Admiral Christopher Myngs looms large in the early history of Buccaneering across the Spanish Main. It’s way past time he should be part of Blood & Plunder! He’s finally entering the game and we’re very excited! In this article we got to check out his mini, his commander rules, and the rules for his new legendary faction.
Who Was Christopher Myngs?
Chirstopher Myngs was an vice-admiral in the English Royal Navy in the mid 17th century. He served as a captain during the First Anglo-Dutch War, before being sent to Jamaica after the ill-fated Western Design expedition in the Caribbean in 1655. He proved skilled in leading disgruntled crews, and somehow always made sure his men got some plunder one way or another.
Myngs led some of the first large scale Jamaican based raids on the Spanish, setting the pattern for buccaneer raids for the next century. Skilled in leading combined forces of navy men, soldiers and privateers, Myngs proved an effective leader in every engagement during his time in the Caribbean. After a brief period back in England, he again returned to Jamaica and launched more attacks on Spanish ports, most notably Santiago de Cuba and Campeche (where he was wounded).
His wound took him back to England. By 1665, he was back in service, battling the Dutch in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. He was killed about his 82-gun Victory in the Four Days Battle.
You can find a good short bio online here, or pick up a book with more details here.
Christopher Myngs Sculpt
This character was kind of original the core of the Rise of the Buccaneers: Jamaica project. It was “the Myngs thing” for a long time. This miniature has been finished for nearly 2 years!
This sculpt clearly comes from the 1665 Peter Lely oil painting portrait.
With such a great portrait to copy, this model has some great detail.
His sword is very prominent in both the portrait and the miniature.
These early preview printings have a “printing scar” across both cheeks that was corrected. That’s why you test print!
Painting Christopher Myngs
I base my paint job on the portrait, but I found it a little hard to decipher the colors. On first glance, the coat looks black or grey, but on closer inspection, it appears green. My green came out a little lighter and much more green than the portrait, but it works.
I added the vertical stripe which came out pretty good.
The fancy fuzzy baldric is the other interesting item to paint.
The model’s bladric is even fancier than the portrait, but I tried to keep the colors consistent.
I added some color with the red, and it’s getting dangerously close to a Christmas decoration.
He comes across a little “portly” in this mini, I think coming again from the 17th century portrait. The baldric is pulled away from the body in the painting, which makes him look kind of heavy, but I’m not sure that’s the actual intent of the portrait.
Myngs Painted by Erich Goebel
Erich Goebel painted up a preview copy of Christopher Myngs and graciously shared these pictures with us.
Preview of Myngs Commander Rules
Myngs is the English “Legendary Commander” in The Rise of Buccaneers: Jamaica book. He has some pretty sweet stats!
May Lead: English Royal Navy, or Myngs’ Buccaneers
Main Weapons: Brace of Pistols and Standard Melee Weapon.
Command Range: 20”
Command Points: 3
Special Rules: Commodore, Very Inspiring, Broadside!, Sailing Master, Tactician, and Lead By Example
With a full 3 Command Points, 20″ Command Range and 6 Special Rules, Myngs is a monster! He comes in at 32, which is at the very top costs for commanders in Blood & Plunder, but he looks like he will be worth it! He can command the English Royal Navy (from No Peace Beyond the Line) and Admiral Myngs’ Buccaneers, his special Legendary Force.
As a Navy Commander should, he has the Commodore ability which lets him effectively manage more than 1 ship if necessary. His Broadside rule lets him fire cannons effectively, firing up to 4 decks of guns at once!
He has the Tactician Special Rule which allows him to discard and redraw one card every time he draws a new hand. I love this rule and find it fun every time. This rule will also combo with his own faction rules a little further down the page here!
That’s already a pretty good set of rules, but he also has the One Rule to rule them all: Very Inspiring. All units within his Command Range can re-roll failed dice on Rally tests. And this combos really well with the Royal Navy faction rule that gives unit the Tough Special Rule (free rally with 1 die at the end of activation).
Sailing Master is another fantastic rule at sea, letting him adjust speed, even boosting past normal legal levels. Finally he has the classic Buccaneer commander rule, Lead by Example, which lets every unit in his force to remove 1 point of Fatigue if his unit eliminates an enemy unit.
Admiral Myngs’ Buccaneers Faction Preview
Myngs has his own faction and it is extremely fun to play! The Force Rules are simple and short, but combo really well with his rules.
Force Special Rules
- This Force adds a +4 to its roll to determine the attacker in a scenario.
- At the end of each round, the controlling player may shuffle any number of cards in their discard pile back into their activation deck.
With a +4 to the Attacker roll, Myngs will be the Attacker about 84% of the time against a faction with no modifier. The second rule is the fun one. You can shuffle cards back into your Activation Deck!
This basically lets you “deck build” your activation deck by process of elimination. You can go a couple different ways with this rule. The clearest “buccaneer way” is to keep shuffling your Spades back into your Activation Deck so you can keep gaining initiative.
If you’re running a small arms list with high cost units like Freebooters, those Spades are great for free Reloads and high initiative. I you’re leaning more into cannons, keep shuffling your Hearts back into the deck so your Sea Dogs can reload and fire as fast as possible. If you want to lean into Inexperienced units, or just a lot of action, you can recycle your Clubs and Diamonds.
At the very least, you can recycle your high number cards of all suits so you’re winning suit ties more often. This combos really well with his Tactician ability that lets you discard and redraw a card every turn! Not only are you reshuffling your favorite cards, you burning through your deck faster.
Here’s some boring math that reveals some exciting game play. If you have 5 units in your force, you draw 5 cards, discard one and draw another. You will statistically draw 1.5 Spades (or any desired suit) into that hand. If you shuffle every Spade back into the deck at the end of every turn, your likelihood of drawing Spades increases every turn. By the 6th turn, you would statistically be drawing 2.5 Spades into your hand of 5 cards every turn. That can change a game!
Final thoughts.
Myngs is an important figure of this period of Buccaneering, and he has not disappointed! Great model and really fun gameplay! I’m excited for him to hit peoples’ gaming tables. He will give the Spanish grief for sure. Hide your plunder, and be prepared for the English to stack the deck!
What do you think of the model and rules for Admiral Christopher Myngs?
A big thank you to Firelock Games for sending us some preview minis and allowing us to share thes previews.