Veteran Sea Rovers looking to fly the Dutch Flag into the 18th Century, you’ll feel quite at home with the Dutch Marine. While the days of Piet Heyn and Michael De Ruyter are far behind, the Dutch still manage to be a formidable force on the Blood & Plunder Table. If you are new to Blood & Plunder and are looking for a nationality that isn’t Britain, France, or Spain, the Dutch are your ticket! The Dutch Marine are a rewarding seagoing faction that is easy to pick up with a wide variety of play styles! So dust off that Letter of Marque and grab your clogs as we review what makes the Dutch Marine tick!
Dutch Marine Force Special Rules
The Dutch Marine have 2 Force Special Rules that are typical for any professional privateering Force. They get a +2 to the dice roll to determine the attacker in a Scenario. Additionally, all their ships gain the Shallow Draft Special Rule (pictured below) for free. This is great for when an event is drawn and one of your ships has to test to see if they Run Around. The +2 will give you a decent chance of being the attacker and having a deployment advantage. While not an overly aggressive faction, it won’t cripple you to be the defender if the dice don’t roll your way.
Force Options
The Dutch Marine have two ways to play, each with their own strengths. For those who have read my Dutch Privateers from No Peace Beyond the Line article , you’ll notice very similar rules. The main addition is that the Vrijbuiters may also fly False Colors, just like the Pirates! If you want to board the enemy ship and engage the future Prize Crew in glorious melee combat, False Colors will help you move in close! Additionally, being able to re-roll a Fatigue dice when attacked (in melee or shooting) at 6” away or less keeps your units from running and keep chopping heads!
The West India Company rule is relatively unchanged from No Peace Beyond the Line. There is one notable exception: the elite Latere Soldaten become Support units! You also have an option to remove Fatigue when you take Strike Points. This shows their gritty determination to stay in the fight when the going gets tough.
Units
In its basic form, the Dutch Marine has 3 Core and 3 Support Units (4 as the West India Company). Let’s take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of each of these options.
Core Units
The 3 Core Units should be familiar to most Dutch players of Blood & Plunder: Zeelieden, Kapers, and European Sailors.
Zeelieden
Zeelieden are going to be your bread-and-butter sailor unit for this faction. I’ve sung my praises about these amazing Dutch sailors. BUT, I need to elaborate for anybody new to the game: THESE ARE THE BEST ALL-AROUND SAILORS IN THE GAME! They come with a 6/6 Fight, a 7/7 Shoot, a resolve 5, pistols, melee weapons, and are Trained. Their true value, however, is their Special Rules: Expert Artillery Crew, Expert Sailors, and Hard Chargers (pictured below).
This combination means they load artillery faster than most of the standard sailors. They are better at changing the sail setting and performing advanced maneuvers than most sailors. With Hard Chargers, they will hit like a truck when they fly into melee combat. This versatility makes them solid candidates for both a cannon list and a boarding list.
Kapers
Kapers are the Sailor Musketeers of the Dutch Nation. They have a 6/6 Fight, 6/7 Shoot, a Resolve value of 5, Firelock muskets, melee weapons, and are Trained. They also come with the Expert Sailors Special Rule, as well as Artillery Crew and Brawlers. With a shoot of 6 these guys are a solid unit for laying down musket fire and they aren’t bad in a brawl either. They also have the option for a portion of the unit to replace Muskets with Blunderbusses. Most units that can use the Blunderbuss have a base Shoot skill of 7, but with 6, the Kapers are some of the best Blunderbuss shooters in the game. The best use for these guys is to have a unit to supply long range attacks and to handle Sail Setting changes and Advanced Maneuvers, or provide defensive fire on a deck you’d like to make difficult for boarders.
European Sailors
European Sailors are another solid core unit. They have a 6/7 Fight and Shoot, and a Resolve of 5, which is above average. They come at the Trained level and are armed with pistols and melee weapons. For Special Rules, they come with the usual Artillery Crew and Sailors, but they also have Battle Hardened, which helps when on the defensive. It is cheaper to take these guys instead of Kapers (They are 4 points per model vs 5 points per model) and spend the 4 points (not per model) to arm them with muskets, so if you’re looking to spend points on a support unit, these guys can be used in place of Kapers. While they lack the Expert Sailors rule, a 5+ for Sail Setting Changes and Advanced Maneuvers is still better than a 7+ for non-sailor.
Support Units
Militie
Militie are a firepower based support unit. They are cheap, and can offer devastating close-ranged volleys with their use of the Drilled Special Rule. They come equipped with melee weapons, firelock muskets, are Inexperienced, and cost 3 points per model. With a 6/7 Fight and a 7/7 Shoot and Resolve of 6, they aren’t the best. The one notable stat on the Dutch Militie is their Shoot Save of 7, which is better than most cheap militia units. While on a ship, the Hard Cover bonus kicks in and you have a fairly durable and cheap unit. They can help lay on Fatigue and casualties from afar. I find that the Militie are useful after you’ve spent all your points on what you want, and have some leftover for a big blob of them. Since they cannot take plug Bayonets or Socket Bayonets, keep these guys out of melee combat! A 50/50 chance of a hit with no re-rolls isn’t ideal for a Shoot focused unit. A 6 Resolve also means that they will generally break and run away against any competent melee unit.
Enter Ploeg
The Enter Ploeg are my favorite unit in Blood and Plunder bar none. They have a 5/6 Fight, a 6/7 Shoot, a Resolve of 4, cost 6 points per model, and are Veterans. These guys have never heard the word “Fatigue” before. And even if they do discover Fatigue for the first time, they’ll usually shrug it off.
They come heavily armed with Brace of Pistols, Melee weapons, and 1 out 4 models can take a blunderbuss and/or stinkpots for FREE. This is THE deck-clearing unit of the Dutch Marine and is arguably the best boarding unit in the game. They are cheaper than Forlorn Hope and have better saves than Les Enfant Perdue. Even if you add Grenadoes for 4 points a model, they still come out cheaper than the other two units upgraded to Veteran. A common tactic is to fire pistols and blunderbusses at the deck they wish to charge, throw over a stinkpot to prevent pesky Defensive Fire, and then charge in.
Enter Ploeg Special Abilities
The Expert Sailors and Expert Artillery Crew special abilities are “okay”, but not amazing. The unit tends to be too important and expensive to man the guns or Sheets & Shrouds. Lacking long-range weapons, I usually have them Prone, and stay there until we get within Grapple Range to protect them. Stand at the end of the round before you plan to board. Grapple with another unit if possible and then have them fire pistols once before throwing stinkpots and charging over.
If you really want to make your opponent cry, spend the 2 points on the Cook Fighting Man to give these guys Brawlers, and then have your Commander with the Cold Blooded Special rule. Then tell them to charge a unit that has more Fatigue than you! On top of rolling additional hits on natural 10s, Ruthless from the Commander will make them hit on 4s with rerolls (if the target unit has more Fatigue). While this is fun, it’s also NOT how you make friends, so save this for someone in your player group who seems to keep winning.
[Bonus Tactic from Jason K: While typically a sea-focused list, these guys are also excellent at amphibious assault. Free Stinkpots allow you to throw smoke in front of your units and create Cover where there typically isn’t any on the beach. Also, If you have to take out Gun Emplacements or Watchtowers in a scenario, Firepots are your friend! You get 1 per 4 models for free. Against a Size 1 Structure, 2 Fire Crit hits (8+ each) or the fire spread at the end of the round (7+ = 40%) you will auto-kill the unit and gun inside (pg 156 critical Hits chart). ]
Jamaican Privateers
For me personally, the Jamaican Privateers are an auto-avoid for the Dutch Marine. While 4 points for a musket unit seems worth it, they have a 7/7 Shoot, a 6/6 Fight, and a resolve of 5. Their only Special Rule is Expert Sailors. While they can be kitted out in various ways for different purposes, most of your units already do everything better than they do. Enter Ploeg and even Zeelieden are better at boarding, even if you give these guys Brace of Pistols by swapping out their muskets. Kapers and European Sailors are better at shooting and also have 5 Resolve, and Militie are cheaper, allowing you to make up for their 7 Shoot with numbers. If you’d rather have another unit of bodies to shoot or board, these are okay, but not recommended.
Editor notes on the Jamaican Privateers:
[SECOND OPINION FROM Joesph F.] Jamaican Privateers can be customized enough and are cheap enough they might fill a need if you want something a little cheaper than Kapers or Enter Ploeg, but a little more aggressive the Militie. A very affordable and flexible unit!]
[THIRD OPINION FROM Jason K] I would take Jamaican Privateers over Kapers, especially in larger games. They are a solid small unit to keep at the back of your ship for manning the Sheets & Shrouds with their Expert Sailors ability. Advanced maneuvers can be tricky so you want every advantage you can get. Since Advanced Maneuvers are Dedicated Actions and you’ll only get 1 per round anyway, you can downgrade these guys to Inexperienced making them 3pts. That’s a full 2 pts cheaper than a Kaper model giving you more Models and insurance against Strike Points. If you don’t need the sailing skill they are armed with Muskets can can be upgraded to Bucc Guns to sling long ranged Small Arms and supplement a large scale cannon focused build.
Latere Soldaten
Should you choose to take the West India Company Force Option, Latere Soldaten become support units and these guys pack a wallop! For 7 points a model, these professional soldiers come with Firelock Muskets, Socket Bayonets, and melee weapons, and are Trained. They have a 5/6 Fight, a 6/7 Shoot, and a Resolve of 5. They come with a plethora of fantastic Special Rules as well in the form of Tough, Expertly Drilled, Fast Reload, and Unwavering. If you need to save on points, swapping Socket bayonets for Plug Bayonets makes the units 4 points cheaper (not per model).
These are an excellent all-around unit. They can fight with their bayonets very effectively, they can shoot with Expertly Drilled to help lay on Fatigue and Fast Reload will keep their rate of fire high. The combination of Tough and Unwavering makes it hard to stack Fatigue on them. While they are expensive, they are worth every point paid for what they bring to the table. If you have room for two support units, taking 1 squad of Enter Ploeg and 1 squad of Latere Soldaten will cover your bases.
Commander Options
The Dutch Marine have access to the “new” Standard Dutch Commanders with choices of Special Rules. They also have access to 2 higher-cost historical commanders, Adriaen Claver and Pieter Stool.
Standard Dutch Commander
A new feature for Raise the Black is the ability to select Special Rules for Standard Commanders at the Experienced and Seasoned Levels. This allows you to kit out your Commander for your style of play. All of the options are pretty flavorful for the Dutch.
- Commodore: Adds 12” to the Commander’s Command Range when missing a Command Point to another ship or boat.
- Broadside!: All Artillery fired during the Commander’s activation is rolled at the same time, increasing the chances of Critical Hits
- Cold Blooded = This gives the commander Ruthless and any unit he tells to Fight or Shoot also gains Ruthless, which makes it so if the unit being targeted with the Fight or Shoot action has more Fatigue than the unit performing said Fight or Shoot, it confers a -1 bonus to that test.
- Elan: The Commander may give 1 Command Point to a unit other than his own when engaged in melee combat) are pretty standard amongst most of the other Nations’ Commanders.
- Sailing Master (The Commander may take an Action to increase a Ship’s SPeed by 1” for this turn, but if the Ship exceeds its Top Speed it takes a Lucky Hit on the Rigging as Normal.
- Inspiring: Re-roll failed Rally dice when the Commander uses a Command Point to tell a unit to Rally
- Battle Hardened: Reduces the number of dice you roll on Fatigue tests.
- Strict: When the Commander gives a command point to a unit, that unit gains a Fatigue but then gains a -1 bonus to any test they take from the Commander’s Command Point.
Tactics Based Commander Ability Suggestions
Here are some guidelines to follow based on the kind of list you’d like to run:
- For Cannon Lists, Broadside! Is essential. If you take the Seasoned Commander, Strict or Inspiring are also solid choices for either Fatigue Management or increasing the likelihood of a hit.
- For Boarding Lists, Cold Blooded is a must-have. From there either Elan or Battle Hardened will help your Commander stay in the fight as well as allow him to keep the Command Points flowing.
- For Mid-Range Musket Lists, Cold Blooded and Strict are your friends. Bonuses to Shoot are hard to come by, and both rules will allow you to lay on the hurt without relying on cannons.
- For Lists with Multiple Ships, take Commodore and Inspiring. Fatigue management across multiple ships or boats is a big help.
Adriaen Claver
Adriaen Claver is a great commander for lists based on cannons or musketry. Giving all units armed with muskets Marksman and Fast Reload per the Buccaneer Tactics Special Rule is huge. This alone gets more mileage out of Kapers, European Sailors (armed with Muskets!), Militie, and Jamaican Privateers! The Dutch normally aren’t known for their musketry, but Mr. Claver turns them into a force to be reckoned with! Muskets combined with Swivels are deadly at mid-range. If you are running a list with several small ships filled with units armed with muskets, it is sure to be a pain for unprepared players.
Pieter Stool
Pieter Stool is the only way to get 3 command points in any list for the Dutch Marine, which is a big deal. Motivated allows him to give an extra action to any unit he gives a Command Point to at the cost of 1 point of Fatigue on his own unit. While this is great, he only has Inspiring as an additional rule. So while he’s versatile with 3 command points, he also seems a bit lackluster for a 37-point model.
[SECOND OPINION FROM Joseph F.] Pieter Stool is a remarkable Commander that can do some incredible things! With 3 Command Points and the very fun and powerful Motivated ability, Stool can do things that no other Commander in Blood & Plunder can do! His Motivated ability potentially doubles his Command Point efficiency. This lets him hand out up to six actions a turn! True, you have to manage the Fatigue that builds up on his Command Unit, but his Inspiring ability makes that pretty easy. Motivated is one of the only ways to increase the amount of actions a unit can take every turn beyond the limit of 3. This can be really helpful when manning cannons, or sending off quick volleys of musketry every turn. If you can get 3 actions on it’s own unit’s activation, when you give them two bonus actions from a Motivated Command Point, that’s 5 actions per turn! That’s enough to Fire and fully Reload for cannons, or Fire twice and Reload 3 times for musketry. He’s expensive at 37 points, but he can turn a forces efficiency up to 150%!
Strategy Tips and Tactics
The sheer versatility of the Dutch Marine opens up tons of possibilities for list building. Since Zeelieden have Expert Artillery Crew, a cannon list is a no-brainer. Having so many good melee units makes boarding a viable tactic as well. If you take the aforementioned Adriaen Claver as a commander, the door opens up to musketry builds. These forces are viable on both sea and on land. The key to good list building is planning for what you want to do and building around that. Here are a few guidelines for building various lists:
Cannon List Example at 150 pts
For Cannon Heavy lists, take Zeelieden and take away their pistols for -1 point per model. Expert Artillery Crew will gives them a free Reload on a Heart or Spade, so Veteran is unneeded. To supplement your gun crew I would take Kapers, European Soldiers with Muskets, Militie, or Latre Soldaten. You should be playing as the West India Company for a Cannon list as you should be attacking at range. The Vrijbuiters option to give you False Colors only brings you closer to your enemy. Compensate for your lack of boarding power by stacking up as many bodies as possible. Then if you are boarded, they have to cleave their way through a lot of meat. Most of your units have good Resolve and are competent in Melee, so it shouldn’t be game-over if an enemy boards. Recommended Fighting Men are the Master Gunner, Sharpshooter, Officer (all 3 are from No Peace Beyond the Line), and Boatswain.
Boarding List Example at 200 pts
For a Boarding List, either Force option will do, so it’s a wash there. Look at taking fast ships with a 5”+ Top Speed like a Bermuda Sloop or Privateer Sloop. Put Zeelieden on Swivels to soften up the deck you wish to board. As with the cannon list, you should be aiming at Decks with lots of bodies. Enter Ploeg are a must if you can afford them, and spamming Zeelieden won’t disappoint. Be sure to include at least 1 or 2 units with muskets so you can Shoot while sailing toward your opponent. Once grappled, Stinkpots are HIGHLY recommended to avoid Defensive Fire. Especially if you haven’t been able to stack 2 Fatigue on one or both units on the deck you are assaulting. Latere Soldaten are great for charging and shooting but are expensive. If you choose the Vrijbuiters option, be sure to take a Sharp-Eyed lookout to try and be the attacker.
Recommended Fighting Men
- The Grizzled Veteran, Son of Neptune, Reformado, Officer (all of which are from No Peace Beyond the Line).
- The Sharp-Eyed Lookout and Cook (Raise the Black).
Musket List Example at 250 pts
Last, but certainly not least, we have our Musket Aficionados. What is unique here is that due to the possibility of running a competent Musket list, you can take the Dutch Marine on land! For both Sea and Land, West India Company is your best option to help out with that Fatigue. You can try to use the Vrijbuiters to use False colors and try to close the gap. But getting within 12” away is a gamble if the opponent brought lots of cannons or wants to board. Make sure you bring Adriaen Claver and use European Sailors armed with Muskets as your core unit. Bring Kapers if you’re at sea in case you need to do some fancy maneuvering. If on land, try to bring a unit of Latere Soldaten. Militie are great with Claver as well even at the Inexperienced level due to Fast Reload, but Trained is better. Focus fire on weaker units and prioritize units trying to close the distance.
Fighting Men Recommendations
The recommended Fighting Men are the Sharpshooter, Grizzled Veteran, Officer and Local Guide (if on Land). All of these are from No Peace Beyond the Line). If you have Raise the Black the Sharp-Eyed Lookout will help your initial deployment roll.
Conclusion
The Dutch Marine is a fantastic faction to play for the 18th-century expansion of Blood and Plunder. They retain plenty of advantages from the old Dutch Privateers faction from No Peace Beyond the Line. In addition, they bring some new units and a more pirate flavor for the 18th Century timeline. If you played the Dutch previously, you will feel right at home here! If you are a new player looking to get into the Dutch, they are still a solid Nationality. The Dutch Marine offers lots of replayability.
For more info on the previous interactions of the Dutch, check out the other articles under the “Dutch Force Building Tab”!
Article by Dan Carlson
Cad you do British Royal Navy, British Army, or British Militia next? I would love to see an analysis of veteran regulars vs grenadiers. Also the Royal Navy and British Militia Commander analysis’s would be nice. They don’t really seem like flexible factions so I would like to see what can be done with them!
We’re working on North American English Militia faction overview right now! We have Adepticon and Summer of Plunder rolling up on us fast, but we’re working hard to continue to add to our Faction Overview selection. Thanks for the suggestions!
Thanks! I would love to see the analysis of the British Army/Royal Navy because they are no very flexible but excel at what they specialize in! I look forward to your faction reviews!
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