And that’s a wrap!

This week, Trench Crusade’s first-ever global campaign, Operation Leviathan, came to its exciting conclusion as the forces of the Faithful pushed the Fallen back from the Carcass Front.

Each week thanks to the Trench Wire we’ve been able to monitor the campaign’s progress, which was the result of over 8,000 submitted games of Trench Crusade played all over the world. To give you a sense of what that looks like, imagine just over 91,000 miniatures laying on their sides representing the casualties from those matches.

I know, easy, right? Let’s just say it’s a lot.

While the Faithful marched triumphant, it was hardly a rout. Both the UK (Northern Sector) and the online community (the Aerial Raiding Columns) managed a Minor Fallen victory, while Gabriel’s Sword Straits (Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific) saw the Faithful onslaught brought to a standstill. Only one Sector managed a Major Fallen Victory, though, and it was the United States. Make of that what you will.

At the outset, Factory Fortress promised that the outcome of the campaign would have real consequences for the world and its players, and sure enough while there were significant lore implications the Faithful reaped an addition fruit of victory: a new warband Patron in Scaled Saint Bartolomeo.

And then there were these…

The Roll of Honour

As an additional reward for the many who helped make this event a success, Factory Fortress commissioned a series of awards to be given out by Observers. As gamers, we’re long accustomed to recognition for competitive excellence, and here was no exception.

But the success of this event hinged on a lot more than just tabletop tactical nous, and I loved to see that the Observers bestowed this award for a wide range of contributions. For instance, some were awarded to those who helped make the events themselves a success:

Others to those who have helped build up a Trench Crusade community in their area:

Strange Days Comics and Games has promoted Trench Crusade since its opening day, and deserves recognition for the amazing support of the community. Stop by if you’re ever in Port Townsend, Washington!

And of course, sometimes all it took to stand out was memorably spitting in the eye of adversity:

As a former friendly, local game store owner myself, I know well the importance of both rewarding achievement as well as contribution when it comes to building a community around a game. The Wizards Play Network featured my little store three times in retailer-facing articles about how to create exciting, dynamic prerelease events for Magic: the Gathering, and this is a crucial part of building for success1.

In the days and weeks ahead, Factory Fortress will surely be reviewing the information and lessons they’ve gathered from the past few weeks with an eye on what worked and what might need improvement for the next go-round. But almost certainly this won’t be the last global event we see between the Faithful and the Fallen.

Miniature of the Week

This week’s build is a Heretic Raider from Carcass Front.

Ol’ Nahash here comes in two variants in the Carcass Front box, and I opted for variant A with the serrated bayonet. With all the kids sports I was ferrying them to this week build time was at a premium, so it was nice to be able to squeeze in a simpler build, yet rich in detail. The aquatic theme to these models is terrific, making them aesthetically one of my favorite factions visually.

I couldn’t quite get Nahash’s left leg to line up as nicely as I wanted with his body, but otherwise he was a very straightforward build.

ICYMI

Here’s what’s been going on this week for Trench Crusade content!

Trench Crusade Official

• Aside from the announcement of victory and Roll of Honor (both covered above), there was no other official news this week. Take a breather, it’s been a wild ride!

Wargame Content Sites

• Wargamer’s own Mollie Russell interviewed Tuomas Pirinen in a terrific feature, “How Trench Crusade tells some of the most exciting stories in miniature wargames”

• Tabletop Battles updated its Faction Focus on the Court of the Seven Headed Serpent, taking account all of the rule updates from the October Rule Review.

Community Content

• Grimdark Fantasy dropped a lore overview of the different locations central to the Carcass Front. If you wanted to get a sense of place for the campaign, this is a fine place to start!

• The Last Scribe walked through “whole life of an ordinary soldier of 1914, from the day they are chosen to long after they are dead” in this nicely narrated and scored longform video.

• Real Alpharius shared some progress on a Trench Crusade animation, Lost Ground, on the official Discord. “Open to feedback and collaborators for the project,” they noted as well!

• scannerbarkly rang in the Faithful victory this week with a look at some of the lore repercussions.

• Finally, if the Fallen’s defeat in Operation Leviathan has been keeping you up at night, The Sleepy Hollow has you covered with a long lore compilation video, “3+ Hours of Trench Crusade Lore to Fall Asleep To (No AI)”

Coming Attractions

Here’s a list of the known upcoming physical releases from Trench Crusade based on the available preorder information we have.

This section will be updated weekly in this column, with new or updated info presented in boldface.

• Trench Crusade Rulebook (hardcover, 11/30)

That’s it for this week, see you again in seven days’ time!

With the Carcass Front box having dropped, the world event Operation Leviathan in its closing stages, and the October Rules Review breathing new life into the Court of the Seven Headed Serpent, it’s about the right time to start looking at the next round of product releases right around the bend.

This week Factory Fortress unveiled the first of these, the Prussian Yeomen.

“These fearless fighters are the backbone of Warbands from the Free State of Prussia, holding objectives, providing covering fire, and generally supporting their brutally efficient allies.”

This is a new, plastic release that looks to be arriving on November 2nd (EU and UK) and one week later for those of us in the rest of the world.

Not only that, but the announcement also offered a small teaser for Heretic Naval Raiders and Procession of the Sacred Affliction players, exhorting them to “hold yourselves ready for next month.” Given that these are the two warbands represented by the Carcass Front box, it remains to be seen whether this will simply be Carcass Front units made available independently, or if new miniatures will be rolling out to augment and supplement the existing ones.

Or perhaps…

Here’s to hoping!

Mapping it All Out (Redux)

Two weeks ago, you may recall I spent a little time looking at the cartography of Jared Blando, whose Embattled World: A Map of Trench Crusade is one the (presently) small number of officially licensed, non-miniature products for Trench Crusade.

Well, I couldn’t resist getting one for my study wall. As I mention in the video, sometimes still images just don’t do justice to how something looks in real life, so despite not being a “video person,” I’m sharing a look at it here.

Enjoy!

Getting By with a Little Help from His Friends

It’s not often you’ll find a feature I can put in all three of the Weeklies here on the Wordforge, but the news this week about an upcoming campaign to help artist Karl Kopinski certainly hits the trifecta. That shows the incredible reach and influence he’s had over the length of his career.

Beyond being a studio illustrator for Games Workshop from 1998-2005, Kopinski’s art was a mainstay in the Black Library’s foundational Inferno! magazine, helping bring the worlds of Warhammer to visual life each month. His work also has graced role-playing game books from Rogue Trader’s Lure of the Expanse to Deathwatch’s Mark of the Xenos, and he’s illustrated more than two hundred Magic: the Gathering cards over the years.

Sadly, Kopinski’s health in recent years has been deteriorating. He’s been battling myeloma for several years before strokes and a heart attack left him unable to work for a time, and the road to recovery has been long and difficult.

Now, Factory Fortress is spearheading a campaign to help. “Karl is my friend as well as my housemate during my GW days,” noted Tuomas Pironen, “so I am so glad we can help him and his family.”

Joining them is MyMiniFactory and a large roster of contributing STL creators for a campaign that is preparing to launch. Amongst the other goodies you can receive in return for your support is a brand-new and exclusive Trench Crusade model, making this one of the best kinds of offers: one where you can do well by doing good.

Miniature of the Week

This week’s build is a pair of Sniper Priests, both from the Sniper Priests box.

As you can see this was another detour from Carcass Front, as I opted instead to build both miniatures from the Sniper Priests box. I had a lot of fun with these; the multiple options and modularity of the two models gave me a nice array of choices- plus lots of little leftover goodies for the nascent Trench Crusade bits box.

ICYMI

Here’s what’s been going on this week for Trench Crusade content!

Trench Crusade Official

• Each Friday during the worldwide campaign, the Trench Wire has been bringing reports from Decisive Battles from games all over the world. This week’s- the last one (for now) with Operation Leviathan drawing to a close- included conflicts from Devon to Bavaria.

• Results from Operation Leviathan are also being reported by Andy Chambers and Sammie Dae. The latest dispatch saw the Faithful on the verge of victory, but as they say you can never count the devil out. The full results will be out next week.

• Mentioned in Despatches has been running every week throughout the duration of Operation Leviathan. Curated by Peter Hairston, MiD the column brings you some of the most striking Trench Crusade miniatures, terrain, and tables that have been shared across social media. Here’s this week’s, and for those who have particularly enjoyed this slice of community life there’s even more good news- it looks like this feature will be continuing beyond Operation Leviathan and become an evergreen staple!

• Don’t forget, the game’s first-ever worldwide campaign Operation Leviathan will run until 19 October, and will leave its mark on the world forever. Make sure to get your results in while you still can!

Wargame Content Sites

• Tabletop Battles does an amazing job covering the game, with a new feature every week. “We are diving headfirst into the moshpit that is The Drowned Choir,” noted this week’s installment. “Prepare for the battle onstage as these Choristers gaslight and gatekeep their way to stardom.”

Community Content

• We were hardly the only one to take note of the upcoming Kopinski fundraiser, and Tim Linward of Wargamer had a particularly good writeup with a bit more context and insight. While I hit the main beats above, I’m never going to miss the opportunity to highlight good journalism in the gaming space. Simon Berman of Bell of Lost Souls also did a nice job here as well, and it’s great to see this worthy cause getting so much attention.

• Podcast Saints and Sevens offered up a deep dive this week, delving into the Court of the Seven Headed Serpent. With the October Rules Review (with its Court revamp) just a week in the rearview, the timing couldn’t be better!

• Meanwhile, Trench Scribe Podcast went in on the Heretic Naval Raiders this week with a look at how they perform on the tabletop. From the warband list to strategy, tips, and more, it’s a nicely crunchy half-hour.

• You might recall from last week that HeresyBrush was featured on the Trench Crusade site for its Observer painting tutorial. This week they’ve got a follow-up piece focusing on painting true-metallic metal!

Coming Attractions

Here’s a list of the known upcoming physical releases from Trench Crusade based on the available preorder information we have.

This section will be updated weekly in this column, with new or updated info presented in boldface.

• Trench Crusade Rulebook (hardcover, 11/30)

That’s it for this week, see you again in seven days’ time!

Well, we knew it was coming, didn’t we? The biannual rules assessment dropped this week, and if you’re a Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent player I hope you were sitting down when it did.

Turns out the Court didn’t get a review so much as a complete overhaul, with a number of changes and adjustments, including:

• For core mechanics, the Court now generates Sin Markers to fuel its Goetic Powers.

• Each of the seven Sins gets its own defining set of powers and abilities, and changes to list-building, giving them more definition and diversity than ever before.

• Significant changes to units, from Praetors generating Sin Markers to new auras for the Desecrated Saint.

Here’s what DGMP had to say about it over on Tabletop Battles:

And of course, there was tremendous discussion around the update over on the Trench Crusade subreddit. Some lamented Envy’s loss of access to Praetors and Sorcerers (though there was a gag that it was very on-brand for Envy to be jealous of the units others retained access to), while others saw significant changes to Goetic strategies prior to the update.

All the same, sweeping changes like this are a good sign that the developers aren’t afraid to make big moves in the game, and I’m already looking forward to what the next six months brings!

A Baron Field

Last week I talked about my love for officially licensed merchandise, highlighting the beautiful cartography work of Jared Blando. And while there isn’t a lot of licensed merch yet (Marc Gascoigne, Head of Special Ops, is no doubt hard at work on that front), as I noted before “not a lot” isn’t quite the same thing as none.

Enter Baron of Dice.

Baron of Dice started, as such things do, in a basement. Back in 2020, Steven Long had a vision of a dice company whose goal “wasn’t small or modest—no, the mission was simple but bold: bring tabletop gamers a better-quality product than anything the industry had settled for,” he shared in an interview last year with VoyageBaltimore.

Less a company than a “a passion project that got wildly out of hand in the best possible way,” Long sees them as “gamers first, creators second, and businesspeople somewhere after that.”

Since that time the company has grown both in scope and in scale. They’ve expanded their range of offerings to include tabletop wargaming and RPG supplies as well as entered into licensing agreements with the companies behind games like Infinity and Conquest.

Then in 2024 alongside Trench Crusade’s Kickstarter kickoff, Baron of Dice added the game to its stable of official licensing partners.

In addition to the official dice sets (such as the one pictured above), Baron of Dice also has a line of Trench Crusade coins (or “objective markers",” if you prefer). While they use these to enhance other products such as tape measures, the coins themselves are perfectly good collectibles in their own right. In fact, I’ve got a thing for coins- here’s a Black Library Bibliophiles piece focusing on Warhammer coins. Small in size, they nevertheless make terrific decorative pieces for any library or museum.

For example, here’s the Heretic Naval Raider Captain alongside the official Baron of Dice faction coin.

A Stoßtruppen Feldkaplan (my Miniature of the Week, below).

And when you can combine them with other things, like this Sacred Affliction insert from the Carcass Front box, you really start cookin’ with grease.

Baron of Dice have nine faction coins currently available. If I have a knock on them it’s that the icon designs are a bit simplified from the official artwork. But it’s a minor criticism that fades further into irrelevance when you note that these coins on the official site go for USD $6.95 apiece.

That’s… not a typo.

As someone long accustomed to paying up to five times that much for Warhammer collectible coins (not kidding), this is pinch-me-I’m-dreaming pricing. And yes, these Baron of Dice coins are one-sided, but who cares? As displayed in the above images, you can only display one side at a time anyway.

So with the harvest of the nine Baron’s Coins, the dream of a Trench Crusade Museum moves ever more into being.

Now, we just need a few novels- preferably with Limited Editions!

Miniature of the Week

This week’s build is the Feldkaplan from the Prussian Stoßtruppen Warband box.

What, did you think they were just going to be from Carcass Front? For as long as I’ve played RPG’s I’ve always loved the Cleric class the most, so naturally this was the one I went straight for when I cracked open the box.

One of the feathers on his wings was brittle, breaking off the moment I touched it. Luckily, some divine inspiration must have guided my hands as I was able to glue it back together with very minimal difficulty. I love this model, it’s a stunning sculpt that was a lot of fun to build. I’d have liked a little more sharpness in the definition in some areas, but ol’ Padre here will do quite nicely!

ICYMI

Here’s what’s been going on this week for Trench Crusade content!

Trench Crusade Official

• There was no lore drop this week- the October Rules Review was the elm that shaded out the garden. Still, well worth it for those who have been waiting, and we’ve had no shortage of lore to enjoy regardless!

• The official YouTube channel has been quiet for a bit, but dropped an interview with Vanguard Tactics featuring Jervis Johnson, Andy Chambers and Thomas Elliott talking about what it was like to design Carcass Front.

• Each Friday during the worldwide campaign, the Trench Wire has been bringing reports from Decisive Battles from games all over the world. This week’s included conflicts from California to Stuttgart- and included one on Tabletop Simulator as well!

• Rubén Torregrosa of HeresyBrush (and New Antioch Cross for Cultural Merit winner) brought us a nicely detailed painting tutorial for the Observer model. As someone who has yet to dip their toes into that side of the hobby, I love seeing content like this that is both beginner-friendly but veteran-useful.

• Results from Operation Leviathan are also being reported by Andy Chambers and Sammie Dae. The latest dispatch saw the Fallen rocked back on their heels, with the Faithful pushing in five sectors and the remaining two locked in stalemate. Spaceballs may have taught us back in ‘87 that evil always wins because good is dumb, but it looks like it’s learned a few lessons since then.

• Mentioned in Despatches has been running every week throughout the duration of Operation Leviathan. Curated by Peter Hairston, MiD the column brings you some of the most striking Trench Crusade miniatures, terrain, and tables that have been shared across social media. Here’s this week’s, which showed off a lot of glorious Heretic Naval Raiders!

• Don’t forget, the game’s first-ever worldwide campaign Operation Leviathan will run until 19 October, and will leave its mark on the world forever. Make sure to get your results in while you still can!

Wargame Content Sites

• Tabletop Battles does an amazing job covering the game, with a new feature every week. This time around it’s a reaction roundtable to the October rules update!

Community Content

• While last week was a huge week for community content, this week it was quite a bit quieter. Still, Custom Wargame has a painting contest on their Kickstarter campaign, with over €300 in prizes. It ends on 31 October, so plenty of time ahead and no purchase is necessary!

• Moskito Games, meanwhile, sat down to interview Tuomas Pironen in a livestream format, replete with audience questions!

• The Hobby Hotel dove into the lore surrounding “Hell’s Greatest Problem,” War Priest Charon.

• Finally, I wanted to ‘like’ this video from The Last Scribe, but just couldn’t bring myself to do it. As any hiker or outdoorsman will tell you, sometimes it’s best to just leave things as you found them:

Coming Attractions

Here’s a list of the known upcoming physical releases from Trench Crusade based on the available preorder information we have.

This section will be updated weekly in this column, with new or updated info presented in boldface.

• Trench Crusade Rulebook (hardcover, 11/30)

That’s it for this week, see you again in seven days’ time!

True confession time: I’m a sucker for licensed merchandise.

I’ve often noted that one of the secrets to Warhammer’s success is that it has so many ways for people to engage with it. There’s the tabletop wargame, of course, but then you also have folks whose interest mainly is in the building and painting of the miniatures and models. Then you’ve got the readers and lorehounds, those whose consumption goes little further than the Black Library but eagerly devour book after book. Video gamers, too, have their niche, with the recent success of Space Marine II showing how much of an appetite there is for the world.

In a sense, it’s a bit like a buffet where you are free to take from as many dishes as you like, in whatever quantity makes you happiest.

For me, the sweet spot lies in building and curating my Black Library Museum.

The display of books alongside trinkets, curios, and models from the game has been a major driver of my engagement, and I spend a lot of time planning and researching what’s out there to build them1.

I have one stricture and that’s that whatever goes into the display must be official merchandise- no 3D prints, no knockoff trinkets. No judgment- I’ve seen some terrific displays that happily use those, but we all have our preferences and mine is for a museum rather than simply an art installation.

And so it’s with particular interest that I’ve begun keeping an eye out for what we’ll get to see from Trench Crusade, because I’ve started getting the itch to build one for that world as well2.

There isn’t a lot of it- yet- but the game is still in its relative cradle. And the appointment of Marc Gascoigne as Head of Special Ops gives me a great deal of confidence at what the future might have in store. After all he- along with Rick Priestley and Andy Jones- is one of the founding fathers of the Black Library.

But “not a lot” isn’t quite the same thing as none.

Visualizing a World

Jared Blando is a professional cartographer, illustrator, and published author3 based out of Portland, Oregon. If his name is not immediately familiar, there’s a fairly good chance if you play Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: the Gathering, BattleTech, or the Lord of the Rings RPG from Cubicle 7 Games that you’ve seen his work.

Given Factory Fortress’s track record of working with high-end, established industry talent it should come as little surprise, then, to learn that Blando has bent his efforts towards bringing the world of Trench Crusade to life.

The map at the top of this week’s roundup is indeed Blando’s, and it’s worth noting that if you’re looking to decorate your walls (or museum) with a bit of official Trench Crusade visualization, there are prints available on his website4.

Each comes signed by Blando in silver pen, and are filled with tiny details that bring the Trench Crusade world to life.

As Trench Crusade continues to grow and expand, I look forward to continuing to add to a Trench Crusade Museum as more official merchandise- and hopefully novels!- come available. With three different Black Library Readers’ Hall of Famers already penning short fiction for the world (Graham McNeill, Josh Reynolds, and Gav Thorpe), there’s every reason to look forward to what lies ahead.

And while it may be a bit overambitious at this stage to expect it, I can only imagine what a Limited Edition Trench Crusade novel might look like. Dare to dream, right?

Miniature of the Week

This week’s build from the Carcass Front box is the Lazarist Prophet.

I think my “favorite” thing about taking these high-definition pictures of models and minis is how I can immediately see something I missed with the named eye- in this case, a tiny sprue join on the back of the terrain, just above where it meets the base.

But in all seriousness, this is another beautiful sculpt filled with texture and detail. The wood-grain of the cross and rope braids give it a particularly tactile feel, and it was a very easy and straightforward assembly.

Onto the shelf you go, Father, there to await your coming brethren!

ICYMI

Here’s what’s been going on this week for Trench Crusade content!

Trench Crusade Official

• The latest official lore drop is a feature on The Pillar of Jonah, an abandoned lightship warehouse with a mysterious guardian. It’s written by Graham McNeill and illustrated by Thomas Elliott!

• Each Friday during the worldwide campaign, the Trench Wire has been bringing reports from Decisive Battles from games all over the world. This week’s included conflicts from Poland to Australia, as well as one up the way (a bit) from me in Illinois!

• Results from Operation Leviathan are also being reported by Andy Chambers and Sammie Dae. The latest dispatch was encouraging news for the Faithful, who managed to advance on fully half the war’s ongoing fronts. With three stalemates, the Fallen only managed forward momentum on one. A rush and a push and the land is ours!

• For those following the 2026 Arena Challenge, the end is right around the corner! Here two teams representing Factory Fortress, The Baron of Dice, The Army Painter, Trench Titans, and Army Painter’s Factory Team compete in an escalation campaign of building and painting Trench Crusade miniatures.

• Mentioned in Despatches has been running every week throughout the duration of Operation Leviathan. Curated by Peter Hairston, MiD the column brings you some of the most striking Trench Crusade miniatures, terrain, and tables that have been shared across social media. Here’s this week’s!

• Don’t forget, the game’s first-ever worldwide campaign Operation Leviathan will run until 19 October, and will leave its mark on the world forever. Make sure to get your results in!

Wargame Content Sites

• Tabletop Battles pivots this week from warband content, instead going outside the game to look at the best ways to build up a local scene for Trench Crusade. Sometimes you have to be the change you want to see in the world, and if you’ve lamented the lack of a community in your area- or just want to skill up as a brand ambassador- make sure to check it out!

Community Content

• The Saints & Sevens Trench Crusade podcast dropped a new installment this week, breaking into the Carcass Front campaign box and offering a full, in-depth review!

• Coming at things from a game designer angle, the Trench Scribe Podcast dives into the art and science of scenario creation. “Are your your group's organizer, choosing which scenarios to run? Do you want to edit them for clarity, or even write your own scenarios? Listen as we discuss scenarios, game design, terrain, and more!”

• After a notable absence, YouTube channel Trench Tactics is back! Not only do they explain what happened (they were hacked), but they return bearing gifts: a rundown of how to play every Faithful mercenary!

• The Grimdark Fantasy channel put together a terrific little lore primer on the Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent.

• Chimera Wargaming has been running a video series on building battlefields for Trench Crusade. This week they walk through the building of a sacred statue, a battlefield monument to help bring your games to life.

• Bash & Brush shared a video of their first warband painting, the Procession of the Sacred Affliction. “I take you through how I painted the Sacred Affliction Pilgrims, the decisions I made along the way, and my thought process behind the colours, skin, weathering and overall look of the warband.” They look terrific!

• Finally, the Trenchfoot Society had a chance to chat about upcoming Trench Crusade-compatible miniature campaigns with Scanner Barkly and Taylor Holloway!

Coming Attractions

Here’s a list of the known upcoming physical releases from Trench Crusade based on the available preorder information we have.

This section will be updated weekly in this column, with new or updated info presented in boldface.

• Trench Crusade Rulebook (hardcover, 11/30)

That’s it for this week, see you again in seven days’ time. As for me, I’ve not some Raiders to put together…

Sometimes in life there comes a point where you have to face the fact that you’re just not going to be good at everything.

It’s a difficult lesson, especially if it’s something you really want to be good at.

As a kid I really wanted to learn how to put models together. Model cars, model airplanes, whatever I could manage to pop out of a plastic sprue and snap together. It was a lot of fun, or at least that’s how it was sold to me. The reality was I lacked both the fine motor control and patient temperament to get through just about any kit without devolving into my best sputtering Donald Duck impersonation.

The breaking point- literally- came the Christmas of 1984. Ten-year-old me was overjoyed to find a G.I. Joe COBRA Rattler under the tree from “Santa,” but those kinds of vehicles always came “some assembly required.” In the midst of trying to assemble my shiny new plane, I broke one of the wheels clean off at the base while trying to snap it into its housing.

I was devastated. You can only play the “battle damage” card so long in your head until all you can see is your own shortcomings every time you look at it. “Lefty” ran endless sorties for COBRA, but never managed once to safely land. It was the end of my modeling ambitions.

Flash forward to a couple years ago, when reading Warhammer’s Black Library became my coping mechanism during my wife’s cancer battle. Our recent move to Louisville put me in close proximity to a Warhammer store where I’d buy my books, and eventually I succumbed to the old curiosity. Was I masochistic enough to try my hand and modeling again?

As it turns out, the microfocus of building plastic heroes and villains was just the oasis I needed. While I neither paint nor play the tabletop, building minis- especially to decorate my Black Library Museum displays- has become a wonderfully engaging side-path of my hobby.

And this week, I built my first Trench Crusade figure, the Heretic Naval Raiders Captain.

Damn is this guy cool.

One of the reasons I’m really looking forward to the potential release of Trench Crusade novels is because pairing books and miniatures in displays is my hobby love language. For now, though, the Captain will oversee my writing desk as he awaits the assembly of his crew.

If only we knew who to thank for this amazing design…

Making Moves

Last week I looked at some of the recent business decisions Factory Fortress has been making, and what they may portent for the long-term objectives of the game. I was happy to see another this week, this time a personnel upgrade as Israel Gonzalez joined the team as Head of Miniatures.

In addition to being a Gold award-winner at the World Modeling Expo, Gonzalez spent thirteen years with Games Workshop. One of the last projects he worked on was the design of Thulia Ghuld, Archamagos Terminus of Mars, released this past April as part of the Warhammer 40,000’s Eye of Terror campaign:

Gonzalez’s talent for the wickedly intricate has also been on full display in other sculpts including Kill Team’s Vespid Stingwings (originally debuting in 2024’s Hivestorm box) and these incredible Ophydian Destroyers:

Though the official announcement doesn’t make it clear, Gonzalez is not entirely a new hire. He’s already done some Trench Crusade work for the Carcass Front release, including co-design on that incredible Heretic Naval Raider Captain.

But as Head of Miniatures, he’ll have a much broader remit in oversight of model design as well as new range development. Congrats on the role, Israel, and we’re looking forward to great things ahead!

ICYMI

Here’s what’s been going on this week for Trench Crusade content!

Trench Crusade Official

• The latest official lore drop is a feature on The Vivarium, a place of profane horrors- as they say, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions! It’s written by Graham McNeill and illustrated by Eryk Szczygiel!

• Attending Spiel Essen next month? Here’s where you can find Trench Crusade! And for those painters under the age of sixteen, there will also be a Young Guns category at the Crimson Chalice competition!

  • Last week I talked about the publicity benefits that The Army Painter could expect to enjoy due to its partnership with Trench Crusade, and you can see that in action in the official news release about the Young Guns category.

• Each Friday during the worldwide campaign, the Trench Wire will be bringing reports from Decisive Battles from games all over the world. This week’s included conflicts from Vietnam to South Africa- and make sure to check out that battlefield in Vietnam’s report. The half-summoned Herald of Leviathan is incredible stuff.

• Results from Operation Leviathan are also being reported by Andy Chambers and Sammie Dae. The latest dispatch saw an even exchange of territory between the Faithful and the Fallen. The risk with global events sometimes can be that they snowball into a rout by one side over the other, but this has remained a very close-run affair.

• Dave Taylor interviewed Zack Nollinger for the Creating Slices of Trench Crusade series. Zack isn’t just the Global Community Events Manager for the game, but himself has built some extraordinary submarine-themed battlegrounds that have to be seen to be believed.

• A new feature, Mentioned in Dispatches will run every week throughout the duration of Operation Leviathan. Curated by Peter Hairston, MiD will bring you some of the most striking Trench Crusade miniatures, terrain, and tables that have been shared across social media. Here’s this week’s!

• Don’t forget, the game’s first-ever worldwide campaign Operation Leviathan will run until 19 October, and will leave its mark on the world forever. Make sure to get your results in!

Wargame Content Sites

• Another week, another Tabletop Battles feature on Tabletop Battles! They’ve been running a series focusing on specific warbands one at a time, and this week they looked at The Sins of the Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent.

Community Content

• The Last Scribe dropped a vid this week called The Propaganda of Trench Crusade Explained. “This is a look at the lies of the Trench Crusade. The deliberate ones, the sincere ones, and the ones arranged so carefully that nobody could ever check them. Because once you stop asking what the sources say and start asking who is saying it, this world changes shape.”

• Grimdark Fantasy offered up a lore explainer of the Carcass Front’s full timeline. “If you picked up the Carcass Front box and went straight for the sprues, you skipped past the best part.”

• In the past two weeks we’ve had a closer look at Wat Priest Charon and Blessed Batholomeo. scannerbarkly is here to dive into a full compare-and-contrast for the pair.

• The Sleepy Hollow’s series title for their videos is a riot, “Trench Crusade Lore to Sleep To.” This week’s offering involved The Path of the Beast and the Orders of Crusaders Knights.

Coming Attractions

Here’s a list of the known upcoming physical releases from Trench Crusade based on the available preorder information we have.

This section will be updated weekly in this column, with new or updated info presented in boldface.

• Trench Crusade Rulebook (hardcover, 11/30)

That’s it for this week, see you again in seven days’ time. As for me, I’ve not some Raiders to put together…

It was almost a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it week of news for Trench Crusade, overshadowed as things were by the second round of its first-ever worldwide campaign, Operation Leviathan. But there were two news stories in particular that stood out to me this week as savvy moves that hint at the game’s ambition to build something enduring.

Since Trench Crusade splashed on the scene with its highly successful Kickstarter campaign in 2024, much of the focus has been on those elements that made it so attractive in the first place. Obviously there was the heady creative fusion of Mike Franchina’s visual palette and Tuomas Pirinen’s game design, which gave the initial push that resulted in USD $3.3m in funding from over 20,000 backers. That’s certainly impressive.

But funding a Kickstarter is only the first hurdle to clear, and the rogue’s gallery of games like Robotech Tactics, Myth, and GKR: Heavy Hitters serves as a cautionary tale of how short-term success can easily end in long-term failure. For this reason, I’ve been particularly intrigued at the business-side decisions that Trench Crusade has been navigating as it looks to build a solid foundation to build upon for the years ahead.

The decision earlier this year to hire Marc Gascoigne, for instance, had me really sit up and take notice. Gascoigne, alongside Rick Priestley and Andy Jones, helped build Warhammer’s Black Library, the most successful in-house, vertically integrated publishing arm for IP tie-in fiction1. In 2019, Gascoigne would look to run the playbook back with Aconyte Books, the publishing arm of Asmodee, and would serve there for five years overseeing properties like Arkham Horror and Legend of the Five Rings2.

With several Black Library veterans now writing lore and story for Trench Crusade, I’ll be very excited to see what Gascoigne helps to nurture.

That brings us to a couple moves that were announced this week that also pinged on my business-objective radar.

The Launch of Crusade Se7ens

First, Factory Fortress has teamed up with The Army Painter, one of the top three players in the hobby miniature painting space, to bring a Trench Crusade-branded line of paints to market. Launched under the name Crusade Se7ens, these boxes will feature seven paint colors tailored to one of the game’s factions, with the Free State of Prussia kicking things off.

This is one of those deals that has obvious value to both sides of the partnership beyond merely the pecuniary. For Trench Crusade, these products will help reinforce a standardized aesthetic identity of its factions while offering convenience to the consumer by putting it all in one convenient box. Not only that, but it gets their brand into the painting space without taking on the massive infrastructure and capital expenditures needed to offer their own line of paints.

Finally, while for the moment it appears that these are offered as online-only products, it’s not hard to see a point in time arrive where they might be carried in brick-and-mortal game stores, serving as additional points of impression on consumers like little, miniature billboards.

For The Army Painter, this is a clever way to repackage existing product and tap into a new market opportunity. These aren’t brand-new shades, but rather collections of products that have already been released as part of their John Blanche Masterclass and Historical paint lines. And by partnering with one of the hotter wargaming properties of the moment, it allows The Army Painter to benefit from some of the excitement and publicity currently surrounding the game.

Finally, this gives The Army Painter a leg up in the painting community, with the partnership extending into community events like The Arena Challenge (announced at AdeptiCon earlier this year). And with these now the official color schemes for the various factions, community content such as painting guides, tutorials, and battle reports also serve as a passive advertisement for the company.

The Partnership with Miniaturama

This deal is another one that reveals some interesting strategy at work in the meeting rooms of Factory Fortress. On the face of it, it seems fairly straightforward, right? “Okay, so Trench Crusade will be available in Spanish.” But there’s a couple of other things going on under the hood.

Miniaturama Publishing is an experienced player in the wargaming space, with previous work for Warlord Games and Studio Tomahawk. Not only that, but it’s more than just a translation/localization company, being instead a full-service publishing firm that has its own well-established logistical network. That means that Factory Fortress isn’t just sending off a PDF of its material in English and getting it returned in Spanish.

Rather, Miniaturama is not only translating, but handling the publishing and distribution side of things as well. Factory Fortress gains easy access to the massive Spanish-speaking market without having to juggle the complexities of freight and localized printing halfway across the world.

Latin America has long been an underserved market, and this gives Trench Crusade the opportunity to get established in it while it’s still in its relatively nascent stage. It’s also worth noting that Spain itself is a sophisticated player in the wargaming hobby, being home to Infinity’s publisher Corvus Belli. Factory Fortess will be well-equipped to compete directly in their backyard.

So in short, these two developments this week might not be as sexy as a new lore drop or the latest updates in Operation Leviathan. But those wanting to read the tea leaves for signs of the game’s long-term health may well find this in hindsight to be a significant week indeed.

ICYMI

Here’s what’s been going on this week for Trench Crusade content!

Trench Crusade Official

• The latest official lore drop is a feature on Blessed Bartolomeo, the Martyr of Leviathan. It’s written by Graham McNeill and illustrated by Mike Franchina!

• Each Friday during the worldwide campaign, the Trench Wire will be bringing reports from Decisive Battles from games all over the world. This week’s included conflicts from Peru to Sweden!

• Results from Operation Leviathan are also being reported by Andy Chambers and Sammie Dae. The latest dispatch saw the Faithful continue to push back against the Fallen, but the Fallen continue to hold their own giving only little ground. The games held in Central and South America (Leviathan Cove Landing) proved the most disastrous, with the Fallen making up 60% of the casualties. Most other tilts were much more close-run affairs.

• A new feature, Mentioned in Dispatches, kicked off Monday and will run every week throughout the duration of Operation Leviathan. Curated by Peter Hairston, MiD will bring you some of the most striking Trench Crusade miniatures, terrain, and tables that have been shared across social media.

• Don’t forget, the game’s first-ever worldwide campaign Operation Leviathan will run until 19 October, and will leave its mark on the world forever. Make sure to get your results in!

Wargame Content Sites

• Tabletop Battles has been running a series focusing on specific warbands one at a time, and this week it was The Red Brigade’s turn to shine!

Community Content

• Trench Crusade podcast Saints & Sevens was back this week, looking at more developments around the release of the Carcass Front set!

• For more audible content, The Pilgrimage Podcast devoted a ‘mailbag roundup’ episode to all sorts of Trench Crusade questions they’d been asked in Discord, as well as taking a look at Four Days Dead by Josh Reynolds!

• What’s that, you say? You want even more podcast content? Fair enough, make sure to check out the Trench Scribe Podcast this week for a discussion on playing Trench Ghosts!

• Now, if you’d rather a more visual treat, scannerbarkly posted a video this week diving into the lore around the Eternal Massacre at Baghras Fortress, and another about Blessed Bartolomeo!

Coming Attractions

Here’s a list of the known upcoming physical releases from Trench Crusade based on the available preorder information we have.

This section will be updated weekly in this column, with new or updated info presented in boldface.

• Trench Crusade Rulebook (hardcover, 11/30)

That’s it for this week, see you again in seven days’ time!

I blame Graham McNeill. Or maybe it’s Gav Thorpe. No, no, wait, it’s definitely Josh Reynolds or Andy Chambers… heck, there’s plenty enough blame to go around, right?

Trench Crusade, bulls-eying that perfect overlap of history, theological mythology, and grimdark wargaming was always going to catch my eye, but it was the recent moves towards building up a storytelling cadre that made me really sit up and take notice.

For those new to the Warhammer Wordforge, this site started as the new home for my regular column, Black Library Weekly. Before long I added a second weekly roundup, the Warhammer RPG Weekly, and now we’re rolling out a similar, regular bulletin for the first non-Warhammer game on the site. Welcome to the debut of Trench Crusade Weekly!

Each week I’ll be rounding up what’s new and exciting in the TC community, from official content to interesting community-generated coverage. In keeping with the format of my other columns, I’ll also keep a running eye on products and releases that are known to be coming soon. That’s not a lot here at the relative infancy of the game, but I fully expect things to only grow from here.

That’s not least because Marc Gascoigne, one of the three founders of the Black Library as we know it, was brought aboard last April as the ‘Head of Special Ops’ in charge of developing in-house and licensed products for the property. Duplicating the success of the Black Library is a tall order, of course, but I’d be delighted to see a steady drumbeat of tie-in fiction as the game grows and progresses.

Now, welcome aboard and on to the week that was!

ICYMI

Here’s what’s been going on this week for Trench Crusade content!

Trench Crusade Official

• Graham McNeill has penned a new bit of lore, this time around War Priest Charon. A non-playable character, Charon is one of the War Patrons in the Carcass Front and is brought to life in a terrific art piece by Mike Franchina.

• The game’s first-ever worldwide campaign Operation Leviathan kicked off this week, as players were encouraged to get in some games of Trench Crusade and report their results! It will run until 19 October, and we’re told that the results will leave their mark on the world forever.

  • And for a much more thematic start-pistol crack, check out this piece on the Trench Wire, and here’s a bit more on how it’s going to actually function as a game event.

• Results from Operation Leviathan are also being reported by Andy Chambers and Sammie Dae. The latest dispatch saw the Faithful outperforming the Fallen, but only by the narrowest of margins. No resting on laurels here!

• Each Friday during the worldwide campaign, the Trench Wire will be bringing a quartet of battle reports from games all over the world. This week’s included a two-day narrative campaign run at the Ironweld Convention in Massachusetts.

Wargame Content Sites

• Tabletop Battles let Aaron “Lenoon” Bowen loose to dive into the lore of the Sacred Affliction in this week’s Trench Crusade article.

• Sticking with Graham McNeill a little longer, Timothy Linward of Wargamer had the opportunity to interview him about his work on the lore of the game. He’s breaking the interview into digestible bites, so here’s the first and second that dropped this week.

• Simon Berman dropped a get-started-playing primer on Bell of Lost Souls this week, for those who may be thinking of jumping in! “The last time I remember seeing a miniatures game take off in such a big way,” he notes, “was WARMACHINE in the mid-2000s.”

Community Content

• The Trench Scribe Podcast took a look at playing the Papal States this week. “he Papal warband in Trench Crusade is unique, in that it allows you to start with mercenaries and glory items; learn how to maximize this strength on this week's episode.”

• Not enough Charon for you on the official site? scannerbarkly’s heard you loud and clear, with a lore video about him as well as more insight around the Seven Heads of the Serpent and the Phantom Squadron of Rudolf’s Folly.

• For an perspective on the wargame itself, the fellas at Mountainside Gaming released a video battle report of their first tilt with the Carcass Front box.

• Rogue Hobbies did a full unboxing, miniature painting, and review in her terrific look at the Carcass Front box.

Coming Attractions

Here’s a list of the known upcoming physical releases from Trench Crusade based on the available preorder information we have.

This section will be updated weekly in this column, with new or updated info presented in boldface.

• Trench Crusade Rulebook (hardcover, 11/30)

That’s it for this week, see you again in seven days’ time!