TOURNAMENT RULES:

Players should bring lists of no more than 200 points that include ships & boats. All games will be played on Sea boards. There will be three 100 minute rounds of Swiss pairings. Scoring details can be found later in the packet. Forces must be chosen from;

• Blood & Plunder core or revised rule book
• No Peace Beyond the Line
• Fire on the Frontier
• Raise the Black
• Commanders & Characters from The Buccaneer’s Companion Vol. 1 are also legal.

OPTIONAL RULES:

For this tournament, cannons must be used according to the rules found in the rulebook in the Blackbeard vs. Maynard Two Player Starter Set or the “Revised Rulebook.” If you don’t have access to either of those sources, you can find those rules for free at: https://tinyurl.com/2p84n4xc.

Shaken units may roll for Fight Saves, succeeding on 9+, per the optional rule on pg.188 of No Peace Beyond the Line.

The Gun Decks Subsection rules will not be used in this tournament (since they are optional and require agreement between both players).

No Optional Rules can be chosen for any scenarios (from the Raise the Black book). Games should be played applying the current errata 1.4 and the 2026 Units Update (both can be found in the Downloads section of the Firelock website).

PLAYER REPSONBILITY :

• Players should bring:
• All ships & models for their Force
• Rulebook
• Activation Deck
• Measuring Tape
• Appropriate Number of d10’s
• Appropriate Condition Markers
  • (Reload, Fatigue, Critical Damage etc)
• 2 Printed Copies of their Force

SPORTSMANSHIP:

When playing in a competitive environment it is possible to forget that the purpose of playing games is to have fun. Players are expected to be considerate and respectful to their opponent and the other participants during the tournament. Activations should be played in a timely manner, players should not waste time. Players should be open and honest with force lists and special rules when asked.

PAINTING REQUIREMENTS:

There is no requirement for models to be painted for the tournament but it is highly encouraged. Rumor has it that painted models roll higher numbers on dice.

CONVERSIONS AND PROXIES:

Conversion and proxies, including miniatures from other manufacturers, are all accepted for models, as long as they are reasonably close in scale and generally fit into the pirate universe (no space marines or goblins). All miniatures must be based on 20mm bases (for balance and ship capacity). While conversions and proxies are fine for miniatures, all ships and boats must be official Firelock products (for fairness and balance.)

FORCE SELECTION:

Forces need to be approved by the TO. You can get them preapproved (HIGHLY recommended) by emailing a Blood & Plunder Online Force Builder link to blunderandperil@gmail.com.

If you do NOT submit your force for preapproval before the event, you should arrive at least 20 minutes before the start of the tournament so your force can be checked over and any adjustments made if necessary.

In either case, each player should submit a physical copy of the force list at the beginning of the event. These lists will be fixed for the event. No adjustments should be made to forces between rounds (moving cannons, Character placement etc). Changing how you deploy units within your ship(s) and what speed your ship(s) start at is all allowed.

At the start of each tournament round, players should exchange their physical force lists for review. Players are expected to inform their opponent of any Force or Unit options they have taken in their force, for instance, altered experience level, extra equipment, character placement etc.

GAME SETUP:

Game mats (4×3 or 4×4) will be provided for players. Before the players set up they will need to roll to determine which player will be the Attacker and which player will be the Defender. Deployments for each round are defined in the scenario rules.

ROUND TIME LIMITS

Games will be played in 100 minute rounds. This is a tight schedule so players should endeavor to play quickly & efficiently! A visible timer will be present and announcements will be made when there is 1 hour remaining, 30 minutes remaining, and 10 minutes remaining. At 10 minutes remaining the TO will call “Final Turn”, from which point the players should finish the game turn they are currently playing and not start another turn. At the end of the allotted time,

the TO will call “Final Activation”. The players will then finish the unit’s activation for which they currently have an activation card played for and then tally the scores.

The final turn should be scored “as it lies” and then Strike Point totals calculated. A standard Blood & Plunder game lasts for 6 turns, or until a Strike Test is failed. If players have reason to end a game earlier than this, the TO should be made aware as no further actions can be taken once players have agreed to end the game early. If there is a tie in Strike Points, each player adds up the total point cost of all their models removed as casualties (including ships and cannons if captured). The player who lost the fewest total points worth is then declared the winner. If there is still a tie, the player with the fewest lost models is the winner. If there is still a tie, the game is considered a Draw.

Upon completing your game, fill out your score sheet with results and Strike Points and submit it to the TO as quickly as possible to allow the next Round to begin on time.

ROUND PAIRINGS:

First round pairings will be randomly matched or assigned at the discretion of the TO.

After the first round, the TO pairs players based on their Tournament Point (TP) scores. Players will always play other players with similar TP scores. After round one, and continuing for all rounds, players with higher TPs should be paired off against one another, while players with lower TPs will be paired off against one another. In the event of multiple ties, pairings will attempt to be made by similar Differential scores and then SP scores. Once all players have been paired up, the Tournament Organizer assigns a table to each group of players. This may be random.

TOURNAMENT POINTS [TP] :

A player who wins the Scenario is awarded 3 TP, while a player who loses is awarded 0 TP. In the unlikely event of a draw both players will receive 1 TP. Tournament Points are used to determine the winner of the Tournament (and final standings) with ties broken by Strike Point Differential and total Strike Points (SP), in that order. The Round Reporting Sheet has a place for the players to record if they earned a win, loss or draw, as well as the number of Strike Points each player gained.

STRIKE POINTS [SP]:

The players will also report the total number of SP that they gained during the game.

STRIKE POINT DIFFERENTIAL:

The TO will note the Difference [DIFF] between the players’ SP at the end of the game when the Round Reporting Sheets have been collected. The player with the lower SP score receives a Differential equal to the negative value of that difference, while the player with the higher SP score receives a Differential equal to the positive value of that Difference. [Example: Jonathon beats Mike with 3 Strike Points to 1. Jonathon gains 1 SP and a DIFF of -2 while Mike gets 3 SP and a DIFF of 2.] For the sake of clarity, negative numbers of DIFF are good, and high numbers of SP are bad.

ODD NUMBER OF PLAYERS:

If there is an odd number of players in the tournament, efforts will be made to provide a Ringer (volunteer to play at the bottom table) to play against the odd man out. If no Ringer is available, that player will receive a Bye of a Win (3 T), with o SP a DIFF of -2. No player can receive more than one Bye per event.

If necessary a bye will be assigned randomly during the first round. In all subsequent rounds, the player with the fewest Tournament Points (TP) is assigned the bye. In the

In the case of ties, those players’ differentials (DIFF) are compared, followed by Strike Points (SP) (if a tie persists). If a player has already received a bye during this tournament then the next lowest scored player who has not already received a bye is assigned the bye.

FORFEITING GAMES:

Where a game is forfeited the forfeiting player earns 0 TP/+5 DIFF/10 SP for the round. Their opponent will receive 3 TP/-3 DIFF/0 SP.

TOURNAMENT SCENARIOS:

The three tournament rounds will use scenarios from the following 5 scenarios:

• Control the Field (Core)
• Take and Hold (Core)
• Encounter (Core with errata setup)
• Escort (NPBtL)
• Chase’s End (RtB)

The Scenario will be announced after pairings for each round.