We’ve completed the first 2 weeks of the 2025 Summer of Plunder Campaign! It’s great to see folks enjoying games together around the world and enjoying the wargaming hobby with Firelock’s pirate theme games; Blood & Plunder, Oak & Iron, and Port Royal.
Read on for updates from each nation’s Commanders, lots of great pictures from players around the world, prize winners, and some updates and analysis on how the campaign is progressing so far.
Photo from Marc Hardenack
The conflicts on the campaign map have been resolved for week two, and you can see the results here in the Campaign Map Update for Week 2. Teams are working hard at overcoming the new “fog of war” effect where commanders can’t see the player vote numbers before the end of the week, but that’s encouraging more communication and cooperation which is a good thing! The Natives and Pirates are doing well so far, pulling a couple points ahead.
Commander Reports
Now, here are some important messages from our brave commanders. Each week our 6 volunteers will donate a bit of time to add some narrative flavor to the game and pass on some information regarding their nation’s goals. If you haven’t yet joined, the best way to interact with the commanders and players in your nation is to join our Summer of Plunder Discord server. This is different than the main Firelock Games Discord server. It’s a fun community to hang out with and there is a lot of plotting and planning going on in secret channels that only players of a nation can see.
Spain – Week 2 Commander Update
¡Saludos desde la Habana!
Spain needs her Soldados! If you are submitting games for Spain in this year’s campaign, it’s highly encouraged that you register for Spain in the Discord. We have had a stalled start from game submissions that have gone against the marching orders. When Spanish Soldados work together, all things are possible!
Speaking of working together, don’t forget about Spain’s Faction challenges for week 3 of the campaign. The enemies of Spain will hear our cohesion!
Battle Cry of the Iberian Peninsula:
Blood & Plunder-Inspire your forces by using a Mission Priest and yell, “Santiago!”
Oak & Iron – Play the Bravado Initiative Card
Port Royal – Use the Spanish Faction ability of Santiago! to engage your enemy
2 winners will be randomly selected from those who participate in this weeks challenge. The prize is a blister of Hostigadores.
Make Your Voices Heard – Record a video of yourself yelling Santiago! while playing in a game store, amongst your friends/opponents. Send the recording (with your name) to jshivak@gmail.com, and we will splice them together as a chorus of victorious Spaniards!
One random participant in the Make Your Voices Heard challenge will receive a painted Spanish commander by me!
Photo from Chris Wallace
On the war front, we have been attacked by the Dutch and the Natives. We have managed to retake Panama and start shoring up our territories. We have seven more weeks of this gruelling campaign and though we aren’t in the most envious of spots, we aren’t in last. I have a feeling that this is the turning point week for Spain. Afterall, don’t we always carry the day after yelling, ¡Santiago!?
Josué Shivak
Commander of Spanish Forces
Pictures from Spanish Players this Week
England – Week 2 Commander Update
Another morning rose in Jamaica with Spanish blood in our bay – when will they learn? As I look out over the town of Port Royal, I smile knowing this was a great week for the English Crown. New territories, new conquests and victories to expand our empire.
Photo from Ret Talbot
This week we celebrate our first promotions since setting forth on expedition – men who exemplify English will through community building, engagement with the enemy and by proving themselves strategists – well on their way to productive careers!
If you haven’t, join us in the Discord, in merriment and celebration of our great Nation and our great comrades.
Cheers, mates.
Admiral Goebel
Photo from Lliam Baird
Pictures from English Players during Week 2
France – Week 2 Commander Update
Dear, French players. If you’re not on the Discord please join us! We have great battle plans and would love to share them with you so we can win 2025’s Summer of Plunder!
Cap’n Likes them highest rolls And we’re lookin’ for a ten! Fightin’ Men gets middling shows And we’re praying for a ten!
Us lowly Marins low pointers true! And we’re lookin’ for a ten! Are just trying to hang on thru! And we’re praying for a ten!
Take the shot mon Capitain? And we’re lookin’ for a ten! They sure seem quite far away! And we’re praying for a ten!
Even from here with boucaniere And we’re lookin’ for a ten! And we’re not seven points to be clear! And we’re praying for a ten!
We take objectives and hold on dear! And we’re lookin’ for a ten! Even 5 resolve can feel ol’ fear! And we’re praying for a ten!
Us Frenchmen now we fight for gold! And we’re lookin’ for a ten! As Surcouf to the English told! And we’re praying for a ten!
But I’m searching now for one good roll! And we’re lookin’ for a ten! Or hell, give me good luck ten fold! And we’re praying for a ten!
Vive la France et Vive la Roi! And we’re lookin’ for a ten! Mais nous sommes les des arroi! And we’re praying for a ten!
It’s one more round and then belay! And we’re lookin’ for a ten! So hold on thru to the end of the fray! And we’re praying for a ten!
Congratulations to Captain Daniel Perkins for winning the shanty raffle for his rousing Blood & Plunder anthem Le Chanson des Marins! I’ll be sharing other creative entries over the course of the campaign! If you need to get your sailors, or rather your dice, in line for this week’s game you can sing along with the track here: Le Chanson des Marins.m4a
So far, we’ve brought the fight to the Summer of Plunder and it’s time to show that on each and every gameboard. This week, French players will gain bonus points by playing with a unit that has the Marksmen special rule in B&P, take Additional Guns on every ship in O&I, and use an Admiral with the Clever ability in PR. Word on the dock is that nations fear our amazing tactics, so let’s bring some of that cunning and precise energy to this week’s games!
Photo from Brian Isikoff
And don’t forget, this week is a huge week for prize support! A copy of Sea Rover’s Practice will go to a random Week 3 player. The amazing Dexter Hyde/The Plunder Den will be giving away a hand crafted piece of terrain for the best looking table. And on the France side of things, send me (kylearpke@yahoo.com) your battle report in the style of an Admiral/Captain’s Letter to France for your chance at a terrain package courtesy of Stone Temple Studios.
French Captain Jacques Lemere already sent word of his brave victory against the no good English. Here’s an excerpt of a battle that brought riches to our great nation:
It seems the English, upon hearing of the approach of the pirates, attempted to hide several large and heavy ingots. It became our plan to slip in during the chaos of the fighting, find these ingots and secure whatever we could of these riches. On 6 June we approached the rumored location. My Quartermaster (Martin Bordeur) and another filibuster (Ray Borque) charged the area and engaged in an intense hand to hand combat. The filibuster was cut down by a savage dual wield assault leaving Brodeur alone facing three hostiles. Brodeur is a stubborn lad and managed to strike down two of his assailants before falling unconscious himself. Luckily it appears his wounds were not fatal and he is expected to recover. Shortly after this the east flank was secured and additional guns were brought to bear on the remaining enemy forces. A solid volley finally broke the enemies’ will causing them to break and run.
We will secure what we can of this prize and move on quickly before reinforcements can be rallied. We will regroup and strike another part of England’s territories or move to the next target of opportunity. Respectfully, Captain Jacques Lemere
Photo from Joe Pelfrey
Well done, Captain, and thank you for your entry into next week’s terrain prize drawing! I look forward to hearing your countryman’s stories during this harrowing age of sail!
Pictures from French Players during Week 2
The Netherlands – Week 2 Commander Update
Landgenoten,
Distressing news from the West Indies. In a series of backstabbing surprise attacks Aruba, Bonaire, and St. Eustatious have fallen!
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought our supposed allies would be so unscrupulous!
Photo from Mark Stigter
But not all is sorrow! In our darkest hours when an enemy fleet bore down on Curacao, knights in shining armor rode to our rescue! A mighty fleet of Scottish privateers, pledging their allegiance in return for a share of the plunder, descended on the enemy crushing the fleet.
Then fresh from their victories and oddly incensed by the pirate betrayal of the Dutch, they stormed Tortuga and claimed it in the name of the Dutch Republic!
I’m not one to show emotion… but those Scots brought a joyful tear to my eye. Well done Gents!
Don’t lose heart men! We will regroup and come back stronger!
Stand by for orders!
Matthew “Salty” Doerr
Commander of the Dutch West Indies
Pictures from Dutch Players during Week 2
The Native Americans – Week 2 Commander Update
Strong Hearts, brave hearts, to the front! » – Crazy Horse
The united tribes of Turtle Island have fought hard this week. We will not rest until we have removed the invaders from our ancestorial lands.
A really great job this week guys, way to hold strong and work together.
This is only the second week – so we still have a long way to go, dig deep and be brave.
Photo from Paul Chouinard
We did our first draw for some plunder this week – a Unit of 4 Braves from the Northeastern Woodland Tribes set. The winner this week is Kurtis Fraley. These are some beautiful models that will serve you well as you represent.
As we go into this week, we will do two draws: to make up for me missing the first week – Sorry.
The first one will be for a unit of 4 young braves, this draw will also be done randomly with each player receiving one entry per game played; so, get out there and log some games.
The second one is related to our first national weekly objective: « The Old Ways are Best »
For Blood and Plunder this is to create a force without using firearms
For Oak and iron – use the homebrewed Native Faction shared on Timber and Sails
For Port Royal – create a force without firearms.
Everyone that accomplishes the objective will have their name entered into win a set of thematic tokens (Spoiled on our Discord channel, check in to see what they look like).
Thanks, again for all the efforts.
Pictures from Native American Players during Week 2
The Pirates – Week 2 Player Update
Captains, I’ve just arrived back from the Lesser Antilles on a few raiding missions in my all black-sail sloop; apologizes for missing the chat last week. Looks like week one was pretty good as were holding onto a strong 3rd place in the campaign. Not first yet…but now we’re separating ourselves from the other factions. Our focus has to start towards the English overlords and their companions the Dutch. So far in the past two weeks, we’ve played a total of 95 Pirate games! That’s a few more games than last year…Aaaaargh! Now that’s pretty impressive. With the English faction out front, continue the pressure as we chip away at that lead. Fear not lads, we’re moving up and not backwards. Our top three Pirate point leaders were, Christopher Regan, Greg Flynn and Mike Colman for this week; which they have done well representing the “Black”!
Pic from Joe BaxterPic from Greg Flynn
This past week gave us captains a push to burn through 3 or more Fortune Coins; how did you fare? I did very well in both Blood & Plunder as well as in Oak & Iron. Spending Fortune Coins needs to have some caution as you may need to save your captain in a bad fight. But, spending them in a engagement where you have the advantage and roll like crap…hell yeah…roll them bones again. Speaking of objectives, have you looked over the campaign objectives to win extra prizes? First up is your entry…yes, it earns you a”Raffle Ticket” for prize giveaways every week and at the end of the campaign. This is the prime time to play more games and win something cool…like one of those specialty figures which are very hard to get as an example. My goal for this year is to play every faction in every game format. So even though I played several games already, I have only a few “Pirate” games. Not to worry, as when I vote…it’s to meet our objectives. What are your goals for this campaign? Post you comments in Discord. I highly recommend you pop over to the Blood & Pigment page called, “2025 Summer of Plunder Prize List”: https://bloodandpigment.com/2025/05/01/2025-summer-of-plunder-prize-list/ . There you’ll find a ton of ways to win prizes and see who the great sponsors are who donated the prizes. Check it out!
Pic from Jessica Knap
As your Lt Commander, I will be selecting pictures of your games that you submitted when you logged in. Every year, I give a few tips to post the best pictures…especially if you have the “black” flying in them. A few tips, get a nice clean shot of your models in action, showing the game table with all the accessories displayed, or even ships in action…we all love action shots. Speaking of action shots, this week’s objective is driven by us, your command team; which is “Show us your Aaaaaargh Face”! Include a photo of yourself playing your game of choice to be entered into a random drawing for a prize. Costume is encouraged, but not required. Captain Rum Runner Wray posted some additional guidelines on the Discord Channel.
Pic from Filippo C.
Pic from Creighton Wightman
Keep those lines of communication open and flowing as our Captain Rum Runner Wray, post updates and additional information in the Discord Pirate channel. This is a very active channel which discusses strategy and voting for raids…so make you vote count for the next raid!
Pic from Greg Padilla
Finally, get your games in, raise the Black and most of all…have fun!
Pictures from Pirate Players during Week 2
Numbers and Stats
Let’s look at some numbers on games played, nations and factions represented and player leaders.
Nation Report
Who’s winning? The Natives, Pirates, and French are doing well going into week 3. Check the Campaign Map Update for full rundown of current standings.
The English team has a massive player base this year and they are logging the most games by a good margin. The Dutch are having a great year as well!
The graph on the Left records how many player points the English team has accrued so far (not necessarily related to campaign points), and the graph on the Right shows how many games each nation has logged so far.
Faction Report
There are a LOT of factions to enjoy in Blood & Plunder. Between Oak & Iron, Port Royal and all the Blood & Plunder factions, there are a few more than 100 factions people can use in this campaign and it’s always a goal to have all of them used by the end of the event! After 2 week of play, 93 have already been played!
The Pirates have already played all of their factions this year!
Pirates
All Factions played
Golden Age Pirates the most played B&P faction at 16
17 plays of Port Royal Pirates
Spanish
Spanish Militia most played at 15
14 players of Port Royal Gurda Costas
3 unplayed factions (Franco-Spanish Expeditionary Force, Juan Corso’s Corsairs, & Los Corsarios de Pardal)
English
British Army most played B&P faction at 16
29 plays of Forces of the Crown from Port Royal
3 Unplayed factions (Kidd’s Privateers, Morgan’s Buccaneers and New England Privateers)
French
French Buccaneers the most played OVERALL faction at 35 plays
18 plays of French Buccaneers for Port Royal
10 unplayed factions so far, including most of the Privateer and Navy factions
Dutch
Dutch Navy most played B&P faction at 21 plays
27 Dutch Kapers plays for Port Royal
1 unplayed faction (Heyn’s Commissievaarders)
Native American
Kalinago the most played faction at 10 plays
5 plays of Carib Raiders for Port Royal
12 unplayed factions so far
Unaligned
Scottish Militia most played B&P faction at 5 plays
2 plays of Maroons for Port Royal
2 unplayed factions (Miskito Zambo and Swedish Militia)
Individual Player Report
Which player has accrued the most infamy so far? Mark Stigter is the leading player so far with 39 points!
Week 2 Player Report for Oak & Iron
Photo from Terry Kirk
Oak & Iron might be a smaller scale but it’s an important part of this campaign! There were over 45 Oak & Iron games logged with the Pirates and Spanish factions leading the way.
Week 2 Update for Port Royal
Ther’es a lot of folks playing Port Royal out there! That’s wonderful. So far we have logged 133 games of Port Royal.
Tabletop Simulator Update
There is a growing group of players meeting up on Tabletop Simulator to play both Blood & Plunder and Oak & Iron. Check out this article and video if you are interesting in trying this port for these games.
Weekly Campaign Prizes!
OK, it’s time to start handing out plunder! This is one of the best parts of the community event and what helps make the event so great. Don’t forget to check out the full list of prizes for the Summer of Plunder campaign.
Best Photo of the Week
Our photo of week goes to Chris Wallace for this shot of his Spanish force. SANTIAGO!
Chris wins a deluxe, hand made Spanish 8 Reale coin that can be used a Fortune Token.
Random Player who Accomplished the Weekly Objective
Each week a random player who accomplishes the weekly objective will be selected at random among qualifying entries. The winner will receive a set of a nation-specific activation tokens.
This week’s winner is William K Oakley JR, playing for France this year!
Photo from William Oakley Jr
Random Entry for Week 2
Our random draw from the entire week’s worth of entries will receive some free minis! Either a pack of 4 Blood & Plunder minis of the nationality they are playing, or an Oak & Iron Ship.
This week’s random winner goes to Matt Curby, playing for the English this year.
Random Prize of the Week 2
We also have a set of scatter terrain from Stone Temple Studios to give out every week.
This week’s drawing goes to Daniel Liswood playing for the Natives this year.
Extra Prizes for Week 3
In addition to these same weekly prizes next week, we have the privilege of giving away a couple pieces of terrain from Dexter at the Plunder Den. He’s giving away a couple small pieces of terrain to the player who submits a picture of a great table of terrain on the board. So it’s time to break out all the goodies and set up a lavish table!
We will also be giving away a nice prize package of minis and/or ships from Firelock Games to a “new player” next week.
MORE Pictures
You guys send in a ton of great pictures every week. One more little album of pictures from the week!
Final Thoughts on Summer of Plunder Week 2
Games getting played, people connecting, and pirates getting blown up! The Summer of Plunder is just getting into full swing!
Photo from Kurtis Fraley
Make sure to check your nation’s specific objectives for the week. Lots of fun stuff going on. There’s going to be a special Campaign Event coming up this week as well, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Check our events page for conventions or tournaments happening near you if you’d like to find a larger event in your area. And let us know if you’re hosting something and we can list it on that page.
The same goes for regular store gatherings. We’d love to list your store on our Store Events page.
