"Into The Trenches" - First Game of Trench Crusade

During the Crusades, a heretical band of Templars 

dared defy the Almighty, 

unleashing the hordes of Hell upon the Earth. 

Over 800 years later, this merciless war 

between the forces of Mankind and Hell still rages on.

- Trench Crusade

Hello readers all, welcome back to yet another Friday on The Art of Caesura!

We're right in the middle of looking at my first Trench Crusade warband - The Folly of Nudd. But, today we're going to take a pause from our regularly scheduled look at the next member of the warband, to report on my very first game of Trench Crusade!

My first game of Trench Crusade ever (after having been there right from the start - following the first Kickstarter) was a great bash-up between my Cult of the Black Grail (The Folly of Nudd) and my friend Eoghan's (pronounced Owen, for our non-Irish readers) Eire Rangers (An Taoide Dearg - "The Red Tide"). We cobbled together a battlefield with a mix of Warhammer terrain, and a few printed and handmade Trench Crusade bits. Making an evocative table will be another fun future hobby project. 

Despite all the advice online (and in the Carcass Front box) stating that we should play a couple of one-off games first to get a sense of the rules, we said "to hell with that" and immediately launched into our first campaign! 

We set up for the scenario "Claim No-man's Land" where we would get points for 5 different objectives on the table and for special secondary objectives - Glorious Deeds. 

My gameplan was to run my two dogs up each board edge, and the Herald (with Corruption Belcher) up the middle (ideally hugging cover in all instances) to lay down a bunch of early infection markers, so that when my foot-slogging force of the Lord of Tumors (Nudd the Fallen) and his retinue of Corpse Guard, Amalgam and Thralls made it into combat, the enemy would already be softened up a little. 

It didn't work out that way. 

So, the very first action of our first ever Trench Crusade game was for his Sniper Priest to put a bullet right between the eyes of Dormarch, my Hound of the Black Grail, taking him out of action! 

I took a lot of early casualties, including Gigelorum, my Herald, who buzzed in front of his Heavy Mechanized Infantry who was armed with a machine gun (see pictures above from each of our perspectives), hoping to belch corruption all over him, but fate had other plans, he failed his dash to get out of the way...and was swatted. 

Despite the casualties, Nudd the Fallen (my Lord of Tumors) and his buddy, Noden, the Corpse Guard both managed to hoist their britches and hustle onto the central objective, claiming it for the forces of the Fallen. 

The climax of the game came in Turn 3, when my friend's Eire Warrior Priest slapped the shoulder of a Shocktrooper, said some hugely inspiring words and - armed only with his pole arm and one blessing marker - the trooper charged into Nudd the Fallen and downed him in one go! Nudd lived up to his moniker! It was incredible and very cinematic!

Nudd swung back with a great opportunity to cleave through a bunch of guys, but completely whiffed his (theoretically) formidable attack. 

Elsewhere, my Thralls did their best to hold three objectives for much of the game...

...Though his Heavy Mechanized Infantry had a field day gunning them off the central objective. 

Nudd was taken down, but thanks to his Tough rule, he eventually got back up again and claimed some retribution on that damnable Tooper. 

In the end, my Thralls were the heroes of the match - seemingly too worthless to bother dealing with, they secured me three objectives for much of the game and claimed me victory! 

I even managed to gain a Glory Point for Drudwyn, my other hound, charging two of his guys in one go!

Here's my graveyard by the end of the game!

What a fantastic first game of Trench Crusade!

So that was the game we played on the table, but another fun thing about doing this as a campaign, is that there is loads of fun post-game stuff in the Campaign Phase. 

First, we both had to roll for each of our troops that were taken out of action during the game to see if they DIED died. That was three rolls for Eoghan and SEVEN rolls for me (including my 150 ducat Amalgam). On a roll of 1 or 2 on a single die the model would be dead (33% chance!), Eoghan passed his three rolls, and I...passed all of mine too!! Not statistical, but I'll take it!

Next, I had to see what kind of lasting battle scar my Elite that was taken out of action (Noden, the Corpse Guard) would suffer. I rolled a 41 - Full Recovery! Phew!

Then came the exciting parts - I got to roll to see if any of my lowly troops got promoted to Elitehood! According to the Black Grail warband roster, the only troop that can be promoted is the Herald of Beelzebub (the Thralls, Hounds, and even the Amalgam are too mindless for this honour) so I rolled my dice (needing a six) and I got it! As an elite, my Herald might have new wargear options opened to him, and he can now gain experience, which, in the future, can lead to new abilities. 

Speaking of gaining experience, all of my Elites (Lord of Tumors and Corpse Guard) gained one point (only one more until they get the opportunity for new abilities). 

Then the really exciting roll: The Exploration Roll! This would represent my warband exploring the surrounding area for loot after the battle. I rolled 3 dice, getting a 3, 2 and 1. Hmmm, not great. I was allowed to re-roll one die so I re-rolled the 1 into...another 1! Blast! For having won the game I was able to re-roll another die (not the same one again) and rolled the 2 into...a 6! Hooray! So I ended up with 3+6+1 = 10 which on the exploration table was A Fallen Soldier. This was actually great! I got a mid-level gun of my choice, armour and helmet and choice of another item (Medi-kit / Mountaineering Kit or Shovel) which I haven't settled on yet. 

Finally, because I rolled a 10 for my exploration roll, I got 100 (10 x 10) ducats to upgrade my warband ahead of the next battle. I added Celwuc, my first Plague Knight, to my roster and have upgraded the equipment on a bunch of my guys!

We hope to play our next campaign game in a few weeks' time, so I've got to get painting that Plague Knight!

Thanks for tuning into my first game of Trench Crusade. Stay tuned for more, right here on The Art of Caesura!

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