Trench Crusade

What is Trench Crusade?

Trench Crusade is a grimdark, alternate-history skirmish wargame set in a world where a Crusader knight opened a gate to Hell 700 years ago. The setting has been locked in apocalyptic trench warfare ever since, blending WWI-era technology with holy war, heresy, and body horror. It’s designed by Mike Franchina and Tuomas Pirinen (of Mordheim fame).

The game grew out of kitbash and conversion culture, and it leans into that hard: the rules are free to download, and the community has always been encouraged to build and proxy their own warbands rather than buy a fixed range.

How to start

1. Grab the free rules from the official site.
2. Two players and a small skirmish-sized table.
3. A warband of models. This is where the kitbashing comes in. Plenty of players build their Trench Pilgrims and Heretic Legion from bits, though official miniatures exist too.

Community resources

The scene is very active and mostly free. Good starting points, pulled from the community:

Rules & lore (free PDFs)

• Core rulebook
• Warband rules
• Rules hub and the community license

Tools & wikis

• Community wiki and the Trench Compendium
• Warband builders: New Recruit, TrenchDeck, WarbandForge
• Official Discord and r/TrenchCrusade

Where to get models (it’s proxy-friendly)

• STL files: FactoryFortressInc, STL-Trench
• Print services: Dungeon Artifacts (US), Zealot Miniatures (UK), Mindworks (EU)

The Hobbinomicon take

I have way more fun converting and painting Trench Crusade than I do playing it. I had a great time vibing with the homies, but gameplay for me was moving my guys around and rolling dice based on what the people who actually knew the game told me to roll. I definitely need to learn the rules to give it a full review. Coming soon. I’m working on a full board right now.

The build logs and painting guides below cover getting a warband painted and based fast.