"Blood and Plunder Games - Number Figs Needed?" Topic

I'm interested in these rules, and would like to know how many figures are needed for your average sized game, according to the official rules, and/or just to have a fun skirmish?

I suspect, if desired, any number can be used, depending upon what you have on hand, for unofficial games, and/or solo gaming, but I'd like to know what is recommended with the rules.

Also, what's the rough max number of troops that can be handled without seriously bogging down?

Can multiple players be involved in games easily, or are the rules best for two-player games?

Also, are the faction stats the same across the various nationalities, or are there differences between them, e.g. are the militia troops ALL the same, or do they vary in capabilities, military troops, sailors, etc.?

I'm interested in British/English, French, Dutch, and Spanish factions to start, and any hints in varied capabilities of the troops among them will be appreciated.

I wasn't aware of these ranges – does anyone know if it's possible to get just the Oak & Iron ships without all the cards and other accessories?

If I am not mistaken, the B&P card decks are just regular cards with faction decorations. Its been a while though.

And no… its hard enough to find the Oak & Iron ships WITH cards and accessories. I am kind of stalled on mine because I do not want to keep buying sets that contain ships I don't want in addition to those I do. I don't want 10 first rates in order to get 10 third rates. For a while there the 3rd rate was available individually but not so any more. I've been looking around at 3D sites for something to supplement what I have.

Here are some pics of the Spanish and French units – all are "trained". There are also alternative cards for inexperienced versions, and some have veteran versions.

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I dunno…. depends on your threshold of visual pain. they are ~100-150 years apart. Lots of differences in rigging.

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BnP ships are 1:600. Warlord are 1:700. Despite being a smaller scale the Warlord 1/700 ship is longer in the hull and taller than the BnP ship (picture does not show this due to perspective)

To answer the original question, Blood & Plunder uses points to build units for the game. How those points are spent in building your force will determine how many figures and units you have on the table. The games I have played usually involve 36 or fewer figures per side that are grouped into 4-6 units of 6-8 figures each and are usually around 200 points per side.

Look at the cards in the pictures that Virtualscratchbuilder linked to. In the upper right hand corner is the number of points it costs to field a figure belonging to that type of unit. The first set of 6 cards are from the French faction. Just below the name of the unit type is whether or not the unit is inexperienced, trained, or veteran. Inexperienced units costs less per figure than trained and that costs less than veteran. A dozen figures would be a typical large unit. A unit of 4 figures or less is very brittle and easy to destroy. Most games I have been in use units of 6 to 8 figures. You also have to pay for a leader and possibly a subleader. There aren't any leader cards shown in either picture. A typical leader is 25 points. Using the cards shown in the first picture and assuming a 25 point leader, the remaining 175 points can be used in a wide variety of ways. For example, you could field a force with several large units by "buying" inexperienced Miliciens at 3 points a figure. A 12 figure unit would cost 36 points and you could build a force of 4 units with enough points left over for a smaller unit of about 8 figures. That would give a total of 57 figures including the leader. And it would not be a very useful force.

Force building is a bit more complicated than the example I've given, but should give you an idea of how many figures and units could be on one side in a game.

Almost forgot, a unit must be of only one type so you can't mixed different types into the same unit.

"I'm interested in British/English, French, Dutch, and Spanish factions to start, and any hints in varied capabilities of the troops among them will be appreciated."

The last time I checked, the BnP site had free downloads of a lot of that information, and also had a calculator for building your forces.

Our club plays a lot of B&P. Up to six factions per game. Each faction runs 24-36 figures, roughly, but as GamerTom points out, it's point based, so you can have larger low quality forces, etc.

Thank you for the info.

I really appreciate it.

I didn't realize the factions of various types for a nationality were so small.