Intro
Adepticon is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Blood & Plunder sea tournaments of the year. The tournament is set up to be 3 rounds and the winner is whoever wins all 3 rounds and can manage to get their Strike Point differential lower than anyone else. My goal this year was to keep my head down and focus on winning games. I figured that the rest could take care of itself and not worry about trying to crush opponents to get my differential as low as possible.
My list… Wait, Who’s in Charge Here?
If you are familiar with me and what I’ve been up to competitively in the last year then this probably doesn’t come as a surprise to you. I play a Brethren of the Coast Small Arms and Great Guns combo list on a Heavy Bark. BotC can use the South Sea Adventure characters, and I utilize them to add cheap Command Points and add key special rules to certain units. The downside to these characters is the “Shifting Command” rule.
Shifting Command:
In scenarios where this model is not named as the Commander of the force, this model may join a unit following the normal rules for Characters (Fighting Men). This model’s Command Range is reduced to 0” and Command Points reduced to 1. This Command point may only be spent on a unit which this model has joined. Any Special rules this model has are applied to the unit and any special rules the joined unit has apply to this model. Units containing a character with this rule may not take actions outside of their activation granted by the use of another character’s command points (including those of the Commander).
Essentially my Command Points are all locked into each unit. Technically my Commander could give a Command point to the gun crew but it is a rare case that I would want to do that.
I used this list to great effect at a smaller tournament at Nashcon 2025. Took down some local talent including a french light frigate gun list captained by Tim Moore and a Kalinago poisoned arrow swarm captained by Denis Bolin. Let’s break it down unit by unit.
12 Veteran Boucaniers with Bartholomew Sharp (support) Fore Deck
This unit is deadly accurate and the focal point of the list. This unit loves to activate on spades because you can get to 4 actions, and you go early in the round to suppress enemy crews so it’s a win win. Bart Sharp adds a command point to the unit allowing them to do 3 standard actions plus the free reload. Most of the time this unit will aim(Marksman), shoot and reload on a spade and be ready to do the same on the next turn. The other option for a fully loaded unit activating on a spade is to shoot twice(card action shoot, fast reload, card action reload, command point shoot). You will take a fatigue for it, but it’s sometimes worth it, and I probably should do it more often. Sharp also adds the “Ruthless” special rule which can get your shoot number down even lower. He also adds “Very Inspiring” which works exactly like inspiring when you have a command range of 0”. Starting at a base shoot skill of 5 you can get it down to 3, using marksman and ruthless at <4”. And with 12 men in the unit plus ball and shot rerolls 10+ hits are not uncommon.
12 Trained Zeelieden with a Master Gunner Fore Deck
This unit is the gun crew. I primarily use 3 medium guns for grapeshot to really increase the killing power of the list. This unit wants to activate on a Heart to get to the max 4 actions. 2 card actions, a Command Point reload from MG, and a free Reload from Expert Artillery Crew. This is a standard loadout for an artillery crew and isn’t special to the Brethren of the Coast faction. It is very effective and you see it come up in a lot of lists.
2 Units of Inexperienced Marineros with Muskets Aft Deck
These are very standard units. The “Varied Experience” option for this force allows all units of a single type to be dropped down a training level for -1 points per model. One unit carries John Watling and one unit carries the Commander (if you can call him that). So on a Diamond they can Shoot, Reload, Reload. Clubs are the only weakness here because I don’t have any unit that can use them effectively and my Marineros take an extra Reload marker when they shoot using a Club. I trade club utility for the Ruthless rule on these units. You could make the argument for other national sailors but personally I want the -1 to the Shoot over card flexibility.
Ways this List Wins.
- Lots of dice and lots of hits
- Overkill
- Suppress gun crews
This list, if played well, can go toe to toe with any of the “meta monsters” because you can shoot so well any list will have a hard time against it.
Ways this List Loses
- Fatigue management
- Ship damage
- Boarding
The lists that beat it are going to be able to weather the lead storm and get to your crew via Great Guns or Boarding. I have played against a couple boarding lists; none have actually made it on my ship. I suspect that it would be a difficult matchup if they could actually make a boarding action stick.
Sea Tournament Round 1: Jayden King
We played “Control the Field” in round 1. Jayden is a veteran player and a good opponent. He was also running a Heavy Bark with muskets and a gun crew. It was a very well rounded list. His big advantage over me was Resolve as he was running Able Seamen with 4 Resolve. I knew I could sling enough dice to overwhelm them eventually, so no matter how many Fatigue tests he passed the list would fall eventually.
In the early game I used grape and the Boucaniers to try to soften up the front deck for ruthless shots but I was killing more than fatiguing so I had to be content with that (4 Resolve Able Seamen are hard to get Fatigue on). His gun crew quickly became unable to load all 3 guns effectively after taking so many kills. Both Jayden and I were spending Fortune early and by mid game his Commander was in peril and had no coin to Cheat Death. At the end a Strike Test needed to be made but with no Commander the roll was automatically failed.
Result – W 2-0
Sea Tournament Round 2: Kurtis Fraley
Kurtis was my doubles partner for the weekend. I believe he was also playing a heavy bark (I guess I started a trend from a podcast episode maybe). We played Take and Hold for round two. I won the Attacker roll which gave me freedom on how quickly to engage. Kurtis was running a well rounded list. He had taken a Captured Merchant in his list which gave me a +1 to my Shoot numbers going into his front deck.
Early at range I used round shot because, in my head at the time, the math said that it would be better to take the +1 to the ranging shot than the +1 with grape at that distance. That may not have been entirely true but I made a good decision based on how the dice rolled. After some early crits, and great shooting, I steamrolled Kurtis a bit, but he was a good sport about it, and hopefully I was humble in victory, I never want to act like a jackass when I am winning in this kind of tournament. This game helped my Strikepoint differential a bit more so I thought I might be on the top table fighting for 1st in the last round, but I was at table #2.
Results – W 4-0
Sea Tournament Round 3: Erich Goebel
I’ve played Erich in every Adepticon tournament I have participated in in the last 3 years. 2024 land: L, 2025 O&I: L, 2025 B&P sea: L, Erich is a great player, and I was in the middle of a losing streak, so I really wanted to lock in and win this one. Erich also comes up with interesting lists and this year was no different.
He had Pargo with 3 decks of guns across 2 ships. A Brigantine was his flagship with three heavy guns and one medium. He also brought along a Flyut with one medium and one heavy gun. The scenario for this game was Escort. I kinda wanted to be the Defender in this game because I could use the Captured Merchant as a human shield for my front deck shooters. However the roll didn’t go my way and I had the same problem as with the last game against Kurtis.
I made a pass at the Brigantine to open the game with some success but not much. The Flyut was then the target of opportunity for me so, the following turns I made quick work clearing the single deck. The Fluyt never got a shot off and was now adrift. I was hoping it would affect the battle more but it didn’t and just drifted harmlessly.
Erich put good damage on my ship and even caused my Boucaniers to Shake at one point. The following turns were uneventful and consisted of long range shots and rallies as I crossed the wind to take some final shots at the Brigantine. Because I felt like I was winning I had considered staying at range to make it harder for Erich to get more crits on my hull. I didn’t want to be labeled a coward though and so I kept closing and firing shots as the game ended. The game ended at time called and I won on points as my ship was below half hull and he had taken enough casualties for a Strike Point. Best game of the tournament for me by far.
Results – W 1-1 on points
Final Thoughts
My final result was 3-0 with a strike point differential at -6. That was good enough for second place and I had to be happy with that. In a larger tournament where I can’t play all the way to the top, Strike Point differential matters more than I would like. This is exactly the result I was looking for though 3 solid wins and a medal. I love this list format and I will likely try to make more competitive versions of it in the future.
