Trench ✜ Crusade

IWhat You Need & The Idea

Trench Crusade is a skirmish game: each player commands a small Warband of models (usually around 6–20) fighting over a ruined battlefield. You take turns activating your models one at a time, moving and attacking, until one side breaks.

To play your first game you need:

• Two Warbands built from the Warbands of Trench Crusade book — each model comes with a profile and weapons.
• A pile of ordinary six-sided dice (D6) for both players. A D3 just means "roll a D6 and halve it, rounding up" (1–2 = 1, 3–4 = 2, 5–6 = 3).
• A tape measure or ruler marked in inches — all distances are imperial.
• A battlefield at least 30" wide (a kitchen table is fine), with plenty of terrain. Cover and elevation matter a lot, so more terrain makes better games.
• Markers for wounds and blessings — small tokens or a coloured die beside each model works perfectly.
• A scenario, which sets up the table, deployment, length and victory conditions. For a first game, use Scenario 1: Claim No Man's Land.

IIReading a Model

Every model has a Profile of five characteristics, plus any Keywords and special Abilities. Here is one laid out the way it appears on a card:

• Movement — how many inches it moves, and its troop type (Infantry, Cavalry, etc.).
• Ranged & Melee — these are dice modifiers added to the Success Roll when the model shoots or fights. +1 DICE means it rolls better; −1 DICE means worse (see Section V).
• Armour — an Injury Modifier (0 or a negative number) added to every Injury Roll made against this model. A better-protected model has a more negative value: −2 drags the roll down further than −1, so the lower the number, the harder it is to wound. Most basic troops sit at 0 (no protection).
• Base — the size of base it stands on, which some rules care about.

A model also carries Battlekit: Weapons, Armour and Equipment, each with its own small profile and Keywords. A model may freely switch between its Ranged and Melee weapons between actions.

IIIThe Shape of a Turn

The game runs for a number of Turns set by the scenario. Each Turn has three phases, in this order:

Initiative Phase

The player with the fewest models in their Warband has the Initiative and chooses whether to activate a model first or second. If both players have the same number of models, each rolls a die and the highest wins Initiative. (Initiative also breaks ties whenever two things happen "at the same time.")

Activation Phase

Players take turns activating one model each, back and forth. When you activate a model it takes its actions (Section IV), then your opponent activates one of theirs, and so on. A model can only be activated once per Turn. When one player runs out of un-activated models, the other player activates all of their remaining models one after another.

Morale Phase

Checked at the end of every Turn — see Section X.

IVActions

When you activate a model it may take the following actions once each, in any order you like. The first three are mutually exclusive — pick only one of Move, Charge or Retreat.

Move — or — Charge — or — Retreat

• Move: Move up to your Movement Characteristic in any direction — no roll needed. Obstacles up to 1" high are crossed freely; climbing sheer surfaces needs a Risky Success Roll; Difficult terrain costs double (every 1" counts as 2"). You cannot Move within 1" of an enemy — to reach an enemy you must Charge.
• Charge: Pick an enemy that is visible and within 12". Roll a die, add it to your Movement, and move that far toward the target. If you finish within 1" of it, you may immediately Fight.
• Retreat: The only way to move a model that is within 1" of an enemy away from it. Before it moves, each enemy within 1" may make one free melee attack (one weapon, one attack — though a CLEAVE weapon still makes all its attacks). If that doesn't take your model Down or Out of Action, move it so it ends more than 1" from all enemies. If that's impossible, it can't move at all.

Dash

An extra move you may take in addition to a Move, Charge or Retreat. First take a Risky Success Roll: on a success, move up to your Movement (you can't charge or retreat with it); on a failure, your Activation ends immediately.

Shoot

Make a Ranged Attack if the model is more than 1" from any enemy and has a Ranged Weapon. A model normally cannot Shoot and also Charge or Fight in the same Activation — unless its weapon has the Assault Keyword.

Fight

Make a Melee Attack if the model is within 1" of an enemy and has a Melee Weapon.

VSuccess Rolls — the Engine

Most actions that could fail call for a Success Roll. The procedure never changes:

1. Take 2 D6.
2. Add any +DICE or −DICE from the model's profile, weapons, abilities and the situation.
3. Roll all the dice.
4. Keep the two highest if the modifier was positive, or the two lowest if it was negative.
5. Add those two together and read the result below.

How +Dice and −Dice work

Each +1 DICE adds one extra die to the pool, after which you keep the two highest. So +1 DICE = roll 3, keep best 2; +2 DICE = roll 4, keep best 2. Each −1 DICE also adds a die, but you keep the two lowest. If a roll has both, cancel them in pairs until only one kind remains (e.g. +2 and −1 become +1).

VICombat

Combat is just a Success Roll to hit, followed by an Injury Roll if you hit. There are two flavours.

Ranged Attacks (Shoot action)

1. Choose a Ranged Weapon and pick a target that is visible and in range.
2. Take a Success Roll for the attacker.
3. Failure = miss. Success or Critical = hit → make an Injury Roll for the target (Critical adds +1 Injury Dice).

Shooting into melee: if your target is within 1" of any friendly models, roll a die first — on a 1–3 you must target a friendly model, on a 4–6 you may hit the enemy.

Melee Attacks (Fight action)

1. Choose a Melee Weapon and pick a target within 1".
2. Take a Success Roll for the attacker.
3. Failure = miss. Success or Critical = hit → make an Injury Roll for the target.

VIIInjury Rolls

Once a hit lands, the attacking player makes the Injury Roll for the target. The simple rule of thumb: you roll Injury Rolls for enemy models, and your opponent rolls them for yours. (Likewise for any non-attack injury — whoever doesn't own the model rolls it.) The procedure mirrors the Success Roll:

1. Take 2 D6 and add any +/− Injury Dice; keep the two highest (or two lowest if negative).
2. Add any Injury Modifiers — most importantly the target's Armour and protective Battlekit.
3. Look the total up below.

Common Injury Modifiers (cumulative): spent Blessing Markers give −1 Injury Dice each; spent Blood Markers give +1 Injury Dice each; a Critical hit gives +1 Injury Dice; a Down melee target gives +1 Injury Dice; the target's Armour Characteristic and armour/shields give a −Injury Modifier. The total −Injury Modifier can never exceed −3.

VIIIBlood & Blessing Markers

These two tokens are the game's economy of momentum. A model can hold a maximum of 6 Blood Markers at once.

So Blood Markers are damage your enemy can weaponise against you, while Blessing Markers are a resource you control. The rule of thumb: you spend the Blood on enemy models and the Blessings on your own models. A wounded model becomes easier to hit, easier to kill, and a tempting target for a Bloodbath.

IXDown & Out of Action

Lay a Down model on its side. While Down:

• If it was taken Down during its own Activation, that Activation ends immediately.
• Add −1 Dice to every roll you make for it.
• Enemy melee attacks against it get +1 Injury Dice.
• It cannot be moved for any reason until it stands — unless it falls.
• It stands up the next time it is Activated, but its Movement is halved for that Activation (including any charge bonus).

A model taken Out of Action is removed from play for the rest of the battle. (In a campaign, what happens to it afterward is resolved later.)

XMorale & Winning

The Morale Phase

At the end of each Turn, if half or more of your Warband (rounding up) is Down or Out of Action, you must take a Success Roll for the Warband. Succeed and you fight on as normal. Fail and your Warband becomes Shaken.

Shaken Warbands

While Shaken, every Success Roll you make becomes a Risky Success Roll. You must test again next Morale Phase (even if fewer than half are casualties): pass and you recover; fail and your Warband flees — you lose the game immediately.

Winning

The scenario decides how the game is won — usually through Victory Points for objectives and casualties — and how many Turns it lasts. A fled or wiped-out Warband loses outright. Pick your scenario before deploying, and read its victory conditions to your friend up front so you both know what you're fighting for.

XIA Worked Activation

To tie it together, here is one model's whole Activation. Suppose it's your turn to activate, and you pick a soldier with a sword and a Movement of 6", with an enemy rifleman 9" away behind a low wall.

XIIKeyword Cheat-Sheet

Words in Capitals are Keywords with fixed meanings. These are the ones you'll meet most in a first game — the full glossary lives in the rulebook.

Assault

The model may Shoot and still Charge or Fight in the same Activation.

Automatic (X)

When it Shoots, this weapon makes X ranged attacks, one after another.

Cleave (X)

When it Fights, this weapon makes X melee attacks, which may target different enemies all within 1".

Blast (X")

An area weapon: everything within X inches of the target point that can see it is hit.

Deadly

Its Injury Rolls use 3 D6 (keep the 3 highest/lowest) instead of 2 — far more lethal.

Critical

Treats its hits as Critical Successes, adding +1 Injury Dice.

Fear

Enemies attacking it in melee suffer −1 Dice. If both models cause Fear, it cancels.

Tough

The first Out of Action result it suffers each game is treated as Down instead.

Flying

Measures its movement straight through the air, ignoring terrain in between.

Cover

Gained from a terrain piece at least ½" high and as wide as the model's base that blocks line of sight to it — gives attackers −1 Dice.

Difficult Terrain

Every 1" moved across it counts as 2".

Dangerous Terrain

Entering or activating in it forces a Risky Success Roll; failure means an Injury Roll and the Activation ends.

Impassable Terrain

Models cannot move onto or across it.