Blood & Plunder’s first big expansion book, No Peace Beyond the Line, has finally been reprinted and has made it past the Houthi pirates and arrived in Florida. This is good news for Blood & Plunder fans because it’s chock full of great content and it has been unavailable (except as a PDF) for a good while now. There are no major content changes in this reprint, but there have been some very interesting point cost adjustments on a few Units, Commanders, and Characters which should shake up list building a bit. Some new equipment options have also been added to a few units. No Peace Beyond the Line has been out for more than 5 years now and the game has grown a lot!

If you already have the No Peace Beyond the Line expansion, you do not need to repurchase the book. The changes are not major, and all changes will be reflected in the Force Builder and can be found in the new Firelock NPBtL Errata document here.

If you have previously purchased the PDF of NPBtL, that file in your account on FirelockGames.com will be updated for free.

The No Beyond the Line Units & Character Card Pack has also been reprinted (with updated costs) and will soon be available!

Overview of the Point Cost Changes

Overall, looking at the various adjustments to points, here are the general trends:

• Legendary Commanders‘ points have gone down
• A handful of Historical Commanders’ points have gone down
• Only 1 Historical Commander’s points have gone up
• Characters points have been adjusted with more going up than down
• A handful of Units have seen points reductions, with Cavalry seeing the most benefit

Legendary Commanders Point Cost Adjustments

Overall Legendary Commanders‘ costs are coming down. With the majority of Blood & Plunder games being played at the 100-200 point level, these high-powered commanders are rarely chosen, simply because they take so much space in your force! I really enjoy using the Legendary Commanders, so I welcome this adjustment. It’s always fun to get these unique sculpts on the board.

• Manuel Rivero de Pardal (Spanish) -4 to 28pts
• Juan Corso (Spanish) -3 to 32pts
• William Kidd (English & Unaligned) -4 to 28pts
• Henry Morgan (English) -10 to 32pts
• Jean David Nau “L’Ollonais” (French) -5 to 32pts
• Laurens de Graff (French) -8 to 34pts
• Piet Heyn (Dutch) -4 to 36pts
• King Golden Cap (Natives) -4 to 30pts

These are some significant changes, especially to Henry Morgan and Laurens de Graff. Piet Heyn is now the most expensive Commander in the game at 36pts. Hopefully, these reductions will encourage players to use these colorful characters a little more! They were important figures in the history of the period and hopefully, they will play a more important role in the game.

Historical Commanders Point Cost Adjustments

There are just a handful, with one going up and the rest becoming a little cheaper.

• Thomas Hewetson (British) -5 to 20pts
• Jan Erasmus Reyning (Dutch) -2 to 25pts
• King Oldman (Natives) +10 to 30pts

Reyning always felt a little expensive as did Hewetson, so nice to see them become a little more affordable. King Oldman gets a nerf here, moving up to 30 points. Looking at his stats, that is well deserved. Oldman has 3 Command Points, Great Warrior, Inspiring, and the excellent Buccaneer Tactics Special Rules. 30 points is fair.

Fighting Men Characters Point Cost Adjustments

This is where it’s going to hurt a little. Some of the most popular Fighting Men Characters get hammered here so brace yourself.

• Officer +2 to 10pts
• Master Gunner +2 to 6pts
• Carpenter +1 to 4pts
• Musician +3 to 5pts
• Sailing Master +1 to 4pts
• Standard Bearer +1 to 3pts
• Grizzled Veteran +3 to 6pts
• Son of Neptune +2 to 5pts

Now that’s painful!

The Grizzled Vet

The Grizzled Veteran has been an omnipresent Character in Blood & Plunder lists for a couple of years now so that’s no surprise. His ability to rally a unit close to him and take Fatigue off his own unit with the Tough Special Rule is extremely helpful. His character upgrade cost has now doubled from 3pts to 6pts. Now you’re really going to have to think about making room for him in your force rather than just adding him as a matter of course.

Master Gunner

The other most used Character is the Master Gunner. He’s taking a similar hit, moving up from 4pts to 6pts. The Master Gunner gives you THREE different benefits when working your great guns on a ship:

• he grants the Expert Artillery Crew special ability
• he can hand out a Reload action as a Command Point
• he grants a -1 bonus on the “ranging shot” when a unit fires cannons.

That’s a lot of benefits! So even at 6pts this Character is still a bargain! I don’t expect to see a reduction in the use of this model as he is vital to any Sea-based force.

Muscians

The Musician also took a MAJOR hit, moving from +2pts to +5pts. The Musician is very popular in competitive lists right now, granting the double benefit of the Terror and Inspiring Special Rules.

Terror can drop the Fatigue on all your opponent’s units at the beginning of the game, and Inspiring is one of the most foundational and useful Commander abilities in the game, allowing your Commander to manage Fatigue across your Force is an extremely efficient manner. Having Inspiring available to any and all Factions and Commanders cheapened it a little, so this makes sense to me.

Terror is another rule that feels like it should be “special” and the Musician let any low-life Militia Commander strike fear into the hearts of his enemies. This Character does have the extra hidden cost of forcing the character to lose any other weapon besides his Standard Melee Weapon, but too often I have seen a Musician industriously loading cannons an entire game.

The Officer

The Officer is receiving a point cost adjustment to deal with an issue in the rules that has become more popular with the release of Raise the Black and customizable Standard Commander. Rather than spend points on a Commander, some min/maxers have been choosing the 0-cost Commander and then relying on an 8pt Officer and 3pt Grizzled Veteran. For 11 points that’s a total of 3 Command Points (spread over more than one uit), and Tough, and Battle Hardened (rules only on the Veteran’s unit). This is generally a better option than a 10pt Experienced Command. The Officer also has the free ability to roll for a Strike Test if the Commander is taken off the board which made the option of an Officer even more attractive. With the +2 to Officers and +3 to Grizzled Vets, it’s still a good combo for 16pts, but this should help slow down some of the gamier moves in the force-building.

Other Fighting Man Changes

Some of the utility Characters like the Son of Neptune, Carpenter and Sailing Master all got hit with a +1 or +2 cost spike as well, but they aren’t a huge deal. These Characters are common, but aren’t a go-to like the Grizzled Vet, Master Gunner,and Musician.

I see this as a push towards not relying on Characters so much and trying to push people to focus on their Commander a bit more.

These point adjustments also make the cost of the Characters in the Raise the Black expansion look at little more attractive! They may get hit with the nerf hammer at some point as well, use while they’re still cheap!

Hostage & Advisor Characters

• Spy -2 to 5pts
• Ship’s Pilot -3 to 4pts

Here we see some discounts! These two Characters haven’t seen a lot of play. Partially because they are much more conditional to Scenarios, but largely because of their high cost for the benefits they offer. These are both great balancing alterations in my opinion.

The Spy Character Point Cost Reduction

The Spy has a niche spot right now stopping some of the most aggressive Native American factions from Laying in Wait and bashing your head in turn 1. But other than that, she hasn’t got a lot of time in the spotlight.

The Ship’s Pilot Character Point Cost Reduction

A Ship’s Pilot grants The Ship’s Pilot has seen possibly even less play, so this reduction to 4pts is welcome. He grants the Sailors ability to any Unit to which he’s assigned. This lets you turn some Militia or Muskety units into units that can help with Advanced Maneuvers, do Repairs. or fight Fires.

Historically, a Ship’s Pilot was someone familiar with a local region and treacherous waters. In game terms this allows you to reroll any test to Run Aground. This is a rare occasion in most games so spending 7pts on a model that may never get any use prevented players from selecting him. At4pts this is much more acceptable and will hopefully get this Character some more play time.

Unit Point Cost Changes

There are several units that are seeing a point cost reduction. This is both because of their lower usage and as a balancing element to bring them in line with other units, especially with the newest Raise the Black expansion.

Cavalry Point Cost Changes

The biggest change here is cavalry. Cavalry is receiving a -1 pt adjustment across the board cost! This is HUGE! Cavalry exists in Blood & Plunder but seeing it used in a game was rare. Cavalry is always fun to play, but they die comically fast. This has made it very difficult to build a competitive cavalry list and led to it being shunned in tournaments. Every Cavalry unit in the game has been reduced by 1pt per model. The Units are still fragile, but this update should really help get Cavalry units into the game.

• Spanish Caballeria -1 to 5pts each
• Spanish Caballeria Lancero -1 to 5pts each
• English Militia Cavalry -1 to 4pts each
• Milice a Cheval -1 to 4pts each
• Militie Cavalerie -1 to 4pts each
• European Militia Cavalry -1 to 3pts each
• Jewish Militia -1 to 4pts each

To be honest, I’m a little afraid of how this is going to play out in competitive games, but I welcome it anyway. Cavalry has a LOT of speed advantages and they are well armed, but they really lack the ability to utilize cover, shoot from a distance, and control objectives efficiently. This change does inspire me to get out my cavalry and build a focused list and see if it can actually win some games!

The reduction on the generic European Militia Cavalry is the scariest since they were already cheaper than everything else. They are only in two different factions, the Portuguese-Brazilian Tercios & Militia and the Scottish Militia. They are a Support unit in the Scottish Militia, but they are actually Core Unit in that primary Portuguese Militia Faction. Now you can do a monstrous swarm of 3pt Inexperienced cavalry and I don’t know how to feel about that.

The Jewish Militia

Finally the Jewish Militia unit is getting a straight cost reduction which might let it see some play again. Jewish Militia have middling stats and just didn’t seem worth the 5pts. This unit can only be used in a couple factions (mostly Dutch), so this isn’t a widely important, but it will finally make these guys playable.

New Sailor Unit Equipment Options

This is some big news as well! All the standard “sailor” units are gaining the ability to use Boarding Pikes and Brace of Pistols!

Marineros, Sea Dogs, Marins, Zeelieden, and European Sailors all gain two new options

• Unit may exchange Pistols for Lances a no cost.
• Unit may exchange Pistols for Brace of Pistols for 4 points per unit (not per model)

Both these options let you customize your cannon crew, rowers, or sailor units to be much more aggressive when the need arises. Lances are great because they are always pointy and you don’t have to reload them. And we all know how dangerous Brace of Pistols is! Now you have an actual reason to use the boarding pikes that come in the plastic Sailor multi-pack sets.

Faction Rule Changes

There were an astounding 50 Factions released in No Peace Beyond the Line! Only three of those are being adjusted. 

English Militia Faction Changes

Both of the English Militia Factions are getting a little tweak. The English Caribbean Militia and the North American English Militia factions are replacing this rule:

• This Force may re-roll any of its failed Fatigue and Rally Test results during the game’s first turn.

With this faction rule:

• Once per turn, a single English or British unit in this Force may re-roll a Fatigue test without spending a Fortune Point.

This is the standard English/British militia rule found in Fire on the Frontier and Raise the Black so this is no surprise. All too often, that reroll on the first turn didn’t do anything meaningful. Most units spend the first turn moving and maneuvering and there is little firing so it never acme into play. I myself have complained about it more than once, so this is a welcome change. This current ability is pretty powerful and very fun which helps the less-flashy English factions be enjoyable.

The Flibustiers Nau Faction Changes

Finally, there’s one little unit change in one French Faction. The Flibustiers Nau gets to make Marins a Core Unit instead of a Support unit. This is great for L’Ollonais! This was a huge weakness in his Legendary faction, as he didn’t have easy access to low-cost sailors and cannon crew. He was basically landbound because Marins were a Support Unit. Great choice that will make his Legendary Faction actually quite good!

Final Thoughts

That’s all the changes I was able to find! Legendary Blood & Plunder Commanders are now more affordable, some key Characters are a little more of a choice instead of “auto includes,” we got some fun new options for our basic Sailor units across the board, and some of the least used units now are cheaper and might see some play again! These seem like solid changes to me and I’m eager to see how these adjustments change up the types of forces players build and play!

The print run of No Peace Beyond the Line has all these changes included. The PDF, for sale on the Firelock Games website, will be updated as well. The new costs, options, and abilities will be applied on the Blood & Plunder online Forcebuilder shortly after Adepticon 2024.

What do you think of the changes in No Peace Beyond the Line? Are you ready to run a whole list of cavalry now, or put a Legendary Commander at the head of all your Blood & Plunder armies?

Additional Recommended Reading

• New Updated Errata for No Peace Beyond the Line
• Morgan’s Buccaneers Faction Review
• Painted Cavalry Showcase
• Heyn’s Commissievaarders Faction Review

Related Products

• No Peace Beyond the Line physical book (will be available soon)
• No Peace Beyond the Line PDF