Multiplayer New France Raid – 7 Player Battle Report

/ josephforster86

Last Updated on October 29, 2025

I recently participated in a fun larger multiplayer game of Blood & Plunder at my store and wanted to share some pics and a quick battle report on this custom scenario.

Game Basics

  • 7 Players split into two teams
  • 650 points per side
  • Set in New England/New France with focus on appropriate factions
  • Experimental hidden setup
  • 4×6 table
  • 3 unique objectives along the centerline of the table

The Multiplayer System

Playing a multiplayer game of Blood & Plunder takes some adjustment in the activation system. We use a modified version of one of the multiplayer systems found in No Peace Beyond the Line. One player on each team manages the Activation Cards for the team. Each player controls their entire force, but the team leader plays cards and each person activates a unit in their force off that card. It plays smooth and pretty fast, especially when players each kind of control different parts of the board.

We used “shared Fortune Points” where the team commander holds all the Fortune Tokens and other players have to petition for use. The team leader’s Commander model can also use Command Points on units from any team member’s force, not only his own force. In this game we gave the Team Leader an extra 50 points to work with to make sure they could bring a high powered Commander with a large Command Range and lots of Command Points

The Teams

We were all set to play with 8 players, 4 to a side, but one player couldn’t make it so we adjusted to 7.

Each player built their own force, choosing factions from a suggested list:

Suggested Factions for the French team include:

Suggested Factions for the British team include:

Massed French forces

On the French side we had:

On the British side we had 4 players, but less points in each force:

RileyEnglishDownload

The Scenario

My local club here in Oregon City likes to run a big multiplayer game around once a month and we alternate between land and sea. Brian, one of our longtime club members is moving out of state and he chose the theme for his last big game with the group. He chose New England/Canada land.

I designed a simple “convention style” game with a couple twists. Basically, there’s three unique objectives spread across the centerline of the board, each with different features. Teams give the opposing teams Strike Points by controlling these objectives at the end of each round. Control is based on the most unshaken models within 4″ of the objective. Teams also take Strike Points for each unit from their force that has been eliminated (instead of the 25% of their force which gets complicated with a team game).

The Objectives included a simple Garrison House in the center of the board, a wooded hill on the West side of the board, and a moving herd of livestock on the East side of the map.

At the beginning of each turn, the herd of livestock moved 4″ in a random cardinal direction. The hill had lots of cover, gave a height advantage when shooting off the hill, and was difficult terrain with a cliff edge that could only be climbed. The Garrison House was blocking terrain that could be occupied and granted hard cover. And the livestock herd blocked line of sight, was unpredictable and would push a unit if it moved into the unit between turns.

Hidden Setup

We also incorporated a hidden setup mechanic to add some more chaos into the game. Deployment is aways a bit tricky in a big multiplayer game since you have 20+ units going on the battlefield. For this game, we employed a hidden deployment system where we all marked our deployments on a paper drawing of the map before seeing any of the other team’s deployments.

Each player got a 12″x6″ rectangle along the long edge of the board for their deployment zone, with the option of deploying their smallest unit up to 16″ from their board edge (straight in front of the rest of their units). The scouting parties would make first contact and could potentially contest the objectives from turn 1. But with 3 Objectives and teams scoring points at the end of every turn, deployment was pretty important.

Small unit of Braves out front of the main force.

As chance would have it, both teams basically employed the same tactic for their deployment, stacking all forces in the middle and East side of the board, contesting the Garrison House and the herd of cattle. Everyone really wanted to interact with the moving objective!

The whole West side of the table, containing the hill, was left empty at the start of the game!

The Game

We got 4 full turns of this game in before the game store closed for the night and it was good competition! Both teams had to move forward and contest the objectives, so contact happened fast.

Turn 1

In the center, Bryan’s Canadian Militia moved up to contest the Garrison House right away. There was a unit of Marins with a Grenado which was a nasty surprise in the woods of New France! I countered with my forward unit of Braves with an Officer, but at the end of the first turn, the French had more models within 4″ of the Garrison House and it was scored for them.

On the East side of the battlefield, there was more of a shooting match. British trying to outshoot French at range isn’t the best way to win, but the British Resolve kept our action count up.

The cows blocked line of sight for some units, making this side of the board a little less deadly during the first turns.

On the west side of the map, one unit of Young Braves raced out to the hill to claim it while it was still uncontested.

Turn 2

After the “scouting parties” tangled on the first turn, the main units started to make contact on turn 2.

The cows also moved west, past the outhouse and into the edge of the cornfield, clearing the line of site between the largest body of French units and the main body of English on the east side of the board.

The brave French Marins with their grenado were able to throw it the Braves attempting to claim the central Garrison House. No one expects grenados in New France!

Benjamin Church’s Quick Veteran Indian Fighters moved up to the center of the table to try to overwhelm French forces around the Garrison House.

The elite troops, the British Regulars, struggled to move out of the forest, then found their shots largely blocked by bovines…

French Caribbean Militia used as Compagnies Franches de la Marine

The French used the cow cover to move up closer to the center of the board.

At the end of turn 2, the British scored 3 Strikes against the French by controlling all three objectives!

Turn 3

The cows turned south, closer to the British, making it even easier for them to control the roaming objective!

Larger units started moving into the cornfield, turning it into a death trap. The Provincials were lined up against the Compagnies Franches de la Marine, and one by one, units started taking casualties and Fatigue and even becoming Shaken.

The east side of the map continued as a sniping fest!

The center of the board started to get ugly with some tough melee combat. The French love to charge! And the English can take it!

Canadian Militia came rushing around the edge of the Garrison House with their Thrown Weapons. But it doesn’t change the fact they have a 7 Fight and the English have a 6 Fight Save and Tough!

It turned into a meat grinder! And the French weren’t able to pull up reinforcements fast enough, especially with the Benjamin Church’s presence boosting actions counts in the middle of the table.

And the Young Braves continued to lock down the hill on the west side of the battlefield. Some French native allies attempted to approach, but were beaten back shaken from several volleyes of arrows.

At the end of turn 2, the British were still doing well with control of all three objectives. But the French were advancing on the east side of the board with stronger numbers!

Turn 4

We pulled an event card and rolled the “Lingering Smoke” event which gives all units that start the turn with a Reload marker a penalty for any Shoot tests they make during the turn. Almost everyone with muskets had reloads by this point in the game!

This made melee that much more attractive here in the last turn of the game.

And, the cows reverse direction and head north, back to the French lines!

With reinforcements from Riley’s British, Benjamin Church and company finished the melee meat grinder in the center of the board establishing definitive control of the Garrison House.

On the east side of the Garrison House, some fresh Canadian Militia charge the Native contingent, but their 7 Fight isn’t very decisive!

This turns into a short team melee fest with several units joining the fun before the French become Shaken and fall back.

You can see the French lines vs the British lines here near the end of turn 4.

Near the end of the turn, all the units on the east side of the map started rushing towards the cattle objective, attempting to outnumber the other team and score a final point before the end of the game.

The French succeeded in claiming the point for those cows in the final turn, but the British still scored 2 to the French 1. Amazingly, only 1 French unit and 0 British units had been eliminated during the entire game!

Final Scoring

The final tally was rough on the French!

I think there should be one more Strike Point in there somewhere, but the British did carry the day!

Post-Game Thoughts

This was a fun scenario! The French did take a bit of a beating, so let’s take a look at some contributing factors.

  • Dice. No denying that dice can tip things one way or another.
  • Cow luck. The cattle random movement favored the British in the first turns of the game.
  • 4 vs 3 players. The points were even side to side, but on land, 4 smaller British forces seem to have a little more bite than 3 larger French forces. The 4 Commanders is an advantage. It might have been prudent to grant the French a free Officer to make up the difference. We were kind of scrambling to adjust to 7 from our planned 8 players.
  • Deployment. The French deployed heavier towards the east side than the British did. This allowed a single British unit to claim an objective on turn 1 and hold it for the entire game.
  • Faction Special Rules vs Tactics. The British had lots of Fatigue mitigating special rules going on this game and it kept their units functioning well. Their faction rules to reroll a Fatigue Test once a turn helped in several instances, and Tough on those Indian Fighters and Regulars really helped. Meanwhile, the French had move bonuses on most of their factions (French Raiders, New France Garrison, etc), but they did less moving and more gun-line shooting, and that may have hurt them. French do great sitting in cover and shooting, but it doesn’t help claim objectives.

I really enjoyed playing Benjamin Church’s faction again. It’s a super solid force for competitive play! And that combo of his Very Inspiring and the Tough rule on his Indian Fighters is great. Quick on all units, and that Superior Intelligence. It gives you really fun options all through the game.

But Frontenac is a worthy opponent as well! He also has Very Inspiring, but his other rules didn’t help as much in this game. The Careful Planning rule was kind of subverted by the hidden setup system we used. Vast Experience is good, but it’s easy to forget to use.

I think this is a pretty good multiplayer scenario. Easy to set up, symmetrical and you can easily layer any theme or theater on top of it. Three unique objectives, hidden setup with scouting small units. Our group had a blast! You can check out the scenario here if you want to read details.

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