Caballeria Lancero – Painted Blood & Plunder Unit

/ josephforster86

Last Updated on October 23, 2023

Long have we waited for models for the Spanish Caballeria Lancero unit released in No Peace Beyond the Line. The plastic Cavalry Unit Box released this year finally lets Blood & Plunder players create this unique Buccaneer hunting unit for their Spanish forces.

I finally finished up a set of 3 models and wanted to share some pictures.

Caballeria Lancero Stats

The lancer cavalry is some of the best cavalry in Blood & Plunder. Most Cavalry in Blood & Plunder has a dangerous Shoot Save of 8, but this unit actually has a 7 Shoot Save, making it more survivable which is key when it comes to cavalry.

At 6 points, they aren’t cheap, but they can be worth it. The Fight of 5 is very good, especially when doubled with Ruthless but the Fight Save of 7 is less strong. The standard Spanish Caballeria have a 6/6 Fight score, so this unit is more of an aggressive unit that doesn’t want to stay in a melee. The Shoot stats of 7/7 are strictly better than the 7/8 of the standard Caballeria. This unit won’t even use the Shoot stat unless you pay for one of the Unit Options like adding a Carbine or Brace of Pistols.

The Caballeria Lancero have the Quick, Ruthless, and Skirmishers Special Rules in addition to the free move from being mounted. This makes them one of the fastest and most slippery units in the game, able to move up for 5 times in one activation (20″) without taking any Fatigue. Cavalry management is tricky!

And you’ll want to use that Skirmishers ability so you can have the opportunity to charge again, applying that +1 penalty to the enemy’s Fight Save from the lances. Unfortunately, mounted units can’t make defensive attacks with lances. This weakness can make adding a Carbine or Brace of Pistols worth it.

Factions that Use Caballeria Lanceros

The Spanish Militia factions are pretty much the only factions that can use cavalry with lances. The standard Spanish Militia can use them and even make them a Core Unit with a Force option. The Reformed Spanish Militia from Raise the Black can do the same thing and the Spanish Army and Spanish Mission Garrison factions can take this unit as a Support Unit.

The Cavalry Plastic Kit

The Cavalry Unit Box from Firelock Games contains two sprues that contain enough pieces to create 3 mounted models from each of them. The set includes options for cavalry using pistols, carbines, and/or lances.

You can check out the full list of parts on the Cavalry Sprue in this RtB Sprue article. But basically, it contains 3 horses, 3 bodies, 3 heads, 6 hats, and lots of weapon options.

In addition to being much cheaper than the hefty metal cavalry models that Firelock has offered since No Peace Beyond the Line Released, these are much easier to assemble. Gluing little metals bits to big metal bits has never been my idea of a good time, and I was always having swords break off. Plastic is a good medium for these multi-part models. Excellent improvement.

I had fun putting them together and even did some head and hat swapping , especially on the central model which I gave an African head and a fancy hat.

It is notable that the bases to the new cavalry are much smaller than the old metal cavalry models. This is ok, but it does change how many you can easily fit into a unit and how much space they can control on a board. Not a big deal, but I do mourn the loss of the texturing. These are dead flat so now I have to think about basing them which will be different than my metals.

The lances are a little scary being plastic and this long and skinny. I did break one once (abuse, not normal use), but I was able to glue it and it hasn’t been a problem since.

Painting the Caballeria Lancero

I made the mistake of completely assembling these models before painting. It would be better to paint the head and torso separately since once it is all assembled, there are some portions that are very difficult to reach. I painted pieces separately on the old metal models and that is advised here as well. Mount the body on a dowel or something so you can paint it without touching it.

I used a uniform set of paints for the riders’ clothing and accessories while painting each horse a different color. Using a variety of Citadel and Vallejo paints, I painted one horse dark grey, one a medium brown and one a darker brown. The main and tails I used a slightly darker shade as seems typical. Using Agrax Earthshade a Nuln Oil, I shaded the entire horses, then did a couple levels of basic highlight, which is kind of hard to blend well on the larger areas. The eyes I painted pure black with a speck of off-white and I did a couple of black glazes over the nose area.

There are a lot of accessories and bits on the horses that have to be painted as well! All the reigns, bridals, saddles, blanket rolls, stirrups, and straps all take time! The tan brown had good contrast with my dark colors on the horses, and I used Vallejo Steel and Silver for all the metal bits on the horse.

These bases may need some more attention, but for now I just used my standard recipe of XV-88 and Agrax. The lack of texturing makes that method look…. unsatisfactory.

My scheme included a lot of layers of browns! But my impression of the Spanish lancers is that they were pretty hardy and dirty. Not the spiffiest or most stuck up of soldiers. When they weren’t hunting buccaneers, they were hunting hogs.

I couldn’t resist adding a little blood to this lancer’s weapon.

For the saddle blanket, I used an Ochre, highlighted with some pure yellow. For the uniforms, I started with Citadels’ Ushabti Bone and shaded and highlighted from there. For the red trim and sashes I used Vallejo’s Cavalry Brown, highlighting it with Cavalry Brown with some added brighter reds.

The riding boots started with pure black, highlighting up to a medium grey.

Citadel’s Typhus Corrosion is one of my favorite technical paints for dirtying up a soldiers pants and coat. You just have to be careful to water it down and spread it thinly.

Leaving off all firearms simplified the paint job, but don’t forget to give them all swords!

This pose is the one I ended up breaking the lance between assembly and painting. It’s also going to be pretty hard to transport. Looks cool, but a challenging pose to work with.

Well, those are my 3 painted plastic cavalry so far. Great models! Glad to have the lancer option now. It always felt weird using that unit with models with pistols.

I have another 9 models to paint up and I’m planning on doing most of them as lancers, but I may add some pistols and carbines so I can enjoy using those unit options on occasion.

Final Thoughts

The Caballeria Lancero is a fun and unique unit in Blood & Plunder and it’s great to have them in the game! The new Cavalry Unit Kit is an excellent product and this was a enjoyable project to assemble and paint these impressive minis.

I’ll leave you with a few more images, some from other painters from our Spring Painting Contest.

Here is a full unit of Caballeria Lanceros from Fernando Arteaga. Here you can see some altered poses and the tricorn hats.
Entry # 4 - Spanish Caballeria Lancero
Another shot of Fernando’s cavalry, together with some metal models with pistols.

Go paint some cavalry!

Miniatures and article by Joseph Forster

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