Maroons were runaway slaves in theWest Indies, Central America, SouthAmerica, and North America, whoformed independent settlementstogether. Maroon is a corruption of the Spanish word "cimarrona" whichloosely translates to "deserter" orrunaway.In the New World, as early as 1512,black slaves had escaped from Spanishand Portuguese owners and either joined indigenous peoples or eked outa living on their own. Sir FrancisDrake enlisted several 'cimaroons'during his raids on the Spanish. Asearly as 1655, runaway slaves hadformed their own communities. Onthe Caribbean islands, runaway slavesformed bands and in some casesformed armed camps.No one knows how many marooncommunities there actually were inthe New World; some bands weresmall and lasted only a few months,while others survived for generations.By the seventeenth century maroonshad become a significant force in theNew World, forming alliances withIndians and pirates, playing onecolonial power against another, and insome cases actually controlling theflow of goods through strategic areas.Some maroon communities grew largeenough to defeat European armiesand take over islands like Jamaica andHaiti.Runaway African slaves becoming partof a pirate crew were considered asdaring seamen with nothing to lose.

Jamaican Maroon

One can easily understand theattraction that the pirate world couldexert to black sailors, with its promiseof freedom, equality, fraternity suchas no nation state would thenconsider. The most known maroonpirate was Black Caesar (died 1718).Black Caesar raided shipping fromthe Florida Keys for more than adecade and later served as one of

Captain Blackbeard's chief lieutenantsaboard the

Queen Anne's Revenge

. Hewas one of the surviving members of Blackbeard's crew following his deathat the hands of Lieutenant RobertMaynard in 1718.The relationship between pirates andAfricans did not stop with acceptanceof the latter on pirate ships.Cosmopolitan pirate crews wouldoften come in contact with marooncommunities, where sailors would findfood and rest in the palenques. Piratesalso relied on maroons to obtaininformation on the transportation of precious metals, a task the maroonshad performed as slaves.

Pacification with the Maroons

Maroons

Runaway African slaves were considered as daring warriors of theSpanish Main, with nothing to lose. Forming alliances with pirates,Maroons played one colonial power against another, and in many casesactually controlled the flow of goods through strategic areas.

Choice of Fighters

A Maroon warband must include aminimum of five models and you mayspend up to 200 doubloons on recruitingand equipping them. Any doubloons notspent in the creating of the warband will be retained. The number of models in thecrew may never exceed 30 models. Thenumber of each type of fighter you mayhave is displayed on their profiles – theexception is Renegades, of which youmay recruit any number. Mind the use of the word warband instead of crew, asMaroons preferred to organize in land based bands rather than follow the life of seamen.

Allies

Maroons may also take part in a game asallies of a player’s pirate, privateer or royal navy crew. Allied warband may becontrolled from the player himself or from a third player, however the pointvalue (in doubloons) of the allied forcemay not exceed half of the player’s crewdoubloon value, nor the total of themodels of the crew and allies can bemore than 40. All other limitationsregarding the choice of fighters must still be followed. Maroons will be happy toform an alliance with pirate crews butare less keen to help privateer or royalnavy crews. For this reason, a Maroonwarband will accept a normal upkeep fee(according to the warband size) whenhelping a Pirate crew, but will require adouble upkeep fee from all other crewtypes. Mind that when calculating theinfamy of a crew for a mission in whichMaroon allies are used, the number of allied Maroons must be taken intoaccount as if they were a permanent partof the player’s crew.

Preferred Skills

The skill tables preferred by a Maroonwarband are Fighting, Savvy andMoving.

Special Rules:

Nothing to loose: a Maroon warband isformed from former slaves who do nothave much to lose. This makes themdesperate and ready to risk their lives inorder to defend their freedom. A Maroonwarband will begin taking Rout testswhen two thirds of the models of thewarband are lost, instead of half.However, if their parent crew flees from battle, Maroons will also instantly run tofight another day.