Firelock Games has been pumping out new products lately! Today we get to look at 3 new Blood & Plunder “Faction Sets” that are designed to go along with the Fire on the Frontier expansion book.
What Are These New Faction Sets?
These new products are much like the original “Nation Box” that were part of the first Kickstarter campaign and have continued to be sold. Each box contains 25 models of one nationality, including 1 Commander model.
Included in each Faction Set we find:
- 3 sets of 8 minis (2 sets of 4 different sculpts)
- 1 Commander model
- 1 Faction sheet with Faction Rules, Unit Stats, and Generic Commander Stats
These Faction Sets include resin, one-piece miniatures and are priced at $99. This provides a decent discount, bringing the “per model cost” down from $4.64 to $3.86 If bought individually, these minis would cost $116.
Firelock Games has released 3 Faction Sets, each drawn from the Fire on the Frontier expansion book which focuses on the late 17th century Colonial Wars in North America. We have the New France Garrison, the Northeastern Woodland Tribes and the North American English Militia Faction Sets. This represents one box for each nation represented in Fire on the Frontier.
Let’s look at each box individually!
North American English Militia Faction Set
This is the most exciting new product because it contains some new minis!
This Faction Set includes:
- 8 Indian Fighters
- 8 Provincials
- 8 North American Militia
- 1 English Commander
- 1 North American English Militia Faction Sheet with Commanders, Faction Rules and Unit Stats
The Indian Fighter model has been out for a long time, through the sculpts did get some slight redesign and improvement before going from metal to resin production. These minis have a very distinct English/New England flavor to them and includes some great poses.
The Provincials are a new, and very useful miniature for almost any nation in Blood & Plunder. They are basically the “17th century soldier” model from the No Peace Beyond the Line Kickstarter campaign, tweaked and improved a bit and with a Firelock Musket instead of a Matchlock Musket. This is a great model for the semi-professional English “Provincial” unit profile, but they are very multipurpose and could be used for other nations as well.
Last, we get a brand new set of sculpts for English Militia! I’m really excited about these models!
Here are some close up shots. (These are shots before the models were finished, so there may be some oddities or rough spots that will not appear on the actual product)
It’s nice to get a new and interesting set of “guy with a musket” sculpts! Again, these have some good English flavor, but could potential be used by other Factions and Nations.
And of course, we get the standard English Commander model in resin.
These sets differ slightly from the original “nation boxes” in that they have 8 models of 3 units instead of 8x of two and 4x of 2. I see this as an improvement, largely because 4 models is on the small side for a full unit. These boxes are also focused on one Faction instead of providing models for several Factions within a Nation.
That said, this set of minis can be used as North American English Militia as advertised, but it could also be used for the New England Militia or Church’s Raiders found in Fire on the Frontiers, or various other English Colonial Factions found in other Blood & Plunder books.
The North American English Militia Faction has access to several other units not found in this box, but these are the essential and most useful units.
You can easily make this 100 point army out of the models in this Faction Box:
Or you could go for a “tournament sized” force with something like this:
The North American English Militia Faction is a great faction with lots of options for force styles, units and commanders. This is a great choice for jumping into a Colonial English faction. We just released a full review of this faction! In that article you can read up on the faction rules, unit analysis, commander choices, tips and tactics for play and force building and lots more!
New France Garrison Faction Set
For our French set we get the New France Garrison Faction.
This set includes:
- 8 Compagnies Frnaches de la Marine
- 8 Milice Canadienne
- 8 Coureur des Bois
- 1 French Commander Model
- 1 New France Garrison Faction Sheet with Commanders, Faction Rules and Unit Stats
This is a great selection of French Colonial units as well! The Milice Canadienne and Coureur des Bois have been out for several years in metal, but the Compagnies Franches de la Marine are another recent release.
All of these units are good in the woods and skilled with musketry. The point cost per model is a little higher than the English box, so it’s easy to make a 100 or a 150 points force from this Faction Set.
The New France Garrison faction has great mobility as part of their Faction rule, and they have lots of options for bringing Native Allies along.
This 100pt force uses all but 2 models from the box with a free commander:
And this 150 point New France Garrison Force uses more of the bells and whistles that makes the French fun!
Northeastern Tribes Faction Set
And last we have a Native American Faction set, focusing on the Northeastern Woodland Tribes Faction.
This is a very welcome additional to the Blood & Plunder product line since the only Native Starter Box has been Caribbean focused until now! This is a great place to start for building a Native Faction from Fire on the Frontier or Raise the Black!
This set includes:
- 8 Pnieses
- 8 Young Braves
- 8 Braves
- 1 Woodland Tribes Commander Model
- 1 Northeastern Woodland Tribes Faction Sheet with Commanders, Faction Rules and Unit Stats
None of these models are brand new, but they are now released in high quality and durable resin.
The Northeastern Woodland Tribes Faction from Fire on the Frontier is a catch-all Northeastern Native Faction for the period between 1660 and 1700. It uses all these models, it has fairly simple Factions rules (simple for Natives at least!), and it has 1 Historical Commander option available in addition to the generic options.
This set would be great for any of the late 17th century and early 18th century North American Tribes factions found in Fire on the Frontier and Raise the Black.
With these set you could make this 100 point list:
Or you can expand it to this 150 point force featuring a historical Commander:
With these models you can easily make Faction like Iroquois, Wabanaki, New England Tribes, Creek, Chickasaw, etc.
The Native American Factions don’t get enough love in Blood & Plunder and we’re hoping this new discounted box will be a nice way to encourage people to try them out! They’re tons of fun and they can be very powerful on land!
Final Thoughts
It’s fantastic that Firelock is offering new starter boxes! These are marketed at Blood & Plunder “Faction Sets” but they can really be treated like “Colonial Starter Boxes.” While the existing Spanish, English, French, Dutch, and Privateer starter sets focus more on Buccaneers and the Caribbean and the Blackbeard vs. Maynard 2 Player Starter Set focuses on 18th Century Piracy, these products can set you up with a great land force for the Colonial warfare side of Blood & Plunder.
I’m especially pleased to see a North American Native box available now! There is an abundance of interesting North American Native American Factions in the game now and this Native Faction Set can get players into those factions really quickly and easily! The other cool thing about the Native Box is you can easily combine it with either the French of the English box to provide Native Support Units to your colonial factions, which is very common in all the factions in Fire on the Frontier.
Here’s some basic reasons I’m loving these new products:
- The resin minis are great quality
- New focus on Colonial Wars side of Blood & Plunder
- Tidy little discount
- New English models
- (sort of) New French models
- First opportunity to get North American Native starter set
Also, remember that if you order at least $100 from Firelock during the month of March (2024), you’ll get a “free” Disguised Female Pirate mini! If you buy one of these boxes, you can use the associated Legendary Commander model to push you over the $99 mark: Benjamin Church, King Philip or d’Iberville.
What do you think of these new Blood & Plunder Faction sets?
Now we see if we eventually get a stat card set for the Fire on the Frontier expansion!
Additional Recommended Reading
- North American English Militia Faction Overview
- Painting Article on the Compagnies Franches de la Marine on the Deadman’s Chest Blog
- Take a closer look at the resin miniatures in this review article.
- A close look at some painted Blood & Plunder resin miniatures