Blood and Plunder Products Guide

Blood and Plunder from Firelock Games is a wargame set in the 17th-Century, with an upcoming expansion that moves the timeline to the 18th-Century. Following our Blood and Plunder review, we take a look at the different products available and detail the available expansions. For this article, we're going to focus on the products already out, and will update this article when the new Raise the Black products are available in retail.

This article forms part of our Nautical Tabletop Month that's running across all of November. We're going to look at different nautical wargames and board games, as well as interview developers about capturing the sea feel on the tabletop. We'll also look at nautical factions in popular wargames along with tabletop accessories that are available to keep your hobby ship-shape. You can see all the articles here on the hub. So come aboard as we set sail and celebrate all games nautical in nature.

You can buy all the Nautical Tabletop Month products from our tabletop sponsor, Firestorm Games.

Blood and Plunder Essentials

Blood and Plunder Rulebooks

Blood and Plunder has 2 rulebooks available. The core rules, and the No Peace Beyond the Line expansion. There is also a limited edition Collector's Edition that comes in a thematic leatherette-bound edition and contains both the core rules and No Peace Beyond the Line.

The Core Rules contains all the details needed to play, along with faction details for the English, French, Spanish and Unaligned forces. You can read more about the core rules in our Blood and Plunder review.

No Peace Beyond the Line includes a huge amount of content to expand Blood and Plunder games. It includes additional units for the English, French, and Spanish plus includes full forces for Dutch, Native Americans (Caribbean plus South and North), along with smaller factions like Sweedish-militia, Portuguese-Brazilian militia, and Scottish forces. It has additional characters, special rules, weapons, and equipment. The full catalog of ships in size order is a welcome addition and has ships from canoas to galleons. The book ends with details for running larger-scale battles and multiplayer games along with rules for a full campaign.

Dice

Blood and Plunder uses 10-sided dice for games and Firelock Games produce an awesome range of red blood and bone plunder dice if you want to keep your components in-theme. Otherwise, any D10 will do.

Blood and Plunder Activation Decks

Every Blood and Plunder player will need their own deck of playing cards. These are used for initiative and activation during the game. Firelock Games produce a range of faction themed activation decks, which include easy to decipher initiative values and the number of activations the card gives. So along with making your cards thematic to your chosen faction, they also speed up games. You can of course use any deck of playing cards and a quick-reference sheet for working out the values.

Tape Measure and Templates

To play Blood and Plunder, you'll need a tape measure to work out movement and ranges. Any tape measure will do. To make your life easier though, there is a Deluxe Template Set available with a Turning Gauge, Wind Direction Compass, Cohesion Templates, Breach Marker, Stink Pot Template, and Objective Markers.

Tokens and Markers

Fatigue is a big part of Blood and Plunder, along with reloading and other effects. You'll need some form of tokens or markers to track these effects, and anything can be used to track these. There are official Blood and Plunder Fatigue dice and Marker Dice (which incudes Action Markers, Reload Markers, Fatigue Markers, and Critical Hits Markers).

Miniatures

Blood and Plunder has a huge range of miniatures available for all factions. Miniatures are available in starter sets, which contain set 100 point forces for those factions. Or you can purchase crews and commanders in individual blister packs.

Blood and Plunder Optional Products

Blood and Plunder units don't have a huge amount of stats and they're all available in the rulebooks, but it's very handy to have cards with all the unit stats displayed. Packs are available for all the units and characters from the core rulebook, and the No Peace Beyond the Line expansion.

Ships

Once you've played a game or 2 of Blood and Plunder, or maybe even during your first game, you'll know that ships are where it's at. Having your crew swing across to board another faction's ship, or simply pounding them with cannonballs into oblivion, the seamless connection between land and sea combat is where Blood and Plunder comes alive, so you're going to want to get some ships. Firelock Games have ships in all sizes, from small canoa to galleons with multiple gun decks. Their current line of ships have resin hulls, and the upcoming Raise the Black expansion brings with it plastic ship options if you're looking for a cheaper ship option. The current range of resin ships are extremely durable and have great detail.

Scenery

Having all the above on a blank canvas of a battlefield wouldn't do Blood and Plunder justice. Having game mats and scenery bring your games to life. You can build up your own personal collection of scenery slowly, or work with friends to produce a set. Most game stores and clubs have full sets of scenery, and paying club or table fees is an extremely cost-effective way to play games on awesome scenic battlefields. If you do want your own set though, Firelock Games have a range of forts and houses to decorate your table, but there are also a huge amount of 3rd party producers of game mats and scenery.

The copies of the Blood and Plunder Expansion Packs used to produce this article were provided by Firelock Games.