Here is the Church and here is the Musket…?: The Winning List of the 2025 Adepticon Blood & Plunder Land Tournament
By Erich Goebel
The Adepticon 2025 Land Tournament was well sized, coming in at 23 participants matching off in intense 1v1 combat. This year featured an increase in points from 150pts to 200pts, which certainly made list building more fun. Back when my tournament journey started at Historicon ’23 I brought an elite British Army list that placed 3rd. Last year at Adepticon ’24 I had brought British Raiders hoping larger numbers of British men would carry me through, but ultimately failed in my matchups, most infamously against a horde of pirates. This year, I had built upgraded versions of both lists and had to decide last minute which to play – I ultimately handed Riley F. the British Army and decided that Benjamin Church (Church’s Raiders) was where I was placing my faith.
Building the Church (Force Overview)
Faction: Church’s Raiders
Commander: Benji
Points: 200
Theatre: Land
Here is a link to the saved list on the BnP Force.
Having not played a land game of B&P since Fall of last year in favor of playing Port Royal, I knew I would be a bit rusty at the start of the tournament, hence the fallback on playing British. With the new changes to Tough I also knew that Very Inspiring was very powerful – making Benjamin Church an extremely attractive option when combo’d with Indian Fighters. As a bonus to this, Church also gives everyone Quick within his command range (an impressive 16” – what a man!).
As if that was not enough, Church’s Raiders gives all units in the Force Ruthless, which meant not only would my men shrug off Fatigue, but they would be better at shooting because of it. The list really built itself, as Church already has 3 Command Points and in terms of unit options – Indian Fighters are the best option with the Tough and Elusive keywords. These two keywords are perfect for members of the Benjen Stark’s Rangers or uh..Benjamin Church’s Raiders. To dish out fatigue I took a point from my British Army lists – lots of units with focused fire to induce Fatigue. Thus, I took 3 units of 6 Indian Fighters, 1 unit of 8 Indian Fighters with thrown weapons and only because I ran out of militia models about 5 minutes before tournament start: 1 unit of 7 Braves who do not have Tough but do bring Ball & Shot and Hard Chargers.
In terms of planned tactics, my thought process was relatively simple. At the start of each game, I would try to delay decision making with lower initiative cards like Diamonds and low Hearts to see how my opponent would play around the objective. Then, I would play Spades with Quick and Clubs for 3 actions to move units accordingly – very much like I play in Oak & Iron. The idea with positioning would be to have any unit that the opponent could shoot with within 2-3 of my units firing range, whilst minimizing the reciprocal. With Tough + Ruthless I figured I could reasonably last in a firing match and have my Thrown Weapon boys and if needed, the Braves charge in to finish the job.
Game 1: Raiding the Raiders.
In my first game, I was matched up against Dan Carlson, which immediately invited a sigh from myself. See, I had faced Dan in an explosive Sea Game last year and consider him a friend, so I knew one of us would have to win (and he did win the Sea Tourney this year – major congrats!). Approaching the table I began to gather intel on his force – two units of Cavalry, some musket mates, and some lances. Up to this point, I had never fought Cavalry or Lances so I was not entirely sure of their power. I did however, know that Cavalry move fast and have very weak Shoot Saves. My setup would have to force them into the open for a few volleys of focused musket fire.
Of course, the first round was the scenario Breakthrough and he won the Attacker Roll – so he was trying to move to my deployment zone…with horses. My only hope was to quickly cripple his horsemen. For deployment, I setup Benji along with one of the smaller units in the middle of the board with the Braves and large unit of Indian Fighters to his left and to his right, the other 2 smaller units of Indian Fighters in a manner that created a concave shape between them with the center unit closer to me.
At game start, Dan immediately charged forth like Gondor had called for aid, with his Commander at the front. I repositioned quickly and was ready for it. Coming toward the side with the 3 smaller units, his horsemen nearly completed the charge with a salvo of carbines along the way, but alas they fell. I even shot his Commander in the back as he pulled back! Dan is a great sport and the laughs were certainly had, but the game shifted rather quickly once his Commander was out of the picture.
Game 2: Take me to Church.
When Garrett Swader announced that I was paired up against another Blood & Pigment employee and close friend, Jason Klotz – we matched eyes from across the room and the sigh was palpable to many. Again, only one of us would emerge victorious and be able to climb higher, a sad fate for friends. We had even compared lists before attending! With Game 2’s scenario being Take and Hold (over a donkey!), we knew it would be bloody. Jason was playing Dutch and we had remarkably similar lists – Ruthless, Tough and Very Inspiring abound. Jason actually had some variety in his list with Jewish Militia, Elite soldiers and some other Dutch units I can even fathom how they are pronounced!
Deployment was rather boring with both of us setting up units to maximize musket potential covering the objective. I essentially deployed the same manner as the first game, and Jason deployed with the bulk of his forces on my left flank – which I was happy about because my Braves on that front had Hidden.
As the game started, I ran my command unit up to a block of hard cover within 4” of the objective as fast as possible – I knew that if a unit was there it would make coming closer a harder choice for Jason as he kept his units in some nearby cover. From there it was a shooting match – each of us hitting 1 here and there until my Braves had a great shot into his elite unit with Ball and Shot and brought them down to 2 men – crippling their offensive power. During this, he had actually shaken my command unit (as they drew fire in the middle of the field) but with prone and hard cover, they were pretty sustainable even though there were only 4 of them (with Benji) left! From their it was a battle of attrition until the last round when Jason charged forth into the objective to contend – but my men were ready with a few salvos and the end to a very tight game. A sad result from one of the best – if not the best game that I played all convention – just a fun game with a fun mate.
Game 3: The English and Indian War.
It was at this point that I realized things might get real. I had not expected to do well in the land tournament building what is frankly a boring list. Nonetheless, sitting down at my third game with Don and realizing that he had Natives – I knew it would be an interesting game either win or loss especially with how many Pnieses this mate had. I have to blame Niguel Vega, however, for my fear of Natives – charging ungodly distances with who knows how many rerolls. This psy-ops, even though he wasn’t at Adepticon, I knew to setup very conservatively with the Encounter scenario and try to predict the charge. Looking at the board’s construction there was two rows of hardcover in the center of the board, some farm fields on both player’s “sides” and a single piece of cover off centered somewhat between the two – I knew whoever controlled that would have advantage from a shooting perspective.
Deployment wise, I setup roughly exactly the same as I did the last two games with Thrown Weapons and Braves on the left front and the 3 smaller units on the right. I rushed my large Thrown Weapon unit of Indian Fighters to that contested cover – actually pushing to get there. Reinforced from the Braves on the next card, it made an intimidating unit of muskets to come at. He rushed forward similarly with a unit of Braves toward the hard cover in the center of the board. My smaller units wrapped around to encompass that unit of Braves in the “bowl of fire” and he played more conservatory with his other units – affording me several salvos of unfettered fire – shaking the Braves.
At this point, the game turned into us exchanging potshots at 9+ and 10+ musket hits, but my force was slowly gaining the advantage due to Ruthless and that extra 10% chance. He knew he had to charge or lose the game slowly, so his commander surged forth out of cover and while he did complete the charge – too many Natives had fallen on the way in due to me transitioning to half-fires to pile Fatigue on. At that point the game had been decided with his commander falling and the Strike Test soon after.
Conclusions
With a 3-0 ratio – I was pretty confident I would make it to the podium, but I had heard tale of Tyler’s list mowing down opponents in this tournament, so I was unsure. It turns out that Tyler and I tied on every official count and we had to (shakily) draw a card to see who took home the 1st place medal. I was lucky and ended up winning that, but Tyler got his revenge in Game 3 of the Sea Tournament.
I think my experience in the land tournament is a strong case for thinking about little combos in your list building – keywords that synergize well together and sometimes…keeping it simple!
To everyone who played in the tournament and to my opponents – I had a wonderful time and got to play some seriously fun games. With the point value of each list being 50 points larger than last year – I think there is a ton of freedom in list building and I am excited to further explore and try something other than British next year! Big thanks to Garrett for setting up some great tournament tables and running a fantastic event!
Additional Recommended Content
- Benjamin Church Commander Showcase
- Adepticon 2025 Land Tournament Recap
- Adepticon 2025 Sea Tournament Recap
- Tyler Stone’s Winning Land Force Write Up on Dead Man’s Chest Blog
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