By Jayden King
Introduction
I will admit, I have played a lot of Blood & Plunder at this point–particularly land games. I built this list at the last minute, or rather thirty minutes before the tournament started, in the hotel lobby, on the public work-station computer. And I relied on units that would be painted and I could borrow–thanks Riley!
Summary
- Land Force
- 200pts
- British Raiders
- Benjamin Church
- 5 Units
The Force Builder link for this force can be founder here.
Faction
For the faction, I went with the British Raiders. I knew I wanted something new and powerful–probably out of Raise the Black or Fire on the Frontier. But I also knew I wanted to play something that I had not played a hundred times before.
Most English land factions favor a similar, aggressive play-style, and I wanted a change of scenery. In my experience, playing aggressively in a tournament is a mistake: even if you win every game, you take so many casualties that you hurt your chances in the long run. I was familiar with the units available to the British
Raiders, and I knew that they could get the job done at range and up-close, once it came to that.
Commander
In hindsight, I kind of wish I had run James Moore over Benjamin Church, just for the sake of variety. But I thought Mobile would be useful, and I didn’t realize how popular Church would be. It worked out though. Mobile does not rely on Command Points so it effectively ignores the command-miscommunication Faction Rule.
Units
My core was eight Indian Fighters and eight Braves, kept close to each other, and at the center of my army. They were the strong foundation from which my other units ranged. In addition, two units of Young Braves acted as skirmishers on the edge of the 12” range.
Hidden kept them safe while they whittled down, and bottled up the oncoming enemy. By the time my opponent made it to my lines, most of his force was already dead or faltering. Also I ran one unit of six English Militia because I had actually painted them myself, and I was proud of them. They did almost nothing.
Strategy
This force plays like other Native forces, with the caveat that most of my units actually had good Resolve. In general, for Native factions, I recommend that players take advantage of what I think of as “The Damian Special.” First, you take your time getting a unit up to the edge of the enemy’s effective range or line-of-sight. Then, you just pop in to range or view, shoot them, and pop back out before they can retaliate. You kill them; they can’t even hit you.
Bish, bash, bosh–job done!