Trench Crusade, the Grimdark tabletop wargame set in "a blasphemous alternate WWI era" is now available on Kickstarter with options to get your hands on all manner of miniatures (both physically and digitally) as well as physical rules and more.

Background // Trench Crusade

Trench Crusade comes from the mind of artist Mike Franchina and features rules designed by Tuomas Pirinen of Mordheim fame. It has then been brought to life by James Sherriff and a great team of creatives from the industry including sculptors like Doug Hamilton, Saint Decent, Ana Roman and more.

Players take control of a warband of miniatures taken from a suitably grim selection of factions. Activating their miniatures in alternating order, actions are resolved by rolling two d6 where a 2-6 is a fail and a 7-11 is a success. A 12+ turns into a critical success. Your choices allow you to add and remove dice from this roll which therefore changes fate in your favour. This is done simply so firing from an elevated position adds a die whereas if a miniature is in cover, it removes one.

Trench Crusade Gameplay // Fortress Factory

More of the main mechanics for Trench Crusade comes from the use of Blood and Blessings. When a miniature takes wounds but isn't killed, it gains what's called a Blood Marker which can then be used to force it to roll at a disadvantage. You can also use it to give you an additional die to see if you wound your enemy when attacking them.

Blessings work the opposite way. They can be used to give you an advantage on rolls or force an opponent to take a die away from their wound roll against you. This push and pull of Blood and Blessings means that there are plenty of tactical decisions to make when diving into your games. Blood and Blessings can also be used to fuel magic and maybe even gain the attention of the gods.

Trench Crusade Gameplay // Fortress Factory

If you want to know more about Trench Crusade and how it works, the rules will always be free. You can get the rules HERE from the Trench Crusade website so you can try before you buy.

The Miniatures

Trench Crusade is, at its heart, a miniature agnostic game so you can use whatever figures you have in your collection. But, the team have worked with some amazing sculptors in order to bring to life a series of miniatures for all of the different factions in the game.

Heretic Legion // Trench Crusade

The miniatures, as mentioned earlier, can be picked up digitally as STL Files for you to print at home OR as physical miniatures, printed by MyMiniFactory and Only-Games. What you're seeing here represents all of the miniatures for the different factions that you can get your hands on when going for certain pledge levels.

New Antioch // Trench Crusade

As well as getting all of these miniatures (either digitally or physically) you can also get what they call Warbands. A Warband features eight miniatures from one of the six factions that can be used to make a 700 Ducat Starter Warband in-game.

Court Of The Seven-Headed Serpent // Trench Crusade

These Warbands can be used to take you through a short campaign or into the midst of a longer one if you prefer. From there, you'll want to get your hands on more miniatures for your faction (or kitbash your own) and dive deeper into the options available to you.

The Sultanate Of The Iron Wall // Trench Crusade

All of the miniatures look absolutely stunning and it's so nice to see the vision of Trench Crusade brought to life by so many talented sculptors. You could very easily get one of the Warband sets to form the basis of your collection and then add on different miniatures from your collection. Or, just go all in and get all of these "official" miniatures.

Trench Pilgrims // Trench Crusade

It looks like these miniatures are also going to be available later on down the line at retail so if you like the idea of picking up a faction but you don't want to get all of the miniatures right now, you could always go with a Warband and then expand later on down the line thanks to Only-Games.

The Black Grail // Trench Crusade

Last but not least, we also have some words on the book. Whilst the rules are entirely free online, there will be a big hefty hardback for you to get your hands on as part of this campaign. It will feature the rules but also loads of Trench Crusade lore and art from Mike Franchina as well as John Blanche, Dave Gallagher and Paul Bonner.

The Living Rulebook still exists (as mentioned above) so that will be your first port of call. This book as part of the Kickstarter is for those eager to get all of the Trench Crusade they can into their veins.

Could you be tempted by Trench Crusade now you've seen their offering on Kickstarter?