from me, Don Gregorio “Redmist” de Padilla, your Pirate Commander. In order to receive this limited edition collectors card, you would have to had played at least one game per campaign week…and it was logged in.
• Finally me Hearties, I’ve decided to add in an additional Special Pirate Objective mid-way through the campaign which will run through the end of it. For the Pirate Captain which logged in the, “Most Games Played”, will be rewarded a 3D printed bust of a Pirate Captain. This bust may/or may not resemble the man himself – Blackbeard! Along with the bust will be a custom name plate with your name on it for the Pirate Captain which has logged in the most games for the Summer of Plunder 2023…and I’ll throw in a limited edition collectors card of yours truly, “Don Gregory de Padilla”.

Final Thoughts

I can’t believe the campaign is already close to over! We have this entire week and next to finish strong! Enjoy playing those Native American units this week. GenCon is coming up next and I know there are plans to play some big games there, so we’re looking forward to that. We hope to have some more reporting on events and force lists from Historicon over the next week as well. It’s always fun to see what’s happening in the tournament meta so we’re going to try to get access to some of the force lists that were played.

Right now Spain has a chokehold on the New World and is set to win handily unless something dramatic happens. Every week my disbelief grows watching commanders defer to the empire. We’ll see how this ends! But again, only 1 prize is based on the winning nation on the Campaign Map. There is still plenty of other plunder in the Summer of Plunder!

At the conclusion of the campaign, we’ll be shipping a LOT of prizes. We’ve been adding to that list of prizes through the course of the event, but we finally got a pretty solid/accurate list of the current prize support up on the blog. You can check it out here.