Trench Crusade

Trench Crusade is a skirmish scale wargame that’s made waves recently. I got to play a couple of games at Ropecon last weekend, using my own forces that I had been working on all year! Getting to bring models to the table is always my goal, and this was a great way to put some pressure on finishing the paintjobs, and actually get my butt to a number of games.

The game is popular thanks to a couple of things. The setting is unique, combining world war one with Biblical end times, all designed and illustrated by a team that is well versed in this type of content, coming from Warhammer, Mordheim, and the Diablo series. It was a massive Kickstarter success. Very interestingly for a commercial miniatures game, the game is inclusive of and indeed promoting kitbashed models and proxies. For a long while, the official miniatures weren’t out, and they were keen to highlight what fans were using to play the game with. Thanks to being an independent production, the team has been able to push the esthetic far beyond what a Games Workshop or the like could do – many of these units would not be welcome in supermarket toy sections thanks to infernal imagery, gore, and nudity.

It’s a good game. The mechanics feel modern and iterated on, with zero book keeping and a limited number of modifiers. The dice mechanic works well (generally a 2D6 roll where 7+ is a success), but it’s counter intuitive due to the way modifiers (plus and minus dice) work, and takes some explaining to land. The activation system and the concept of risky actions which end your turn if you fail keep things interesting and moving at a pace. The models can get around the table at a rapid pace, but there’s always a degree of uncertainty around exactly how far they can go. This is good stuff, and refreshingly unlike most of the competition.

Blood markers are something I haven’t seen in another game. They are hit points and dis/advantage combined in a fun way. You get them as a result of non-lethal hits, and your opponent can spend them to make you roll worse or to increase the severity of later hits – or save them up for a “bloodbath”; a seriously amped up injury roll that will most likely kill you. This makes the opposing player pay close attention to your models to consider their options.

The degree of luck in the game means that every hit is potentially lethal, and every attack counts. On the flipside, sometimes models keep knocking each other over in melee with nothing conclusive happening over multiple turns.

What I don’t like is the very old school approach to army list building. In addition to picking your models (around ten in a force), you need to kit them out in full, choosing and paying for in points for every gas mask, armour option, side arm, melee weapon, and so forth. Of course there are exceptions, too: units which can’t be outfitted like the rest of their force.

This leads to three problems:

One, building a force is just fiddly and slow. There are a lot of moving parts. Digital tools help, but it’s still cumbersome.

Two, building a force becomes a matter of system mastery. The first lists I built were outright bad: they lacked options you should always take – but that doesn’t read anywhere, it’s just something you need to know. Getting to a table after months of prep, only to learn that you’ve been dumb in composing your force is not a great feeling. Getting to play a single game of a wargame is a big investment in time and effort, and I feel more care should be put into making sure those are good experiences.

Three, every unit potentially has their own rules, thanks to their varying gear loadout. While the flexibility is nice, I do wonder if anything would be lost if this was a little more streamlined.

It all feels archaic, something reflecting back on Games Workshop games’ first editions – like the original Rogue Trader, which is where I started wargaming. That’s not inherently a bad thing! I do dislike the system mastery part of it, where it’s easy to make forces that simply won’t be any good.

Actual gameplay is reasonably quick and there is enough room for luck to lead to surprising, dramatic outcomes. There is lots of tense decision making, especially with activation and risky actions. Your decisions matter. Compared to Warhammer games, deployment doesn’t feel as critical, as most of these models can get around fast if need be.

Playing with miniatures is presented as the goal of wargaming, but for me it’s really about the craft, sometimes called “the hobby”, being the putting together and painting of the miniatures. For me these days, 3D printing the miniatures is a big part of that.

I’m so into Trench Crusade because of the game’s esthetics. I signed up for the crowdfunding solely on the strength of a couple of the character designs: the Anti-Tank Communicant, the Artillery Witch, and the humble Pilgrim with its pointed helmet. I like most of these miniatures a great deal, and there’s just a couple in the entire range that don’t really work for me – tragically, the leaders of both of my main forces being among those.

Now that I’ve gotten started with actually playing the game, I am looking forward to doing more of that. I still need to build my Trench Crusade terrain, too – right now it’s a collection of XPS boards and 3D printed resin pieces I need to cut and glue together.

For further inspiration and perspectives into wargaming, I recommend Chris Mcdowall’s podcast, Bastionland. Start with the episode with Joseph McCullough of Frostgrave, or narrative wargaming with Emmy Allen.