Firelock games 'Blood & Plunder'

[Elbows]

Ships look pretty darn good.

[Truscott Trotter]

Fantastic looking stuff - I want it all - do you take trades, children, pets, kidneys etc?   

[Elbows]

They're pirates, of course they'll take it all!  You just won't get anything for it...

[Truscott Trotter]

They're pirates, of course they'll take it all!  You just won't get anything for it...

Not even the pox? 

[Furt]

Just saw this. This looks amazingly refreshing and may be the elusive pirate rules I have been after for years.

Imagine this: you can play one game in a jungle environment with your guerrilla fighters, the next with your six guns sloop on the open ocean and the next on the coast, exchanging canon fire with a fortress while you undergo your amphibious assault, all using the same simple and intuitive rule set! Needless to say, the campaign and scenario possibilities that accompany this are virtually endless.

If that statement is true, this IS the ruleset I have been after. 

How ship combat and boarding will work is VERY important to me. I leap with joy to see the Light Frigate armed with a realistic number of cannon (instead of 3!!).

The ships are beautiful, as are the minis, but I hope I can still use these guys. 

[El Frantico]

Not even the pox? 

Not even the box!!! 

Thanks for the kind compliments everyone

Furt you will absolutely be able to use any minis you like! It looks like you have 20mm bases on there which is perfect. The rules have no real basing requirement, but your going to want the bases as small as possible to get as many fighting men aboard your ships as you can.
For ships, a little more work may be required to use your own, but it is certainly still doable.
 
The statement you quoted is definitely true, so I think you'll be happy

I'll try and give a quick and dirty version of how ship combat works:

Each ship that is under sail will move 3 times during a turn. Each ship has various "speed" setting (read sail trim). Each time a ship moves, it will move at its current sail setting +/- any weather or damage effects. Point of sail is broken down into 3 points: In Irons (bow closer than 45° to the wind) Sailing Windward (Bow pointed toward wind but not in irons) and Sailing Large (Wind 'abeam or astern). Ships can make no headway if in irons, get a penalty to movement to windward (varies based on ship) and move normally when sailing large.

Units aboard ships are assigned to "sections" of the ship. Ships can vary between 1-4 sections depending on size and type. Units can take move actions to move from one ship section to another and all measurements taken to target units are taken to and from the sections they are in. This eliminates the need for measuring within the ship models which lets you add some rigging without it getting in the way of gameplay and goes a long way in keeping things moving at a good pace. Units on ships use their actions to do typical things like shoot, reload, rally, change sail setting, repair critical damage and attempt sailing maneuvers such as tacking and box hauling.

When firing on a ship, you choose a deck section to target within your firing arc. You can aim at the hull or rigging. Each have a separate damage track and fortitude (defense) value. Fortitude values decrease as the ship takes on damage. Fortitude value is also tied in to critical hits so as your fortitude decreases the amount and severity of damage to your ship increases. Each hit against the ship's hull also carries with it the chance of causing casualties against the units in the struck sections, which in turn brings the chance of units panicking!

One of my favorite things is that even when you fill in all of a ship's damage boxes, it can keep on fighting (proved the captain doesn't strike!) it takes rolling the right critical hit to actually destroy a ship, so most games end in boarding or striking...as I think they should

Boarding is done using a "charge" action against an opposing ship within 3". The ship is then pulled into contact. The charging unit can then move a single model (just to mark that the units are engaged) into an adjacent deck section on the opposing ship. And engage a unit in that deck of the defenders choice. If a section is cleared of enemy models, all of models in the victorious unit may immediately move all of its models into that deck to occupy it.

I hope that made some kind of sense... It's late and I've had a long day but was excited to share. Keep the questions coming!

[Furt]

Thanks for the detailed reply El Frantico.

Your description of the ship combat is exactly what I wanted to hear. No clumsy measuring on crowded decks or pushing miniatures into base contact. Legend of the High Seas I'm looking at you!!

I actually toyed with a similar method for our pirate games years ago - ship sections are a very clever way to do things.

I'm sold mate - sign me onto your crew Cap'n. 

And speaking of captains, before I sign the article, do you get to use a single figure captain in the rules? And if so how does he interact with an enemy unit?

Lastly when can I expect the Barbary Corsair supplement be out? 

[michaelsbagley]

Every new piece of info I learn about these make me more excited for the rules.

I do have a couple of questions... cavalry? I know pirates and horses do not seem to go together, but for circumstances where you want some mounted forces serving the king chasing the pirates off. Lack of this won't be a deal breaker, but it would make an already awesome thing better (for me).

And since canon/artillery is included, will rules for small fortification be included , for when pirates get bold and raid small fortified coastal towns?

[El Frantico]

Every new piece of info I learn about these make me more excited for the rules.

I do have a couple of questions... cavalry? I know pirates and horses do not seem to go together, but for circumstances where you want some mounted forces serving the king chasing the pirates off. Lack of this won't be a deal breaker, but it would make an already awesome thing better (for me).

And since canon/artillery is included, will rules for small fortification be included , for when pirates get bold and raid small fortified coastal towns?

There are rules for cavalry in the game and if things go well you may even see Spanish Mounted Lancers as a stretch goal in the Kickstarter!

There are rules for forts. Forts and rules essentially share the same rules except forts don't move around in water of course and generally have much higher fortitude values.

It's should probably mention this won't be just a pirate game. Though pirates are our focus right (and will be for some time to come) we also plan on doing various factions and conflicts in the new world. 

[FifteensAway]

Mr. Frantico, or may I call you El? 

Allow me to join the interrogations since I, too, like much of what I read: Any challenge in using these rules with 15 mm figures based 3 to a stand?  And how card driven are the rules - or are the cards just unit information?  A lot I see to like but I'm afraid I don't much care for cards cluttering my miniatures tables, spoils the visual effect.  And just how large a game do you think these rules can handle (see below)?

And, no, before anyone suggests, I won't be changing scales as I have more than one thousand painted 15 mm pirate age figures (well, a few oddities) and a couple of hundred more to paint.  And I have a star fort with Spanish towers on order and maybe even on the way already. 

(For those who recall, I possess the insanity behind Pirates of the Carob Bean Sea - the miniatures extravaganza game.)

[Elbows]

We know you play fifteens!  You mention it in every thread you post in! 

I did read an article on it, and it is very card driven (using a modified deck of poker cards).  Also it appears the units (ships and men) have stat cards.  I've never seen cards clutter a table, if you allot some space to place cards, I don't see why that would be an issue.  I think the article was linked here earlier by Frantico - maybe on the first or second page, a Beasts of War article.  It elaborates on the actual mechanics a small amount.

[FifteensAway]

Elbows, someone has to fly the banner! 

Well, I guess I'll have to focus on the useful mechanics.  I know some people like card driven games, afraid it just isn't for me.  I'm all about the visual to the extent that I can be - though I admit to be an average painter and quite happy with "good enough".

But I do like pirates!

[El Frantico]

 Elbows, the only obstacle I can see with using multi-figured based 15mm is getting the right amount of stands on ships of the same scale. The game is designed for smaller craft like sloops and brigantines and we use fairly realistic sized crews on them. Not an impossible obstacle to overcome, but could be an issue depending on the ship models you use.

  The initiative system is indeed card driven. Each player gets a regular poker style deck and draws a hand each turn, 1 card per unit. Each activation, both players secretly play a card and he player with the higher suite goes first. Higher suites usually give units less actions though so it's a give and take and makes for a fun tactical initiative that is much less random than most. I don't find they clutter the table. I usually keep them in a corner along with dice and measuring tape.

In other news, we shared a preview of our first 3 ships in their raw unpainted form with Beasts of War. Those uttered red can check it out here: http://www.beastsofwar.com/blood-plunder/exclusive-firelock-ships/

[Furt]

The pics look magnificent, especially crammed with all those pirates!!

Here's one of them from the link above, showing off the sloops in action. Very nice. 

[discok3]

Very large blank page Furt?!
Perhaps a storm obscuring the view😉