Trench Crusadin' 101

 Zig and I got together last Saturday for a first go at Trench Crusade. If you're not familiar it's the very grim, very dark alt-history game set in the WW1 time frame. The back story is that crusaders did some dumb stuff back during the Crusades and opened a portal to hell in Jerusalem. Out comes all the badness contained within, plunging the world into a hell on Earth situation.

The rules are free, it is miniatures-agnostic and very friendly to get into for budget-minded gamers. Beware, the game art is gory as all get out and not for those of weak constitution. I bought two warbands on Etsy months ago and they've sat painted yet unblooded ever since. See here and here.  

I put together two basic forces for our first out. I used The Cult of the Black Grail nasties while Ziggy took command of the Antioch forces. We played a vanilla scenario with five pretty evenly-spaces objectives. It's a four-turn scenario and each side earns points for controlling objectives over time and from completing special feats. I was warned to use a terrain heavy tabletop so I did just that on a 36" x 36" mat.

Our setup:

In the early goings, I sent a couple a cannon-fodder Thralls forward to capture an "easy" objective location.

Shuffle shuffle. I piled up a ton us dudes behind the barn since Ziggy was heavy on the opposite corner and the Antioch guys are far more shooty than mine. 

One of my hounds was knocked down by an uppity Shocktrooper. I sent a Herald forward to assist poor doggie. The shotgun blast from Harry the Herald was ineffective against the Shocktrooper.

I also got to learn a lesson about the effectiveness of those snipers. They should be avoided! One of Corpse Guards becomes just a corpse in no time.

After a turn, we've both pushed forward. I was more aggressive in part because my troops a mostly melee and CQB types. See the hound I have sneaking up the far right!

Chomp-chomp, buddy. It turns out they were pretty evenly matched. The hound did do a brilliant job of gumming up that whole Antioch flank though! Ziggy dumped a lot of effort into dealing with the critter.

More pushing forward and snatching objectives! I think at the end of both turns 2 and 3 I controlled four of the five objectives on the table. That alone gave me enough of a score to win, but I wanted that sniper's head!

No action shot, but I finally got a Plague Knight into melee, of course with a Yeoman schlub but whatever. I magicked up a 12 (on 2d6) to hit, so that was a crit then rolled another 12 for the effect. That's one amazing first outing for that Plague Knight! One attack, one Yeoman, cleaved in twain.

The PK who was wasting time on the right side started to meander down to where the hound was doing all the work. He'd set those Antioch guys straight.

But alas, we were at the end of four turn, so it would have to wait until next time. Although I took many more casualties than Ziggy, I was very dominant in objective capture points and won the scenario handily.

The game itself plays quite nicely. Four turns doesn't sound like much, but it's a small unit skirmish and everyone gets to do something. The small battlefield keeps everything tight, a lot like Infinity and Batman Miniatures, the other two small unit skirmish games I've played a lot of. 

The game mechanics (primarily the dice system) is different but easy enough to pick up quickly. Like many of these games, the biggest slow down is referencing what all the skills and attributes do in game terms. Once you've got that either memorized or have everything on a handy document, things would flow more smoothly.

Trench Crusade... I'll give it two thumbs up. 

More Trench Crusade Minis!

 Well, those TC models didn't last long on the work table! A week and job's done. That's a far cry from the last lot which lingered for months. I found these miniatures easy to paint and once I had a uniform worked out in my head, everything just clicked. I was really wondering how the bright green was going to turn out on the big mechanized guys. I'm very happy with that result. On with the show.

The lot

The mechanized heavy infantry. Who says bright lime green isn't "Grimdark?" 

Shock Troopers. I gave these troops distinctive dark green armor. Kind of a badge of "I completed the training" sort of like a special forces beret. These guys are obviously melee-focused. The banner-carrier has a bit of a painting flaw. The brow of his helmet took some flesh-colored paint. I've gone back and fixed it.

Some specialists. Two lieutenants, a Trench Cleric and Combat medic. I carried the gold and blue "national colors" through on the leaders' helmets. I also went back after the photo shoot and fixed the back of the cleric's robe where it looks like some rust pigment made it's way into the white highlights.

More specialists. Two sniper priests and an engineer. I gave the engineer the same dark green armor that the shock troopers have, indicating he went through that same training.

And finally some grunts - Yeomen. I'm not sure why one is kitted out more like a WW1 infantryman, but, well, what do I know. Yeoman can be upgraded to Trench Moles which gain the ability to infiltrate on the battlefield. I suppose that's what I can use him as.

And the painting corrections...

Paints are my usual combination of Vallejo, P3, MIG and Army Painter. The bases are primarily painted with cheap hobby store paints because I just hate using the "good stuff" on dirt and rocks. The big mechanized guys also got a visit from the pigment fairy to add some stains. Everything got a heavy black oil-paint wash, allowed to almost dry, then wiped down with cotton swabs. It's such a good technique for getting that heavy, sooty look and like a good sauce on food, "brings it all together." There's a lot to be said for consistent basing and a consistent finish on a collection like this.

Now that I have two very nice forces, I'm ready to but Trench Crusade on the table for a run!

The damage done. 🤣

Completed Painting - Trench Crusade Minis

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! Mine was good, except that I've had a nasty head cold that's made me miserable.

This week I finished up the group of 3D printed Trench Crusade models I picked up a couple of months ago. Overall, I'm delighted with the results. They're dark, nasty and horrible - exactly what TC calls for. The particular "faction" in game terms is The Cult of the Black Grail. If you're familiar with the GW IP, not a far cry from Nurgle. If you're not familiar, they're minions of the devil Beelzebub and spread misery through disease and decay. The head cold I've been nursing has been ironically appropriate.  On with the pageant.

Front Row: Three Grail Thralls. They represent the actual shit end of the stick.

Back Row : An Amalgam and a Lord of Tumors. These are the high-end monsters. A walking wall of corpses and the bossman.

Hug me!

Bossman has a couple of unfortunate sods with him acting as weapon bearers.

Grail Thralls. The bullet-sponges of the crew.

Back Row: Three Heralds of Beelzebub

Front Row: Three Corpse Guards

Adding some color and weird to the gang! The iridescent wings are fun.

Working our way up the ranks!

The weird parasites on these fellows also have fun shiny wings.

Four Hounds of the Black Grail. Some speed and assorted weirdness.

The model in the leaping pose is nice.

There was a lot of base space to fill with these critters. I rather enjoyed that process.

And finally, three Plague Knights. 

These are the elite warriors of the group. I rather like their look. Kudos to the designer of these. Like the other things with wings, these are also iridescent but the photograph's angle doesn't really do it justice.

The kids have come a long way.

The bases were done up with putty, wooden bits snapped at random angles, wound wire, straws, gravel, skeletal bits from other kits, etc. Painting the models wasn't anything unusual. After basic painting, I applied a heavy but thinned black oil paint wash over the models. After 30-40 minutes of drying time, some cotton swabs are used to remove excess black, leaving the very heavy shading. Some highlighting here and there, picking out some colors in other spots and boom, job's done! Now, it looks like they could use an opponent...

October Catch-Up Just Checking In

 October has been a very very slow month for gaming. The primary reason is that my father-in-law has been staying with us off and on (mostly on) for much of the month (read: last 3 months). My painting office is his bedroom when he's here. His wife (my step-mother-in-law) had been terribly sick for a long time and just passed away last Friday the 24th. Given that, my opportunities for painting and hobbying have been very few and quite far between.

 First up are some 1/600 scale WW2 PTO aircraft. I've been wanting to do some Pacific War Check Your 6 and Pico Armor was the way to go. I've put together flight stands using Lego for these and I think it's going to work quite well. For a change, I'll be able to show planes' altitude visually instead of with dice. I need to do a full photo spread of how I did those.

I did some painting on the Trench Crusade stuff. Still very much a WIP.

I picked up some Mexicans from Old Glory 25s for What A Cowboy. Those will be fun additions to the collection.

I did also complete two more old west paper buildings for WAC. I need to hit the exposed white bits with colored Sharpies and put sand on the bases. They're the Casa del Rico set from Finger and Toe Models, available on WargameVault. Not bad for $3.00 + printing on 110 lb card stock.

 And lastly, I got a new ride! I bought it a few weeks ago.

It's a 2020 Volvo Wagon. I'm quite happy with it and I do hope it holds up. Have a great November everyone!

 

The Next Big Thing

 Good morning. If you haven't heard of it or seen the stuff, Trench Crusade has been been getting some good run lately and to be fair, it does look rather interesting. If nothing else, the 3rd party miniatures and aesthetic have grabbed my attention from a painting perspective. After a good real through of the MRB and army lists, I plunked down some cash with an Etsy vendor for a Cult of the Black Grail force. It's one of the forces of hell, closely aligned to Beelzebub. Think Nurgle, but without the carnival atmosphere. I was home, sick for a couple days last month, which might have influenced my decision. 

I was a good boy and finished those Afghan Cavalry minis before even touching these. I spent a few hours on Saturday working on bases for the models, decorating , puttying, etc. You've seen my models... you know that a pretty base is important to me. After a long period of letting glue set, this is the result.

 

 There are two large models I haven't based yet, the Amalgam and the Lord of Tumors. They'll require a bit more delicacy and/or focus. I'm pretty sure I'm going to treat this collection with the very heavy black oil paint wash and scrub technique I used on many Infinity models and some fantasy models in the past. See here and here for examples. Hooray new projects!