Port Royal Faction Overview: Maroons

Faction Overview

Jamaica’s initial success stems from the privateering raids that set forth from its ports earlier in the century, but more recently its plantations have begun to drive the island’s economy forward, an economy built on the forced labor of African slaves. Unsurprisingly, many of these slaves take every opportunity they can to escape to find their freedom, and thankfully those who do so successfully have a community they can escape to in Jamaica. The Maroon community. The Maroons have been on the island since its days as a Spanish colony. Jamaica’s rugged landscape of imposing mountains and impenetrable jungles provide plenty of places to hide from their oppressors. The Maroons do not simply hide away in their villages though, they actively war against the English colonists in Jamaica. They raid plantations and villages for supplies and to help free many of their fellow Africans. The Jamaican authorities have tried since their occupation of the island to stamp out these rebels but with no success. The Maroons have out-witted them every time.

Now, in the wake of the earthquake, these expert guerilla fighters are taking the opportunity to swell their ranks and add to their supplies.

Strengths and Archetypal Role of the Maroons

The core strengths of the Maroons focus on quick movement and concealment.

• They are fast. Really fast. The Maroons serve as the Guerilla Combat Faction filled with sneaky, quick strike units.
• Seven of the eight models have Scout letting them ignore the movement penalty of Rough terrain. This lets them dash over rubble and rugged terrain.
• Having spent time on the run and used to living in the wild, 63% of them (5 of 8) have the Elusive special ability. When you are the target of a Shoot action you may take a Reaction BEFORE the Shoot Attack action is completed to take a Move or Conceal action. This helps keep you alive, but you pay for elusive, with slightly more expensive troops.
• The pool of Characters offers a fair range of Fight and Shoot skills allowing you to customize your Company to your needs.

Faction Abilities of the Maroons

Guerilla Fighters: Once all Characters have been deployed by all players, all Characters in this Company may Move 4” from their current positions.

Master Skirmishers: Once per game, after rolling for Initiative but before starting the Activation Phase, the player controlling this Company may spend 2 Fortune Points to give every Unengaged Character in this Company a free Move action. This action may not be reacted to, even if it takes it through an opposing Character’s Threat Zone.

If you are familiar with Blood & Plunder, Guerilla Fighters is similar to Vanguard on land or Freshly Careened Hull at Sea. Because the play space on Port Royal is smaller, typically only 2’x2′, this jumpstart toward the objectives can be exceptionally helpful depending on the Scenario and deployment zones. In an Ambush scenario, there is potential for you to rush your entire force into base-to-base contact with an enemy or objectives on round 1.

Master Skirmishers is a one-time use ability, but when timed correctly, this can be used for some great combos:

• At the start of the game, you can take your Guerilla Fighters faction ability to move forward and then immediately use Master Skirmishers at the start of the game and put yourself immediately 8″ toward the objectives. With your 2 actions and if necessary a Fortune Point, you can move 9″ (or up to 12″ with Quick) letting you cover literally 3/4 the board grabbing objectives or in the right scenario engage in close combat charges.
• As a “shock and awe” tool you can use the option to bring multiple characters to bear in a move of solidarity. Having 4-5 Characters armed with Muskets or Bows suddenly step into key roadways or areas where you have overwatch on a large area of the board is extremely intimidating and can set you in prime position for a series of Reactions.
• Toward the end of the game or after securing multiple objective tokens, this is a great way to beat feet and make a break for safety.

Every free move you make with this ability is the equivalent of spending a Fortune on every Character. In a large Company, this is EXTREMELY powerful, especially considering you can still use Fortune on your units in the same round.

Equipment & Special Rules

Similar to the Natives, the Maroons do not have access to Grenadoes or Stinkpots like the other European powers. Other than that limitation they have access to all of the standard ranged and melee weapons. Because of the high cost of some Characters, you may want to consider Medicines in campaign mode to ward off lingering Injuries.

Because of their quick strike capabilities if you get Player’s Choice on your Officer Advancement rolls, you can pick up the extremely powerful Aggressive Commander ability. This allows for free Charge actions for nearby Character. Addtionally, the Expert Ambushers ability allows for aggressive deployments making this guerilla warrior faction event deadlier.

Maroon Company Options

Officers of the Maroons

The following options represent the company’s ranking members.

The Captain* (1)

Pieces 6

Exp: 4

Fight: 6/6

Shoot: 6/6

Resolve: 5

Command, Fate(1), Scout, Elusive

The Maroon Captain is a character with which to be reckoned. With a 4+ experience he is a veteran leader with a very solid stat line that demands respect on the battlefield. That gives him a 70% chance of success on reactions. The only thing the Captain is missing is the keyword, Quick, to keep up with some of the other Maroon Units. His base 6 for Fight and Shoot let you pair him with any weapon of your choice. With the high Reaction rate a Bow allows him to respond to threats at range without the need to Reload.

Elder (2)

Pieces 4

Exp: 5

Fight: 6/7

Shoot: 6/6

Resolve: 5

Scout, Elusive

Both the Elder and Advisor Officer characters are the same Pieces of Eight cost and have near identical stat lines. The key difference is that the Advisor has a Fight Skill of 5 over 6. Obviously at the same price, take the Advisor over the Elder. But if you want a 3rd officer the Elder is a good option.

With a 6 on Fight and Shoot they can be equipped for ranged, melee or both to equal effect. To keep a high speed of movement, a Bow lets you avoid the need for Reload actions. You can take a Dagger as a free Bonus Weapon. In melee, the Club is equally thematic for the force. Heavy Strike lets you spend a Fortune to reroll Damage tests helping you confirm kills and Concussive gives your enemy a tough time on Fatigue checks, should they survive.

Advisor (1)

Pieces 4

Exp: 5

Fight: 5/7

Shoot: 6/6

Resolve: 5

Scout, Elusive

At 4 Pieces for a 5 Fight, this unit is hard to pass up. Dual wielding can give you an extra -1 on a single attack. It may be odd from a historical perspective, but dual wielding Rapiers to get the extra defense to offset the base 7 is tempting. You’ll have to use 2 of your 3 Rare weapon choices to take the option though.

Alternatively, I like the idea of using the Local Guide mini from the Civilians pack to create a loosely based historical version of a Queen Nanny character. Reports of her having a bandolier or belt of daggers makes me want to have the model wielding two daggers.

Young Warrior (2)

Pieces 2

Exp: 6

Fight: 7/7

Shoot: 7/6

Resolve: 6

Scout

Young warriors may be ambitious and quick to test their mettle, but they lack experience and that is reflected in their lower stats. But don’t underestimate them, at 2 points they are quick and effective. You can arm them with Daggers as Bonus weapons to keep their cost down. This allows you to deploy several of these models and push your action and reaction economy higher by sheer number of models. Thankfully they capped them at a max of two models. Their core stats are nearly identical to Renegades except they have a worse fight. But advancing at 3 XP over 5 allows them to grow faster in campaign play.

With their Scout ability they also make good treasure runners. So once you recover your loot, you can pass it to them in and pass it backwards with a fire bucket brigade of runners to get things back to safety quickly. Because they are inexpensive, they also make good meat shields (unfortunately), allowing them to run ahead of your more experienced Characters and trigger reactions. Effectively this is a way of forcing your enemy to reload ranged weapons, clearing the way for your officers. If they choose not to shoot your Young Warriors then you are that much closer to your target or objective.

Crew Options of the Maroons

Upon analyzing the Maroon Crew Characters, one realizes that they are all essentially the same core character upgraded and largely all fill the same roles: it falls to you to decide how good you want to do it. The following options represent the company’s non-ranking members:

Renegades

Pieces 2

Exp: 6

Fight: 6/7

Shoot: 7/6

Resolve: 6

Scout

Many Africans who escaped slavery in the Americas were adopted into local native tribes. The large number of Africans escaping from enslavement in South Carolina would mix with the Creeks, Yamasee, and other tribes moving into Florida and eventually make up a major element of the Seminole tribe.

Very similar in concept and play style to the Young Warriors, except they get a better Fight attack. This naturally encourages you to want to give them a solid Melee weapon. Alternatively, you can equip them all with daggers and to keep them lower cost and take a quantity over quality of Characters. Then as attrition happens or you purchase upgrades, or you can stack daggers and dual wield

Early game equipping them with a Bow, Musket or Pistol is also a good option and using them as flanking skirmishers. If you are making them runners, Bows are solid options to keep your movement up and avoid the need to take Reload actions.

Warriors

Pieces 5

Exp: 4

Fight: 6/6

Shoot: 6/6

Resolve: 5

Elusive, Scout

The Warrior is a jack-of-all-trades Character that is relatively good at everything. While 5 Pieces means he’s a bit pricey, the flexibility in the stats has its benefits. Depending on what you recover between rounds as loot, you can easily change this model’s role with little effort. Having a 6 for all combat stats, you can pair them with any weapon and be successful. The Elusive keyword helps immensely to keep them alive with an experience of 4 – a 70% chance to dodge incoming fire.

Raiders

Pieces 4

Exp: 5

Fight: 6/6

Shoot: 6/6

Resolve: 5

Scout

Raiders are the poor man’s version of Warriors. You save 1 Piece of eight to take a 5 instead of 4 Experience and you give up the Elusive special ability, which is a massive loss. If you need to save some doubloons, this is a go-to option. Lacking Elusive, you’ll want to be slightly more cautious with their movement and deployment.

Coromantee Warriors (3)

Pieces 6

Exp: 4

Fight: 5/6

Shoot: 6/6

Resolve: 5

Elusive, Quick

Many Akan men and women from Western Africa were captured during the wars between the Fante and Ashanti and then sold to Europeans as slaves. These men and women were particularly proud, independent, and experienced in war and led many slave uprisings throughout the New World. Many of the Maroons came from this people group, including their most formidable leaders. They were known as Coromantee at the time after the English Fort Kormantine in Ghana where they were sold.

The Coromantee Warriors in the right hands are incredibly dangerous and deadly. They are fast, sneaky and will murder you in the dark and haunt your dreams if you manage to escape. Their 6 Save on Fight and Shoot gives them a 50% base chance of avoiding death.

Offensively, I would use one of your 3 Rare Weapon options and equip them with an Ax (deadlier) or Lance (larger threat range). The Lance on an already fast unit gives them an extra 1″ threat range. A club is a great backup choice from the common table.

If you’re coming from Blood & Plunder, Quick does not work the same. In Plunder it gives you a free Move on a Spade Activation. In Port Royal rather than taking Fatigue for moving more than 8″ you suffer a degrading distance for taking multiple movements. A normal character moves 4″ per Move action with no penalty their first move, -1″ on their second and -2″ on their third. Quick ignores that penalty and lets you move 4′ every Move action. This makes you 3″ faster (almost a free move!) than other Characters. This gives them a larger threat area on Charges and gives them an advantage to capturing loot/

At 6 Pieces of Eight they are extremely pricey so you want to keep them safe. Stick to tight quarters areas where you can get out of Line of Sight and use Elusive. Traveling with a Young Warrior of Renegade for defense is a good combo.

Example Maroon Model Names

The Maroons are a truly unique faction, forged in resistance to slavery and survival. Many first-generation slaves held their African traditions, with the influences, and other later generations were given names by their masters of the colonial world they escaped. Their names reflect a deep cultural heritage, carrying the strength of their ancestors blended with the languages of their oppressors. From African-rooted names like Kwasi and Nzinga to French and English influences seen in names like Baptiste and Fortune, each name tells a story of resilience, identity, and the unbreakable will to remain free.

Company Name: “Club Maroon”

by Erich Goebel

Download or copy this Force

Play Style Recommendations for the “Club Maroon” Starter Company

This example list is rather basic, but with Scout on all of your Company, you move with minimal penalties. Leave your Captain, in the backline and shoot his Bow to put Fatigue on enemies you are about to slam into with your Warriors and their Clubs. Move fast and close on your enemy in the early game. Get into melee, utilizing speed to hit targets that venture alone or out of Line of Sight of their Crew with multiple of your Warriors to stack Fight Skill Bonuses. Elusive on every character also helps you to dodge in and out of terrain on your relentless advance. Save Fortune Points for spicy rerolls during Damage Tests to confirm an early kill or two as you slam into their front line.

Company Name: “Quick Strike Guerillas”

by Jason Klotz

Download or copy this Force

Play Style Recommendations for the “Quick Strike Guerillas” Starter Company

• Keep your Captain and the Warrior in Short Range of each other. Find an area with solid overwatch that can cover your other units as they run for objectives and try to retreat off the board. Stick near the edge of taller terrain so that you can duck behind with Elusive if needed.
• The Advisor is a melee beast, run him at full speed for an objective. If they are fairly clustered on the board, you can travel with the Renegade or Cormantee Warrior.
• The Renegade is a cheap loot runner. Use his Bow or Dagger only if needed and focus on fast movement. When necessary, speed run him to defend your other characters.
• The Coromantee Warrior is your heavy hitter. Send him up the gut, but stay near protective terrain to run and hide if needed. Use your Lance to your advantage and block choke points if possible.
• Remember to use Conceal actions when possible!

Maroons Campaign Sheets

Standard Sheets
📥 Letter Size | 📥 A4 Size

Print Friendly Version
📥 Letter Size | 📥 A4 Size

Maroon Miniatures/Models

DIY / Customizable Miniatures

The Maroons are a fairly unique faction and unfortunately don’t have a dedicated boxed set from Firelock Games at this time. BUT they do offer several excellent miniature options for representing Maroon forces in Port Royal. But it requires some creativity and piecing together of a few sets.

The Sailors sprues that come with the boxed set come with two African style heads (P21) but they are identical. Head P14 can be turned into a sweet Steve Harvey mustache guy. So you can make six models if you dedicate all of them to the crew, but even if you mix the bodies, you have 4 identical heads and a Pair of another that are very distinctive, which is kinda lame.

The Native American boxed set provides a versatile base, featuring dynamic poses and the option to swap in African model heads for an authentic look. This is probably the go-to option for a starter company. It comes with 12 models, and 14 head options,half are Caribbean native styled, but 7 of which are perfect for Maroon models! G27 is a duplicate of P21 in the sailors (Firelock must really like that guy!)

The Militia Boxed Set is also an excellent option! It comes with mostly muskets and swords for weapon options, but if you have the Sailors and Natives you can mix and match weapons nicely. There are at least 6 or 7 heads you can use or tweak with some trimming and paint.

Preassembled Miniatures

The African Warriors 4pk is another great choice, equipped with bows and spears, reflecting the guerrilla tactics and traditional weapons often used by Maroons.

Additionally, the Lanceros models, while designed with a Spanish influence, have 2 of the 4 models that can be painted and modified to represent Maroons armed lances.

By combining the various options you can easily assemble a force that captures the unique and resilient character of the Maroons faction. If you already have several Blood & Plunder kits you can make a wide variety of models for use in Port Royal.

Additional Content Suggestions

• Contending Factions of Port Royal – learn more about each core faction beyond the French Buccaneers available in Port Royal.

Product Recommendations

• The Sailors sprues that come with the boxed set – 2-3 African style heads (P21 & P14 )
• Native American boxed set provides a versatile poses and 7 Maroon Head options
• Militia Boxed Set has plenty of muskets and swords for weapon options. Has at least 6 or 7 head options
• African Warriors 4pk or Lanceros 4pk (50% match the style) are one-piece models so they are ready to play with minimal work
• Black Caesar from the Pirates of Legend box it’s a single model in the set but several of the other models are great for other factions.