Jose de Zuniga Y La Cerda- Painted Blood & Plunder Miniature Showcase

Last Updated on July 2, 2026

Firelock Games released an organized play kit for this year’s Summer of Plunder campaign with 6 brand new sculpts for commander profiles in the Raise the Black expansion. Daniel and Emily really did a great job on these sculpts and we’d like to showcase the Spanish Commander, Jose de Zuniga Y La Cerda in this post.

Zuniga Model

This mini has some personality! He looks pretty pissed. And well he should. Zuniga was a competent commander stuck in a difficult situation trying to defend St. Augustine. We asked the sculptors to make him look frustrated and Daniel knocked it out of the park!

Who Was José de Zúñiga y la Cerda

Zuniga was a spanish noble and Field Marshall who served as governor in both Florida and Cartagena de Indias in Columbia during the early 18th century. He was governor of the Florida territory at a crucial moment when James Moore led a substantial British expedition down from Charles Town in an attempt to capture St. Augustine and remove that base of Spanish presence in the region.

Being a smart and competent commander, Zuniga prepared well and eventually repulsed the expedition but he had his share of difficulties and frustrations with his superiors (no support and not taking him seriously) and inferiors (poorly trained and incompetent troops).

Zuniga’s Bio and rules in *Raise the Black*

Before serving in the New World, Zuniga spent 27 years in the Spanish army in the Netherlands. During his Governorship of Florida he made upgrades to the Castillo, made efforts to make the surrounding mission system more defensible, and succeded in saving the town and fortress from the English attack in 1702. He was promoted to Governor of Cartagena de Indias in 1706, and finally returned to Spain in 1718.

His prudence, practicality, and insistence on having good intelligence and prepared defenses helped preserve the main Spanish outpost on the eastern seaboard during Queen Anne’s War.

You can get a good feel for Zuniga’s role and personality reading through accounts of the attack on St. Augustine in 1702. Some of his correspondence between him and his superiors is preserved and it is entertaining reading.

There is one instance where the Spanish forces in Castillo San Marcos have a chance to shoot at the English with their artillery, but the cannon crew are so incompetent that they are more of a danger to themselves and the other occupants of the fort than they are to the English. They overload the cannons so that the entire bore of the gun is filled with powder and shot and end up blowing up a gun, killing and wounding several Spaniards. Zuniga is just shuts down the whole operation and stops firing on the enemy.

Depictions of Zuniga

There are no period depictions of Zuniga that I am aware of.

Zuniga in Blood & Plunder

José de Zúñiga y la Cerda is a very interesting commander to work with in Blood & Plunder. He brings a lot of Special Rules to the table and they are all pretty unusual for a Spanish commander.

May lead Spanish Army or Reformed Spanish Militia (and upcoming Spanish City Garrison)
Main Weapons: Pistol and Standard Melee Weapon
Command Range: 16′
Command Points: 2
Special Rules: Strict, High Standing, Careful Planning, Superior Intelligence, and Castilian

Strict is the rule that catches most people’s eye since you can get a bonus to any Test using it. Very powerful for Grapeshot, or comboing with an Drilled/Expertly Drilled, Ruthless shot within the Spanish Army faction.

The Careful Planning rule only kicks in at the start of a game, but it forces the enemy to deploy half their force before you deploy any units. This gives you a potential advantage, especially if you combo it with the Lay in Wait ability that you get with the Reformed Spanish Militia.

Castilian is a good defensive rule that gives his men a bonus on their Resolve when Rallying if he’s in the same Fortification as them. He’s great within a fort, even a massive fort like Castillo San Marcos with that huge 16″ Command Range!

Painting Zuniga

When you’re looking to paint Spanish army uniforms, there are lots of options! Blue with red trim is a classic look, but more typical of the 1740’s. Purple is an interesting option that you don’t see a lot. I settled on white with red trim, to match some of the Soldados I painted several years ago.

I used primarily Citadel paints on this minis, starting with a light tan (Ushabti Bone) and layering up to lighter off whites.

I left the lapels on the coat a more pure white for a little variation.

For the reds I used Monument Hobbies Pro Acryl’s red from their Blood & Plunder Paint Set. I used Snakebite Leather contrast paint on his hair with a few gray streaks on the chin.

Dr. D’s Zuniga

Dr. D has been painting up these commanders from the Organized Play Kit and has donated an entire set to be given away during the Summer of Plunder! Check out his paint job on Zuniga.

More Painted Zuniga Models

Models painted by Josh S, Garret S and Ash R.

Zuniga Scenario in The Summer of Plunder

Each of the 6 Commanders from the Organized Play Kit gets featured in one of the scenarios in the kit. In this scenario, Zuniga is commanding a small detachment of soldiers in a sortie to destroy a couple building his besiegers have been using a cover while firing on his fort. Zuniga probably didn’t actually physically lead this sortie, but it was much easier to put into the OP Kit that a full scale defense of a Vauban fort.