The St. Louis Blood & Plunder community kicked off the Summer of Plunder with a Sea Tournament held at DieCon 26 in Collinsville, IL.
Brendan Kampwerth ran the tournament (visit his new blog!) and had a good turnout for an inaugural Blood & Plunder tournament at the convention. Here are the details and winners of the event:
DieCon 26 Sea Tournament Details
- 200pt Force Limit
- All expansions and published material legal
- 3 Rounds of Swiss Pairings
- Scenarios: Chase’s End, Control the Field, Take & Hold
- 8 Players
- 100 Minute Rounds
- Wins score 3 Tournament Points, Losses score 0, and Draws (very rare) score 1 Tournament Point with ties broken by Strike Point Differential first.
Game Scoring
Tournament rounds were scored with 3 Tournament Points to the winner and 0 to the loser. If there was a tie in Strike Points, the tie was broken by points of models killed. In the unlikely event of an exact tie with both of those conditions, both players would receive 1 Tournament Point.
Tables & Terrain
As a newer Quartermaster, I elected to run a sea tournament with open water. This allowed me to run 4 tables during the event without worries of supplying additional terrain.
Tournament Participation
We had 8 players which was our max allotted for a first time tournament at DieCon. Aside from local players, we had players travel from central Illinois, across Missouri, and from the East Coast.
All 8 players completed all three rounds of the tournament with no drops. The rounds were 100 minutes long. Many games ran short on time, but some ended before Turn 6.
Tournament Results
| Player | Tournament Points | Strike Point Differential |
| Dylan D | 9TP | N/A |
| Michael T | 6TP | -6 |
| Eric H | 6TP | -3 |
| Michael H | 6TP | -1 |
| Matthew D | 3TP | 0 |
| Ian B | 3TP | 3 |
| Mike C | 3TP | 5 |
| Nathan H | 0TP | N/A |
Tournament Winners
1st Place – Dylan D
Best Painted – Dylan D
I had Things From the Basement and Phalanx Games & Sundry assist me in casting votes for best painted. Things From the Basement generously donates prizes towards The Summer of Plunder and The Great Pirate Paint Off and Phalanx carries Firelock products and even brought some to DieCon. Both of their votes were cast for Dylan’s fantastic looking ship and crew.
Best Sportsmanship – Mike C
Mike left an impression on his opponents and received votes from 2 of them toward the best sportsmanship award. Mike also generously donated some exclusive SoP 2026 laser cut acrylic measuring tools towards the prize pool.
Prize Support
We also had plenty of prize support thanks to Firelock Games, DieCon, Things From the Basement, Patrick Miniatures, NightHowlDesign (Mike C), and myself.
I failed to take a final picture of my Treasure Chest of Prizes, but here is an earlier picture of it. I opted to let players choose one item in order that they placed so there was some agency in what was being selected. Firelock also donated some individual models that I mixed with last year’s SoP OPK models to give out as attendance prizes. I used three 2026 SoP OPK model sets to give away with the medals provided by DieCon. Dylan D was nice enough to give them to other players since he already possessed the models.
Managing the Tournament
This was my first time running an official tournament. I managed to keep to the tournament schedule. Since it was a smaller tournament, I was able to log the games and get round pairings out quickly between rounds. If you would like to check out my experience of the weekend check out my post on the Blunder & Peril blog.
Final Thoughts
There are definitely things I would like to improve on for my write ups regarding future tournaments such as keeping track of lists (rather than checking them and forgetting what people played weeks later.)
At 200 points, lists with muskets and swivels shined and got to the top table in round 3. We had a diverse range of players from new players who only played one game before the tournament to seasoned players. There was a chance I was going to play in the tournament before it filled, but it was probably best that I could run around with my rulebook as the TO and answer questions.
If you couldn’t make it to DieCon this year, we will be back next year. My plan is to run a 250 point sea tournament and work with my local play group to determine what else we can bring to the convention. Be on the lookout for posts regarding DieCon 27 which is scheduled for June 4th, 5th, and 6th 2027. This is one of the best ways to kick off the Summer of Plunder next year!
Report by Brendan Kampwerth