The Wabanaki – Blood & Plunder Faction Review

The Wabanaki confederacy was one of the largest and most important Native American powers in the Northeastern American continent during the era Blood & Plunder is set in. In the game, the Wabanaki faction is very powerful, has many fun options, and has some strong ties to the French.

In this review article, we will go over the basic rules for the faction, look at the faction options, units, & commanders, and give some tips on how to enjoy playing this Native American faction in Blood & Plunder.

The Wabanaki faction has been included in 3 different forms in various Blood & Plunder expansions, all with a similar feel, but with small variations reflecting their changing tactics and relations with various colonial powers over the years. We will primarily focus on the Wabanaki faction presented in the Raise the Black expansion since it is the most fleshed out, but we will also touch on the earlier version the No Peace Beyond the Line expansion, and the late 17th century version found in the Fire on the Frontier expansion.

Historical Background on the Wabanaki

The “People of the Dawn” or Wabanaki, were less of a tribe and more of a confederacy of many tribes covering present day Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island and part of Quebec.

The Wabanaki had very early contact with various European explorers and traders along the east cost, and had increasingly frequent conflicts with English colonies as they became more hungry for land. The Wabanaki tribes primarily allied themselves with the French as they settled to the North of the New England colonies. French even intermarried into their tribes, creating an even stronger bond between French and Natives.

The Wabanaki tribes were known for their resilience and hardiness, even in the coldest of weather and their ability to travel far to mount unexpected raids on English settlers.

The Wabanaki were key players in many of the “French & Indian Wars,” from King Philip’s War in 1675 all the way up to the 7 Years War ending in 1763.

Reading on the Wabanaki

It’s not particularly easy to find great books on the Wabanaki confederacy, but here are a couple sources I have found helpful, one solid historical resource, and one more of a narrative.

Abenaki Warrior by Alfred Kayworth takes the storey of Assacmubuit and elaborates into almost a novel. A very fun and easy read.

Western Abenakis of Vermont by Colin Calloway is more of a hard-core history book and focuses only on one tribe of the 5 in the confederacy, but its some of the best solid history out there for this group of people.

Wabanaki Faction Rules

Before we look at the Faction Rules, lets review the standard Native American faction rules that will apply to the Wabanaki.

Native American Rules from Raise the Black

Native factions cannot include Artillery. If this faction is the Attacker, they can deploy up to half their force using the Lay in Wait rule, which lets you deploy these units last and out of your deployment zone, provided they are prone and at least 8″ away from any enemy unit.

Usually Native American factions can’t include ships of size 2 or more, but this faction is a bit of an exception in that it can include size 2 ships. It still can’t include ships of size 3-4, but it can use larger ships than usual for a Native American faction.

All units in Native Factions in Raise the Black gain the Poorly Equipped and War Cry Special Rules. Poorly Equipped is a negative ability that gives units an additional reload if they shoot after being activated with a Club activation card. Makes managing your hand of cards a bit trickier. War Cry is a positive ability that forces any unit you Charge roll an additional die on their Fatigue test after the attack. It makes your Charges more decisive.

Finally, all boats used by Native factions can use the Paddles trait which lets them move under a slower version of their Sweeps (-1″) without the need to actually Assign a unit to the Sweeps. Very flexible ability!

Faction Rules

And finally we get to the “real faction rules.”

The Wabanaki rules from Fire on the Frontier

First: All units in this force gain Skirmisher and Vanguard Special Rules.

Skirmishers makes your units more mobile and tricksy. It gives you a free move back to your starting position if you move and then shoot or fight with a Charge action but only if you activate on a high initiative card (Spade or Heart). When applied to the Shoot action, if you Move, Shoot, then Skirmish back to original position, it effectively shortens that Range Penalty by 4″, giving your unit an advantage over any unit shooting at you. It is well paired with bows since you can afford to use an action to move, or well paired with the Quick Special Rule which grants a free Move action on a Spade.

Skirmishers can be pretty great on the Charge as well. Sometimes you can reach the enemy’s most advanced unit, and there’s a good likelihood you can break that unit with a Charge after you apply that War Cry ability. But maybe you don’t want to be left out there in the open after making the Charge! Or even worse, maybe you don’t break that enemy unit and you have to stay in melee! Natives don’t like prolonged melees. Skirmishers lets you withdraw after the initial melee attack and that’s a rare ability in Blood & Plunder!

Vanguard is a fun ability. Representing their willingness to walk great distances to be in the right place at the right time for a surprise raid, the Wabanaki units can all make one free Move action after deployment and before the game begins. This is a huge boon in any scenario that has Objectives or areas that you need to control. Or even a coveted area of terrain that might provide cover. That extra move, especially when combined with other Native mobility perks, can throw your opponent off and change the game!

As referenced before, the Wabanaki can use Size 2 Ships. A current list of Size 2 ships in Blood & Plunder includes:

Considering that most Native American factions only have access to the Canoa (and Birchbark Canoe), Longboat, and the Piragua, this access to size 2 ships is pretty huge! One of the main great things about this is you have access to Heavy Cover with these larger ships instead of Standard Cover which is all the size 1 boats provide (some of the size 2 ships above are Lightly Built and require an upgrade to grant Heavy cover).

Photo by Brent Devos

What Wabanaki still aren’t great at using larger ships, since they have a hard time changing sails and performing advanced maneuvers, but more on that in a bit.

Now that’s already a lot of rules! If you hadn’t noticed, the Native American factions are pretty rules-heavy in Blood & Plunder!

Force Options

On top of all that fun, the Wabanaki (as presented in Raise the Black) have force options for each of the 5 primary tribes in the confederacy: Abenaki, Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot.

Abenaki

Representing their close alliance and intermarriage with the French, the Abenaki may include Couereur de Bois unit as a Support Unit. This is a great unit and can be tempting to include.

Maliseet

This tribes loses the Skirmishers rule granted by the Faction Rules and replaces it with Ruthless. Everyone loves Ruthless! Any way to get a bonus on Shoot and Fight tests is worth considering! If the unit you are targeting has more Fatigue than your unit, either with a Ranged or Melee attack, your unit gets a -1 bonus to their test. Excellent force option, even though you lose some mobility.

Micmac

You fight English a lot? The Micmac tribe has a Vendetta against English factions! This is a powerful ability that helps manage Fatigue during a game and can kind of be used in place of the Inspiring Special Rule on your Commander. Vendetta allows you to reroll one failed die on each Rally test, provided you are fighting a Faction from the named nation. This isn’t a very reliable ability, but since the Force Option doesn’t take anything away, it can be a decent choices!

Passamaquoddy

You need to play this tribe just because it’s fun to say! This is where you can really start to have fun with those larger ships. All units in this Force gain the Sailors Special Rule. This can allow you to come to a sea game on almost an even footing with English seagoing factions! It will certainly throw your opponent off a little. The Sailors Special Rule brings that target number for a Change Sail or Advanced Maneuver test down from 7 to 5 (before applying bonuses for being Dedicated). It is a lot of fun to Tack and Box Haul with a Native Sloop!

Penobscot

And finally, we have the Penobscot, famous for their brutal “root clubs.” Units in this Force may replace Standard Melee Weapons with Heavy Melee Weapons at no cost. Heavy Melee Weapons apply a +1 penalty to the Fight Save of the unit they are attacking, making them extra deadly. This is a great combo with that War Cry ability referenced earlier. Extra death and extra fatigue!

But, being heavy and clumsy, Heavy Melee weapons also apply a +1 Fight Save to their own unit as well, making them more of a “glass cannon” that can hit really hard, but doesn’t like to get hit itself.

Wabanaki Unit Options

The Wabanaki faction, as presented in Raise the Black, has options for 3 Core Units and 2 Support Units.

Core Units

Wabanaki have access to Warriors, Braves and elite Pnieses as Core Units.

Braves

The most typical North American Native unit, the Brave is good at shooting, and hits decently hard in melee, has decent mobility and has some nice options for weapons upgrades. Braves will usually make up a good portion of your Force.

Braves painted by Evan Botkin

At 5 points, Braves have a statline of 6/7 Fight, 6/6 Shoot and 6 Resolve. Their Resolve is the weakest stat and their Fight Save is not very solid either, typical of Native American units.

Their Special Rules are:

  • Scouts
  • Hard Chargers
  • Ball & Shot
  • Hidden

Scouts lets them move through difficult terrain without slowing down. Hard Chargers gives them a bonus on their free Fight action during a Charge. Ball & Shot lets you roll an additional d10 per 10 rolled during a Shoot test while the target is within 12″. Hidden is a real advantage to long ranged firefights. If you’re in cover and outside of 12″, enemy units have to apply a +1 to their test and can’t even make the shot if the target number would be more than 10.

One of the most effective weaponry options is adding Thrown Weapons for 3pts per unit. This, combined with your Hard Chargers (and possible Ruthless) can make Charges devastating. You can also straight up trade Muskets in for Bows so you have some faster firing units. You can even straight up add bows (on top of muskets) for 1pt per model. If you want a little insurance against charges yourself, you can add a sidearm pistol for 4pts per unit. Finally, you can upgrade your Braves to Veteran for 1pt per model. This can be useful in keeping up your volume of ranged fire (extra action on Spade and Diamond), but there are other options in the Faction for Veteran units that are often better.

Braves are a great, multipurpose unit. They are your cheapest option for heavy hitting ranged attacks and their Ball & Shot powers them up a little bit. Just watch out for shooting while activated on a Club. Extra Reload markers really slow you down. Braves are also no slouches when it comes to melee. Their Resolve of 6 is a weakness, so bolstering that with a solid commander with Inspiring or adding a Character like the Grizzled Veteran is a great choice.

Pnieses

These are your elite veteran unit. They excel at melee attacks, but can be used as a ranged musket unit until a melee opportunity presents itself.

At 7 points each, they are a major investment but their stats prove them worth the cost. With a 5 Fight and an incredible (for Natives) 6 Fight Save, they are made to brawl! With 6 Shoot and 6 Shoot Save, they are effective as a ranged unit as well. This is the rare Native American with a 5 Resolve as well, making it a great unit to attach your Commander to.

They share the same set of 4 rules as the Braves, but that base Fight of 5 combined with Hard Chargers makes their initial charge very punishing.

Pnieses come armed with a Firelock Musket and a Heavy Melee weapon, but they have several upgrades available. While that Heavy Melee Weapon makes more hits cut through the enemy’s Fight Save, the ability to trade them for Thrown Weapons for free is pretty attractive.

Pnieses can also either add pistols in two ways: Brace of Pistols for 1pt per model or Sidearm Pistols for 4pts. Or they can add Thrown Weapons (and keep Heavy Melee Weapons!) for 3pts! Lots of subtle customization here, but my favorite is the straight across trade for Thrown Weapons.

Pnieses are a great unit, but since they are so expensive, you probably will be best served bringing no more than one unit of them and being careful to conserve them and bring their strengths to bear on a decisive point in a game.

Warriors

Blood and plunder native warriors
Warriors are a Caribbean style model, but you can use whatever model you want that is appropriately armed.

The Warriors unit can be used several ways, but the “stock version” without a lot of upgrades is just an amazing aggressive melee unit. For only 4pts, you get so much! They have a free upgrade from Heavy Melee Weapons to Thrown Weapons (both are good options for decisive melee attacks). And their set of Special Rules is excellent for a melee unit. Quick, Skirmishers, and Scouts makes them fast on the battlefield. And you can even upgrade them to Veteran and they’re still only 5pts each.

Going strictly melee can be a little scary, so it can be a great choice to add either a musket sidearm or a bow as a primary weapon so they have some ranged firepower. This can be used to either soften up a target before charging, or as a defensive attack.

Support Units

The Raise the Black version of the Wabanaki have two Support Unit options: Warrior Archers and Young Braves.

Warrior Archers

While the Warriors are your specialized melee unit, the Warrior Archers are a great options for ranged firepower that can lay down fatigue with archery. Their best trait is their 5 Shoot Skill which means they can reach way across a table, or just score a lot of hits when they shoot, boosting their chance of actually killing something with those bows.

Warrior Archers painted by Kyle Arpke

They pretty weak in melee, but they do have the Evade ability that helps them avoid getting wiped out.

Young Braves

Young Braves are some of your cheapest options in this force. At 4 pts, they are a great option for a support unit. With a welcome Resolve of 5, they can hold the line, and their Inexperienced training level isn’t as much of an issue with their bows since they don’t need to remove reloads.

Young Braves painted by Julian Nault

Wabanaki Commander Options

The Wabanaki faction has the 3 customizable “Standard Commanders” from the Raise the Black expansion, and a handful of interesting historical commanders from both the Fire on the Frontier and Raise the Black expansion. The the “Northern Tribes Commanders” generic are also available to the NPBtL and FotF version of the Wabanaki.

0-10-20pt Standard Native Commanders

These are the easiest Commanders to utilize and you have some fun decisions to make if you choose the Experienced or Seasoned versions.

The Untested Commander has a short 4″ Command Range and 1 Command Point and no abilities. Basic as possible. Nice and easy to use, and nothing to forget. He’s going to be a good option for games of 100pts or less so you have points to invest in more models on the table. He is armed and equipped like the unit he’s attached to, so keep that in mind when choosing a Core Unit to make his home.

The Special Rules available to these Commanders include:

  • Commodore
  • Expert Ambushers
  • Great Warrior
  • Guerilla Commander
  • Savvy
  • Quick
  • Well-Equipped
  • Lead by Example

These can all be helpful in different circumstances, but highlights for me include Great Warrior, Quick, Expert Ambushers and Lead by Example. IF you need Fatigue management, Lead by Example is a good choice. Put that Commander on a powerful unit and then when he eliminates an enemy unit, each of your units can remove 1 point of Fatigue. Quick gives that bonus move on a Spade making your Commander unit more mobile which can be really important when threatening enemy targets. Expert Ambushers gives all your units Hard Chargers which is usually super strong, but since both your Braves and Pnieses already have the rule, it isn’t a slam dunk here. And Great Warrior is just ALWAYS good. You can get a bonus on any one test that unit makes in a turn. It does cost points as you have to pay 1pt per model in the unit for the upgrade, but it sure is good!

0-15-25pt Northern Tribes Commanders

These are the “old style” commanders listed in both No Peace Beyond the Line and Fire on the Frontier and available to the Iroquois factions presented in those books. These Commanders have the same combination of Command Points and Command Range, but they have simple and fixed Special Rules. The free Commander has no rules. The 15pt Commander has Inspiring which is hard to come by in Native commanders and a very strong rule seeing how most of your units have 6 Resolve, meaning you’re likely to need that Rally support sometime during a game.

The 25pt Seasoned North Tribes Commander adds Battle Hardened (roll 1 less die during a melee Fatigue test), and Savvy (ignore The Sound of Thunder and Slow Reload). That Savvy rule is pretty good for the No Peace Beyond the Line version of the Wabanaki since they have Warrior Musketeers as a Core unit. That actually turns them into a very efficient ranged unit!

But I still like the 15pt commander with the simple Inspiring ability. I’m never sorry that I spent point on that rule!

Historical Commanders

There are 4 historical Commanders available to the FotF iteration of the Wabanki, and two for the RtB version (and none for the NPBtL version). Let’s look at the 17th centuryWabanaki commanders from FotF first.

Kancamagus

At 18pts, this is your cheapest option for a historical Commander and he’s not bad! He has a typical mid level 2CP and 8″ range. His Special rules include the ever popular Cold Blooded, Careful Planning and Vendetta: English.

Careful Planning kicks in before the game begins. You can either have your opponent place half their units before you place any (this gives you have a huge tactical advantage on deployment). Or you can inspect your opponent’s opening hand of activation cards at the start of the first turn of the game. This is a great rule, as long as you remember to do it! Fun to have the choice, and makes your opponent feel nervous!

On offense, Cold Blooded is powerful. His unit and any units he commands during his activation get the Ruthless rule, granting a bonus on any attacks made by units targeting enemy units with more Fatigue. Any time you can get a bonus on your Fight or Shoot, that’s a good thing! Just have to keep careful eye on your own Fatigue level, or the bonus doesn’t kick in.

Vendetta: English is a specialized rule that lets your reroll 1 failed die on Rally tests when you are up against an English faction. It’s very helpful, but only helpful when fighting English! This is just a little frosting on the cake and you really can’t rely on it. But when you look at the commander as a whole, this is actually pretty great. English have the best Resolve in the game, making it more difficult to trigger your Cold Blooded bonus, so when you’re up against your most difficult foe, you get this bonus kicking in, helping your keep Fatigue of and hopefully gaining benefit from Cold Blooded!

For 18pts, Kancamagus can fit into a 100pt list and provide some real value. I consider him better than most iterations of the 20pt customizable commander.

Jean-Vincent D’Abbadie de Saint Castin

This is a Frenchman! Saint Castin married into the Wabanaki tribe and became very integrated into their culture and warfare.

He has an entirely different set of rules that mostly focus on his own unit.

  • Elusive (Bonus on Shoot Save when hidden in cover-very useful)
  • Tough (Drop Fatigue at the end of your activation-very useful)
  • Guerilla Commander (units close to him gain Skirmishers-not so useful since your force already has that rule)

Not the most bang for your buck here, but fun to have the French crossover.

Modockawando

This is my man! Modockawando is a little more expensive at 22pts, but I think he’s great. He starts the game with 4 Fortune Points (God’s Blessing or the Devil’s Luck), his unit loses the universal Native Poorly Equipped rule (Well Equipped), and he can upgrade his unit to War Captains (Great Warrior) to make them extra dangerous and powerful!

The 4 Fortune is one of his big selling points to me. You can even combo Modockawando with either the Spiritual Leader or the Jesuit Priest and/or Father Thury and start a game with 5-6 Fortune Points! I won a 150pt land tournament with that style of list. Very powerful and very fun!

You can check out a whole write up on that tournament list, led by Modockawando here.

Assacumbuit

Worth the 32 points just for the name. This is your big commander option (best commander from all 3 Wabanaki iterations). With 3 Command Points and 12″ Range, this guy is a real leader. His Special Rules include:

  • Quick
  • Lead by Example
  • Great Warrior
  • Terror

Great Warrior and Lead by Example make that Command unit super strong, and then Lead by Example lets your entire force lose Fatigue after that strong unit takes out an enemy unit. Terror forces all enemy units to make a Fatigue test before the game begins, possibly softening up those enemy units right away. It’s hard to fine room to pay for a commander that cost 30+, but he sure brings a lot to the table!

Chief Gray Lock

Finally, we have 1 Historical Commander for the Wabanaki faction in Raise the Black. This Commander is entirely different and really excellent for smaller games of 75-150pts.

Gray Lock has only 1 Command Point and an 8″ Command Range. But his Special Rules and extra ability make him very resilient and hard to kill!

  • Quick
  • Elusive
  • Cunning
  • Evade
  • Very Inspiring

Elusive makes him harder to kill from range (bonus to Shoot Save when in cover). Evade lets him withdraw from a melee or move back when he’s charged to avoid melee for the cost of 1 Fatigue. This is a very strong ability that lets you push harder into enemy territory than is normally safe. And should he ever become Shaken, he can retreat 5″ instead of the normal 4″ with the Cunning Rule. And finally, he has one of the best rules in the game: Very Inspiring. All units within his Command Range can re-roll all failed Rally dice! His range isn’t that big which means he needs to be running a smaller force or a force that bunches around him.

And the cherry on top: if all those rules ever actually fail him, he can Cheat Death (jump to a new unit if he would be destroyed) once per game without spending a Fortune Point! You have to work to let this Commander die.

He’s only got that 1 Command Point, but all those Special Rules just about make him worth the 20pts you’re paying for him. You can always add an Officer or Father Thury Character to get another Command Point.

Chief Gray Lock is a great small scale raiding commander.

Good Character Choices for the Wabanaki

There are several great character options for this Faction, depending on how you want to build your force. Here are my favorite options:

  • Father Thury (great combo of Officer and Spiritual Leader, found in FotF)
  • Jesuit Priest (fun combo of Spiritual Leader and Spy, found in FotF)
  • Grizzled Veteran (for the Fatigue management)
  • Expert Scout (quicker movement and increased survival by “hitting the dirt”
  • Officer (extra Command point for mobility and shooting more arrows)

Good Tactics and STrategies for the Wabanaki Faction

With all the Force Options available to this faction, you can pretty much do anything you want! Here are some good basic ideas that I have found to work well.

  • Hammer & Anvil – Strong melee unit supported by plenty of ranged bows and muskets
  • Slippery Bastards – Veteran units with Quick and Skirmishers, combined with Chief Gray Lock’s insanity.
  • Accurate Musketry – How low can you go? Great Warrior + Ruthless Maliseet + Sharpshooter with Marksmen.
  • Decent Sea List – With the options for Sailors on the Passamaquoddy, you can build a decent sea list in a 2-deck ship.
  • ALL THE FORTUNE! – With a combo of Modockowando and Father Thurdy and the Jesuit Priest/Spiritual Leader, you can collect a massive horde of Fortune Tokens to spend during a game.
  • Bonk all the Heads – With both Warriors and Pnieses as Core units, you can build up one of the deadliest melee forces in the game. Thrown Weapons, Sidearm Muskets, Quick, Skirmishers, Hard Chargers, and easy Veteran status all make for some really dangerous melee possibilities.

Examples of Wabanaki Force Builds

Here are three examples of fun Wabanaki forces at increasing point limits.

100pt North American Native Starter Box (RtB)

This is nothing fancy, but a good choice of units for using the North American Native Starter Box of resin models.

You can forfeit Skirmishers to gain the Ruthless rule with the Maliseet tribe option, making both Shoot and Fight tests even more deadly if you keep on top of your Fatigue game. The Young Braves can help soften up units with a little Fatigue to trigger Ruthless.

100pt Gray Lock Raiders (RtB)

Gray Lock is a great commander at the lower point level. Again, he’s got so many shenanigans! It’s only 3 units, but that Command Unit will cause havoc while you guard the flanks with the other two units.

Add Gray Lock to the unit of 7 Braves and they get Elusive and Quick and Evade and Cunning on top of their standard rules! There’s a lot of rules to remember and it’s kind of a “one unit force,” but it can be pretty crazy!

150 Wabanaki Modockawando – 5 Fortune (FotF)

This is one powerful set of rules and abilities, very similar to Force that won a Land Tournament at Historicon in 2022. This force uses the Wabanaki from Fire on the Frontier.

Both the Commander and Thury grant extra Fortune tokens so you start the game with 5, letting you spend them a little more freely to gain an early game advantage.

Four units is a bit of a stretch at 150 points, but used carefully, it can deliver pain! Warrior Archers never fail to land some hits and at least hand out some fatigue. The Braves, including one unit of War Captains, can deliver some great musketry fire, and the Warriors with Father Thury are extremely mobile with their Quick ability and Thury’s Command Point. With their Thrown Weapons they hit really hard when they pull off a charge.

200pt Wabanaki with Powerful Commander (FotF)

Featuring Assacumbuit, the most powerful Commander available to the faction, this list doesn’t have a lot of models for 200pts, but it has some real hard hitting units.

With a large units of Great Warrior, Quick Pneises serving as the Command Unit, Assacumbuit and his boys are truly terrorizing. The powerful command unit with Assacumbuit’s Lead by Example is a great source of Fatigue management for your force. The Jesuit gives you a little control of the scenario at the very beginning of the game and grants that extra Fortune token. Between Terror, Vanguard, and the ability to look at your opponent’s activation cards at the beginning of the game (Jesuit), your enemy is sure to hate you before the game even starts!

200pt Wabanaki Sea List (RtB)

Since Wabanaki can take larger ship, we have to make one weird sloop list!

This force focuses on small arms with a powerful boarding list, while still having good control of your ship through the Sailors rule on all your units from the Passamaquoddy tribe option.

Between the Hard Cover from the ship, the 6 Shoot Saves on all units, the Captured Merchant and the Expert Scout granting extra Stand actions to make the “drop to prone” reaction more viable, these guys are going to be hard to kill. With one unit of Bows and Muskets on each deck, you try to shoot a lot and suppress enemy with Fatigue as much as possible.

Buying into the Wabanaki

The best way to buy into this army is the Northeastern Tribes faction box of resin models. For $99 you get 25 highly detailed resin models perfect for this faction.

This faction box includes:

  • 1 North Tribes Commander
  • 8 Braves
  • 8 Young Braves
  • 8 Pnieses

These are pretty much all the sculpts Firelock has for North American tribes (at the writing of this article), you can’t go wrong here. If you waned to beef up this set of models for larger games, I would redommend adding another set of Braves or Young Braves, depending on if you like using lots of Muskets or lots of Bows. With all the weapons options available to these units, you can be pretty flexible with which models represent which units.

With no upgrades/downgrades and choosing a free commander, there is 128 points worth of models in this box. Adding a more expensive Commander and upgraded veterancy and weapons, you could get your 25 model unit as high as 200 if you really tried.

The Native American Unit Box of multipart plastic minis isn’t a great option (in spirte of being more affordable), since it focuses on more of the Caribbean style of Native American.

As far as expansion books, I would highly recommend both Fire on the Frontier and Raise the Black as good sources for your best material. No PEace Beyond the LIne has the earliest version of the Wabanaki, but it relies more on the “Caribbean style” units and models, and it doesn’t have any unique commanders.

Final Thoughts

If you enjoy the history and tactics of Northeastern American Natives, the Wabanaki might be a good really faction for you in Blood & Plunder. They have an abundance of options, some great historical commanders, and a solid power level. Personally, as a frequent Native American player, they are my very favorite Native faction.

If you’re just getting into Blood & Plunder, or just trying Natives within the game, don’t be too intimidated by the number of rules going on. Just take it slow with a small force with a simple commander. Learn the rules for your units, then add your faction rules, then you can choose to add more with Force Options and commanders if you really need more!

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