Port Royal Faction Overview: Forces of the Crown

This article is a general discussion of the English Forces of the Crown in Port Royal. Content will cover their stats, strengths, easily built archetypes, and an example of an initial Company you can use for a campaign build.

Port Royal boasted the largest military force of any English settlement in the Caribbean. For many years, the principal defenders were the buccaneers who used it as their home base. More recently, as its value came more as a center for legitimate commerce than privateering, more conventional forces have taken over as the primary defenders. Many former buccaneers can still be found among the troops there, especially among the militias and naval forces, even among the Officers. As a result, in the aftermath of the cataclysm that rocked the island, many of the Officers grabbed what forces they could and began attempting to secure the city from raiders. While others, under the guide of doing the same, saw an opportunity to enrich themselves.

The Captain

As a Forces of the Crown player, your Captain is rather standard. His stat line is solid, save for a 7 Shoot Skill, which means he likely won’t be leading your marksman team. However, with 6 Save scores and a Resolve of 4, he won’t be easily taken down. With the Drilled abilitiy, he is likely best placed alongside another Drilled character, such as a Soldier or Militia, to contribute to Drilled shoots. He can also give out Commands to help Reload or launch Shoot actions at range.

Lieutenant (1) and NCO (2)

The Lieutenant and NCO are slightly less defensive than your Captain, but trade for slightly better offensive capability with a Shoot skill of 6. At 3 Pieces of Eight, the Lieutenant and NCOs are cheaper than every other Factions’ “second-in-command” characters. They are great pickups alongside Militia or Soldiers with the Drilled keyword, low resolve. Being officers, they’ll also have a faster Advancement Rate. Lastly, the Issued Weapon Faction Ability gives you a group of solid, inexpensive Officers. The NCO trades one resolve for a 10% better Fight Save.

Midshipman and Militia

In its current state, the Midshipman is (in my opinion) not worth recruiting beyond roleplaying or historical reasons. For literally the exact same cost, you can recruit a Militia, which has the same stat line and the Drilled keyword for free.

However… As your cheap chaff character, the Militia isn’t great. With offensive skills of 7, Militia Crew members are not winning awards for anything. That said, they are cheap triggers for the Drilled keyword when paired alongside stronger shooters within the Company. This lets you leverage the Soldier’s Expertly Drilled to gain Accurate and hit with a Base Shoot Skill of 5. This unit works best when paired up in a combo! use your actions on the stronger Character to maneuver or Reload and then trigger the Shoot from the weaker model as essentially a “free bonus action”.

The other Militia playstyle works for horde-faction fans. Two Militia with Muskets costs as much as a single Soldier with Musket and with only a 10% worse stat line. Two Militia shots with a 7+ have a 64% chance of at least 1 Success vs a Soldier’s 50% success from a 1 shot at a 6+. Additionally, with Drilled, pairs of Militia can output some heavy firepower for their cost. Their downfall is their experience level, which will limit their Reaction potential and thus, Action Economy, severely. However… if you have enough bodies – does it matter? Build the Line. Pairs of models also let you pick up and move with Plunder Tokens while still being able to use at least 1 Musket.

Seaman and Able Seaman (3)

With nearly the same stat line, the Seaman and Able Seaman are very similar crew members. The key difference is that for just 1 more Piece of Eight you pick up an experience level of 4 and Battle Hardened and a 4 Resolve while Engaged, which is more than worth it. The limiting factor is that you can only have 3 Able Seamen on your roster. 

Battle Hardened serves the Able Seaman well. With a 6/6 Fight and a 7/7 Shoot, his main role will be a melee fighter. The cheaper Militia and the expensive Soldier are better shooters and should be taken over a range-focused Seamen. As a loot runner or melee model they offer minor cost savings.

Soldier

The bread and butter of mostForces of the Crown lists. The Soldier is currently the only character in Port Royal with the Expertly Drilled keyword, which is not to be underestimated. With a Base shoot skill of 6, the Soldier isn’t bad, but when he utilizes Expertly Drilled with a mate, his musket quickly becomes a long-range blunderbuss at a base Shoot of 5. This gives him the potential to hit multiple targets. If positioned smartly, Soldiers can daisy chain off each other for ridiculous firing efficiency.

For example:

Soldier 1 fires at Target 1 and elects to use Expertly Drilled with Soldier 2 gaining him Accurate and Blast (1). This affords him a base Shoot Skill of 5 and the ability to Shoot at Target 2, standing near Target 1. Follow this up with a Reload. Soldier 2 now activates, reloads, and repeats the sequence for a total of 4 Shoot Actions across 2 Targets within 2 activations. 

This can be further enhanced by having the Captain nearby with Command to hand out reloads to keep the daisy chain going. This strategy is easy to play around with on paper, but requires skill to put into practice. Savvy opponent’s opponent can spread their characters out to avoid being punished or duck out of line of sight and deny you multiple actions. Additionally, because you have to cluster up to fire, enemy blunderbusses may be your downfall – be careful.