This year, DMC is one of the sponsors for Blood & Pigment’s “Summer of Plunder” community event. It’s my first year sponsoring with my own site, but also the first year that I haven’t been in command of the French effort! This year, that honor goes to commander Andy – a loyal French player from last year’s campaign. I am only acting as his second, to help out when he needs it.
In addition to running our own giveaway and hooking up some prizes for random giveaways, I couldn’t call myself a proper Frenchman if I didn’t log some games! For week 1, our challenge was to play 50 point lists. It’s one of my favorite weeks of the SoP, along with ‘Bark Wars’ (week 3). These tend to be smaller games; which fly by and also, which have their own quirks and strategies which differentiate them from larger games. Certainly, from the usual spectacle of the group’s 4-6 player sea battles!
I went trawling for a French list that I liked at 50pts. In the past, the French have struggled with these small games – lacking good options below the 4pt range. And truthfully, even French militia should probably be upgraded to Trained – making them 5pt models. I ended up with a new, ‘Raise the Black’ list – the French Canadian Militia
My list was 4 Braves, 4 Milice Canadienne, and 3 Compagnies Franches de la Marine with a 0pt Commander. That should add up to 54 points, but the Compagnies can drop their socket bayonets for Thrown Weapons, for -4 points. Briefly, I considered spamming several 2-man units of Compagnies, just to “exploit” that tactic, but in the end, I decided that I didn’t want to run 6 tiny units, even as a joke.
The group played a ’round robin’ style match up. The four of us went around the table, matching off against a new opponent every time until we’d all had enough.
Game 1, Encounter
My first game was Encounter, against Dan’s Spanish list. I didn’t see his actual list, but “spam” was the name of the game for his army – as many Hostigadores as he could field, equipped with Carbines so that they would have Scouts, and in 4 units of 3 men, so that he could deploy 2 of them with “Lay in Wait.” The downside of course, is that because Hostigadores are equipped with Matchlocks, they need to spend an action to light their matches if they lay in wait.
Dan was getting a feel for his list, whereas I am pretty comfortable running French Militia forces, with their awesome free moves. It didn’t help that Dan’s was having a spate of bad luck, with both cards and dice turning against him at crucial moments, allowing me to get a brutal cross-turn sequence of charges.
Of all the units in my list, it was my Milices who charged across open ground on Turn 2. They were caught in the open by a long-range volley from one of Dan’s units at the close of the turn, but luckily, nobody was hit. At the top of Turn 3, I activated my Commander to order the unit into Melee. The Milices smashed into his Commander’s unit, and unbelievably, tore them apart. Dan spent his last Fortune Point to save his Commander. On their next activation, the Milices – having their rifles still loaded – opened fire and then charged through the gunsmoke to finish off the Commander and his second unit.
With half his force annihilated and no Commander to roll the Test, Dan’s remaining Hostigadores gave up the fight, and melted back into the woods.
Game 2, Control the Field
For game 2, I played against Brad and his English Pirate Hunters. Control the Field was our scenario, and we had set up the table before rolling for objectives. This meant that the centrally-located objective was in the yard of a small shack.
My Braves ran forward and snagged the nearest objective to me, and were situation in the woods so that Hidden made them impossible to shoot at. Meanwhile, my Milices charged up to the building, planning to occupy it as quickly as possible. My Commander and his Troupe a la Marine advanced to provide backup to the Milices.
Unfortunately, Brad made a bold, sweeping advance (taking some Fatigue) to occupy the building and blast my Marines with his Freebooter’s muskets – the unit evaporated and I had to spend a Fortune to get my commander into safety with the Milices.
Next activation, I sent my Braves from the trees down to the building. Brad moved a unit of pistol-packing SeaDogs to join the Freebooters in the building. When my Commander ordered the charge, the poor Braves didn’t stand a chance – they were cut down by Defensive Fire as they cleared the open yard around the shack.
With the Braves taken down, my Commander charged in, and actually managed to push a unit from the structure in melee. Again, this is a unit of Fight 7 Milices, without even Thrown Weapons.
It was not to be, though – on the next turn, Fights from Brad’s Freebooters and his commander saw to it that my poor Compagnies were destroyed. I had to play aggressively or else lose on Objective points – and aggression can sometimes cost French lists dearly.