Ultimate Guide to the Natives Faction for Oak & Iron

This article presents a new homebrew Natives faction for the Oak & Iron game. The faction is a conversion of the Natives from Firelock Games other “pirate game” Blood & Plunder. The Natives faction is meant for use in very small squadron battles. It has not been playtested at large scales and will likely be “broken”, use these rules “wisely”. Your feedback and suggestions are always welcome. Feel free to contact us with suggestions. Because of its different style of play, it is a bit of a novelty. The Natives definitely FUN to play and give you a new set of tactics for your gameplay.

Historical Background

If there is one phrase that might best epitomize Native Americans in the seventeenth century, it is “the beginning of the end”—the beginning of the end of freedom, of self-governance, and for some tribes, of existence. Many coastal tribes are being forced inland, are under a European yoke, or have disappeared entirely. As European expansion grows, so does the forced retreat of Native Americans.

Even so, many Native American peoples stand their ground. In some instances, they are aided by geography, in others by alliance with competing European nations. Often, both geography and alliance play a role. The colonial expansion of European powers is both hindered and abetted by Native Americans, inevitably to the detriment of these peoples. On a smaller scale, sea rovers—pirates and privateers—often benefit from an alliance with various Native Americans, but also exploit many as slaves, and often enough find themselves on the receiving end of Native American weaponry.

Why should you play the Natives Faction?​

• Why? Because you like the Natives faction from Blood & Plunder of course.
• You want to earn points in the Summer of Plunder 2022 Campaign
• You want to try something “fun” and different.

Special Rules

Because of their unique nature, there are a few new rules related to Natives and rules for the new ship classification of Boats.

Rules for Natives

• Natives were not typically involved in large-scale naval combat. As such, games featuring a purely Native force should typically be limited to 20-40 point matches. If you wish to play larger games with Natives, then you will likely want to use ALLY with another Faction that will make up the majority of the points of your force. This is meant to reflect the nature of conflicts in the west that involved Europeans at war with Natives as supplemental units in their military forces. In these instances, you may select and upgrade ships from 1 other faction using the standard rules. When playing in 50 and 100 pt games, at least 50% of the point value of your Force must be made up of Natives ships and Admirals. In 200 pt games, at least 25% of the point value of your Force must be made up of Natives ships and Native Admirals.
• When building your Native force, adjust the maximum number of ships allowed in the game due to the lower point cost per ship: Skirmish = 10 ships, Patrol = 16 ships, Engagement = 24 ships.
• Both of the Natives’ ships are a new classification of vessel known as a “Boat” (see rules below),

Rules for Boats

• Boats are a new classification of ships that have a base size of 40mm x 40mm, which is half that of the larger vessels. Except for minor adjustments to the rules provided here, Boats follow all the standard rules for Ships in Oak & Iron. Any rule, event, Initiative Card, etc that refers to a Ship also applies to Boats
• Boats do not qualify as valid Ships when determining if ships are in Formation.
• Because of its smaller size, when a Boat causes a Collision it does suffer damage.
• Boats may not have sails, but they may still change speed using the standard Change Sail Setting, Seamanship, and Crew Action rules.
• Boats without sails cannot be attacked via Target Rigging attacks or suffer sail-related effects.
• Because they lack artillery, when making Partial Attacks boats may only inflict Fatigue, but do no Damage unless the damage is the result of a Critical Hit. (Yes, it is theoretically possible to damage rigging, kill an admiral or kill the guy who drops the fire or causes the that lights powder magazine.)
• Boats do not add the normal +3 Dice to Close Combat attacks because of their smaller crew size.
• Boats do not earn Strike Points for being Crippled.
• You earn a max of 1 Strike Point for each Boat that has sunk, is Captured, or Out of Action (the statuses do not stack for multiple strike points).
• Boats that are Out of Action automatically sink during the End Phase

Faction Abilities

SCOUTS: Immediately after ships have been deployed before the first round of the game, you may move each of your Native ships using the Speed 2 tool. Ships do not benefit from upgrades or special rules for this move. This may stack with the initial deployment benefits.
HOME TURF: You always have the first choice to be the Attacker OR Defender. If both players are Natives, the highest Admiral chooses or resolve with a Challenge Test if tied.
LIE IN WAIT: Up to half (round down) of your Native ships (excluding Allied ships) may deploy in Round 2 before the Movement begins. All ships start within Pistol Shot range of any board edge but at least Cannon shot range from enemy ships.
ALLY: If you add a non-Native ship to this Squadron, you may also select 1 Initiative card from the allied faction per 100 pts of the allied force (e.g. 1-100 = 1 card; 101-200 pts = 2 cards).

New Ships

Canoa Boat Guide

Piragua Boat Guide

Be sure to check out the Canoa Boat Guide and Piragua Boat Guide for an in-depth review of the Canoa & Piragua boats where we do an analysis of each boat/ship, break down the stats, discuss tactics and do a Pros/Cons of each boat.

Download Ship Stats, Tokens & Initiative Cards for Printing

Below is a download link to a print-ready PDF containing:

• 1 Canoa Stat Card
• 1 Piragua Stat Card
• 5 Native Initiative cards
• 12 Canoa Ship Tokens
• 12 Piragua Ship Tokens

Download the Natives Ships and Initiative Cards PDF

Ship Miniatures

As these ships aren’t official Oak & Iron ships from Firelock Games, you will have to use proxy tokens for your ships — unless– you have a 3D printer. We have built low-resolution, proxy miniatures in the proper scale use in Oak & Iron. These miniatures are available for free, at no cost to you.

CANOA STL File

Download the STL file for your 3D printer on Thingiverse.com here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5427519

PIRAGUA STL File

Download the STL file for your 3D printer on Thingiverse.com here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5427520

Initiative Cards

Card	Initiative Value	Description
War Drums	5	All opposing ships within Musket Shot of a ship in this Squadron must immediately roll a Skill Test with 3 fewer dice. Each ship that fails this test takes 1 point of Fatigue. Discard this Initiative Card instead of returning it to your hand during the end phase.
War Cry	4	After rolling a Close Combat Attack, this ship may roll 1 more dice for each 1 Sword result.
Rain of Arrows	3	Ships in this Squadron may spend a Crew Action to re-roll 1 dice during their next Attack.
Stalwart	2	When making an Attack, treat all ships as if they have 1 less point of Fatigue.
Poison Arrows	1	If this ship scores a Critical Hit in during Partial Attack, the target takes 1 additional point of Fatigue.

Admirals

Captain Peter

King Oldman

Admiral Level:	1
Point Cost:	10
Abilities:	INSPIRING: Remove 2 points of Fatigue when taking a Rally action. BUCCANEER TACTICS: May include 1 card with the faction symbol in your initiative GREAT WARRIOR: Once per turn you may add 1 Die to any roll made by this ship.

King Golden Cap

King Philip

Matamaha

Errata since release:

• Clarification that Strike Points for boats have a limit of 1 rather than 2 like Ships and do not stack
• LIE IN WAIT no longer allows deployment within Cannon shot of an enemy ship and clarified that units move normally after they deploy in Turn 2.
• Ally Initiative cards changed to 1 per 100 pts of the Ally force to differentiate from Pirates’ Multi-National.
• King Oldham, Captain Peter, and King Phillip rebalanced for points based on reverse engineering the existing Admirals in the game.