The Quick and the Dead(man) – Adepticon Land Winner

Let me start by saying that the Dead Man is not a “landlubber.”
While my local playgroup plays dirty, we don’t Plunder on dirt very often; we like big boats and we cannot lie. The only time that I can be cajoled into a land game is when it’s for a tournament. Maybe that should change, because currently I am 3-for-3 on winning the damn things.

Spoiler Alert: This article doesn’t get super technical on analyzing my list. You can find a whole breakdown on the Miskito Faction released alongside this one. If you’re only here to flatter me with imitation, go read that article for the detailed shakedown.

Writing My ‘Liskito’

Firelock kicked off 2025 with this bombshell:

One stated reason for the change was to make higher-point models more appealing. Losing an 8pt Grenadier because his save was 9+ in the open sucks, I agree. But I can get the same 6+ shoot save of a Grenadier on a 4pt model. Like Warrior Musketeers.

The biggest issue for the Warrior Musketeer is their Slow Reload, but I was sure there was some way to get around that.

Here’s a List-Building tip you can try at home!
If you want to find a specific rule or unit in Plunder, pop open a PDF copy of the rulebook and use the Search feature. I searched ‘Warrior Musketeer’ and I was able to skip to every time the unit appeared in a Force List, with the force special rules close by.

Like many of the Minor Powers factions, the Miskito have a narrow selection of units – especially once you’ve separated the wheat from the chaff. This means that there’s really only one way to put them together. To steal a line from the Mythbusters, “if you want to know why we did what did, and didn’t do what we didn’t do, head over to Discovery.com/Mythbusters DeadMansChest.org“

The Road to ‘Miswaukee’

The first outing for this list was a 150pt tournament run by fellow quartermaster Kurt Fraley, at Critical Hit games in Maryland. Kurt was at Adepticon this year playing his Creek list and helping with demos. You probably met him; tall guy, big beard, shiny head, usually smiling. He’s a great ambassador for the community.

I put the list together a week before the tournament, took it to my local shop and could only find Firelock newbie Zach to play against. He proceeded to kick my ass. Badly. A month later, he’d do the exact same thing to my Adepticon Sea list, twice.

As it turns out, getting beaten by Zach is like the slap that comes along with knighthood; it’s the last blow your list will suffer without replying in kind. I took the list down to Abingdon and finished 3-0, with my last round being against Kurt’s Creek list.

The list was supposed to play in a 175pt tournament at HMGS: Cold Wars, but that didn’t fire for logistical reasons. We also hosted a 200pt tournament (150pts if you’re Ray’s Pirates) at my home store Lazarus Games in Harrisburg, PA. I didn’t play in that event, only ran it.

I packed every painted Firelock model that I owned into a big Feldherr storage case, threw it into the trunk and drove the 12 hours to Milwaukee. I hadn’t pre-registered for the event, because I wasn’t sure that I’d make it to Adepticon until the moment that I was sitting in the rental with all of my gear packed. “Adulting” conspires against us like that sometimes. So there I was, fifteen minutes before the start of round 1, borrowing 6 Warrior Muskets from Joe Forster, paying my registration fee, and fully expecting to play 3 fun games of Win/Lose Plunder.

Game 1 – Breakthrough vs. Riley Faulk

Based on my legacy of last-minute preparedness, Riley might be a kindred spirit. He was piloting a British Army list loaned to him by Summer of Plunder’s English fearless leader and Port Royal aficionado Erich Goebel. He even had Erich’s 10pt custom commander in charge of the battle.

The scenario we got was Breakthrough. It was a random roll from the TO from among the available packet scenarios, but it’s a tough scenario for the attacker in even the best-case. Having to advance against a list that is happy to sit in cover and shoot you all game, like the Miskito, is not the best-case scenario. I commend Riley’s sportsmanship on this one; he was tabled to a man, but managed to stay bouyant the entire time. I know myself too well – I couldn’t have done it. Top marks to you, Riley – you are truly an officer an a gentleman.

On the table, Joe’s borrowed Warriors proved that well-painted models do fight hard. Riley advanced two units of Grenadiers right up to my goal-line but Joe’s lone unit of loaner-minis fought to the last man to hold them off until support arrived. I finished the game with an 0-4 victory.

Game 2 – Take & Hold vs. Jake High

Plunder tournaments are run ‘Swiss’, so every round is paired “straight down,” meaning that 1st plays 2nd, 3rd plays 4th, and so on. Tabling your first opponent is great and all, but it signs you up for harder fights in the next match-up. For round 2, that hard fight was Jake High’s Suriname Maroon list.

Jake had 2 units of trained Warriors on the table, to match my own big unit of Veteran Warriors. With long charge ranges (12-16″) the game felt less like a knife fight, and more like a duel between modern jet-fighters. One wrong move, and you’d get wasted by a “Warrior-missile” from miles away.

I think that Evade really won me this game. The ability for my force to sidestep those long charges, plus the fact that with Jeremy around to give nearby units Quick, I had the same charge range that he did (longer, with my Warriors).

The match ended something like 2-1 on Strikes, with both of us contesting the central objective. We were both a bit punch-drunk from all the thinking that happened in that match, and shook hands agreeing that we never wanted to do that again. Which, would have been nice…

Game 3 – Encounter vs. Jake Farris

Here we go again…

Jake rolled up to my second match on Table 1, piloting a Portuguese Garrison list. Milicianos Indios with Muskets – a list format that I’ve used in the past. Obviously, Jake was having more success with it than I had.

Being the second round at the top table, and 2-0, I knew that I was close to gold. I just had to not lose. This was the first time I’ve ever played against Jake, and it wasn’t the last. We didn’t just have similar lists, but similar playstyles as well; cautiously waiting for an explosive turn to put us ahead.

Jake was more patient than I was though. I tried to send my Warriors to trade with his, rather than dealing with another long-range duel like my last match. Huge mistake. Jake bounced my Warriors, and then countered with his own, ready to roll up my flank.

I doubled-down and tried to catch the Warriors again, while they were overextended. Again I failed, and as he brought the rest of his force into position to support the fight in the trees, the battle became a meatgrinder of trading blows in the trees. I don’t think that I ever killed that last Warrior, but Jake nearly cleared out King Jeremy.

When the dust finally settled, it was a draw. We had to tally points costs for destroyed models, and I narrowly beat him, by perhaps 8 points. I was now 3-0. It felt like I had been holding my breath for the last 3 hours, and now I was ready for my medal…

…Please Hold

The final draw against Jake meant that I was now also drawn for First Place. Somehow, Erich had the same split on Strikes that I did. If I had been able to finish 0-1 or 2-1 instead of 1-1 with Jake, I could have gotten away clean.

Unfortunately, Strike Point Differential was the only tiebreak method we had. I can’t blame Pigment or Garret, because they were using my reporting sheets. Scoring for Strike-Differential was something that the old Tales of the Sail crew and I had come up with when were running HMGS tournaments. We never came up with another tiebreak method.

To determine who got to take home the prize medal, it was decided that we should draw Initiative Cards. Jason fanned an activation deck, and I said, “watch me – I’ll draw the Ace of Clubs.” And damned if I didn’t pull the Ace of Clubs! But while I didn’t get the medal, Firelock was still kind enough to honor the tied result when doling prize support to Erich and I.

Final thoughts

I got to play 3 games against some of the best opponents the community could throw at me, and I finished tied for first at one of the largest Firelock events. That’s two wins for Miskito, and a second major tournament win for me after snagging gold at Historicon ’24 with my Portuguese Tercio list. A huge thank you to Pigment and to Firelock for putting the game on the tables, and to all of the players who came out to make it possible.