The Native American factions are often overshadowed by the Pirate and European style forces, but Factions like the Caribbean Tribes are both enjoyable and powerful as a competitive army in Blood & Plunder.

In this article we will go over the details of the “catch all” Caribbean Tribes Faction found in the No Peace Beyond the Line expansion book, and provide some advice on how to play this Native faction well.

Introduction

Faction Special Rules

The Caribbean Tribes have several overarching Special Rules, but before we look at those, we need to do a quick review of the rules and limitations that are applied to all the Native Americans in No Peace Beyond the Line.

Native American Special Rule from No Peace Beyond the Line

• This force cannot include size 2 or larger ships.
  • At sea you are limited to Size 1 ship, also known as Boats within the game: Canoa, Birchbark Canoe, Longboat and Piragua. This changes your sea game when compared with other standard European factions within Blood & Plunder. It is a slight disadvantage but can be worked around.
• This force cannot include Artillery.
  • This again changes how you approach force building for the Native factions, but it obviously just makes sense!
• All ships in this force gain the Paddles Trait.
  • The Paddles ship trait lets you gain many of the advantages of having your units assigned to the Sweeps without actually devoting your units to that task. Your boats can move at speed equal to your Sweeps value -1 and still be available to Shoot, Reload and do all normal actions. This is a very useful ability.
• If this force is the attacker in a scenario, it may deploy half of its units (round down) following the Lay in Wait scenario rule.
  • This is a useful rule while playing a game on land. The Native Factions don’t have a lot of bonuses for taking the role of Attacker, but if you do manage to be on the offense, you can deploy some of your units outside your normal deployment zone, potentially taking control of key parts of the board before the game starts. But be careful to not isolate important units that can be swarmed by several enemy units without support from your other units. This ability has to be used with care or it can become a double edged sword.

Caribbean Tribes Faction Rules

All units in the Caribbean Tribes Faction get 3 additional Special Rules applied to them, then units have rare option to purchase the special Poisoned Arrows equipment.

The Special Rules granted to all units withing the Faction are Skirmishers, Rain of Arrows, and The Sound of Thunder.

Poisoned Arrows

Let’s talk about the Poisoned Arrows equipment first because it’s one of your best tools to gain the advantage while using this Faction. You can pay +3 points to add this equipment to a unit armed with bows. This equipment forces your targets to re-roll one successful die on the resulting Fatigue Test after your unit attacks. This essentially increases your Fatigue output which may sound insignificant, but its actually very powerful!

Poisoned Arrows can quickly grind down opposing units into a mire of Fatigue that is hard to ever recover from. While this equipment does cost 3 points per unit, you really should purchase it for every single unit that has bows in your force. It is well worth it.

Rain of Arrows

[WARNING: extreme nerdiness ahead]

This is an interesting rule that gives you additional potential killing power with bows. Units in the Caribbean Tribes Faction can spend two actions while performing a Shoot test to re-roll all failed dice while shooting with bows. This can help dump a bunch of hits all at the same time which can be helpful in actually getting some kills with the less lethal archery that the Faction has to rely on so much. But this needs to be considered carefully for optimal use, especially in conjunction with the Poisoned Arrows rules.

Poisoned Arrows forces the target to re-roll one successful die in their Fatigue Test. This gives you an incentive to take 2 Shoot actions instead of bundling them together with Rain of Arrows since it has a two Shoots with 2 potential re-rolls has considerably more Fatigue output that one big attack. But using two Shoot actions on one activation will give your unit 1 Fatigue as well!

Shooting twice is a double edged sword, harming your unit a little bit, but potentially dropping double the Fatigue on an enemy unit. If you need to really slow an enemy unit with Fatigue, you might want to shoot twice instead of using Rain of Arrows. It multiplies the power of Poisoned Arrows.

But if you want to avoid gaining Fatigue on your own unit, and potentially get more kills, the Rain of Arrows can be a good option. I haven’t math-hammered this out, but in my experience, the large attacks scoring more hits all in one action tends to result in more actual kills. This is partly psychological and partly to do with how the Fortune mechanic works within Blood & Plunder.

When you’re shooting with bows in Blood & Plunder, the target receives a -3 bonus to their Shoot Save. If the target is in the open, you can still get significant numbers of kills (7 Shoot Save, +1 for being in the open, -3 for Bows = 5+ Save leaving you 40% kills). But if the target is in Cover or Hard Cover, or benefitting from the Elusive ability while in Cover, their successful Save often goes down to 3 or even 2 (7 Shoot Save, -1 Hard Cover, -3 for Bows = 3 Save resulting in only 20% of your hits resulting in kills). This is pretty much always the case when playing at sea since most ships grant Hard Cover. The most dreaded combo is the blasted French Canadians with 6 Shoot Save and Elusive! Saving on 2’s!

So getting kills with bows is hard. How does Rain of Arrows help? If my Archers score three hits and the target is saving on 3’s, there’s a high probability they won’t actually take any casualties. And if they do fail one, or even 2 Saves, they can spend a Fortune and have a higher than 50% possibility of taking no casualties. But if I lump those two Shoots together and score 5-6 hits at once, my opponent is going to have to roll all those Saves at once. And with more dice, they are going to be more OK with failing 1 or 2 results. And they know if they re-roll with a Fortune, they’re still very likely to lose one or two models. They can’t be as surgical with their Fortune spending to improve their Shoot Saves.

Suffice to say, Poisoned Arrows are good, Rain of Arrows is helpful. There are subtleties to how they interact. You can change your use of them depending on the circumstance and opponent.

Skirmishers

Finally, all units in the Caribbean Tribes gain the Skirmishers Special Rule. This ability grants a free move back to starting position if you have charged into melee, or performed a combined Move/Shoot action while activated on a Spade or Heart.

This is another subtle rule, but can be used to very good effect in several circumstances.

First, in the melee context, it can be used to strike something in melee, then leave the melee, which is always good for Natives since they have pretty terrible Fight Save numbers. This can get you out of melee, or just get you back to safety by increasing distance or getting you back to cover so you are safer from enemy counterstrikes.

It can also be used to move out from behind a piece of blocking terrain, shoot, then move back out of line of sight of the enemy so they can’t even see you! This works really well on units with bows since they don’t have to spend valuable Actions reloading. IT also combines really well with other Native abilities like Quick and Scouts. A unit like Warriors (with Bows) and Young Warriors with the Quick rule can accomplish three actions on a Spade (free Move, Shoot, free Move) while most European units would only get one. A very valuable rule that can cause frustration for your opponent and catch them off guard.

Between Poisoned Arrows for extra Fatigue, Rain of Arrows for extra killing power, and Skirmishers for extra mobility, the Caribbean Tribes have lots of powerful options. Now let’s look at the last “Special Rule,” The Sound of Thunder. This is the Faction’s real weakness.

The Sound of Thunder

This rule forces your units to roll one additional d10 when performing Fatigue tests after being hit by gunpowder weapons. This is terrible. There’s no sugarcoating it. Considering the majority of your units have a 6 Resolve, this results in another half of a point of Fatigue on your units after every attack. This is how you pay for all those great rules we’ve already looked at!

There are ways to try to play around this. First, try not to get shot.

Try to neutralize enemy units that prove a real threat with lots of Fatigue so they might have to forfeit that nasty Shoot they’re about to take.

Second, build some Fatigue mitigation into your Force. Rules like Inspiring, Very Inspiring, and Tough, are all helpful. A Grizzled Veteran is a fantastic Character in this Faction. The Savvy rule, available on select Native Commanders removes The Sound of Thunder from the Commander’s unit.

There are ways to work around this rule to some extent, but a good opponent can still do some cruel things to you if they know how to exploit The Sound of Thunder.

Unit Selection

The Caribbean Tribes Faction has 3 options for Core units and 2 for Support.

Core Units

Core units for the Caribbean Tribes include Warrior Archers (premier archer unit), Warriors (premier melee unit) and Young Warriors (budget unit).

Warrior Archers

This unit, combined with the Faction’s Poisoned Arrows and Rain of Arrows make this faction one of the best archery forces in the game. The Warrior Archer has a fantastic Shoot Skill of 5, letting him land hits from very long ranges, and score a high percentage of hits at closer range. Every Caribbean Tribes force should rely on the Warrior Archer with Poisoned Arrows as a large part of the core of their force.

They are great for all ranged combat. The Hidden rule makes them harder to hit at longer ranges, and the Evade rule is really helpful for keeping them out of melee where their 8 Fight Save makes them die really quickly.

The option to take a Musket Sidearm is amazing as well, letting you get one really accurate and deadly shot in when it really counts.

This unit is a great target for your Clubs from your activation hand. You can Move, then use that double action Rain of Arrows attack, dropping a bunch of hits on an enemy unit, then forcing them to take extra Fatigue after the attack through Poison.

Let’s do a little hypothetical situation just to math out their power in ideal circumstances (MORE EXTREME NERDINESS):

• 8 Warrior Archers start their Club activation 18″ away from their enemies, the French Flibustiers.
• They move up 4″ through the woods, ending in Cover.
• They spend two actions to Shoot using Rain of Arrows with a target number of 8. They will average 4.08 successes ([8x.3=2.4] + [5.6x.3=1.68] = 4.08).
• Flibustiers have Cover so they are saving on 7-3=4’s. They will lose an average of 1.22 models. If they lose two, they’re likely to spend a Fortune to re-roll. So let’s say thy only lose 1.
• They roll 2 Fatigue dice at 5 Resolve. That would normally result in .8 Fatigue, but with Poisoned Arrows, that goes up to 1.28. AND they can’t re-roll poor results on their Fatigue tests because the Poisoned Arrows force the re-roll and no die can be re-rolled more than once!

FINAL RESULT FOR WARRIOR ARCHERS VS FLIBUSTIERS – 1.22 dead Flibustiers and ~1.28 Fatigue on the enemy unit.

Now it’s time to flip the tables and have the Flibustiers target the Warrior Archers:

• 8 Flibustiers starts 18″ from their enemies, the Warrior Archer.
• They can’t shoot from 18″ since Hidden adds a penalty and prohibits any Extended Range shenanigans.
• Flibustiers move up 3″ and then shoot at the Warrior Archers. Being over 12″, they take the +1 penalty on their shoot, combined with 3 penalty for their Range and their target number is 10.
• They score .8 hits on the Warrior Archers.
• Warrior Archers save on 6’s, taking an average of .4 casualties.
• It’s hard to math out how many Fatigue dice you’ll throw here because it will be 0 if zero hits and 2 if there is one hit and they are all saved, and 3 dice if one hit gets through. Let’s average that out to 1.66 Fatigue dice for the Attack, realizing that is a swingy number.
• 1.6 Fatigue dice results in .83 Fatigue incoming on the Warrior Archers.
• Now the Flibustiers can use their last action to reload, but they still have 1 Reload to remove before they perform a full Shoot action while the Warrior Archers are not bothered with Reloads.

FINAL RESULT FOR FLIBUSTERS VS WARRIOR ARCHERS- .4 dead Warrior Archers and something like .83. Fatigue

This is kind of the best case scenario against a “standard” unit like the Flibustier, but you can see how it can stack up and become frustrating for your enemy. This math becomes even better against any unit that has a 7 Shoot since they just can’t attack you at distances of more than 12″ while you are scoring significant numbers of hits. And we didn’t even math in the Great Warrior/War Captains buff that is readily available from Commanders within the Faction!

Warrior Archers are a great ranged unit, especially when combined with all the special rules available to the Caribbean Tribes. Pay the 5pts, pay the 3pts for Poison and pay the 4pts for the Sidearm Musket. It’s all worth it if used carefully.

Warriors

OK I already went crazy talking about how good the Warrior Archer is. I could do the same with Warriors, but for totally different reasons. Theses guys are melee monsters. Their weaponry is excellent with either Heavy Melee Weapons (penalty to the enemy’s Fight Save) or the superior Thrown Weapons (re-roll all fails on the Fight during a Charge), they are going to hit hard when they come into melee. And they are super mobile, which is the other main thing you need out of a melee unit.

With Quick (free Move on a Spade), they can move a long ways on a high initiative card. They have the option to upgrade to Veteran which would grant them an additional Action on a Spade. Free Move plus 2 actions on a Spade gives you a threat range of 12″ which can be extended again by adding a Commander or Officer with a Command Point.

Warriors are fast, relatively cheap, and can hit really hard in melee. And they have Skirmishers for extra movement options after the Charge is accomplished. They are fantastic at following up on the Warrior Archers after they dump some Fatigue on a unit. Scoot across the board on a Spade and delete that poisoned unit!

With the option of taking a Musket Sidearm or a Bows for some ranged defense or offensive options, the Warrior unit is not only near the top of his class in the melee department, but he is very customizable.

An amazing unit. I recommend taking at least one murderous unit of Warriors in pretty much any land force of the Caribbean Tribes if you want to do any real decisive melee work.

Young Warriors

The Young Warrior unit is your multipurpose budget unit within the faction. Armed with a Bow and having the Quick Special Rule along with the Skirmishers rule from the faction, this unit can do some good work for you but it isn’t as specialized as the Warrior Archers or Warriors.

You are limited to the number of Young Warrior units by the Support: Warriors, Warrior Archers, and Warrior Musketeers rule. You have to have a 1:1 ratio of the more experienced units with these young guys.

You can use the Young Warrior as a cheaper ranged unit or you can swap out bows for Thrown Weapons and they can be a cheaper melee option. Or you can have them armed wit both and they can be a multipurpose unit. But do watch your cost. If you add Poisoned Arrow and Thrown Weapons, you edging up against 5pts per model on an Inexperienced unit!

The Resolve of 5 is the Young Warriors’ real standout stat with most Natives units sitting at 6 Resolve. It’s a little easier to keep Fatigue of the Young Warriors.

Support Units

The Caribbean Tribes have two options for Support Units: the multipurpose African Warrior and the Warrior Musketeer.

Warrior Musketeer

Coming in a 4pts each, the Warrior Musketeer is a perplexing unit. With a good Shoot Skill and Save and several solid rules, it looks pretty decent. But the real killer is the Slow Reload. Whenever this unit first fires their muskets, they get an additional Reload Marker. Removing 3 Reloads between each Shoot is pretty rough.

Combine that with Sound of Thunder and this unit can slow to the speed of molasses. They can benefit from the Skirmishers ability from the faction, layered on top of their Hidden, Scouts, and Evade abilities. But they are still a slow shooting unit, especially when compared to the units with Bows that never reload!

But, on the other hand, it can be really useful to have a unit that’s more likely to get some kills. It’s difficult to actually take down an entire unit with only arrows. I find I include a unit of Warrior Musketeers in about half of my Caribbean Tribe forces, but hardly ever more than one unit.

Upgrading to Veteran can help with action management, and having a Command Point from a Commander or Officer dedicated to the unit every turn can help keep up their rate of fire, but it’s still a struggle.

I find this unit slightly more manageable at sea where they don’t have to spend actions moving, and I need the better killing power of the Musket with all my enemies behind Hard Cover on a ship.

African Warriors

This unit has many of the positive strengths of each of the previously discussed units all balled into one, more expensive unit. At 6pts for a Trained unit, you’re paying a premium. But you have a full bundle of Special Rules, a Bow with no reloads, a 5 Resolve to keep Fatigue to a minimum and a respectable Fight Save which you won’t find on any other unit in the Faction.

Counting the rules granted by the faction, the African Warriors’ Special Rules include:

• Quick
• Elusive
• Skimishers
• Scouts
• Rain of Arrows
• The Sound of Thunder
• Possibly Poisoned Arrows

I usually prefer to utilize the Warrior Archers as my Ranged unit and the Warriors as my powerful melee unit. This saves you some points in force building, but there could be an argument for using the African Warriors as a powerful multipurpose unit. You just have to work hard to make those points worth it.

Another subtle difference here is the African warriors has the Elusive rule (bonus of -1 to their Shoot Save while in Cover) instead of the Hidden rule we discussed previously. The advantage of Elusive here is that they can benefit from that bonus at any range while Hidden turns of at <12″. This equips them to move clover and into melee range while still having a good possibility of surviving ranged attacks.

Commanders for the Caribbean Tribes

The Caribbean Tribes currently have 1 Historical, 3 Southern Tribes and 3 Standard Native Commander options.

Generic Native American Commanders

These may be going away as options at some point, but the Southern Tribes Commanders found in No Peace Beyond the Line offer the Caribbean Tribes some great options.

Southern Tribes Commanders

The Untested Southern Tribes Commander comes in at a bargain for 0 points since he carries the Great Warrior ability. We haven’t discussed this rule yet, but it is another really strong ability that is kind of unique to the Native Factions in Blood & Plunder.

You can pay 1pt per model to upgrade the Commander’s unit to War Captains which lets them apply a -1 bonus to any one Test, once per turn. It’s an amazing ability that proves to be super flexible over the course of the game. Usually you apply it to an offensive Shoot or Fight test, but it could be applied to a Save test, an important Grapple attempt, or even a Set Fire action that could be important in a scenario. Great Warrior costs 1pt per model, but it’s worth it in nearly every situation.

The Experienced Southern Tribes Commander expands the Command Range up to 8″ which is much more functional on both land and sea, and adds the ever-valuable Inspiring ability and another Command Point. Lots of value here, especially as the Inspiring ability isn’t available to the Standard Native Commanders we will look at next.

Coming in at 25 points, the Seasoned Southern Tribes Commander is taking a pretty big bite out of your total number of points you have for your force, but he adds the Savvy ability which entirely negates both The Sound of Thunder ability and the Slow Reload ability. For this Faction, there are no Core units that have Slow Reload so the removal of The Sound of Thunder is our main benefit here. And that is a huge benefit! Removing that penalty on your Commander’s unit is huge. All of the sudden they become much more reliable and they become less of a tempting target for your enemy. The 12″ Command Range is very valuable as well.

Standard Native Commanders

The “Standard Commanders” are published in the Raise the Black expansion (and possible other reprinted expansions when you’re reading this) and they allow you to customize your Commander by selecting Special Rules from a unique list of options for each Nation.

The free commander has 1 Command Point, 4″ Command Range and no Special rules. Nothing super special here.

The 10pt Experienced Commander doubles both the range and number of Command Points, and gets to hand pick a Special Rules from the list available to the Natives.

These 8 options offer a lot flexibility.

• Commodore is very helpful when trying to manage a fleet of boats at sea.
• Expert Ambushers lets your units move while prone (not usually very helpful) and adds Hard Chargers to any units within his Command Range. Great way to increase your melee power if you want to focus on that part of the game.
• Great Warrior is an amazing all-round ability but costs extra points.
• Guerilla Commander gives the Skirmishers ability to his units, but that is redundant in this force.
• Savvy is an excellent choice for nullifying that horrible The Sound of Thunder rule that makes your units take so much Fatigue.
• Quick can help your Commander’s unit travel around the board much faster, especially if the unit is made up of Veterans, but it doesn’t benefit the entire force like many of the other options.
• Well-Equipped cancels the Poorly Equipped rule, but you won’t see that rule on any units in this Faction so it’s not a great choice in the Caribbean Tribes.
• Lead by Example lets you remove a point of Fatigue from every unit in your force after your Commander’s unit eliminates an enemy unit. It can be hard to trigger so it’s not a popular choice, but if you were leaning into melee, attaching your Commander to a unit of War Captain Warriors with Thrown Weapons, your chances of eliminating an enemy unit go way up!

The Great Warrior is my favorite of all the options, with Savvy, Expert Ambushers, and Lead by Example being my other top choices for this faction.

But the strength of these Standard Commanders lies in the ability to customize them to your specific force and even the Scenario that you might be planning for.

My top choice for a Caribbean Tribes force would be the Seasoned Commander with Great Warrior and Savvy.

Historical Commander

The Caribbean Tribes Faction has one Historical Commander and he changes up the Faction in a major way!

King Oldman

King Oldman changes up the Caribbean Tribes by bringing in Warrior Musketeers as Core units! Warrior Musketeers aren’t a top notch unit, but when combined with his other rule, Buccaneer Tactics, they get a little better. Buccaneer Tactics gives all his units Marksmen and Fast Reload. This gives us the entertaining combo of both Fast Reload (free Reload action when activated on a Spade) and Slow Reload (extra Reload token every time you shoot) on the same unit! You’re still reloading pretty slowly, even with the Fast Reload ability. There’s a tempting combo with the Great Warrior and Marksmen ability stacking to bring your starting Shoot skill down to 4’s which shooting your muskets, but then it takes so long to reload!

King Oldman’s cost has gone up and down a couple times through Errata, but the 3 Command Points are always good, especially when combined with Inspiring, even if you don’t decide to focus on musketry.

Tips & Tactics for Playing the Caribbean Tribes

Lean into the board control tactic using lots of Poisoned Arrows. That can open up opportunities to use a strong melee unit like Warriors to take out units that are helpless after a buildup of Fatigue.

Utilize cover and terrain that blocks line of sight to avoid getting hit too many times by gunpowder weapons that will trigger The Sound of Thunder. You really need to conserve your models, because you will likely be outnumbered on most tables. The units aren’t cheap in this Faction.

While Bows and Arrows are central to the Faction, don’t rely on them alone to win you a game. You will likely need something with more killing power to actually take models off the board. This can take the form of melee-focused Warriors, Musket Sidearms on all your Warrior Archers, a multipurpose units like African Warriors, Warrior Musketeers, or Young Warriors with Thrown Weapons used to attack weak units.

Natives are best on land, but they can function at sea as well, and the Caribbean Tribes are one of the better options. Since they can’t use size 2+ ships, you have to spread out into several Canoas and Piraguas. But the delightfully diabolical part of playing the Caribbean Tribes at sea is the Poisoned Arrows are even more effective when targeting a deck with 2 units in it. You have to split the hits, then both units have to take a Fatigue Test, and both units have to potentially re-roll a successful result!

At sea you have a couple choices in how you build your force. You can split into several equally valuable Canoas so there’s no clear target for the enemy to focus on. Or you can load up a Piragua with your Command Unit with that Great Warrior trait and try to snipe away from a safe distance while some less valuable units harass from Canoas. I like to throw a Captured Merchant into my Command Unit to help keep those high value units safe.

Either way, the most effective strategy is usually to just keep shooting volley upon volley of Poisoned Arrows into the enemy ship until most of their time is spent Rallying and Standing! Having a unit of Warriors to use as a boarding threat is usually a good option.

The “Canoe Assault Expert” character found in Raise the Black can be a valuable addition to your Caribbean Tribes sea force as he increases the speed of some of your boats while using the Paddles trait.

You really need to be careful of avoiding getting your boats rammed in sea games. You can easily lose more men to destroyed boats that attacks if you aren’t careful. Grapeshot is another thing to look out for in sea games. It can be devastating. Target the crew and do all you can to suppress them so they can’t get their shot off.

Caribbean Tribes Force List Examples

100pt Native Starter Box Caribbean Tribes

Designed to be built with the resin starter box for the Caribbean Natives, this 99pt Force has two solid units with Bows and Poisoned Arrows, plus a unit of Veteran Warrior Musketeers. Simple, and a great place to start with the Caribbean Tribes.

150pt Land Force

Nothing fancy here but it attempts to maximize model count and a low point level, so some of the bells and whistles have been left off. One strong unit of Warrior Archers with the Commander and Great Warrior and a Musket Sidearm. Tow more units utilizing Poisoned Arrows in the Young Warriors and Warrior Archers, and then a final unit of Veteran Warrior Musketeers. Light on melee, strong at shooting from a distance.

200pt Plastic Caribbean Natives Force Box

This Force can easily be made with the more affordable Caribbean Native box that includes 5 Caribbean Native Sprues and a resin Commander sprue.

This force has all the bells and whistles! With Savvy and Great Warrior on the Commander on either the Warrior Archers or Warriors, that unit will be very dangerous. The Warriors and Warrior Musketeers are upgraded to Veteran, three units have Poisoned Arrows and three units have Sidearm Muskets. The Grizzled Veteran provides some support with Tough, Battle Hardened (excellent on the Warriors) and the extra Command Point to Rally.

With the veterancy upgrades, all the units can utilize the Skirmishers ability at some level.

250pt King Oldman Muskets

This list attempts to capitalize on King Oldman’s special rules by focusing on Musketry.

Oldman goes with the unit of 11 Veteran Musketeers. Between the Hidden rule and the Captured Merchant, it will very difficult for most units to target this killer unit from more than 12″ away. And those Musketeers can combo the Great Warrior and Marksmen ability if they want for a super accurate shot!

I believe the Warrior Archers could utilize the Marksmen ability granted by Oldman’s Buccaneer Tactics to buff their one shot with their Musket Sidearms.

250 Sea Caribbean Tribes

Native Americans don’t make many appearances in sea tournaments, but if you were to take this faction to a tournament, this kind of force might have a chance.

The Piragua contains the Command Unit of 8 Warrior Archers with the War Captains upgrade and the Captured Merchant, along with the with Veteran Musketeers. You can put the Grizzled Veteran wherever feels most useful, but I would put it with the Warrior Musketeers so it gives the Musketeers Tough and he’s around to rally the Command unit, OR put him with the Young Warriors with the 5 Resolve so Tough will have a better chance of succeeding. And if he’s close to another canoa out in the front, he can support the troops that will be taking the most damage.

The unit of Warriors is there for a strong boarding party if you get the chance, but they have Bows with Poisoned Arrows to they can continue to shoot while they wait for their chance to board.

Buying into the Caribbean Tribes

It’s easy to buy into the Caribbean Tribes. Both the deluxe resin Native American Nationality Box (25 minis) and the Caribbean Natives Army Box (31 Plastic models) are great options for getting you all set up. The resin set is less flexible as all the models are set in their poses and equipment, but they are less work with no assembly. The plastic sets are very flexible and you can create your force with the appropriate number of archers, musketeers, and melee units, but you have to put in some hard work in assembly. The multi-part plastic minis are considerably cheaper, but they are not the easiest to assemble.

Once you buy into the Caribbean Tribes, you can easily use the same models for Kalinago, South American Tribes, Darien, and Golden Island Tribe as well. Great value!

Final Thoughts

The Caribbean Tribes faction is a great example of well-designed game design within Blood & Plunder. They have some unique and strong abilities, but they are counterbalanced by real weaknesses.

It might take a few plays to start to appreciate and use their strengths well. Once you appreciate what they can do, you might win some games really decisively. And then, your opponent will start to understand your weaknesses and try to exploit them. Then the gaming gets good when you both understand the strengths and weaknesses of what you have on the table.

If you want to play some Caribbean style Native Americans in Blood & Plunder, the Caribbean Tribes are a great option. Combining Rain of Arrows with Poisoned Arrows and Skirmishers gives them some of the very strongest archery in the entire game.

The Kalinago/Caribs faction is very similar but has the Ruthless perk, which is really strong. But they lose the Rain of Arrows and Skirmishers which just changes how they play a bit.

The South American Tribes are another really good similar option, and they are almost too powerful as they have the option for Poisoned Arrows but lake the penalty of The Sound of Thunder. If you want to crush souls with Fatigue, South American Tribes are so brutal.

Additional Recommended Reading

• South American Tribes Faction Review
• Kalingo/Caribs Faction Review
• Young Warriors Unit Overview
• Search and Recover at Sea Battle Report featuring Caribbean Tribes
• Search and Recover on Land Battle Report featuring Caribbean Tribes
• Painting African Warriors Guide
• Wave 2 Caribbean Native Miniature Showcase
• Nation American Nation and Faction Overview
• Booklist on the Caribbean Tribes before Columbus

Related Products

• Caribbean Natives Army Box
• Resin Caribbean Native Starter Box
• Native Category on Firelock Games’ Website
• No Peace Beyond the Line expansion book that contains the Caribbean Tribes Faction