After a long week of conflict from the snowy far reaches of New France to the warm Florida territory, we have an updated map for the 2026 Summer of Plunder campaign. Over the last 9 days, gamers from around the world have played out skirmishes, sorties,, and fleet battles in the New World on the tabletops. Every game of Blood & Plunder, Oak & Iron and Port Royal counts as a little action on the overall campaign map. Alliances have come together, Commanders have plotted & directed, and gamers have cast their votes for their nations’ moves . Let’s see how their plans played out in the first campaign of our Queen Anne’s War campaign.
Updated Campaign Map – End of Week 1
Here is the new updated map after all actions were accounted for. The French, Native and Spanish alliance made major gains, especially in the Florida theater, but the English held on to key locations with decisive numbers of troops.
Map Changes
Here are details of the attacks and defenses in the various theaters of the campaign map.
Florida & Carolinas – SE Theater
In Florida, the SE Theater, there was a lot of action, led primarily by Spanish & Natives on the one side, and Pirates and Dutch on the other.
A combined force of Spanish and Natives attacked the Chickasaw stronghold at Hollatchatroe and flipped it from British aligned to French. Pirates and Natives forces both moved on Mission San Luis but all they accomplished was filling the mission graveyard with more poor soldiers. A small but well executed Native raid led by the War Chief himself grabbed Pensacola for the Natives.
The Dutch and Pirates made a exploratory expedition against St. Augustine, but were rebuffed by stout Spanish defenses and reinforcements (Zuniga must have burned all those buildings!). The Dutch, accompanied by the small Unaligned expedition, attacked Mobile from Hollatchatroe, but were outmatched and returned to find their homes burned and territory occupied by the enemy.
All in all, the French, Natives and Spanish poured 14 of their army points into the SE and were able to control 4 out of the 7 key locations, earning them 13 points plus the Domination bonus of 4pts for controlling more than half of the available locations.
The British, Pirates and Dutch used 11 of their army points in this theater, depriving their enemies of control Mission San Luis, taking Chicacas, and chipping away at the French fort in Mobile. But still with only the main city of Charles Town and the Native outpost in Chicacas, the pro-Hapsburg alliance scored 8 points in the Florida theater.
New France & New England – NE Theater
True to history, the French and English poured the vast majority of their resources into their primary colonies in the north.
The most shocking move here is a brilliant assault on St. John’s by the French alliance. Led by Joseph “Saint-Ovide” de Monbeton, the French, accompanied by Micmac, Abenaki and even a significant Spanish expeditionary force, surprised the St. John’s garrison at night, overwhelming the guards and capturing the rest of the sleeping militia.
The English led a large raid on the equivalent French stronghold of Placentia on the Western side of Newfoundland, but with a few timely French reinforcements, the location was left abandoned by both sides. The English allianced attacked it for 10pts while the French reinforced their 8 troops with 2 more, cancelling everything out!
The French also moved a sizable force, bearing gifts and trade goods into the Abenaki territory of Norridgewock, bringing into the alliance.
The Pirates and Dutch sent massive fleets to Port Royal, the French Privateer port in Acadia (I’m not entirely sure they weren’t aiming for Jamaica but that’s OK). Port Royal flipped from Neutral to a solidly defended port with 10 defending troops! Finally, the British further reinforced Boston, bringing the defense up to 19, making it impossible for the French alliance to take without a prolonged siege.
All told the British -Dutch-Pirate alliance poured 23 of their 34 army points into the Northeastern theater but lost one location and gained on location, netting them 14 campaign victory points.
The French-Native-Spanish alliance devoted 18 of their 34 points to the NE and but they increased their holdings from 3 to 4 locations, netting 16 points. Neither alliance managed to control the majority of the NE so the Domination bonus went unclaimed this turn.
Campaign Victory Points for Week 1
The French-Native-Spanish alliance did a great job of spreading out and grabbing more locations which ultimately earned the 34 campaign points in this first week of the campaign.
The British-Pirate-Dutch alliance solidified their holdings and added a solid port in the NE, but gain as much ground. They earned a total of 22 points during this first week of the campaign.
Details of Team and Commander Votes
If you’re interested in how all the votes played out, here’s the data from this weeks 350+ logged games. (in some of these graphs you see negative numbers. Our spreadsheets use negative number for British team control and positive numbers for French team control.)
Above you can see each of the locations voted highest by each national team. Look at that coordination at the top spot for the French, Spanish and Natives!
The Commanders have less direct influence with their 1 vote for the nation, but it was a deciding factor in a couple cases!
And you can see the starting control of each location, the armies sent out from each alliance, and resulting control in the graph above.
Oak & Iron Sea Routes
The Oak & Iron games in this campaign influence several sea lanes on the campaign map that grant alliances flexibility in redeploying troops and might even bring new troops in from Europe. The votes were very close in this contest, exactly canceling each other out in a couple cases.
The British continued their dominance in Carolina by deploying a fleet to Charles Town Harbor. With this control they their Admiral will be able to redeploy up to 5 troops within friendly controlled locations in this region. The British-Pirates-Dutch logged 21 Oak & Iron games this week.
The French fleet was out in force in the North, gaining control of the northernmost shipping lane of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The French players contributed 11 games, the Spanish 3 and the Natives got 2 games of Oak & Iron in this past week!
Both sides went heavily for the Mouth of Mississippi, but neither gained control of it.
Final Thoughts
The armies march across the the continent and the fleets clash at sea. The French, Natives, and Spanish have made a powerful play here at the opening of the campaign! But have they spread themselves too thin? How will the troop redeployments effect next week’s plays? (These troops movements will be chosen over the next few days, but not fully resolved until the end of the week which makes some attacks less certain this week!)
There will be another campaign update including prize winners, more pictures, and messages from National Commanders coming out in the next day or two.
But the entry form has been updated to reflect to the new possible targets for each alliance, the map has been updated, and we’re ready to roll for week 2! Check in with your commanders, or better yet, start a conversation with your team and commanders in your Discord channel. Where should your team deploy their troops this week?
The scenario for week two will get some ships on the table. Watch for a battle report on the Hornigold scenario to come out soon as well.
We had great participation in this first week with a record number of 352 games logged from 201 different players!
A big thanks to Daniel Wray and Jason Klotz for making the magic math happen with some super fancy spreadsheets!
Bonus Campaign Rules Summary
If this whole campaign map system is still kind of mysterious/opaque to you, you can read the campaign system rules system here, or you can read Jason’s excellent short summary below:
- Blood & Plunder and Port Royal Games
- Each point you earn from an entry includes the option to count as votes on the map.
- Votes determine where your Nation attacks or defends on the campaign map each week.
- They are the mechanism that converts player activity into map movement.
- Everyone in your faction is dropping votes all week long. Your Commander might say: “Everyone hit Charles Town this week!” or “We need to defend the Albany!” If lots of players follow that plan, those locations rise to the top.
- Each Nation gets exactly 10 “Army Points” to spend each week, regardless of whether players logged 5 games or 500 games, but where the 10 Army Points are distributed is based on how the players voted. At the end of the week, the top 4 most popular locations determine the outcomes. It’s a popularity-driven tier system.
- 1st place – 4pts
- 2nd place – 3pts
- 3rd place – 2pts
- 4th place – 1pts
- There are 32 locations on the map at the start of the game (I think), but there are only 15 locations to possibly attack/defend out of the gate…
- To make votes effective, players must coordinate to ensure their chosen location places in the top tier, as votes for low-popularity areas receive no points.
- At the end of the week, new troops are placed by each of the 6 nations based on their top 4 votes (Dutch get 4, 3, 2, 1).
- Locations with troops from both alliances resolve combat (just add the numbers… British 12 troops vs 8 French… Brits win. 4 are left)
- Points are earned by what you control. Most points at the end = winning alliance.
- Oak & Iron Games There are 2 “shipping lanes” per theater (4 now, 6 later)
- 1st place – 2pts2nd place – 1ptsAlliance Admiral Choice: 1 Point
- Control of Shipping Lanes offers the following benefits
- 1 Lane (In one Theater): The Alliance may move 5 armies within that theater (even if they aren’t directly connected to the ocean)
- 2 Lanes (In one Theater):
- Move 5 armies within the Theater
- gain 2 reinforcement armies from Europe
- It functions as a blockade limiting enemy movement in that theater.
- Own at least 1 lane in 2 Theatres:
- Move 5 armies between the theaters.
