There was a notable increase in Blood & Plunder events hosted at conventions in 2025. Brad Meloy put in a lot of work to put on some of the most epic and beautiful games at both Historicon and Fall-In last year. In November, Brad sent me some pictures and info to share, but the holiday business got in the way and we failed to get it out! Please enjoy these shots from some of the awesome games Brad & company hosted at Fall-In November 7-9, 2025.
Fall-In Blood & Plunder Recap
From Bradley Meloy
Tyler Stone, Drew from Griffin’s Lair, and myself headed the Firelock demos at the con.
Drew ran demos in the dealers hall of Port Royal more than two dozen times. I ran the Great Swamp Fight twice Thursday night. All games had all seats filled.
El Morro Multiplayer Blood & Plunder Game
Friday and Sat El Morro Battle for San Juan with Tyler running the sea games and I running the land games for a total of 12 people per game.
We handed out swag from Firelock Games and custom coins I made (see photo below). All the games came down to the wire and over the course of the weekend each side won an equal number of times. Fires on land and sea, units deleted completely in one turn on all sides.
Here’s a great shot of the game from Historicon from Brad:
There are 3 different sections of the board with 4 players fighting a self contained game 2v2, which simplifies and speeds game play.
Some more shots from Tyler Stone:
Here are some additional photos of Brad’s El Morro game at Historicon submitted by Will, Brent and Jeff during the Summer of Plunder:
You can see the El Morro table at 7:29 in this convention report from Little Wars TV.
The Great Swamp Fight Blood & Plunder Game
Brad and Tyler have run the Great Swamp Fight a couple times now and it’s always a great game!
You can get a good look at the 2024 Great Swamp Fight set up in this Little Wars TV report (at 2:57):
Good showing for Blood and Plunder we had show status in the convention lobby due to winning best terrain at Historicon in the summer and will keep that status in to Cold Wars. No tourneys due to sign up glitches that are already fixed for next HMGS Cold Wars. All in all over 70 people played Blood and Plunder and may interest peaked for the game.
Opportunities at Cold Wars 2026
Brad and Tyler are hosting games again this coming weekend (February 5-8) at HMGS Cold Wars convention in Lancaster, PA. If you want to get in on some epic Blood & Plunder games on some beautiful boards, this is a great chance!
Brad is running the El Morro scenario again (reportedly the final time!) and running a brand new scenario: Henry Morgan’s Attack on Panama City! The quintessential buccaneer raid!
These epic games draw eyes and interest at gaming conventions! The convention setting is a unique opportunity to play games larger than you might have opportunity to play the rest of the year. If you can make it to one of the HMGS conventions, Adepticon, Gencon, NOVA Open, or other regional conventions, check the schedule for a Blood & Plunder scenario to jump in on. And if there isn’t a game scheduled, you should jump in and set one up!
A big congrats to Brad Meloy for creating a truly impressive table and scenario that so many games have been enjoying.
Article by Brad Meloy and Joseph Forster. Photos from Brad, Tyler Stone, and several Summer of Plunder players.