Adam Horton competed at the 200pt Land Tournament at Adepticon 2026 and took 3rd place in a field of 24 players. Here is run down of his French Raiders tournament list and a description of his 3-0 tournament experience.
By Adam Horton
Intro
This is not the tale of a master strategist with a brilliant plan and a clever list. Instead, I focused on a clear plan with a simple tactic and tried to adapt that to the situations.
Building The French Raiders “Canadian Muskets” Force
I don’t play a lot of French, but I often play against them and I admire their maneuverability and firepower. The main complaint I hear is their high cost/low model count. I eventually landed on the French Raiders as a solution to both: Milice Canadienne and Braves come in at 4 and 5 points, both with Shoot 6 and good skills to back them up. The force special rules are a modest boost to die roll to determine Attacker, and all units gain the Quick Special Rule if the force has more Natives than French. I won’t fly across the battlefield, but nobody will be left behind.
My idea was basic: shoot from long range, using Hidden and Elusive to combine with great Shoot Attack numbers to out-gun the enemy. Avoid melee except for a coup de grace. Accept that I will have a tough time on objectives. Long range means I will need 8+ at least, so more dice is key. This will not be a list for big wins, it will be a slow attrition/denial grind. Sprint to objectives in the late game, when my opponent is worn down.
I’m usually a fan of Fighting Man characters, but not many fit the list. Without Sailors or Drilled units, many weren’t allowed. The ones I could get felt a bit redundant. Instead I upgraded my Commander to Seasoned. Inspiring is always a solid trait, getting more effect out of the most common use of Command Points, and Cold Blooded complements it well to help exploit an opportunity – and a -1 bonus to shooting is a +50-100% effectiveness when needing 9’s or 10’s. Five units felt comfortable, neither too big or small, and I needed more Natives so 3 of Braves, 2 of C. Milice. Braves are core units in the list, so my Commander joined them..
The hardest choices were whether to upgrade to Veterans, take Thrown Weapons, or take a Surgeon. All of those would have been nice: particularly Thrown Weapons in at least a couple units. But I decided to stay on plan and play to my strengths instead, focusing points on getting dice on the table: 40 models, all Shoot Skill 6.
You can see the full list on the Force Builder here.
Game 1
My first game of three was a classic quality v. quantity shoot out against British Regulars in a Take and Hold scenario. Those guys are brutal: great stats, Resolve 4, Platoon Orders to help with Reloads. But my opponent had 29 models, including some Indian Fighters, to my 40. I gave them the middle, used area terrain to block sight and held at distance to focus fire on his small units. Model count exchange was fairly even, but I was giving up 4 point Milice for 6-8 point Regulars and it showed by the end game, where I was able to clear a couple 5 model units and, on my last Commander activation, shook his Command Unit and rushed a worn down Milice unit up to claim the objective for a 2 to 0 victory.
Game 2
My second game was attacker on Wanted Man against a Brethren of the Coast crew with three units of militia, a unit of Flibustiers and a unit of Buccaneers. This game showed the danger of clinging to a defensive fortification. The Brethren started in the center in a building with hard cover. My units entered, fired, and moved behind LOS blocking cover on the first turn, reducing his buccaneers to couple remnants without allowing much ability for return fire. After that it was focusing my entire force on unit by unit, while his limited lines of fire from the building prevented some units from attacking at all, while at one point all three of his militia were only able to fire at one unit of Milice on a forested hill, over 12” away and often prone: 10’s to hit, and saving on 4’s soaked up lots of fire for little effect.
A mid-game rush on the building destroyed the last of his Flibustiers and Boucaniers, and lured his Command group in for destruction as well, at the cost of several Braves. Unfortunately he was able to Fortune his Commander to another unit, preventing any objective points, but the casualties were very one sided for a solid win.
Game 3
My final game was an Encounter against the Esteemed Joseph Forster, which was a bit intimidating and an excellent lesson on how to make bows devastating. It came down to a quarter inch. Neither of us wanted to venture too close and risk a Charge, so we spent most of the game trading fire at range from behind hard cover. Rain of Arrows, Santiago, and 40 troops on each side made for SO MANY DICE, but my Milice once again stood firm and soaked up fire with saves of 3+. It was an interesting contest of wills between forces with Inspiring and Ruthless, and Joseph was more effective at it.
My victory was slim. Joseph pushed a unit of rifles a bit too far and a couple bad rolls gained me a slim lead on bodies. I in turn tried to push up some Braves on my left flank and exposed them to a crippling counter charge, but Joseph’s pursuit left his engaged unit barely in range of my commander’s unit of Braves, who used Scouts and a Club to suffer a Fatigue and ran nearly 12” to charge into his natives. I rallied my broken unit and between them they were able to counter attack, for a slim win of 18 casualties to 15.
Final Thoughts
I’m honestly not sure this list is a great one. I think a focused melee opponent would have annihilated me. I had the battles the list wanted, and the force did what I planned it to very well. A couple units with Thrown Weapons would have been a very good trade for two less rifles: I won on my charges, but I kept falling short of the devastation I really needed. A Surgeon would have been a huge benefit on the last game, blocking Ruthless and inflicting a Strike Point to balance a pretty even exchange of casualties.
The Milice Canadienne were absolute MVPs: their survivability at range and in cover was key to every victory. They didn’t do most of my damage, but their shoot score made sure they couldn’t be ignored.
