*Blood & Plunder* solo on Tabletop Simulator. I’m very new to *Blood & Plunder*, and I’m trying it out on TTS before I dive into getting minis (especially here in Canada, with trade with the US being what it is right now). I set up two forces, French and English, and used the rather good solo play rules. The scenario was Control the Field from the core book. The English were the defenders, as is suggested for the AI force in the solo rules. The terrain was a series of farm houses near a large manor, with a mixture of fields and light woods around. The French force consisted of *milice canadienne*, Native braves, Native young braves, and a command unit of Native pnieses, led by Bernard-Anselme d'Abbadie de Saint Castin, a historical mixed Native-French commander in Acadia during Queen Anne’s War. The English force consisted of English militia, Dutch boslopers, Native braves, and English militia cavalry, led by Pieter Schuyler, a historical English commander in New York State of Dutch ancestry. --- The early part of the battle consisted of the English placed in better cover, on the south side of the road, with their braves and boslopers taking advantage of the woods and a nearby building to elude any French musketry. The cavalry moves up on the eastern flank, and the inexperienced militia forms a few tight lines and prepares to give drilled fire, with Schuyler commanding them. The French cannot advance very far without placing themselves in an open and freshly-mown field, opening themselves to brutal fire. So the braves and young braves hold the eastern flank, the grizzled veteran among the braves keeping both groups steady, but both groups equally struggling to figure out how to advance towards the objective. The *milice canadienne* and the pnieses, with Saint Castin among them, stay on the west, with the milice using what sparse cover there is and the pnieses hiding behind a building, poking out their heads to take pot-shots at the English militia. As the central English forces of braves and boslopers advance towards the objective, the cavalry wheels around towards the braves. They spot them, but the charge is disastrous: the braves are ready, unload their muskets into the charging horses, and then fall to fierce hand to hand fighting. The cavalry break, and flee, with the braves unable to press their advantage as the horses outpace them. But the young braves see their chance to prove themselves, and chase down the fleeing cavalry. Pulling them from their horses and outnumbering them more than two to one, the English militia cavalry stand no chance. At this point, the boslopers do what they do best, and advance in the light woods, open fire on the young braves, and melt back into heavy cover. The surprise barrage breaks the morale of the young braves, and they flee back towards their anchor point of the grizzled veteran. Meanwhile, at the centre and on the western flank, the English militia lose a man at a time as the pnieses snipe, but hold firm. The English braves shoot the *milice canadienne* in their sparse cover and shock them into lying prone, as the sharpshooter among the braves worries them immensely. ![[june_14-1.jpg]] With the English cavalry wiped out, but the French *milice* and young braves both shaken, the matter balances on a knife’s edge. The French recover, however, with Saint Castin rallying the nearby *milice* and the grizzled veteran rallying the young braves. Meanwhile, all the English units have advanced, the boslopers and braves holding the objective. ![[june_14-2.jpg]] The boslopers are tempted into the same temptation that fouled the cavalry, though, and charge the remaining French braves, and are met with a similar fate; they are not shaken, but do use their skirmisher training to fall back after an inconclusive melee. ![[june_14-3.jpg]] But while the English hold the objective, the French outnumber them, four units to, let’s say, two and a half. The French braves charge the boslopers and wipe them out, the young braves shower the English braves with arrows (to little effect), and the pnieses and *milice* keep the English militia from moving by piling fatigue on them with erratic musket fire. Now it is truly four to two, and the French seize the moment. The French braves fire on the English braves, breaking them, and the young braves repeat their old trick of following up by charging the fleeing enemy. Schuyler signals the retreat, and Saint Castin takes the day. ![[june_14-4.jpg]]