The end of July means that another Historicon has come and gone.
Landing on the 250th anniversary of the USA, this Historicon was bound to be “a big deal.” Royalist Red and Patriot Blue commemorative tees were available from registration to be worn with pride.
This year also marked Blood & Plunder’s 10th year, and the 9th for competitive Plundering at Historicon. Continuing the unusual countdown theme, 8 players gathered around the table to test their mettle in a tournament new format, and we even had a surprise appearance by Mike!

The New Format

It’s been 9 years of running tournaments at Historicon, and it was time to change a few things. If you want the exact “whats & whys” you can read the tournament pack and associated article. There were 2 major changes to how we did things at Historicon this year, which impacted the way things shaped up.

6 unit, 199 point Limit (6×199)

Mike doesn’t like it.
He says that it bothers his OCD, he wants the even 200, but he agreed with the value of the limitation. It caps players at 50 models, at 3 Characters, and units of 8 minis. It also puts a ceiling on unit-counts for the scenario rules.
I’m keeping it.

New Scenarios

This year’s tournament pack features 4 new scenarios. You can read the details of each in the spoilers below, but all are characterized by using the same deployment scheme – with the player who wins the attack roll choosing to deploy so that players use either the red or blue corners.
In addition, scenario objectives (such as interacting with the 3 capture points) awarded up to 2 Strike Points, making it more important to play to the objective.

If you care to, you can read more about how each of these scenarios played in the spoilers below. If you were cruelly subjected to any of these scenarios (ahem – Scorched Earth) then you may be entitled to some form of compensation.

Objective – players fight to control more objective markers than the opponent.
Playing along the red corners is more like the official Take & Hold scenario, with the fight hinging around control of the middle objective.
Playing to the blue corners is more similar to Control the Field, with players able to feint to one side or the other, or take the short route to control the middle.

I was happy to see a good split of players choosing to attack in either variant.
My experience from playtesting was that attackers who are more mobile than their opponent
(eg. Cavalry or the French “Militia Move“) can benefit from attacking ‘wide’.

This scenario is similar to the first, except that instead of capturing the points by proximity, the attacker must set them ablaze using the Start Fire action.
As an additional wrinkle, this scenario is played with the Visibility: Night rules in effect.

This scenario has potential to be incredibly fun and flavorful, and is the scenario that I most wanted to get right.
Unfortunately, I missed the mark.
I’m really sorry to anyone who was frustrated by the difficulty of getting the fires lit.

This scenario is unkind to players who are not prepared to tackle it – and the problem with playtesting your own scenarios is that you know how it’s “meant” to be played.
Nobody else has that advantage.
Most players on the day only had their free 1-in-3 units with torches… when I tested, we had 3 units ready for arson.
We didn’t see a game where someone couldn’t get a fire lit… 3-out-of-4 attackers at the event did.

To make this scenario more forgiving and a bit more approachable, future tournaments will introduce a ‘Flammable‘ property to the objectives – reducing the target number to 8+ for starting a fire. Additionally, against these ‘Flammable‘ objectives, Torches always succeed by dedicating 2+ Actions.

This scenario does away with the capture-points, and instead rewards players for getting their commanders into melee, and for destroying the enemy commander in turn. Unlike Wanted Man, this makes both commanders a target, and does not provide any inherent bonus to the attacker or defender beyond choosing board corners.

I was a little surprised that nobody gambled on the cinematic Commander vs. Commander duel, but I did see that most players benefited from War Cry or Lead By Example when charging into battle – Commanders did mix it up in melee, as planned.

All three of the scenarios were built for quick-play, and as a part of that concept, I embraced volatile outcomes. If your game ends early: lunch break.
Of course, too far in that direction can feel arbitrary, and I don’t want that for the players either. Some adjustments will be made before these scenarios hit the table again. On the whole, they worked quite well for a first time out.

One of the many projects that I have going forward is to refine my terrain cabinet and my layouts to make the choice of Deployment Corner more impactful. Think of the objectives spaced along a road, or perhaps as fords in a river. I have some bigger ideas that I am hesitant to promise, so I won’t say more.
All of the terrain you saw that day was made in the week prior to Historicon – if you know anything about me, that is starting early.

Old Champ, New Tricks – Placings

With 8 players, this event ran buttery-smooth. We got started a little bit late, because there was a bit of a mix-up with exactly where our tables were meant to be. Once terrain was out and dice were rolling though, we finished up in a timely manner. Thank you to the players for all making it back from the Lunch/Wally’s break on time – seriously.

1st Place – Howard

With 8 players, we also had a clean “pod” with a defined winner – that winner being reigning champ Howard. After combining Dutch Tough and Very Inspiring last year, he showed up this year with an Iroquois: Onondoga list from Raise the Black. Despite Careful Planning, he didn’t have an easy run to the top by any means – when the dust settled, Howard had played the 3rd, 4th, and 5th place players, with a very close game against 3rd place finisher Ramon in the final round.
I’ll let Howard explain how he put together his RAID! list – a very efficient build with some strong rules combinations.

2nd Place – Tim

In a wild coincidence, Tim’s second place list also benefited from the Careful Planning rule. This was courtesy of Frontenac, leading Tim’s French Garrison list. Ironically, Tim set out to run a thematic list for the ongoing Summer of Plunder, and ended up finishing with a 3-0 record after playing against 4th and 5th on his way up. His final match against 5th place Patrick, was a mirror that saw both sides deploying New France Garrison.
Be on the lookout for Tim’s list.

This is the result of a pairing adjustment that I made in round 2 which inadvertently resulted in us having a split-bracket. Blame the TO, that guy’s an asshole.
This message sponsored by the LongShanks tournament app (which I will be using in the future)

3rd Place – Ramon

Third place went to Ramon, playing in his first Plunder tournament. Ramon ran a Caribs (Kalinago) list all the way up to the final-round, top table for some Natives vs. Natives violence with Howard. It just goes to show what a horde of poisoned arrows can do. It’s not all mechanics though – there was plenty of talent on display, fighting Howard down to the wire in that final round.

Superlatives

Mike was around to judge for Best Painted, and gave it to Brooks’ British Regulars. The man was committed to fielding everything painted, choosing at the last minute to replace a unit of much-needed Militia with a freshly-painted Field Gun because he “didn’t have time for 8 guys”.
He might have finished 0-3, but he still got to walk away with some swag.

Likewise, campaigning on the Pittsburgh Party Boat platform of rum and mixers, Jim was nominated Favorite Opponent. I’m glad that all of the guys from the western part of the state made it out, and look forward to seeing them again at the upcoming Crossroads GT.

The rest of the placings & lists are below:
while the French were out in force, the Spanish were the only Nationality not represented this year (presumably busy winning a World Cup)

1st – Iroquois (RTB) – Howard
2nd – New France Garrison – Tim
3rd – Caribs, Kalinago – Ramon
4th – Dutch Militia – Dave
5th – New France Garrison – Patrick
6th – Golden Age Pirates – Jim – Favorite Opponent
7th – French Caribbean Militia – Charles
8th – British Army – Brooks – Best Painted

Where-To Next

Personally, I’m looking forward to running some narrative events at the NoVA Open in early September, before attending the Blood & Plunder “All Terrain” tournament at Crossroads GT later that same month.

The next HMGS event here in Lancaster is less than 100 days away – HMGS: Fall In being held from Nov. 6-8 at the Wyndham. There are some rumblings of a possible charity event featuring ships.
No matter how we end up Plundering, it’s sure to be a fun time – and a large part of that is because of the great community of gamers who come out to support this game. So to everyone who came out to make this tournament a success – thank you all.

Parting Shots