Blood and Plunder and Painting

 A few of us got together for some Saturday afternoon Blood and Plunder last weekend. It was refresher situation for us - it's been months since we played last. I played two games against Mike using identical forces each time, while David played more of a learning game against one of the other fellows who showed up, Dennis.

I used my South American natives while Mike used a high-end English force with some cavalry borrowed from Dennis. Just a basic 100-point smash-em-up, nothing fancy.

My deployment. The corner in which I was deployed was a billiard table of open ground. Not even remotely ideal for a force like mine which absolutely must stay in cover.

Mike consolidated into the center pretty quickly and kept the musketballs coming a steady pace. After four or five turns, Mike put his cavalry in the open and they became easy meat for flurries of poisoned arrows. Once they were forced back, the rest of the English followed suit. 

And there they go to tell the tale of woe to any others who'd invade our land!

We reset and played the same matchup again. We did address the open terrain the second time around and flopped deployment corners, right to left.

The game ran similarly, but Mike was eager to get his mounted troops into melee this time. Unfortunately for him, charging across open ground into a full strength unit of good shooters is quite predictable. The arrows accounted for three of the horsemen and they were forced to fall back. After that, it was just another mopping up operation for my tribesmen. 

We both learned a few lessons and rather enjoyed our gaming. I haven't played with those minis in years and they were just as much fun as I remember.

There's David commanding my Spanish on the other side of the table. I think he won his game.

I ordered some more 28mm FIW troops a couple weeks ago from Sash and Sabre. I put the finishing touches on those last evening. Here are a couple shots of them - nothing too crazy, just basic colors and a wash. English Militia and more French Woodsmen for my Blood and Plunder Canada / New England battles.