by Dan Carlson
This Year’s Blood and Plunder Sea Tournament was massive, with 23 players all fighting for the top spot! Last year was my very first Tournament, and due to an event and horrible dice rolls, I was exploded on Turn 1. After that silly defeat, I tried to come up with something I would not only want to play, but my goal was to try and win using a 17th Century Faction in the wake of Raise the Black. I succeeded on both counts, and ended up winning first place!
The Inspiration
“Twenty men with muskets might do more damage to the prey’s crew than a single six-pound round shot, something far more expensive than twenty cartridges of powder and ball.”- Benerson Little; taken from The Sea Rover’s Practice, page 57.
Having read The Sea Rover’s Practice by Benerson Little this past year, I wanted to try out a “historically inspired” list for the tournament. I knew I wanted to adhere to the 17th Century, and that I needed to focus on musket fire. This naturally brought me to Brethren of the Coast due to the faction having access to just about every naval unit from No Peace Beyond the Line. From there, I needed to figure out who to bring.
I picked Mike Tunez’s brain regarding the 17th century factions and units, as the 18th Century had seem to take over and was preferred by most of the players I was seeing. He suggested to make sure I have rules like Ruthless and Hard Chargers and that while pistols are great to have in combat, stripping them away wouldn’t ruin sailor’s combat effectiveness so long as I was on the offensive. From there, I decided that I would probably be matched up against cannon lists, and decided I needed to have as many models as possible to offset casualties and to have enough units to handle repairs and Advanced Maneuvers. From there, the list took shape.
The List
Here is the detailed list as it appears in the Force Builder. The last alteration I made was that the Kapers used to be Zeelieden with no pistols, but I dropped a few models and added Kapers instead for an additional unit with muskets. This came out to 40 models armed with Muskets alone!
The real bread and butter of this list are all the Pacific Adventure Characters that the Brethren of the Coast get access to! By attaching a character each unit of Marineros, I effectively made them behave like Trained units despite being Inexperienced. This allowed them to be completely self–sufficient and allowed my commander with Inspiring to hand out a free Rally command point (courtesy of the Standard Bearer) and bark repair or grapple orders to the Marins and Sea Dogs. The real kicker is that every unit on the ship has either Sailors or Expert Sailors, meaning any Advanced Maneuvers or Change Sail actions were taken care of with ease!
I chose the Light Frigate for its speed and durability, and added Freshly Careened Hull to help me close the distance. It has great maneuverability, fortitude, speed, and sail settings and it my 2nd favorite hull type.
Planned tactics
The tactics I planned to employ were pretty straight forward. Any Clubs would be handed out to the Command unit, Marins, or Sea Dogs for Dedicated Fight actions, Repairs, or Grapple rolls. Diamonds and Hearts could be given to the Marineros for shooting and reloading their muskets. While Marineros have the standard 7 Shoot most sailors have, Ruthless drops it to a 6, meaning in ranges under 8″ they would perform like European Sailors!
The goal for each game was to sail in, trying to avoid as many broadsides as possible and focus my muskets on the deck with 3 pairs of guns. From there, I’d board for some glorious hand to hand combat. I banked on cannon lists having a bunch of sailors with no pistols, and not having a decent model count by paying for lots of guns. Additionally, the Sea Dog’s 6 Fight Save would make them a pain to kill off, the Marins’ Hard Chargers would overwhelm units with no defensive fire, and Ruthless on all the Marineros meant they could also participate in melee combat. This set me up for a list that could fire off volleys at mid-range then close in for the kill.
Game 1
My first game put me up against Josh Shivak and the Take and Hold Scenario. I succeeded in my roll to be the attacker, but for this scenario it really wasn’t a factor.
He opened up with a broadside and when I prepared for casualties, he announced proudly that he was shooting at my rigging with chain shot! Knowing that dropping my sails to 4″ would give him a +2 Penalty to hit my sails, I dropped the sails to 4″ and maneuvered closer. He had brought an “interceptor piragua” but dared not board me since my ship had 57 eager models on it.
He used the swivels, muskets, and cannons to whittle away my rigging and gave me a Strike Point, but I managed to repair it enough to get rid of it! He then focused on the hull and shot away my rudder, but that too was repaired swiftly. I went after the piragua with my muskets and after they were rendered ineffective focused on his gun deck, managing to shake the artillerymen manning those pesky medium guns.
When we decided to call the game, I had 0 Strike Points and Josh had 1 due to casualties. He was a good sport and tried his damndest to get a mobility kill, but my repairing skills managed to see me through the day!
Game 2
Game 2 had Colin Tozer and his Golden Age Pirates square off with my Brethren. It was the “new” pirates vs the old, and it ended up being a bloodbath! The scenario for this round was Chase’s End, meaning every unit had to make a Fatigue Test on two d10s! In this regard, the Golden Age Pirates had a distinct advantage. I had rolled and won the Attacker/Defender roll, meaning every unit on his ship had to roll for the Drunk Special Rule, and all but one of his units of Sea Dogs ended up drunk! This dropped his resolve to a 4 on most units, meaning applying Fatigue was going to be a pain!
We deployed and both of us used our Freshly Careened Hull upgrade to take our moves. I had deployed to where I was almost straight at his bow, giving him little room to avoid a boarding action. I got the Spade and card 2 and moved in to board but was unable to secure a grapple, allowing him to dump his main gun deck into me at point blank range! Lucky for me, the damage was minimal, so on the next card I activated my command unit and got the grapple in, and ordered several units of Marineros to join the fray!
What ensued was 2 turns of intense melee combat. Since none of our models had pistols, it was strictly blade on blade action, and my opponent was unable to win the war of attrition. At the end of turn 2, he failed a Strike Test and we shook hands. I was 2-0 and had dealt 4 Strike Points total for the tournament.
Game 3
The final game of the Tournament put me up against Kyle Hilliker’s English Buccaneers in a Light Frigate armed with Medium Guns. The final scenario was Encounter, and I knew right then if I maneuvered correctly, I could win this.
The first turn I drew an event that resulted in a Weather and Wind Change. While the wind did not change (I may have heard Fortunate Son playing in my head and sails flapping due to the last time this happened to me) the weather resulted in Light Rain. This meant EVERYONE gained extra Reloads when firing, meaning his guns would all gain 5 reloads, meaning it was likely he’d only get to fire them once per game! I moved in and used a wearing action on my final move of the turn to try and squeeze as much maneuverability out of the ship. We drew for Turn 2, and he got to go first, resulting in a MEAN cannon volley that blew away a row of hull Fortitude and killed 2 men. After the smoke had cleared, I turned in further and commenced boarding.
The next 3 turns were followed by some of the most intense hand to hand combat I have ever played through. Despite my fantastic rolls, Kyle’s men refused to die. I threw 7 hits between two units and they on average only lost a man each and gained little Fatigue. While the English Buccaneers fought bravely, they eventually succumbed to attrition. When the English command squad sent a unit of Marineros and Marins back to their ship, both the Kapers and a fresh unit of Marineros charged right back in.
At the end of turn 4, I had managed to kill every single model on his vessel, giving me a decisive victory. While I was never on the back foot, I was in constant fear that these pesky Englishmen would only get me 2 Strike points, but I was able to end up with 5 Strike points dealt to his 1.
Conclusion
After the final game, I knew I had a shot at 1st place, but was very nervous and trying not to get too excited. When Jason announced my win, I threw my hands up and yelled something like “Hell [expletive] yeah!” I had tested this list and tweaked it for months and played several games at my local store in preparation and it had paid off! To end last year close to the bottom and then get into First Place this year was exhilarating!
To everyone who participated, this year’s Sea Tournament was a blast, and we could all hear the laughs, the SANTIAGO!s, and the rolling of dice. I cannot wait to participate again next year, and after my big win this year, I am going to try and bring something silly for 2026! As always, keep your dice ready and the wind at yer back, yar har!!!!!!!
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