Quoting from their site (ref):
Trench Crusade is a skirmish-scale tabletop miniatures game that will plunge players deep into a horrifying alternate timeline. During the Crusades a heretical band of Templars dared defy the Almighty and, casting aside their sacred vows, unleashed the forces of Hell upon the Earth. Over 800 years later, in the Year of Our Lord 1914, this brutal, merciless war between the forces of Heaven and Hell rages on. This is not just a fight for survival, but a cataclysmic struggle that will decide the very fate of humanity’s soul.
Ok so this game looks awesome!
This was the first thought I had honestly, after that I saw the gore and christianity/hell depictions and I was intrigued even more! Hell vs Earth in the most gruesome way sounds interesting in a skirmish game.
Coming from a 40k universe, with quite a substantial army count and money invested in that hobby, I found quite some points that this game was actually really interesting to dive into.
- The rules are free, like this is their main moto, free to use, free updates, free in general. They promote for the community to come up with new things. Here have a look (rules and primers).
- Promote kit bashing and customization, following the same logic they wanted to create a community that can shape this game and make it grow from the player base.
- Launched an extremely successful Kickstarter with a printed book and above all STL files for the minis. Rather than squeezing out your fanbase’s wallets, this was more natural, more modern approach to grow a brand and game the correct way
- You can proxy any mini for anything else, keep the base the same and proxy your heart out!
- Game rules are 3 pages, simple to hit and to wound mechanisms, model by model activation, alternating turns = sounds simple enough to setup a game and play all under 90-120min?
- You can still buy the STLs here: https://www.myminifactory.com/users/FactoryFortressInc?show=store
Pretty big disclaimer, I am not affiliated in any sorts with the company behind the game, myself as others I am just promoting the hobby work that someone can make around a game when the owners emphasize in the community and the creativity of their fan and player base.
So what did I do?
A giant cross, on top of a hill, used as a radio tower, maybe also a bit of a shrine? Around it trenches that hold throughout the time and the assaults for over 800 years.
Well most of the creators out there had their hands on that cross, so let’s do it!
This was going to be a gift to a friend of mine printing the minis for me, so sounded like a good exchange + a good excuse to try out something in this theme!
Main Structure
So detachable cross and base made out of packing foam (didn’t have XPS foam till now). The whole thing smothered in wall filler. The base was practically a small fabric canvas on a hardboard that I got from a supply store for paintings. Some bullet holes some carvings on the “concrete” part of the cross an the shape looked promising.
Main idea was not there, starting shaping up when I starting slapping stuff on the board. Hill top, cross used as a communication tower, maybe a small shrine also, protected while also accessible for worshipping.
Next up, the base construction.
The base
Main materials used for the base was the filler as the base to cover the foam, a brown spay paint to seal the whole base and then coffee stirrers, corrugated paper and some jenga-like wooden pieces to shape up the place where the cross would fit.
There was no plan in general where to place what, so I started cutting and gluing. This was quite relaxing and stress-free that I finished all the detailing of the base in the same evening.
Next part was the sandbags:
Airdry clay rolled into small think sausages and cutting it in the somewhat same length, this created small corners that looked like actual sandbags. I didn’t want to spend too much time on this as they were going to be covered with grime and dirt after that so the texture was not the main thing in my head.
This piece would be fortified enough to protect the valuable communication relay that the cross was, so there had to be a lot of sandbags to withstand any close to mid range fights.
The Cross
Next was the cross, which was painted and was prepared in parallel with the base to keep the consistency of the colors.
The cross was complete after a couple of days and was fixed on 3 skewers on the main base for easy transport and store (this diorama would need to cater for a trip to Malta :P).
Final result
The rest of the base had a mix of pva glue, wall filler, paint and water which created a rock like texture on top of the diorama. Also I highlighted a bit more the sandbags to stick out from the main terrain.
The back of the cross had a small shrine to a deity not known in this universe (a 40k Sisters of battle banner was enough to steal a bit of the vibe of the church to this theme). Also as this was a place to pray there were a lot of weapons left behind as a tribute to God. Those ofc were spare parts from my Mechanicus army that suited quite well with the WW1 theme of the game.
Lastly around the base in some places I added with not so much success some Orthodox scriptures and pictures that I somewhat destroyed by slapping too much Mod Podge. Lesson learned and still kept them as they added variety and color to the piece. At the back left of the diorama a small shrine dedicated to the Holy Mary and some failed representation of candles from black birthday candles that I chopped. Still they added color to the piece so I left them there.
In general this was a fun build that made me think that I can something even bigger for this game as I really enjoyed the theme and the concept around it.
Have a look at the rules, find some proxies and give it a try! Surely if you like skirmish games this would be right at your alleyway.
Trench Crusade official site: https://www.trenchcrusade.com/
