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Exalted pilgrims! I bring you an announcement from Brother Tuomas of Pirinen (formerly of Mordheim):

"I hereby announce that I am working on a new Miniature Skirmish wargame, called the Trench Crusade! For the last 6 months I have been collaborating with Mike Franchina (the artist) and James Sherriff (the sculptor) to bring this game to you. The world of Trench Crusade and the accompanying miniature range were already a successful Kickstarter, so when I was asked to write the rules for a skirmish game set in this world in the grand tradition of Mordheim, I simply had to say yes!"
- Tuomas Pirinen, designer of Mordheim

You can read his full announcement here:

https://www.facebook.com/DesignbyTuomasPirinen/posts/pfbid069qbWR33dY192kXHQkT6aG3U1UgeDyqF6EYr7xnGvSsaHSvg4FKXeRQzf8ggQd8Sl

And a couple of press announcements:

https://www.beastsofwar.com/pulp-punk-horror-weird/mordheim-designer-trench-crusade-tabletop/
https://www.wargamer.com/warhammer-mtg-artist-trench-crusade



"Do not mourn the dead, for they are released from the suffering of life. Instead, fear for the living, for their fate is far worse."

A lot of Mordheim, mixed with a few drops of Helldorado, and even Dust, has me stupidly excited. Can't wait for game-play updates.

More artwork that doesn't disappoint.

Is that a papal titan in the background, suffering from a loss to a giant hell demon?

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:A lot of Mordheim, mixed with a few drops of Helldorado, and even Dust, has me stupidly excited. Can't wait for game-play updates.

Thanks, Neomaxim! Next up is a game overview written by Mr Mordheim himself...

alphaecho wrote:

More artwork that doesn't disappoint.

Is that a papal titan in the background, suffering from a loss to a giant hell demon?

Yeah, Mike's artwork is always badass. Glad you like it! As for the whether that is a 'papal titan' in the background, who can say...?

Herald of Beelzebub

+++?????? ??????? ???????? ?? ?????? ???????+++
Trench Crusade is a skirmish-scale tabletop miniature 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.

???? ????????? ????????
The game uses an alternating activation system where players take turns to control one of the warriors in their warband. Each time you attempt any action except movement, you roll to see how well you succeed. This mechanic governs most actions of the game.

At its heart, this core mechanic is simple: Decide which action you attempt to take, pick two 6-sided dice and roll to see if an action succeeds. Typically, you need 7 or more to succeed. Your warrior may also be extremely competent (for example a sharpshooter trying to hit an enemy with a Sniper Rifle could have a bonus of up to +3 to the roll!).

Each model may take as many Actions as they are allowed based on their profile and the weapons and equipment they carry. These could be attacks in melee or ranged shots, sprinting, climbing and many others.

However, there are many modifiers that can make the chance of success easier or harder! In the example above, if the enemy is behind cover, the target number becomes 9. Other circumstances may make the target number even higher, as high as 12! For example, should your opponent be heavily armoured, the difficulty level of attacking them in melee or in missile combat will be increased.

Choose which actions you attempt carefully, though! The Activation of the model ends immediately if you fail an Action, at which point your opponent can activate one of their models. So your sniper may have an Aim Action which will make the shot they take much easier, but if you fail, your Activation ends before you can even pull the trigger!

Various modifiers, special skills, weapons and equipment may also grant Bonus and Penalty Dice. Each Bonus Dice will allow you to roll one additional D6 and then pick the two highest results amongst them, while each penalty dice does the opposite. These bonus and penalty dice can come through special skills, equipment or abilities the warriors may have.

In combat, should your attack prove successful, you roll on an Injury chart with a D6. A result of 5 or more means a typical opponent is taken out of action, while a result of 1-4 means the warrior is merely knocked down. However, should your foe be especially tough or well-armoured, you might need a 6 to take them out, or in the case of some mighty monstrosities a first hit will never take them out - you have to first knock them down before you can try to take them out for good! Some other opponents, such as the zombie-like Metastatic Vessels, are immune to being knocked down and keep coming unless they suffer a debilitating damage.

These examples only scratch the surface, of course. The aim of the rules is to be easy to pick up, but offer unrivalled depth. We want the game to have the depth of the old-school games without saddling the player with undue book-keeping or having to remember a plethora of rules at all times.

The Rules will include the following:

- 12 different scenarios to challenge your force
- Rules for six different warbands including the Trench Pilgrims, the demonic Black Grail, stalwart forces of New Antioch and more!
- Selection of Mercenaries you can hire to bolster your own force
- Campaign system where the scenarios and the Loot you find change and evolve the further the campaign continues
- Glory system that allows your heroes to gain favours, equipment and weapons which no amount of money can buy
- Permanent Injuries that can maim your unlucky warriors in mind, body and soul
- Experience and Character progression system with more than 40 skills for your warriors to acquire through hard-fought battles
- Start your warrior at humble level 1 and see them climb up to a mighty level 24!
- Alternative rules for vehicles, critical hits and much more!

And there you have it - a brief overview of the forthcoming Trench Crusade game. Are you ready to join the faithful on the front lines?

If you're on Facebook, you can follow along here:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091795489133

Missed out on the previous Kickstarter? You can still place a pre-order via BackerKit here:

https://trench-crusade.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

All hail New Antioch!

I have zero idea about the factions but I have evidence* that Antioch make nice hand grenades.

* Yes that evidence is Monty Python and the Holy Grail but you have to start somewhere.

 alphaecho wrote:


All hail New Antioch!

I have zero idea about the factions but I have evidence* that Antioch make nice hand grenades.

* Yes that evidence is Monty Python and the Holy Grail but you have to start somewhere.

They make the holiest of hand grenades. They also don't like rabbits.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


Attention, pilgrims!

Brother Tuomas will be making a brief pilgrimage to Play Modena in Italy this weekend. There, he will be giving a talk on game design, including talking a little about Trench Crusade!

Here's the link if you're in Italy this weekend:

https://www.play-modena.it/2023/programma/i-have-no-words-yet-i-must-design/

The Kickstarter goes live 29th October!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1405364378/trench-crusade

Propper excited to see what the KS offers and more importantly, that the plans are for getting the models etc to regular production and stores

 Shakalooloo wrote:
The Kickstarter goes live 29th October!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1405364378/trench-crusade

They had me at 'part artbook'.

A hardback tome that is part artbook, part lore compendium and part rulebook.

I had completely forgotten about this game. Glad to see the Kickstarter is finally about to launch.

Keen to see the full range of models for this

I've been following it on Facebook, some amazing conversions there.

Really a game for people who think 40k us too whimsical and lighthearted

The art is very interesting but i need to see some rules first. I don't see this becoming huge with just 3D printed models.

Could this be the Chosen One, destined above all to to replace my beloved Dark Age?

Sasorijap wrote:
The art is very interesting but i need to see some rules first. I don't see this becoming huge with just 3D printed models.

I think the play test rules are on their website.
Yep:- https://www.trenchcrusade.com/playtest-rules

They are doing a kickstarter for a full release

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1405364378/trench-crusade

You can look forward to:

A hardback tome that is part artbook, part lore compendium and part rulebook.
60+ different miniatures including starter sets for each of the core warbands.
Terrain, tokens, and more…
Everything available physically and digitally.

Quite interested in this, we have a local play group and iv enjoyed a few demo games. But if its going to be anything more than a curiosity it needs to get the starter sets and models into stores

 Tabletop_Magpie wrote:
Could this be the Chosen One, destined above all to to replace my beloved Dark Age?

That would be awesome - if the rules for this are similar to Dark Age, it will be good times indeed!

This looks interesting but reading the thread. It goes back nearly 2 years. What’s been going on this whole time?

 Phobos wrote:
This looks interesting but reading the thread. It goes back nearly 2 years. What’s been going on this whole time?

If the Kickstarter is more of a pre-order rather than a gathering of funds to start from scratch I would hazard a guess that

A hardback tome that is part artbook, part lore compendium and part rulebook.
60+ different miniatures including starter sets for each of the core warbands.
Terrain, tokens, and more…
Everything available physically and digitally.

could take up to two years?

I'm not a games designer and/ or miniature sculptor though.

 Phobos wrote:
This looks interesting but reading the thread. It goes back nearly 2 years. What’s been going on this whole time?

2 years is normal development time, the problem now is influencers / celebrity devs announcing a project before they've ever put pen on paper, and you have to watch and wait the whole time when normally you wouldn't know something is being made until almost preorder time. Ever better if there's a Patreon - dragging out a nothingburger project for years just by engaging fans and posting the odd scribble is good money these days.

 Phobos wrote:
This looks interesting but reading the thread. It goes back nearly 2 years. What’s been going on this whole time?

The issue with most kickstarters/crowdfunding campaigns nowadays is that the projects have barely started when the crowdfunding begins, which means all of the heavy development work only begins once the money gets unlocked and in some cases people handling the campaigns aren't truly prepared for what comes next, so that adds delays upon delays, which are often not seen.

In essence most of these campaigns that take a long time are like a commercial product that gets published on the conceptual phase, then investors have to wait for the concepts to slowly turn into reality with all of the iterations in between to actually develop the product that you were promised in the conceptual phase.
The quick campaigns on kickstarter are usually things that are already done and just need to be produced in scale or which are digital products and thus have a smaller time to market.

Also, they had some trouble with the first kickstarter they ran which I'm sure hasnt helped:

(taken from the mailing list announcement for the new kickstarter)

The KS was also very popular and had way more people pledge for the miniatures than they could have expected.
Delays happen with quite a few of these projects.At the end of the day people still got the miniatures they pledged for.
It is also a good indication of what to expect with the New one this Month.
I am sure lots of people are looking forward to being-able to add more of the official miniatures to thier collections.
The terrain items have me interested and i cant wait to see what they maybe.

 Phobos wrote:
This looks interesting but reading the thread. It goes back nearly 2 years. What’s been going on this whole time?

Pretty large community on Facebook.

Getting the last Kickstarter out the door completely has taken most of the time with the Developers being adamant about not doing another Kickstarter till the first one was completed. They have been getting all the models ready for printing and there has been multiple reworks of the rules. I think the first edition (Playtest) was on the 4th iteration when I last downloaded it. There is an absolute flood of information that has been released about the world and factions within it. They are making sure everything will be set for the Kickstarter and supported afterward. Tuomas has been available in the Facebook feed and has taken feedback on the game.

There is a whole world being crafted with interactions from the different factions. It is a huge undertaking that I have seen and won't be a blank canvass that might eventually get some work done.

One of my group is really interested in the game and the art direction. It's a little darker (Heavier demonic tones) than I like, but I have printed off a couple of the models and they are fantastic.

I was going to say KS delivery is not complete, but my friend who backed just said his pledge is in customs. But he did have to pester the company a lot, allegedly they incorrectly marked him as dispatched early on.

Kickstarter is live!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1405364378/trench-crusade

I'm probably all in - small scale/skirmish games are my weakness.

This one is so over the top too - interesting to see who I'll be able to get a game in with eventually!

STLs feel really pricey versus physical models. I definitely am in for the book, but am not sure if I can go as all-in as I originally expected.

Phew, no early bird incentive, so I have time to ponder what I, uh, "need" to get from this.