Blood & Plunder is Firelock’s flagship game and the most popular of the “Blood &” Series of games, featuring 28mm Skirmish Action set in the Americas during the Golden Age of Piracy of the 17th and early 18th Centuries. Port Royal is a Warband scale game set within Port Royal immediately following its destruction on June 7th, 1692. In this alternate history, players will lead their surviving crews into the ruins of Port Royal collecting plunder and growing their infamy across several linked games during a Campaign, rather than the larger one-off conflicts of Blood & Plunder. In this article, we’ll cover some of the other similarities and differences between the two game systems.
Differences in the Style of Play:
- Blood & Plunder is a unit-based skirmish game with 4-6 units of 6-12 models and is plays on boards 3’x3′ and larger (especially for sea games).
- Port Royal is a campaign-warband game with 4-8 models that take actions individually and grow stronger each game. Port Royal is plays out on 2’x2′ boards.
Miniatures:
- Both Blood & Plunder and Port Royal share the same 28mm scale pirate-themed miniatures. That means you can use your existing collection for either game! Many of the special characters, promos, and accessory sprue in the Port Royal Core box are a great way to add more flavor to your smaller Port Royal crew.
Models and Force Building
- In Blood & Plunder, models are “purchased” with points, typical of wargames, with various upgrade options taken at list construction.
- In Port Royal, each model has a Pieces of Eight cost, which functions similarly to points initially, used to build your Company. As things progress, you will earn more as the Campaign continues and can recruit between games. Additionally, your Crew will have an Infamy score, which measures the Crew’s strength, considering initial costs, the upgrades earned, etc.
Initiative and Action Mechanic Differences
This is probably one of the areas with the greatest differences between the game systems.
- Blood & Plunder uses a 52-card deck to determine Initiative and Action Economy in a “you go, I go” system where players take turns activating units.
- Port Royal does not use playing cards but instead has players roll off each round for initiative, bidding their Fortune Points in attempts to win the Initiative. Additionally, Port Royal has players activating all their characters, which each get 2 actions before the other player takes their turn. However, players can attempt to React to their opponents’ actions, which affords some interplay during turns. Better-trained individuals are more successful at Reacting, ultimately giving them more actions, akin to training levels in Blood & Plunder.
Fortune Points
- In Blood & Plunder, each player gets 3 Fortune Points at the beginning of the game allowing them to reroll any roll by spending a Fortune. Typically, these do not replenish during gameplay. They can also change initiative cards or extend your Commander’s survivability.
- In Port Royal, players will receive 6 Fortune Points at the beginning of each round and their functionality is wider in scope. Players can reroll most die rolls, increase their initiative bid, gain additional actions, and activate certain special abilities by spending Fortune Points. Certainly, Fortune Points are the prime currency of Port Royal, and spending them wisely will help you gain the advantage.
Differences in Actions
- When activating a unit within Blood & Plunder the quantity of actions is determined by the Initiative Card played and the Unit’s training level giving them1-3 actions.
- When activating an individual Character within Port Royal, the Character always begins with 2 actions. Fatigue can reduce this by 1 and a Fortune Point can purchase 1 additional action. Additionally, Characters will have the opportunity to React to opposing characters — using their experience level to test whether or not they react in time. If successful, the reacting Character may immediately take an action of your choice.
Combat
- Combat in Blood & Plunder utilizes a Fight/Shoot system that affords each participating attacking character in a combat 1 die roll to hit an enemy and for each success, the defender rolls 1 die and attempts to Save/Defend. For example, if 6 militia are shooting, they roll 6 dice. Any Save failures result in a model’s death.
- In Port Royal, all attacks resolve with a 3xd10 based opposing test, where both players roll in parallel and compare successes, using target numbers based on their individual unit statistics. If the attacker rolls any successes that the defender doesn’t block, they then make a 1D10 Damage Test for each. If the Damage Test succeeds, the target dies, otherwise they gain additional fatigue. Fatigue makes this Damage Test progressively easier to succeed.
Weapons
- In Blood & Plunder, Units come equipped with weapon loadouts that range from “standard melee weapons” to firelock muskets and pistols. Each unit has predefined options to upgrade or downgrade its weapon loadouts.
In Port Royal, you recruit Crew Members without weapons and must spend Pieces of Eight to equip them. Each Faction has access to specific Common and Rare weapons, which you can purchase at the start of a campaign or between games. You can also find weapons while exploring the ruins of Port Royal—some are even of legendary quality! Additionally, weapons offer an additional level of customizing your crew, with each weapon having its own keywords, bonuses to hit enemies, and even bonuses to deliver killing blows (damage tests).- Weapon Ranges is another major difference between Blood & Plunder and Port Royal. In Blood & Plunder, weapons function on a rather simple 4” range band system with linear penalties for each 4” band you shoot. In Port Royal, ranged weapons fall under “Short” range or “Long” range with different banding patterns, listed below. If you have problems remembering these, the Port Royal Core Box comes with useful colored rulers to aid you in the heat of combat!
- Short Range: 0-2”, 2-4”, and 4-8” with a max range of 8”
- Long Range: 0-4”, 4-8” and 8-12” with a max range of 12”
Fatigue
- Fatigue in both Blood & Plunder and Port Royal functions similarly: 1 fatigue does not incur a penalty, but 2 fatigue gives a model -1 action and 3 fatigue means the model is shaken. Additionally, in Port Royal, characters with 2 fatigue cannot react to opposing character’s actions.
- Of note, however, is that removing Fatigue in Port Royal is much slower than in Blood & Plunder, where you only roll 1D10 for Rallies, despite the quantity of Fatigue. This means the most Fatigue you can ever remove with an action is 1.
Commanders
- Commanders in Blood & Plunder largely serve as keywords on a stick, bringing with them powerful abilities and command points to do extra actions for your units.
- Commanders in Port Royal serve a much more functional role being, in several factions, amongst your most powerful characters. Additionally, there are no Command Points in Port Royal. Your Commander can, however, forfeit his own actions to give them to nearby Crew Mates (within 4”).
Events
- Events in Blood & Plunder trigger by either player drawing one of their Event Cards (Jokers) from their 52-card initiative deck.
- With the lack of an initiative card deck, events in Port Royal instead trigger from ties in initiative each turn. In both systems, you roll on a table to determine the new Event. Events in Port Royal can range from changes in the weather to the spawning of angry townsfolk, wild animals or additional plunder!
Conclusions
If you are coming from Blood & Plunder – welcome to Port Royal where the combat is visceral and each model lost is a valuable crew member. Hopefully, this article serves to prime you for some of the rule and style differences between the two systems and lower any intimidation you may have with trying Port Royal as a companion game to Blood & Plunder. For veteran players and new players alike, Port Royal is an easy to pick up, and much like grog, intoxicating experience!
Additional Content Suggestions
Getting Started in PORT ROYAL – What You Need and Product Overview