Introduction

New England Village Garrison Faction Summary

This is a defensive Faction that relies largely on Fortifications. In general, it focuses on lower quality and inexperienced troops and requires you to include the Civilian unit which you must protect. It is not a great competitive tournament-style faction, but it can deliver very strong and enjoyable gameplay experiences, soaked in theme and story. It is one of the most “non-standard” and unusual Factions in Blood & Plunder.

New England Village Garrison Faction Rules

This faction has two faction rules, both of which push the New England Village Garrison into a defensive role.

Faction Rule #1: You Must Be the Defender

This Force is always the Defender in a Scenario and must include at least one closed-top Fortification.

The second part of this rule forces this Faction to include at least one substantial fortification. “Closed-top Fortification” isn’t technically defined in game terms but it means some fortified structure with a roof. Blood & Plunder has an increasing number of Fortification options to choose from! The expansion that includes this faction includes several closed-top fortifications that are perfectly paired with this faction. The Garrison House, Fortified House and Wooden Blockhouse would all be excellent functional and thematic choices. The flimsy Watchtower fortification from the core Blood & Plunder rulebook could also fulfill this requirement but is not as good of a functional or thematic fit. Including a Fortification in your Force automatically makes you the Defender anyway but this Faction rule leaves no wiggle room!

If you aren’t very familiar with the available Fortifications, scroll to the bottom of this article to review the primary options.

Faction Rule #2: Include Civilians

The second Faction rule is:

This Force must includes at least one unit of Civilians for every closed-top Fortification included.

Fortifications are good! Civilians are…bad. The Civilian unit is just what it sounds like: untrained and unwarlike people that have been caught up in chaos and violence. They can fight back when pushed, but they are not very effective. Since this Faction has to take a closed-top Fortification, it must also take at least one unit of Civilians. We’ll look at this Civilians more closely a little further down, but your Civilians will be a liability in most cases.

These two faction rules give us a good idea of how this Faction works. It will be defensive with some less effective units that must be protected. It will have to rely on the strength of defensive structures to cover some of the weaknesses of its units. Since our discussion of units will rely heavily on Fortifications, you might want to either review the Fortifications chapter in Fire on the Frontier, or scroll to the bottom of this article for the overview there.

New England Village Garrison Unit Selection

This Faction has access to 3 Core Units and 1 Support Unit. This means you don’t have a massive amount of options for being creative, but each unit is substantially different than each of the others, giving you some real choices.

Core Units

The New England Village Garrison can take English Militia, Militia Pikemen, and Civilians as Core Units.

English Militia

This is really your bread-and-butter unit for this Faction. Some players love the English Militia unit and some hate it. But in this Faction, their primary weakness is usually minimalized, making them a very solid choice.

The English Militia unit has two main strengths:

• Excellent Resolve of 5
• Option to equip Plug Bayonets

No other militia basic unit currently has either of these options in Blood & Plunder.

You’ll need to make friends with this unit to play this faction. They are your only core unit that can lay down any sort of respectable ranged fire. With the standard Militia Shoot Skill of 7, they aren’t winning marksmanship contests, but you need the ranged fire to survive in this faction. This is the literal core of your force.

English Militia’s strength is their 5 Resolve. All other 3pt Militias have a 6. This means you spend less time rallying and are less likely to become Shaken, which helps the overall action economy. Their 8 Shoot Save is their weakness. In standard cover, they will fail 70% of their Ranged Saves. Using some method of improving their Shoot Saves is essential to making this unit work as the core of this faction. Luckily, this faction requires the use of Fortifications and that can really help when it comes to Shoot Saves!

English Militia Experience Level Options

English Militia may be upgraded to Trained for +1pt per model. This makes them much more reliable, giving them an extra action on both Clubs and Diamonds, but it is by no means an auto-upgrade for this faction. If your militia is going to be defending fortifications, especially fortifications with the Superior Cover trait, the Inexperienced training level can be worked around. While in most of these fortifications, you’ll only be able to fire a max of 4 guns per attack, so half-firing is very common, making that experience upgrade less necessary.

Civilians

Let’s talk about the Civilians! They’re terrible! And they’re a little abnormal. Well, maybe a lot abnormal.

Civilian Rules

There are several things to cover here. First, the stats are pretty bad! This is the worst set of stats of ANY unit in Blood & Plunder! Even the Pressed Men unit has a 7 Shoot Save while Civilians have the dreaded 8. The Resolve number of 7 is terrible as well.

At 2 points they are very cheap, but they come with no weapons other than the Standard Melee Weapon (which could represent something as exotic as a fireplace spit in the case of some New England settlers!). The Civilians’ only Special Rule is The Sound of Thunder which is also a negative. This forces them to roll an additional die when rolling a Resolve Test after a ranged attack from gunpowder weapons. That extra die, combined with the 8 Shoot Save and a Resolve of 7 means this unit is not good at surviving getting shot at. This unit is good at dying.

Equipping Civilians with Weapons

You can equip your unit with some makeshift weapons. For 2pts per unit, you can equip half the Civilians with muskets, pistols, or bows. In most cases, you’ll likely want to pay those 2 points to give them some sort of options when it comes to ranged defense/attack. For thematic purposes, muskets are probably the most appropriate for this faction, but bows can be a great option as well. With no reloads, bows can be much easier to manage for an Inexperienced unit. But, with a Shoot skill of 7, your range penalty turns bows off at 16″ since they have no extended range. I usually go with muskets because I’m a slave to the theme!

But that’s not all! The Civilians have two more interesting rules. First, you don’t get to draw Activation Cards for units of Civilians in your Force. Appropriately, having non-combatants in your Force does not increase your tactical flexibility. In fact, you can’t even choose to activate a unit of Civilians in your Force until all your other units have activated. Then, instead of playing an activation card, you draw a card for your unit off the top of your deck and resolve any actions that way. This means you have to be very careful with Civilians and not put them in harm’s way. If you put them somewhere dangerous at the end of the turn, you won’t be able to move them to safety early in the next turn! Using a Command Point is the only real way to get around this hard restriction on their Initiative.

Civilian Perks

Civilians come with one tiny perk! If a unit of Civilians ends their activation with no Fatigue, another unit within the same structure or fortification may take a free Rally action with a single d10. Your soldiers have something extra to fight for when Civilians are present. Since Civilians are good at dying and good at taking Fatigue, this rule doesn’t always trigger, but it can be a helpful way to let your troops shed some Fatigue in the defense of their loved ones!

We’ve established that the Civilians have terrible stats and are hard to control. The thing they are best at is dying. Their final rule punishes you when they die. When a unit of Civilians is destroyed, you get a Strike Point! And this is in addition to the models already counting as casualties for standard Strike Points! You don’t want your Civilians getting killed!

Using Civilians

Much like the New England Garrison Faction, Civilians are high on narrative value and low on the power curve. Every New England Village Garrison Force must include at least 1 unit of Civilians and learning to manage them as both an asset and a liability is important.

As far as using the unit, there are three primary approaches:

1. Keep them Prone status and try to survive incoming fire
2. Give them weapons and have them shoot from a fortification
3. Recklessly use them to surprise your opponent

Strategy Option #1: Go Prone and Weather the Hits

This is probably the smartest strategy and the one I’ve had the most success with. Keeping your units of Civilians prone in a Fortification with the Superior Cover trait (Blockhouse or Garrison House) means they will be almost unkillable. While Prone they can also absorb hits off that would take out your offense unit.

This strategy comes at the cost of using up space in your Fortification, but it is surprisingly effective. Superior Cover lets all units save on a flat 3+ and the bonus for being Prone is a -2. But any 1 is still a fail, but that’s still a 90% survival rate!

Being prone forces the other unit in the structure section to take the higher number of hits when there’s an odd number, but it’s still a solid defensive move to put a Prone unit of 4 Civilians within the top level of a Garrison House along with a unit of Militia or Indian Fighters. The Civilians just lay there soaking up hits and rallying every turn while the menfolk with muskets kept firing!

Strategy Option #2: Equip Half Your Models with Weapons

Option #2 can help defend but it’s painfully slow! With only half the models with weapons (if you pay the +2), they aren’t going to be dealing out a lot of damage. And since Civilians are Inexperienced and you activate with them an unknown card, they aren’t reloading very fast! A unit of 8 Civilians with the weapons upgrade costs 18pts for 4 shots every 1.5-2 turns. Not a good return on your investment! But since you have to take them and they’re going to be taking up room in your Fortifications, sometimes it’s worth it to arm them and have them defend. Extra bodies help increase your Strike Point thresholds as well.

Strategy Option #3: Embrace the Madness and Charge!

Option #3 is only for madmen or if you’re losing and a desperate act may swing the game. No one ever expects Civilians to attack so it can take people off guard. Since they activate late in the round by default, sometimes you can actually charge a unit of civilians out of your fortifications and hit a more valuable unit when they aren’t expecting it. Granted, it’s highly likely you’ll end up losing your entire unit and taking more Strike Points, but if you’re desperate, sometimes sending the women and children into melee is the best choice. Enemy Command Unit weakened and vulnerable? There is nothing more humiliating to your opponent than getting driven off by a man with a rake and a woman with a rolling pin!

Militia Pikemen

This is another odd unit that isn’t terribly powerful. The Militia Pikeman has a 7/7/-/8 stat line with a solid English Resolve of 5. They come armed with a Lance and can upgrade to a full Pike for free. Militia Pikemen have the Drilled Pikemen and Support: English Militia Special Rules and cost 3 points per Inexperienced model. They cannot have their training level upgraded but they can add armor for 2pts per unit.

Militia Pikemen Rules and Weapons

Let’s look at their weapons and Special Rules, then look at how they can be used in the New England Village Garrison.

Support: English Militia is a limit on including Militia Pikemen in your Force. You can only include 1 unit of Pikemen in your Force for every 1 unit of English Militia in your Force. It’s hard to imagine a situation where you would want to break this limit.

Their other rule, Drilled Pikemen, can provide some solid benefits, but the benefit is difficult to utilize in this faction.

This unit adopts a Defensive Stance when in formation. While in a Defensive Stance, this unit does not take a point of Fatigue when making Defensive Attacks. Additionally, units that Charge it apply a +1 penalty to their free Fight Test, even if the attacking unit also charges into nearby friendly units without this Special Rule. See the Drilled Special Rule description to determine if a unit is in formation. Models can still act in any direction while in formation, but they must be in formation at the end of a move to gain the Defensive Stance.

A unit must have at least 4 models all in base contact to be in Formation but they must also not be in a closed-top structure. If you decide to go on the offensive and leave your Fortifications, you can use a unit of Militia Pikemen to defend your other units from potential charges. But they cannot benefit from this rule while in a closed top structure.

Militia Pikemen Weapons & Upgrades

Lances are a strong weapon in Blood & Plunder when in the right hands. They can make Defensive Attacks when charged, and they apply a +1 penalty to Fight Saves after they Charge another unit. Lances are considered a longer weapon than a musket with a bayonet, so they are a good counter to bayonet charges. The full Pike is even longer and can counter the Lance, but the Pike loses all special abilities when in a closed-top structure, making that Pike upgrade a bad choice for this Faction in most cases.

The option to add Armor for 2pts isn’t a bad choice if you’re enjoying Superior Cover from your Blockhouse or Garrison House. Superior Cover lets you Save on 3+ and Armor lets you reroll 1’s on Shoot Saves. The math gets a little complicated there but you initially save 80% of your Shoot Saves, then reroll half of those failed rolls at an 80% success rate! That means you’re saving 96 out of every 100 hits! Armored Pikemen are very difficult to shoot out of a good Fortification! Armor also helps in melee but the math isn’t as advantageous.

Using Militia Pikemen in the New England Village Garrison

Militia Pikemen aren’t great a super powerful unit, but can be used decently in this faction. Their lances are deadly in melee and they work inside of Fortifications. But in general, melee units have a high cost in this faction since they won’t do anything sitting in a building until the enemy gets closer and tries to break in. Or you can pop out and hit a vulnerable target, but it’s hard to pay for a whole unit know you won’t be able to use them for much of the game. Their ability to take Armor and reroll 1’s on their Save Tests makes them a really strong choice for “bullet sponges” for your other units. But that is an inglorious calling.

You can use them as a threatening unit outside of Fortifications, but being slow and Inexperienced and having a bad Shoot Save, they also have a hard time staying alive.

Support Units

The New England Village Garrison has one option for a Support Unit.

Indian Fighters

The Indian Fighter unit is an excellent unit! They are your primary option for offensive tactics in this Faction.

With 6/6 Fight stats, they are your best Melee option and with 6/7 Shoot stats, they are also your best Ranged option, both in offensive and defensive stats. The 5 Resolve is standard, but their Special Rules make them even better. Indian Fighters have the Scouts, Elusive, and Tough Special Rules and cost 5 points per model. Scouts lets them move through area terrain without the usual movement penalty, and Elusive grants them a bonus on their Shoot Save while the unit is entirely within area terrain that grants cover.

These rules make the Indian Fighter a good, aggressive unit that can function well outside of a Fortification. The Tough Special Rule lets Indian Fighters shed 1 point of Fatigue at the end of their activation if they did not gain any Fatigue during their activation and that rule is massively useful both inside and outside of a Fortified structure.

Indian Fighters can upgrade to Veteran for 1pt per model and can add Thrown Weapons for 3pts per unit. Upgrading to Veteran could be useful but Diamonds activation cards (which are good for Veteran units) are already a solid choice for all the other Inexperienced units in this faction so the advantage is limited. Adding Thrown Weapons increases the offensive capability of this unit by allowing them to re-roll all failed results in a Charge.

Using Indian Fighters in the New England Village Garrison

At 5pts per model, Indian Fighters are considerably more expensive than other models available to this Faction, but it is really nice to have at least one good unit in your Force. In general, you will start a game with most of your units inside a Fortification. This unit can be an exception as they do very well in wooded terrain. They can function as flankers and deprive attacking units of possible cover while approaching your fortified positions. Or you can just keep them in your primary fortifications as well and keep them firing with Fatigue falling off with their Tough Special Rule.

Being a Support Unit, you cannot attach your Commander to Indian Fighters, but they are still a solid choice that can open up additional tactical options in a Faction that has very few tactical options.

New England Village Garrison Commanders

The New England Village Garrison Faction has access to six “Generic” Commanders and one unique Historic Commander.

Generic Commanders

The New England Village Garrison can be commanded by the 3 English Militia Commanders provided in Fire on the Frontier as well as the 3 levels of customizable “Standard English Commanders” found in the Raise the Black expansion.

English Militia Commanders

These “old style” Commanders remain viable options in this Faction. The Untested English Militia Commander is a little better than his Untested Standard English Commander counterpart since the Militia Commander gets 8″ of Command Range instead of 4″. If you plan to camp in a Fortification, your Command Range isn’t as important as usual, but it remains a consideration!

The Experienced Commander at 15pts for 12″, 2 Command Points, and Inspiring is solid, but if you don’t need the extra Command Range, the 10pt Standard English Commander can give you everything else for 5pts less.

The Seasoned English Militia Commander has a huge Command range, but the addition of Expertly Drilled isn’t super helpful for this faction if you’re going to be inside Fortifications (can’t do a Drilled shot through windows). High Standing doesn’t help anything either, so I would consider the 20pt Seasoned Standard English Commander to be a better choice in most cases.

The Standard English Commander presents some fun options in that you can customize them by cherrypicking the Special Rules that will fit with your force. Experienced Commanders receive 1 Special Rule from the list of possible English Special rules, the Seasoned Commander gets 2 and the Untested Commander doesn’t get any.

Standard Commander Special Ability Options

Possible rule choices for the English Standard Commanders include:

» Commodore = useless to this faction
» Broadside! = useless to this faction
» Inspiring = reroll fails on Commander’s Rally Actions
» Resilient = bonus to Strike Tests
» Sailing Master = useless to this faction
» Tough = unit sheds a Fatigue at end of the activation
» Unwavering = removes 1 Fatigue if the command unit starts shaken, possibly letting them activate as normal
» Strict= take 1 Fatigue for a -1 on a roll
» Vendetta: Spanish, Native American, or French (choose one)

Of these, Inspiring, Tough, Unwavering, Strict and Vendetta are all good choices and Resilient is a very decent choice for this faction as well. Fatigue management is always good and you really can’t go wrong with putting Inspiring on your Commander. But, if your Civilians are providing their little free rally perk, it isn’t as essential in this faction. Tough is always good as well, but only helps your Commander’s unit. Unwavering could be good, but, like Resilient, it helps you hold on and possibly turn a game around when you’re losing. Vendetta helps vs certain nations but it is hit or miss depending on which nation you go up against. If you know one specific nation is hard for you to deal with, choosing that rule would be excellent.

If you want to power up your offensive capabilities, the Strict rule can help in that department. At the cost of giving the commanded unit one point of Fatigue, that unit gets a -1 bonus on their test. Since the core of your Force isn’t the most deadly, but your Fatigue mitigation is strong, the Strict Special Rule would be near the top of the list of desirable Special Rules for the New England Village Garrison for me.

Unique Commander – Miles Morgan

The New England Village currently has access to one unique Historical Commander: Miles Morgan.

Cheap for a Historical Commander at 10pts, let’s see what he brings to the Force.

Miles Morgan is armed well, has a decent Command Range of 8″, but the 1 Command Point is a drawback compared to the 2 Command Points you get with the 10pt Standard Commanded or 15pt Militia Commander.

Do his Special Rules make him worth the 10pts? Tough is always good, especially on your Command Unit that you never want to lose actions on. Castilian is a niche rule that gives your Rally tests a bonus when the unit is in the same Fortification as the Commander. This is excellent for this faction that focuses on Fortifications! This means your English Militia will Rally on 4’s, and it brings your terrible Civilians’ Resolve to a 6 when rallying. His third rule, Elusive, isn’t great for fighting in Fortifications, but if you venture out and into the trees, it can give your English Militia a better Shoot Save. Overall, Miles Morgan is great at Fatigue mitigation, but the single Command Point is a real drawback.

Character Suggestions for the New England Village Garrison

There are two interesting Characters that combine with the New England Village Garrison included in the Fire on the Frontier expansion that includes this faction, in addition to some excellent Characters from the No Peace Beyond the Line and Raise the Black expansions.

The Angel of Hadley (William Goffe)

William Goffe is one of the wildest characters in Blood & Plunder right now! The history is awesome (but maybe a little sketchy..) and there is a great write-up on him in Fire on the Frontier.

There’s a lot going on here, but the first thing to notice is that you don’t deploy this Character at the beginning of the game! He will only come out of his purposeful obscurity in dire need! If you end a turn with more Strike Points than your opponent, you get to roll a d10 and you have a 50% chance of Goffe joining your weary defenders to turn the tide!

This is pretty wild! It’s a heavy investment and he may not come into play even if you do need the help! But it is an epic moment when he does show up!

What does he provide? He is the equivalent of an excellent 20pt Commander. He doesn’t technically replace your starting Commander, but his 12″ Command Range, 2 Command Points, and Very Inspiring and Aggressive Commander Special Rules are better than any Commander available to this Faction!

While not entirely reliable for competitive play, this kind of narrative event in a game is a pure pleasure to play. If you plan to play around with this Faction at all, you have to try The Angel of Hadley! You can even game the system a little and bait your opponent with a cheap Fortification or a poor unit of Civilians running around in the open. Get them killed, get that Strike Point, and start fishing for William!

Praying Indian

The Praying Indian is a great Character to attack to your English Militia if you plan to have units stationed outside of Fortifications in your New England Garrison Force. Both the Scouts and Elusive Special Rules help units gain an advantage in area terrain. Both these rules are a huge help to the English Militia in particular, as their 8 Shoot Save is a major weakness, and gaining mobility through Scouts helps since they are typically Inexperienced.

Often a New England Village Garrison force will stay within Fortifications for most of the game, so this wouldn’t be a great choice if you’re planning to simply defend. But many scenarios will call for you to move around the board and the Praying Indian is a much-needed ally when that becomes necessary.

The Praying Indian has a unique ability that allows for more than one to be included in a Force, allowing you to upgrade several units if needed. In this particular Faction, the English Militia is the only unit that fulfills the necessary unit restriction of having the Drilled or Expertly Drilled Special Rules.

Standard Characters for the New England Village Garrison

Many Characters can be utilized in this Force, but here are some of the top choices. Hostage/Advisor Characters are particularly good in this Faction since your Command Unit will be well protected if they are in a Fortification and keeping control of that Character gives your opponent a Strike Point after the final turn of the game.

Sharpshooter

The Sharpshooter might be a little non-intuitive, but he actually brings a lot to the table. First, if you’re using a lot of Half Shots from your Superior Cover Fortifications, you’re reliably using the Sharpshooter every turn and gaining his possible benefit a higher percentage of the time. His Marksman Special Rule is a big help as well if you need some better range since the Drilled rule is turned off in most Fortifications. Deadeye isn’t as useful unless you got Natives hiding in the trees outside your kill zone.

Grizzled Veteran

You can’t go wrong with the Grizzled Veteran! Even at his new cost of 6pts, his combo of Tough and a Rally Command Point and the possibly useful Battle Hardened bring a lot to your Force. His ability to help Rally you Command Unit should it take excessive Fatigue is a great trick.

Officer

At 10pts, this is a hard choice, but that extra Command Point that is free to do anything plus the option to take command if your Commander should die can be game-saving!

Musician/Drummer Boy

The Musician and Drummer Boy are both great characters to attach to your English Militia Command unit. That Terror ability is always helpful at the beginning of a game, and the Inspiring rule is always welcome!

Spy

The Spy is one of the lesser-used Advisor Characters in Blood & Plunder, but with a recent price reduction, she’s worth another look! If you’re playing “thematic games” with the New England Village Garrison you might be playing vs. the Native American Factions more often than not. They have the ability to deploy up to half their Force using the Lay in Wait scenario rule if they are the Attackers. And… the New England Village Garrison is always the Defender. The Spy has a 50% chance of stopping your opponent from using the Lay in Wait rule. The spy also allows you to Mulligan your hand of Activation Cards once per game.

Spiritual Leader

The Spiritual Leader simply gives you an additional Fortune Point during a game. While not mechanically a brilliant combo or anything, this is a thematic homerun for the Faction. You need your Puritan preacher!

Captured Merchant

While not a thematic win, this is a pretty frustrating combo to fight against. If you’re nicely nestled in your Garrison House with Superior Cover, forcing your Opponent to take a penalty to their Shoot Tests while you enjoy a 3+ Save and apply a Save penalty on them from your elevated position is a purely evil combo!

Tips & Tactics for Playing the New England Village Garrison

Your main tactic is simple: don’t die. Get in a Fortification and defend it like your life depends on it! Because it does (in game terms).

You have to include substantial Fortifications in your Force and that’s kind of what everything is built around. The Garrison House is the best choice, thematically and mechanically in my opinion. The Blockhouse is excellent as well. Building around one or two of those buildings is generally where you need to start.

You can choose to simply start with all your units defending at the start of the game, or you can be a little more tactically flexible by having some of your units start the game outside your Fortifications with more opportunities for threatening your enemies as they approach.

Elevated Firing Positions in Fortifications

Both the Blockhouse and Garrison House are two-story structures that are tall enough to give your targets a penalty on their Shoot Saves so make sure to put most of your muskets and small arms in the top story. You can put two units of English Militia/Indian Fighters in the top story for maximum firepower, or you can put one unit of Prone Civilians in the top along with an offensive unit. The Civilians can soak up hits while your muskets keep up their rate of fire.

Or you can put your unit of Civilians in the bottom story with muskets/bows ready to make a Defensive Attack against anyone that succeeds in breaking down the door. Unfortunately, the Superior Cover rule doesn’t allow for Defensive Attacks to be made with Melee Weapons if your Fortifications are breached, so the Militia Pikemen aren’t great at defending the door. You could put them prone upstairs and charge down if anyone breaches the door. Just make sure to keep them armed with Lances because Pikes are too long to wield inside!

Use Indian Fighter Support Units

If you decide to start in a more flexible deployment with some of your units starting outside your Fortifications, pay the extra points for the Indian Fighter Support Unit. Use that Praying Indian on any Militia units you plan to run around the board.

Leaving the Shelter of Fortifications

Don’t be afraid to jump outside of your Fortification if an opportunity presents itself. Attacking your fortified position can put your enemy in some very tenuous positions. And if you’re able to weaken a valuable unit through your ranged attacks from the top story, then jump out with a unit from the bottom story and Charge that weakened unit, that can swing the game in your favor, even if you lose that cheap unit you charged with. Just remember you only move 3″ when you’re exiting a building, and you need to be in base contact with the door to make the Move action to get back in your structures.

The New England Village Garrisons and Blood & Plunder Scenarios

Not all scenarios will be great with this faction. The Fortifications are a major limiting factor. Any scenario that has a clear defensive role for the Defending player will work very well. Breakthrough, Raid, and even Control the Field will play right into your hands. Encounter and Take and Hold will be more of a challenge.

From No Peace Beyond the Line, Rescue and Escort would work fairly well while Raze, Search and Recover, and Plunder would be a challenge since their deployment zones for the Defender are very narrow at the back of the board.

Looking at the scenarios in Raise the Black, this Faction would do well in A Wanted Man, Capture the Settlement, Total War, Hostage, Raid and maybe Ambush, but not so well Beached Ship.

When playing this faction, you might want to prearrange the scenario with your opponent. At least you know you’ll be the defender and can plan for it!

The New England Village Garrison is used in one of The Sudbury Fight, one of the historical scenarios in Fire on the Frontier.

Sample New England Village Garrison Force Lists

Here are some examples of forces for the New England Village Garrison with some short notes on how to use them.

100pt Garrison House

This is a very basic and decent defensive list at 100pts. With 3 units all defending from within a Garrison House with tough Miles Morgan at their head, this should stand a decent chance against most 100pt forces attacking.

Both the English Militia and Indian Fighters can start the game by Half Shooting with 4 models and the Commander can tell the Indian Fighters to Half Shoot again every turn.

150pt Garrison House Trap

This Force could be played several ways but at least 1 unit will have to start the game outside the Garrison House. The intention would be to have the Commander’s unit of Militia with a Sharpshooter and the Civilians start in the Garrison House and the remaining 3 units, helped by the Praying Indians, deploy in the surrounding area terrain. The two units of English Militia to be deployed outside are equipped with bayonets for extra flexibility and power in melee.

150pt Double Garrison House

Go for double! This can get tricky as you need to deploy the buildings so it’s hard to isolate one. Not always the best idea to split your forces. But you can use the two buildings to clear more terrain, making a bigger kill zone! The Officer goes in the second building so either house can continue if one is destroyed.

200pt Blockhouse Party

This list includes a Blockhouse with 2 cannons and 2 swivel guns, a Garrison House, Miles Morgan, William Goffe, plenty of Militia, a unit of Indian Fighters, and some Civilians to man the cannons! You’ll have some wild times with this list.

Final Thoughts

The New England Village Garrison is not a powerhouse faction in Blood & Plunder, but it can be a lot of fun because it forces you to play differently and think about the game in new ways. If you want to explore the Fortifications in Blood & Plunder, this is a great faction for it since they need fortifications to survive.

If you enjoy the history of the Indian Wars in NE America, this is a great faction for playing out many of the French and Indian Raids during the various conflicts of the era. The New England Village Garrison faction always creates a strong narrative experience on the table.

That’s all for this faction review, but we have some bonus content below! Related products that may be of interest if you want to play this Faction, and brief overviews of the best Fortifications to use in the Faction.

Related Products

Here are some minis and buildings that might be of interest if you plan to play the New England Village Garrison.

This Faction is found in the Fire on the Frontier expansion for Blood & Plunder. The hard copy can be purchased here for $35, the PDF can be purchased for $20, or the packaged combo can be purchased for $45.

Miniatures from Firelock Games

Civilians of some sort are needed for this Faction. Firelock Games sells the Civilian Special Characters with 4 different sculpts and these work very well for your “core” of unarmed Civilians. If you want to arm your Civilians, the European Sailors with Muskets blister looks good, and the Boucaniere pack of 4 women with muskets is really fun to thrown into the mix.

• Civilian Special Characters
• European Sailor Musketeers
• Boucaniere
• English Commander
• Plastic Militia Unit Box
• English Militia
• English Indian Fighters
• North American English Militia Box Set
  • Contains 8x English Militia,, 8x Provincials, 8x North American Militia, and 1x English Commander
• Pikemen

Miniatures from Other Sources

If you want some extra flavor or more variety in your Civilians and Characters, here are some fun miniatures from other sources. Many of these models are either later 18th century models for the 7 Years War, but that’s kind of what’s out there.

• Praying Indian models from Brigade Miniatures
• “Pilgrims” from Brigade Miniatures (more appropriate for Pequot War and mid 17th century)
• “Civilians Sisters” from Brigade Miniatures
• “Frontier Family” from Brigade Miniatures (do I see Mel Gibson??)
• Colonial Settlers from Warlord Games
• Puritan Preachers in “Fire & Brimstone Rabblerousers” from Warlord Games
• Armed Colonia Settlers from Warlord Games
• Perry Colonial Civilians (later 18th century)

• Redoubt F&I Civilians
• Redoubt Armed Civilians
• Redoubt Dead Civilians
• Redoubt Working Civilians
• “Terrified Settlers” from Redoubt
• Captives and Captor from Redoubt

Sources for Fortifications for the New England Village Garrison

You’ll need some fortifications! Here are some Fortification models from around the 28mm world.

Fortifications from Firelock Games

Firelock Games makes a few excellent models for Fortifications.

Palisade Fort

This basic little palisade fort is a great scale for most games of Blood & Plunder. To make a full village, you’ll need more than one set which drives the cost up a little. You can use a fortified building of some sort as part of your wall to stretch your wall segments further.

You can make your fort much more impressive by adding Bastions.

Stone Tower Fort

This isn’t a great thematic choice, but it is a strong fortification! As of writing this post (July 2024), the Stone Tower Fort is not available on the Firelock Game website.

Fortifications from Other sources

Things from the Basement offers a few New England style buildings that are great for this faction. Their New England Style Houses can work well for a Garrison House, a Fortified Building, or just a part of your Village. The Salem Meeting House is a simpler, one-story building to add some flavor to your village. The Hartwell Tavern Set is more mid-to-late 18th century, but still useful. In general, these buildings run a bit smaller than for the heroic 28mm Blood & Plunder scale, but they are very functional and still leave room to navigate on your battle table.

Garrison House/New England House

• 2 New England Style Houses from Things from the Basement
• 2 New England Style House Extensions from Things from the Basement
• Hartwell Tavern Main House from Things from the Basement

Watchtower STL

We love this sweet little Watchtower design created by Jason one of our own crew from Blood & Pigment! It’s built to fulfill all the specifications for model capacity and height.

Blockhouses

There are a lot of 18th century style blockhouses out there right now!

Jamie Martinson has made a great Blockhouse STL which you can get straight through our Blood & Pigment Shop!

Sarissa makes a very affordable blockhouse right now. It’s basic, but it’s only $28.

Sarrissa also makes a very affordable Star Fort that includes the Blockhouse.

4Ground used to make a nice little blockhouse but they are no longer in production.

Empires at War also makes a decent little blockhouse that won’t break the bank.

BONUS! Overview of Fortifications for the New England Village Garrison

There are a good handful of Fortifications available for play in Blood & Plunder, but the New England Village Garrison requires at least one “Closed-Top” fortification, so that is what we’ll focus on here. The Fire on the Frontier expansion book that contains the New England Village Garrison Faction also includes the most complete chapter on Fortifications for Blood & Plunder. Among the 7 Fortifications available in this Chapter, the Garrison House and Blockhouse stand out as the best fit for this Faction while the Fortified Building also fits the bill of a “Closed-Top Fortification.”

These Fortifications are not very well known in Blood & Plunder and they are key to enjoying the New England Village Garrison so we will look briefly at each one.

Fortification Special Rules

But first, we should quickly look at some basic Fortification rules.

You’re Always the Defender

Including a Fortification in your Force automatically makes you the Defender in any scenario. That makes sense for this faction. Also, per the core rulebook, and the introduction to the Fortifications chapter in Fire on the Frontier, both players should agree in advance to include Fortifications in their Force. Fortifications change the flow and play of Blood & Plunder and some prior discussion is prudent (tournaments and competitive events will give a ruling on the ability to include Fortifications or not in the event packet).

Deployment

Fortifications are played after setting up the board but before standard deployment. They should be placed entirely within your Deployment Zone when possible. If this is not possible, they need to be placed so as much as possible of the Fortification is within your Deployment Zone.

Clear the Land

After deploying your Fortification(s), you may move terrain pieces within 8″ of your Fortification away, leaving a clear kill zone all around your structure.

Strike Points

If you lose control of your Fortification, you will gain additional Strike Points. For each Structure Section that is controlled by an enemy, you will gain 1 Strike Points. If your Fortified Structure is destroyed for any reason, that also gives your Force 1 Strike Point.

There are a couple of very important Fortification Traits for this Faction, but we will cover them as well as we encounter them.

Garrison House

This Fortification is iconic for the region and period. Common to nearly all villages and towns in New England, Garrison Houses were personal dwellings but doubled as both quarters for militia garrisoned in town and provided a safe place for the rest of the town to retreat to in times of attack.

The Garrison House has two sections, an upper and lower level, which means it can contain up to 4 units. At 4 Integrity and 4 Integrity, it will be a challenge for any land force to destroy the building with artillery. While the Garrison House cannot mount any artillery or swivel guns, the Superior Cover and Fortified structure traits make this structure an excellent choice for the New England Garrison.

Fortified Trait

Fortified means you can’t just enter this building per the standard structure rules but you must work at smashing down the door. You can read the entire “Fortified” trait above, but enemy units will essentially have to take Dedicated action with a target number of 8+ to break down the door and enter the Garrison House. This will make an enemy think twice before rushing across an open space to stand in base contact with the door and attempt to break it if there are still any armed defenders able to return fire.

Superior Cover Trait

The Superior Cover Trait is where this Fortification really helps the New England Village Garrison. This is another long paragraph of text and should be read carefully but the best part is that units inside a Structure with the Superior Cover Trait always save on a 3+. This is amazing, especially for a Faction full of units with an 8 Shoot Save! Saving 80% of the models that are hit is phenomenal.

But, it comes with drawbacks. No more than 4 models can shoot out of this structure at a time. This severely limits your chances of landing hits on units assaulting your position, but the Save Bonus is so strong it’s hard to complain. It really encourages Half Shots from your defenders. This makes the Inexperienced Training level a little more tolerable as you can easily maintain a half-shoot/Reload activation pattern with most of your units.

Wooden Blockhouse

The Blockhouse is the “big brother” to the Garrison House. It shares the two key Traits (Superior Cover & Fortified) with the Garrison House and it is a Size 2 and has the same Fortitude and Integrity. The Fortification profile allows for either an open or closed top. The two main advantages the Blockhouse has over the Garrison House are additional height and the ability to taken both Great Guns and Swivel Guns. The upper level of a Blockhouse can take up to 4 Cannons and 2 Swivel Guns.

Along with the ability to house cannons, the Blockhouse has the Bastion Trait that lets you shuffle cannons around in your Fortification. It isn’t easy, but it can be helpful! Refer to the page above for the full Bastion Trait rule.

With no units that are particularly adept at managing cannons in this Faction, artillery would not be harder to manage than would be ideal, but it could still be used well. Put those Civilians to work loading those Swivel Guns!

The Garrison House is 12 points cheaper than the Blockhouse and that discount, combined with thematic considerations pushes me to use the Garrison House more than the Blockhouse. But you could use both!

Fortified Building

For only 5 points, you can add a Fortified House to your Force. While it is hard to enter due to the Fortified Trait, it lacks the Superior Cover Trait that makes the Garrison House and Blockhouse so attractive to this Faction. It could function as a secondary or tertiary Fortification, but it would require including another unit of Civilians. With only 1 section and giving units inside Hard Cover, it is certainly less strong than the previous two options.

Watchtower

If you want to play on the super cheap and cheeky, a Watchtower would technically fulfill the “Closed Top Fortification” requirement. For 2pts you can use the Watchtower from the Core ruleset. For an insignificant 2pts you get a raised structure with one section that can mount 1 Swivel Gun.

It’s a flimsy little building and is not thematically correct but it does have a roof!

Palisade Fort

One final Fortification should be covered here and that’s the Palisade Fort. Also included in Fire on the Frontier, this basic fort can be a great (and thematic) choice for this faction. It does NOT fulfill the Faction requirement to include a Closed Top Fortification, but it can be added around your Blockhouse, Garrison House, or Fortified Building for additional protection. A Fortificaction could also be built into the wall to make a fully enclosed space with the Palisade.

The rules for the Palisade Fort are different but pretty simple. You must purchase each 4″ section individually. Only one unit can occupy each wall section. The wall must be climbed to move over or you must enter through an open gate. The wall provides Hard Cover for models on the wall and blocks line of sight to models within the wall but not on the “firing step.”

If you include a decent-sized fort in your Force, there are a couple of additional perks. Your Commander gains an extra Command Point for Move and Rally actions, and your Commander can command any unit within the Fort, regardless of Command Range. This is especially helpful with the new Untested Standard Commanders who have a very limited range of 4″.

A typical New England Village would include a Garrison House, some Fortified Buildings, and some standard buildings, all surrounded by a Palisade Wall. With these Fortifications found in Fire on the Frontier, you can create and defend your New England hometown!

Additional Recommended Reading

• North American English Militia Faction Overview
• Full article on Blockhouses
• Review of Fire on the Frontier by Guy Rheuark
• Check out the Iroquois faction review, part of which comes from Fire on the Frontier
• Check out the King Philip legendary commander model.