We just finished the third full week of the 2026 Summer of Plunder Campaign. In this update we’ll look at the campaign map where players on two grand alliances have made choices on where to deploy troops in an effort to control the New World. The Alliance of British, Dutch and Pirates found themselves in a difficult position last week. Let’s see if they were able to make a big move this week. With a whole new portion of the campaign map opening up this week in the Caribbean, the whole game will be changing!
This update will only look at the movements on the Campaign Map. A follow up post will feature more pictures, messages from commanders, and prize winners.
Updated Campaign Map – End of Week 3 of Summer of Plunder 2026
Here is the new updated map after all actions were accounted for. The French, Native, and Spanish alliance made a marginal gains, but enough to earn the Domination Bonus in both theaters this week.
Map Changes
Here are details of the attacks and defenses in the various theaters of the campaign map.
Final Outcomes of the Campaign Map for Week 3 of Summer of Plunder 2026
Fierce fighting was concentrated in the North this week, as both sides attempted to take critical ground in the theatre.
NE – New England & New France
The British-Dutch-Pirate alliance moved a whopping 30 of their 34 army points into the Northeastern theater! Big swings were taken at Quebec and Placentia, but local resistance keeps them tenuously in French hands.
Montreal fell readily to the British Alliance, as the French evacuated troops to reinforce St. John’s. Nice maneuvering of the Pirate Admiral grants the British Alliance their free move in the Theatre, with significant forces ready to move! Their Territories in the Northern Theatre earned them 19 points this week.
The French-Native-Spanish Alliance kept up a plucky defense in the North- putting 29 of their 34 troops in the Theatre – claiming Norridgewock, but losing Montreal to a massive assault from the opposing alliance. They did an excellent job of shoring up defenses, and maintaining their territorial lead in the North, albeit with fewer troops overall. This Week, their alliance was able maintain the Domination Bonus for the Northern Theatre, and netted 22 points for their Northern holdings.
SE – Carolinas & La Florida
The Southern Theatre saw some Dutch reinforcement of Mission San Luis, and a prodding Pirate jab at St. Augustine, but was otherwise quiet – maintenance of this front earned them 10 points.
In the Southern Theater, the French-Native-Spanish alliance reinforced Pensacola (Natives) and maintained the Domination Bonus another week, earning 16 points.
Caribbean
This week we add the Caribbean Theater to our campaign! With each alliance controlling 3 locations, there are 5 open locations up for grabs this first week. With the added territories, resources will be stretched even further these next few weeks.
With the Pirates in Nassau, the British in Jamaica and Dutch in Curacao, the British alliance holds a slightly better position as this new theater opens this week.
Campaign Victory Points for Week 3
The French-Native-Spanish alliance was able to maintain their domination of both the North and South, despite losing Montreal. This week they earned 38 points in the 3rd week of the campaign, for a total of 114 points to date.
The British-Pirate-Dutch alliance took a significant strategic victory in their capture of Montreal, and appear poised to turn the tide with overwhelming numbers of troops in the region. A similar story is told as last week, with a target rich environment open to the British Alliance. They earned a total of 29 points during this week of the campaign – for a total of 75 points to date.
Details of Team & Commander Votes
If you’re interested in how all the votes played out, here’s the data from this week’s nearly 250 logged games. (In some of these tables, you see negative numbers. Our spreadsheets use negative numbers for British team control and positive numbers for French team control.)
- The French focused entirely in the NE, beefing up defenses all along the line.
- The Spanish followed suit with only a slight variation. Tight coordination!
- The Natives sent a major war party to Pensacola in the South, and the rest into Northern defenses.
- The Unaligned Maroons joined the French alliance and sent troops all the way up to reinforce Placentia!
- The British went all in on offense, leading the successful strike on Montreal, and weakening the eastern holdings of Acadia
- The Dutch coordinated well with the British, launching their largest attack at Montreal, nibbling at Quebec, and reinforcing their recently acquired Mission in the south.
- The Pirates went all out attack as well, reinforcing the massive strike on Montreal, joining the Dutch feint against Quebec, and hitting St. Augustine with one more little raid.
- The Unaligned Portuguese helped strike Montreal, making that attack a perfectly coordinated masterstroke!
Above, you can see each of the locations voted highest by each national team. Both Alliances focused really hard on the North this week!
Here we see the Commander and Admiral Actions – The Admiral of the British Alliance decided against using the troop transfer for this week, while the admiral of the French Navy was able to pull some troops away from the collapsing Montreal.
And you can see the starting control of each location, the armies sent out from each alliance, and the control results in the tables 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 of cases.
The British concentrated all of their efforts into the Northern Theatre this week, and were able to take control of the New England Coast in a critical week.
The French fleet also pushed for the North, but tied in the Bay of St. Lawrence, and lost on the New England Coast – though they were able to take Charles Town Harbor uncontested.
It will be interesting to see how dynamics change as the Caribbean theatre opens up more possibilities for the Admirals and Navies!
Reinforcements from Europe!
As the campaign map expands, the home countries are sending reinforcements! The British, Dutch and Pirate teams will each get two bonus troops points to add to an attack or defense this week, as they see fit.
France and Spain are busy raising armies for the meatgrinder in Europe and the Natives are fighting another sudden outbreak after a delivery of British trade blankets, so they have less troops to spare. The French, Spanish and Natives teams will each get one bonus troop to strategically add to an attack or defense this week, as they see fit.
Final Thoughts for Week 3 Summer of Plunder 2026
The French Alliance has a considerable lead in points at the moment, but the British Alliance has solid strongholds. With reinforcements from Europe to place this round, and 11 new locations in the Caribbean theater opening up this week, we could see some big changes!
We’ve got some feedback on the 2 Team campaign system we’re using this year vs the 6 independant teams we’ve used last year, and the consensus seems to be people prefer the 6 fully autonomous teams. We tried something new in an attempt to fix some issues from previous years, but we see the alliances seem to be more confusing/less compelling this year. Keep the feedback coming in! We appreciate it.
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 4! 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?
We had great participation in these first weeks of the campaign with 840 games logged from around 265 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. So for instance, the Dutch are awarding their 10 points as follows:
- 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 – 2pts
- 2nd place – 1ptsAlliance Admiral Choice: 1 PointHigh score wins the lane. Ties give nothing.
- 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.
Or read his full article on tactics and strategy on the campaign map here.