Roc Brasiliano – Rise of the Buccaneers Blood & Plunder Mini Preview

/ josephforster86

Last Updated on September 3, 2026

The Rise of the Buccaneers: Jamaica/Wave 2 Kickstarter project included a bunch of unique sculpts for some of the characters coming out in the new expansion book. We’ve already looked at Jelles de Lecat, Christopher Myngs, Young Henry Morgan. and Bartolomeu Português, Today we get a look at the new model for the long-awaited Roc Brasiliano Buccaneer Commander.

Let’s check out the model, the stats, and Factions Captain Rocky can command.

Who Was Roc Brasiliano?

Well, for starters, his name is a little tricky. He can appear under many names or variations:

  • Roc Brasiliano
  • Roche Braziliano
  • Rock the Brazilian
  • Captain Rocky
  • Gerrit Gerritszoon 

Roc Brasiliano was a buccaneer captain of Dutch origin who sailed out of Jamaica during the 1650-1670’s. Most of our information on Brasiliano comes from The Buccaneers of America, and Exquemelin paints him as a violent brawler who loves to drink.

“He had no self-control at all but behaved as if possessed by a sullen fury. When he was drunk, he would roam the town like a madman. The first person he came across he would chop off his arm or leg, without anyone daring to intervene, for he was like a maniac. He perpetrated the greatest atrocities possible against the Spaniards. Some of them he tied or spitted on wooden stakes, and roasted them alive between two fires, like killing a pig = and all because they refused to show him the road to the hog-yards he wanted to plunder.

He had a fairly long career, spending time in Brasil, then “privateering” out of Jamaica for years, along with other buccaneer greats including L’Olonnais and Henry Morgan.

The Buccaneers of America contains a portrait of Roc which is the basis for Firelock’s new Blood & Plunder model. The first version of the model was a direct copy of the portrait, but, while being very accurate and historically satisfying, it wasn’t a great pose for leading a force on the game table, so they made a new pose, featuring the bottle.

One of the several notable adventures Exquemelin presents in The Buccaneers of America is a story of Roc Brasiliano being stranded after the breaking of his ship. A unit of Spanish cavalry find him and try to eliminate his weary band of buccaneers, but his leadership holds them together and they coolly shoot shoot them down as they charge over and over again.

It’s a great story from Exquemelin, and it is featured as a historical scenario in The Rise of the Buccaneers: Jamaica expansion.

Brasiliano was captured by the Spanish, taken to Spain, somehow returned to the Caribbean and continued to raid the Spanish with more relish and cruelty than ever!

Roc Brasiliano Sculpt

Here’s three versions of Roc as he was refined over several months.

Version 1

I requested doing his sculpt as much like the portrait as possible. Daniel did a great job! But after painting it and using him on the table, I requested an alternate version that had some more presence on the board.

Version 2

So Daniel opened up the pose a bit more.

Version 3

And added a bottle.

Version 4

And make the bottle more period appropriate.

The face and hair are most distinctive from the portrait.

Painting Roc Brasiliano

I painted up the v1 version using the colors used in the the colorized portrait in The Buccaneers of America.

I used the great red from the Monument Hobbies Blood & Plunder paint set for his shirt.

I switched up my paint scheme for the second version, moving the red down to his trousers, and lightening up the shirt to a white. I kept the funky blue neck tie.

His curly hair is one of his defining features, and I have started to consistently use Speed/Contrast Paints on hair with good texture like this. It comes out really great and takes a lot less time! Citadel Snakebite Leather (on both models)!

The bottle was a fun little project to bring to life.

Two colors of green with a gloss varnish over the top.

Preview of Roc Brasiliano’s Commander Rules

Roc is a buccaneer commander with some really great Special Rules, but his love of the bottle make him less reliable!

WIP spread for Roc Brasiliano in RotB. Not final


Roc Brasiliano – 23pts

May Lead: Early English Buccaneers, Brethren of the Coast, or Boekaniers
Main Weapons: Buccaneer Gun or Brace of Pistols and Standard Melee Weapon. 
Sidearm: Pistol if armed with Buccaneer Gun
Command Range: 12”
Command Points: 2
Special Rules: Cold Blooded, Lead by Example, Unwavering, and Very Inspiring
Extra Abilities: Heavy Drinker – Before the game begins, roll a single d10. On a result of a 5+, apply the Drunk scenario rule to Roc Brasiliano’s unit (apply a bonus of -1 to Resolve and all Fight Tests and a penalty of +1 to all other Tests), and Roc Brasiliano gains the Terror Special rule.
This Commander may join Support units as his Command Unit as long as that unit is Dutch.

Roc is really a mixed bag! He has some awesome Special Rules, but the possibility of him being Drunk is rather unpleasant. Let’s look at these rules:

  • Cold Blooded
    • This gives his unit Ruthless and all tests done by other units using his Command Points get Ruthless. This is a great offensive rule, and it’s actually helped by having the Drunk rule, since his Resolve will be better if he’s drunk.
    • Lead by Example
      • This is a common buccaneer commander rule, but can be hard to trigger. But again, if he’s Drunk, his unit will be pretty good in melee, which is the easiest context to actually trigger this ability.
    • Unwavering
      • This rule let his unit drop a Fatigue if he activates while Shaken, and that can bring him below 3 Fatigue and help him get back into the game faster. Again, not super commonly triggered, but really helps when it does happen!
    • Very Inspiring
      • This is gold. Everyone loves Very Inspiring. Re roll all failed dice when making Rally attempts anywhere within this Commander’s Command Range.
    • Terror
      • If Roc ends up Drunk, he gains the Terror rule which can put early Fatigue on his enemies which makes it that much easier to trigger the benefit from Cold Blooded.

His extra abilities let him be more flexible in what unit he joins at the start of the game, with a special affinity for Dutch units. The Drunk thing is pretty rough, which makes his mid level cost make more sense.

The Drunk ability makes a unit very deadly in Melee, and very brave, but is bad for every other test. This isn’t usually great for a Buccaneer Commander, especially if he’s connected to a unit that leans into musketry. But if you add him to a unit of melee specialists like Enter Ploeg, or Forlorn Hope, he can get some crazy stats. Start with 4 Resolve and then bring it down to 3 while Drunk! Not necessarily great, with all the other skill penalties, but it’s kind of unheard of!

Roc Brasiliano has 3 factions available for him to lead:

One English, one Unaligned and one Dutch faction, making him useful for many Blood & Plunder players.

Roc gets his own scenario in The Rise of the Buccaneers: Jamaica, featuring his clash with Spanish Cavalry on the beach.

In this scenario the small band of exhausted Buccaneers have to slowly move off the board while being continually harassed by Spanish riders.

Final Thoughts

Roc is a big name in the buccaneering world and it’s great to have him in Blood & Plunder! It will be interesting if players will embrace his unpredictability in his alcoholism! He’ll be a great commander when he’s not drunk! And a very aggressive commander when he is!

This Rise of the Buccaneers project is coming with a record number of unique commander sculpts. Roc joins his legendary buddies Captain Yellows, Christopher Myngs, Juan de Serras (preview coming), Bartolomeu Portugues, and Cristobal Arnaldo de Issasi (also coming soon).

Roc Brasiliano (WIP), Bartolomeu Português, Jelles de Lecat and Christopher Myngs

We don’t know the if the original Roc sculpt will be released in any capacity at the moment. The new sculpt is a lot better but it is kind of cool to have it mirror the portrait so well.

What do you think of the new Roc Brasiliano commander model and profile? Will he make it on to the deck of your new Corbeta when it’s delivered?

Roc Brasiliano is included in The Rise of Buccaneers: Jamaica expansion book that will release with the Wave 2 Blood & Plunder Kickstarter which is scheduled to deliver near the end of 2026.

Thank you to Firelock Games for the the preview mini and permission to share it here on Blood & Pigment.

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