A Wargamer in Cyprus: Blood and Plunder, the Duel on the Island.

One of the great moments in the 1935 movie "Captain Blood" is the duel between Pirate Captain Levasseur, Basil Rathbone, and young Errol, our eponomous hero. Though Rathbone has a small role in the narrative, his part is an important one as he provides the turning point in Blood's character.

It is obvious from the beginning that the partnership between the two pirate Captains will eventually lead to a sword fight, and what a fight it is. In real life, Basil Rathbone was one of Hollywood's finest swordsman, and it's obvious that he exhibits true skill, and is enjoying himself throughout. Perhaps we're supposed to hate the French Pirate Captain, but Rathbone's humour translates brilliantly to the screen.

Rathboné de Mayonnaise

In my own Blood and Plunder games the great nemesis of Pirate Captain "Fat Errol" is the villanous Rathboné de Mayonnaise. The two Captains have met to divide their spoils, but what is this? The Frenchman has captured a rather overblown English Rose, Miss Joan Sims and intends to ravish her (very much not against her will.) Fat Errol decides he will save the lady (honestly she's ok, she doesn`t want saving thank you very much!) The Pirate Captain's duel as the beach descends into a mass brawl over the treasure...

Since I used the last game as a learning experience, I will do a run through of the Blood and Plunder mechanisms, for this one. It will also give me a chance to give them a larger playtest.

One of the things I really like about Blood and Plunder is the historical accuracy. This is the mid 17th Century of Henry Morgan rather than the early 18th of Blackbeard. It is the Reformation, 1660, set even earlier than the Captain Blood novels. The ordinary pirates dress in much the same way sailors would have dressed from the time of Drake until the time of Nelson, but period costume for anyone who wasn`t climbing masts would be similar to the costume of the English Civil war or the Three Musketeers. (apart from those tabards, and I have serious doubts about those anyway)

Once again the scene is the Isle de le Grosse Garcon, "Fat Boy Island." Errol should feel at home here!

In Blood and Plunder the size of the units depends on the points level being played. My 150 point forces can have up to 8 figures in a unit, but below 99 points it is limited to 4.

Only one Commander is used per Force, and they are either Untested, Experienced or Seasoned.
To generate my forces I used the Force Builder at http://easyarmy.bloodandplunder.com/

Captain Flynn, English Buccaneer Commander Untested
English Buccaneers
6 Forlorn Hope @42
6 Sea Dogs @24
6 Sea Dogs @24
6 Sea Dogs @24
5 Boucaniers @35

Total Points:149

Rathboné de Mayonnaise, French Buccaneer Commander Untested

French Buccaneers
6 Boucaniers @42
6 Boucaniers @42
6 Flibustiers @36
7 Marins @28

Total Points:148

For each of the unit types I made up my own small cards. These show:

1 The experience level
2 The points per model
3 The fight and shoot values required on a d10
4 The weapon options
5 Any special rules that apply to these models

Units must remain within a zone of control, essentially bunched up, and my units for this game must remain within a 4" circle. (although actually I`m using 15mm models on 1 cent euro bases and so I have halved this to 2")

A deck of playing cards acts as the activation cards for each side. A the beginning of a move each Force draws a number of activation cards corresponding to their remaining units on table. The Jokers are left in the deck since these are random events.

In the first move on the Isle de le Grosse Garcon it is the French who win Initiative. With four units they have drawn four playing cards, as do the English, and played the King of Hearts. The English play the Jack of Hearts (a close one) Having won initiative a French unit will have the first action.

Rathboné's Filibusiers fire into the English Boucaniers. Needing a base 6 on their shoot skill they have to add three for the range (+1 for each increment of 4 inches) A Nine. Even so four of the French hit. Good rolling. Needing a seven to save three of the four Boucaniers that were hit fail, and are killed. Only two Boucaniers are left in this unit.

The Boucaniers fail their fatigue test for the casualties and fall back shaken. Its not a good start for Fat Errol's boys. The English Sea Dogs use their activation to move, drawing cutlasses and swearing they surge onto the beach heading for the French.

I blind draw cards from each of the Force hands for the next pair of activations. Nine of Diamonds for the French, Eight of Spades for Errol's boys. Randomly choosing like this misses out on some of the inter-player drama and game the rules are meant to foster. So for instance a spade will generally go first, but you’ll only have one action. (The different suits have varying strengths.) A club will probably go last, but you’ll get 3 actions. My random draw misses all of that.

Drawing his sword Rathboné leads the group of Boucanier he is with forward onto the beach at the run, having won this activation. Errol uses a command point to shoot and reload his Buccaneers, but there are no hits. The French begin to move across the beach while the English shoot, but with almost no effect.