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Yo Ho! More 'Blood & Plunder'!


About a week ago we asked Peter Megginson to reprise a Blood & Plunder game for some of those in the Scrum Club who were unable to play in our recent foray with these rules. Steve Braun and Josh O'Connor both have the summer months off from work and live close enough that they joined in for a rare weeknight wargame.

Peter had taken note of my earlier write-up in which I expressed a desire to try out the Blood & Plunder ship rules to see if I could appropriate and adapt them to the sword & planet skirmish game I'm working on that will feature lots of airship battles and boarding actions in the skies of Mars, so for this game he concocted a scenario that would allow us to do just that. Steve, Josh, and I each helmed a pirate ship sailing toward a Chinese fort full of spices we hoped to plunder before the other had the chance. Peter gamely played the Chinese spice hoarders.

One of the highlights this particular evening occurred by happenstance: Peter brought a shore mat but had forgotten to pack his ocean mat. This allowed me to offer up for use the combined shore-and-ocean mat I had commissioned shortly before the pandemic. It had yet to make it to the table for any gaming, so I was excited to see this hand-crafted mat in action.  

It was good fun, and the ship rules would work well enough transplanted to Mars with some streamlining and tweaking. I'll definitely look elsewhere for the skirmish rules, though: I want something that is focused more on man-to-man combats rather than unit-on-unit, which is how Blood & Plunder organizes its fights. I'm a little surprised that the rules eschew swashbuckling and derring-do in favor of the more abstract (and traditional) five-man squads being thrown into battle. The latter allows the game not to bog down, but it definitely feels less thematic.

Here are a few photos of the game, more to capture the spirit of the night than serve as an actual after-action report. My wife Ellen, our Scrum Club's official combat photographer, had the night off, so these photos are by me and Peter. (Click on any of them to enlarge.)

Blood & Plunder

Peter setting up the game and explaining the scenario. Peter and Steve both got in character with some piratical garb.

Josh (l) and Steve (r) setting up their ships.

The Chinese fort...

My ship and crew.

I played the French again, which gave me an excuse to shout out French clichés in a bad accent. "Sacre Bleu!"





Some Fistful of Kung Fu miniatures got press ganged into filling out the garrison.


My captain (red coat/yellow sash) on deck with his gnarly crew.

Steve and his ship lunging through the waves toward shore.



That textured terrain sure looked sweet.

Closing Thoughts and Parting Shots

I made a truce with Steve right from the start to not exchange cannon fire with him so that I could concentrate on getting to shore unmolested and attack the Chinese fort. He and Josh had no such agreement and spent much of the game blasting one another. I did eventually get to shore and started taking shots at the men in the fort, but the hour was late, and everybody had to start their treks home before we could lay proper siege to the fort. Ships move a bit slowly in Blood & Plunder, which makes sense in terms of keeping these vessels engaged with each other and not speeding off the play table. But my truce meant I was doing nothing but inching my way toward shore for most of the game, which was less than thrilling for me. Next time if I'm in a similar situation I'll just let loose with a fusillade from the start and let the chips fall where they may.

A special thanks to Peter for bringing all of his gear over for another great evening of gaming and holding our hands through the rules. I always appreciate it when somebody graces my table with all of their amazingly crafted figures and terrain, and Peter does it up right!


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Comments

  1. XanderJuly 30, 2021 at 6:42 PM

    Oh man, I would play your B&P Skyships of Mars game in a heartbeat! I would love to help playtest, if every you look for outside advice (I'm on the west coast, sadly!). You think it'll stay a homebrew game, or be something you might bring to Kickstarter or otherwise publish for reals?

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    Replies
    1. Joe ProcopioAugust 3, 2021 at 10:22 PM

      Thanks, Xander! I'll definitely post more about the planned Mars game here. I'm currently working on and playtesting a set of rules for a competitive dungeon crawler that I'd probably try to publish first, but if the Mars rules felt interesting and fresh enough, I'd be open to trying to publish those, too (and looking for playtesters when the time is right). Keep in touch!

      Delete
  2. caveadsum1471July 31, 2021 at 7:24 AM

    Great looking game and it's still fun shoving figures around the table in good company, even if you don't get to a conclusion I find! I have a possible pirate boat under way and might end up doing something along those lines,your matt looks ace and I am basing up some ancient (circa 1979!) Figures, painted by teenage me,repurposed for frostgrave!
    Best Iain

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    Replies
    1. Joe ProcopioAugust 3, 2021 at 10:27 PM

      Thanks, Iain. And sage observations, for sure: if the company is good, I can push around almost any figures and have an enjoyable time of it. That's great to hear about pulling out some of your older figures for Frostgrave. Hope you post about it on your blog! I, too, have had the itch to start painting some of the figures I bought in the early 1980s as a young teen...most of the sculpts still have much charm, even if the 25mm scale doesn't perfectly match up with the bulk of my collection any more.

      Delete

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