More Dutch content! Today we get to look at a new Legendary Dutch Commander from the upcoming Rise of the Buccaneer: Jamaica book that will hitting Kickstarter on April 2 (right around the 10th anniversary of the original Blood & Plunder Kickstarter project). This is Jelles de Lecat. Or Captain Yellows. Or Yelles, or Yahllahs, or Hels, or Yeles!
Let’s check out the model, the stats, and his own special Legendary Faction.
Who Was Jelles de Lecat?
Captain Yellows was a Dutch Buccaneer who sailed for pretty much everyone over his career. He was Dutch but sailed from Jamaica, he sailed for Morgan, he sailed for L’Olonnais, he sailed with Brasiliano, he cut logwood, and he eventually sailed for Spain!
He is commonly known as “Captain Yellows” likely coming from an English spelling corruption of Jelles into “Yelles.”
The first record of his piratical activity is in Jamaica when he begins serving as second mate under Roc Brasiliano in 1668. After participating in a successful raid on Portobello with Morgan, Roc took command of a prize ship and Lecat became captain of Roc’s ship (purchased from L’Olonnais!). All these buccaneers are connected!
He was hunted by the Spanish and English in turn, depending on who he was working for. But he always seemed to come out the winner, no matter who was hunting him.
Jelles de Lecat Sculpt
The sculpt is a strutting gentleman with an impressive abundance of hair and a fancy little beard and mustache.
There are no surviving period images of Jelles de Lecat, so the sculptors had free reign! If you want to lean into the “yellow,” you can paint the prominent hair as blond.
I continue to be impressed with the new models from the Firelock Games sculptors! Check out that awesome face.
UPDATE: 2/18
Some of these models are still WIP and this one got an update! Captain Yellows got an arm adjustment! Check out the new version of this mini, with pistol held up rather than forward.
Painting Jelles de Lecat
I accidentally fell into my favorite “red, white and blue” combo for this model. But the orange feathers accent mix it up a bit.
I tried a couple new techniques on this model. Basing materials off this portrait of Michiel de Ruyter, I attempted to give the coat a velvet sheen and add some gold/silver texture to the coat’s trim.
I used primarily Monument Hobbies paints, but mixed in some metallic medium for the blue coat. It’s difficult to see in these pictures, but the metallic sheen is a fun change of pace from the normal flat finish. I wish I had gone with the darker black coat color. But with the result, I will try it again on another miniature.
For the cuffs and trim on the coat, I did a low effort technique where I stippled several colors of silver and gold.
It didn’t come out the way I imagined it, but it is something different!
Jelles de Lecat Painted by Dr. D
Dylan has painted up a preview copy of Jelles de Lecat and graciously shared these pictures with us.
Red, white and yellow!
And some comments from Dr. D:
I was very happy to receive Captain Jelles de Lecat (more like LeCool if you know what I mean) model from Blood and Pigment as always, and I was excited to see another Legendary Dutch commander coming to the range! My coconspirator InventorofSloop, who plays Dutch, will be beyond pleased with a new commander! It was an interesting thought exercise to paint someone of historical significance and not be able to find a single thing about them other than where they stole stuff and who they worked for. No matter how hard I tried, I could not find any clues as to what he looked like. Nothing about his hair color, scars on his face, or even his favorite hot dog condiment. NOTHING!! It gives the hobbyist a more open canvas, and I think that can be a whole lot of fun. Yellah being in his name means you HAVE to put some yellow on him, but you get to choose where that is!
I am very excited to see everyone’s take on him. I went with yellow hair and a British colored coat since he worked on Jamaica and Morgan a whole lot during his career and that is where he will be played in my hobby room. I am very excited to give him a try!
30 pts for him is steep, but I do agree that he looks very fun
Preview of Jelles de Lecat Commander Rules
Lecat is the Dutch “Legendary Commander” in The Rise of Buccaneers: Jamaica book so he has has both a commander profile and a special faction just for him.
Jelles de Lecat (Captain Yellows – 30ptsMay Lead: Yellow’s Sea Rovers, Early English Buccaneers, Brethren of the Coast, Logwood Cutters, Guarda Costa, or Boekaniers
Main Weapons: Buccaneer Gun or Brace of Pistols and Standard Melee Weapon.
Sidearm: Pistol if armed with Buccaneer Gun
Command Range: 12”
Command Points: 3
Special Rules: Lucky, Felicitous
Unorthodox Force: A Force led by this Commander may include Zeelieden as Core units.
This guy is focused. He only has two Special Rules, but they make a wicked combo. Do you like Fortune Points? Yellows is your guy! The rare Felicitous Special Rule gives you a Fortune Point back at the start of every turn if you ended the last turn with no Fortune. This means you can potentially stretch your 3 Fortune Points into as many 8 if you can helpfully spend all 3 Fortune Points in the first turn of your game.
And then the Lucky rule makes that even more crazy! Lucky lets you take back your Fortune Token if you reroll with it and the reroll is no better than the original roll. This essentially means Yellows can throw Fortune Points around like a madman, looking for above-average results. He’s not necessarily going to be reliable, but he’s going to be entertaining to play!
With no Inspiring or other utility Special Rules, he clearly can’t do everything really well, but that combo with Fortune Tokens makes him pretty powerful. He also have the Unorthodox Force rule that gives him the perennially popular Zeelieden unit as a core unit wherever he goes.
The other really cool things about Jelles de Lecat is the number of factions he can command. He very well may break the record for the most faction options.
- Early English Buccaneers
- Brethren of the Coast
- Logwood Cutters
- Guarda Costas (NPBtL)
- Boekaniers
- Yellow’s Sea Rovers
Here we see 3 classic factions from No Peace Beyond the Line, and 3 new factions. The Guarda Costas is the most surprising inclusion here. The Spanish rarely get an out-of-nation option! The Logwood Cutters option is exciting as well since they only have access to one Historical Commander at the moment (John Morris). That Boekaniers faction looks interesting as well.
His other basic stats are very reasonable for 30pts. He has that max of 3 Command Points and 12″ Command Range and is armed with either a Buccaneer Gun/Sidearm Pistol or a Brace of Pistols.
Yellow’s Sea Rovers Faction Preview
Jelles de Lecat has his own Legendary Faction that only he can lead.
Yellow’s Sea Rovers 1668-1672
This is the personal Force of Jelles de Lecat who must be chosen as this Force’s Commander.
Force Special Rules
- All ships in this Force gain the Shallow Draft ship Trait.
- This Force adds +2 to its roll when determining the attacker in a scenario.
- Once per game, this force’s controlling player may discard all the Activation Cards in their hand and replace them with the same number without spending a Fortune Point.
- This force may ignore all False Colors rules in opposing forces.
Core Units
- Zeelieden
- Sea Dogs
- Kapers
- Enter Ploeg
- Flibustiers (French)
- Freebooter (English)
Support Units
- Marins (French)
- Warrior Musketeers (Native American)
- Boucaniers (French)
- Veteran Freebooters (English)
Command Options
Jelles de Lecat
This force is a nice mix of Dutch and Buccaneer faction rules, along with something extra nasty. Lecat can straight up ignore False Colors rules on other factions! Yellows don’t care who you are. Your ship looks nice and he would like to “acquire it.”
This is very situational, but there are several very mean Factions (or even Commanders) out there that rely on False Colors to take control of the game. Yellows could be a great insurance against that kind of shenanigans in a competitive setting.
His unit options are very solid with all the great seagoing Dutch options, plus both the Flibustiers and Freebooters from French and English as Core Units. His list is very multinational and he can easily lean into boarding, musketry or cannons. While Yellows’ rules are easy to use on land or sea, this faction is clearly sea focused.
Lecat will be a nasty surprise vs some of the high profile commanders with False Colors like Chaloner Ogle and Black Caesar.
Final thoughts
Jelles de Lecat is a welcome addition to the lineup of Dutch dominance at sea! He is also fun and accessible to English, Pirate, Spanish and Dutch players!
This Rise of Buccaneers: Jamaica is a relatively small project, but we’re loving the high quantity of fun historical commander profiles and sculpts we’re seeing.
Check out that lineup of fun historical commanders! That Roc Brasiliano model has been updated, but we’ll do a preview once we get the final sculpt.
What do you think of Jelles de Lecat? Are you ready to spoil your opponent’s False Colors?
Jelles de Lecat will be included in The Rise of Buccaneers: Jamaica expansion book that will be part of the upcoming Wave 2 Blood & Plunder Kickstarter, launching on April 2.
Thank you to Firelock Games for the the preview mini and a big thanks to Dr. D for the pictures of his painted miniature.
Additional Recommended Reading
- Bartolomeu Portogues Commander Preview
- Christopher Myngs Commander Preview
- Young Morgan Model Preview
- Dutch Commander Model Preview
- Freebooters Model Preview
- Corbeta Ship Review from 2026 Kickstarter
- Spanish Commander Preview
- Milicianos Minis Preview
- English Commander Preview
- Marineros Wave 2 Preview
- Native Commander Wave 2 Preview