Goonhammer Reviews: Trench Crusade 1.0 Faithful Factions

With the arrival of Trench Crusade 1.0, our team finally has the chance to look across the full game and dive in deep on each of the factions -- representing both the armies battling to save the world from the forces of Hell, and those very forces themselves. In this article, we'll be looking at the armies of the faithful. We've also taken a look at the fallen factions here, and the core rules in their own piece.

We'd like to thank Factory Fortress, Inc., for providing us with a review copy of these rules.

New Antioch

New Antioch warband. Credit: SRM

As the main front against the forces of Hell for over three centuries, the Principality of New Antioch continues to fall and rise throughout the eternal war. They stand as the last bastion of order and civilization on this side of the apocalypse. The Principality prides itself on its doctrine of divine industry; a holy empire where faith and machine oil go hand in hand. The Antiochian war machine is a beautiful (and horrifying) blend of religious zeal and mechanical precision. Every bolt tightened and bullet chambered is a prayer, every trench dug is a hymn to the Almighty’s endurance.

New Antioch is a well-rounded warband, using combined arms and overlapping fields of fire. These are traditionally trained soldiers with a myriad of experience dealing with the forces of Hell. Your core troops, the Yeomen, are cheap, efficient, and surprisingly flexible. They have the Trench Moles ability, allowing two of your Yeomen to be Infiltrators. At just 30 ducats, you can field an entire regiment of these fellas and still be able to stack your more important warband members with juicier gear. These guys make excellent use of the Fireteam rule, and with the right equipment upgrades they can pivot from trench fodder into real threats on the battlefield.

Shock Troopers are a great way to have your average joe punch up a league or two. Assault Drill lets them ignore the Heavy keyword for one weapon, while the Shock Charge ability lets you roll an extra die when charging and pick the highest one. Next is the Combat Engineer, working similarly to the Iron Sultanate Sapper, allowing you to place mines throughout the battlefield to hopefully sabotage and foil any of your enemy’s plans. To round out the normal infantry suite, the Combat Medic is there to help keep the dream (and your friends) alive on the battlefield with their +2 Dice to Medi-kit Treat Actions, adding a big level of consistency when trying to support your warband. This doctor isn’t your average frail anatomy nerd, having the Finish the Fallen ability to give bonuses to injuring downed non-spookytype enemies.

Your large adult sons from New Antioch are the Mechanized Heavy Infantry – walking hunks of steel that excel at cleansing No Man’s Land with a hail of bullets. Although they do not have the Tough keyword, these thick lads are only 85 or 95 ducats, depending if you want Reinforced (-2) or Machine (-3) armour. Whether they are supporting from the backlines, or sitting on an important objective laying down lead, the Mechanized Heavy Infantry is a solid and well rounded solution.

Every regiment needs their leaders. The Lieutenant includes the normal +2 Dice to Ranged and Melee, along with Tough slapped on there. All of those years in the Corps have given this guy some thick skin. The only ability the Lieutenant has is Hold Your Fire!, allowing you to force your opponent to activate one of their models that is within line of sight. This is great for when you need to make sure a certain order of operations is necessary on the battlefield in order to carry out your strategy. The Sniper Priests let Meta-Christ take the wheel, disallowing your opponent to use Blood Markers to add -Dice to the Priest’s Ranged Attacks. In case your targets happen to be shrouded and natively difficult to hit, the Aim action gives +2 Dice to your Ranged Attacks made by the Sniper Priest for the rest of the Activation. To finish up your God-bearing goobers, the Trench Cleric amps up everyone in your warband within 8” of them, Negating Fear. For a Risky Success Roll, they can further support the squad by giving a Blessing Marker to a friendly model nearby as well!

Individually, the members of The Principality of New Antioch might not seem like much, but when all the cogs in the machine work together, they are a force to be reckoned with. This warband comes with currently the greatest number of Warband Variants in Trench Crusade. If marching through No Man’s Land with little fear of the abjurations and horrors that may crawl from the opposing trench is your jam, then the Papal States Intervention Force might be what you’re looking for. This variant makes your Trench Cleric the main focus, giving them an ability to get friendly models that are Downed back up and healing D3 of their Blood Markers. Supreme Pontiff’s Crucifix allows the wielder to continue their activation even after failing a Risky Success Roll.

The ever aggressive and brutal patrons of Saint Patrick, the Éire Rangers invoke brutal Hit and Run Tactics and quick blows with the infiltrating potential of the Fianna. Even the Cleric can bring the enemy to their knees with the Away Serpents! ability, picking an enemy model within 12” and causing them to be Downed on a Risky Success Roll. Check the underside of your car before rolling up to the table against these guys! The similarly close-quarters focused warband, also newly released as Trench Crusade’s first plastic kit, is the Stosstruppen of the Free State of Prussia. Bringing the Fireteam cap from 2 to 3, allowing the inclusion of up to 4 Submachine Guns and giving +1 Dice to Dash Actions for 5 ducats catalyzes the strategy of overwhelming your opponent, and doing it quickly.

Do I hear…bagpipes? The Kingdom of Alba Assault is your Shock Trooper focused variant, allowing all Shock Troopers and your Lieutenant to have the Strong keyword, along with decreased ducat cost the first time a melee weapon is purchased. Even the Mechanized Heavy Infantry are catered to excel at punching people’s heads smooth off, switching their +1 to their Ranged characteristic to Melee instead! If haggis and running at your opponent to disembowel the entirety of their entrails as fast as possible is not your thing, then maybe the more technical finesse of the Expeditionary Forces of Abyssinia is what you are looking for. These Ethiopian soldiers reinforce the efforts of New Antioch every seven years, giving them the Holy Warriors of Abyssinia. These God-touched Priests of Punch can spread Blessing Markers to friendly models around the battlefield, along with the helping Downed allies stand up and recover. Moving around Blessing Markers in conjunction with the variant specific Tabot equipment, which gives a Blessing Marker next to the model wearing it when they heal, making a little Blessing Marker engine between your Holy Warriors.

Notable Changes

Combat Engineers: The bonus +1 Dice to the Risky Success Roll for the Fortify Action has been removed.
Mechanized Heavy Infantry: Always on a 40mm base, opposed to having different base sizes depending on which armour type chosen. This is one of the great ways the Trench Crusade crew has been cleaning up the rules between the playtest and this official 1.0 release, and we are stoked to see more of it.
The Papal States Intervention Force: This now requires a Trench Cleric, and removes the requirement for the inclusion of a Lieutenant.

Trench Pilgrims

Trench Pilgrims Warband - Credit Bair

A Pilgrim is not going to be the cream of the crop of military prowess, but they more than make up for it with devotion to their faith. These God-touched and guilt-ridden men and women charge across the fields of No Man’s Land with little fear of the forces of Hell due to their Iron Capirotes. Angles have touched the Sisters of the Holy Orders, marking them with stigmata and pushing them to trudge through the battlefield, sword and cross in hand. Many of these zealots yearn for the chance to litter as many followers of Lucifer into the grave before reaching the afterlife.

The Trench Pilgrims give access to a good mix of close-ranged style playstyles. You’re going to want to drug these looney-tooned, religious freaks up with Martyrdom Pills and send them into the heart of your opponents models. With your main troops being the Trench Pilgrim and the Stigmatic Nun, whose ducat costs remains at 30 and 50 ducats respectively, allows you a lot of opportunity to either stack a bunch of equipment and buff pieces to make these guys and gals really scary on their own, or you can go wide with a bunch of (mostly) naked bozos. Plus, if your normie Pilgrims end up perishing during your campaign, they can be deemed worthy by the Seventh Meta-Christ and become Martyr-Penitents, keeping their Battlekit while giving -1 injury dice to injury rolls and +1 to their melee profile. The nuns on the other hand are limited to 4 per warband, but move 8” and have +1 to both ranged and melee. Their Agile ability gives these saucy sisters +1 dice to the Dash action, along with most Risky Success Rolls for movement based actions, making them able to traverse across any battlefield at blistering speeds. They can only take normal and auto-pistols, but anything is fair game for their melee weapons, so get these ladies in there and start hacking away!

Have you ever been so bridled with guilt, it almost feels like you’re going to explode? The Ecclesiastic Prisoner is another staple of the Trench Pilgrim’s force, making a Mad Dash into the opposition’s trench to (hopefully) blow them sky high with the Martyrdom Device attached to their backs. These 20 ducat sad-boys can’t wield any weapons, but for an additional 35 ducats you can strap a kaboom backpack around your bummed out slim jim. A new change for 1.0 is now for the device to blow up, a Success Roll must be made for it to go off, whereas before there was no action roll needed at all. Once the bomb goes boom, Injury Rolls are made for every model within 3”, adding +1 to dice for the models within “1. The 4D6 dice roll for the prisoner itself is also the same. Here’s to hoping your Martyrdom Devices aren’t duds.

Meta-Christ’s big boy on the block is the Anchorite Shrine. With +2 Dice for melee, and -3 Armour baked into this walking church, you’ll have everybody and everything quaking across No Man’s Land. The Anchorite Shine is built with a Bonebreaker Mace and The Catherine Wheel, both providing devastation to all those deemed unfaithful. Other than giving your opponent’s models a really big bonk, the wheel has another neat ability. At the beginning of each game (before deployment) you can sacrifice a Trench Pilgrim or Ecclesiastic Prisoner, breaking them on the wheel to show their piety and devotion. Not only will this make the enemy forces looking upon your Anchorite Shrine say, “Uh, I don’t think people are supposed to bend like that,” it also effectively puts a 0 Armour Characteristic, Out of Action shield to be able to take a beating first before anything happens to the Shrine itself. Once an Out of Action result has happened against the Catherine Shield, all Blood Markers applied to the Shrine are removed, but the Broken on the Wheel rules no longer apply. This is great for making your big scary bing bong with thick armour and Tough even more difficult to take down.

Lastly, the Elites of the Trench Pilgrims have a lot going for them. The War Prophet has the traditional +2 to ranged and melee, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you want your leader to be a beatstick. The Prophet can start blasting some dope tunes over their Loudspeakers for a Risky Success Roll with +2 Dice. On a success, all friendly models within 8” of the War Prophet (including themselves!) can move 3” towards the nearest enemy model, if visible. Ways to have your models moving out of sequence is always good, but with the plethora of cheap goobers in Trench Pilgrims, baiting out activations until a good opportunity presents itself to use this ability to aid your punchy friends getting into the skulls of those that oppose the Meta-Christ. Laying on of Hands is a 6” heal, giving you the ability to remove a Blood Marker from 1 friendly model within 6”, or 3 Blood Markers on a crit! Lastly, The War Prophet does not have the keyword Tough, but does have the Memento Mori ability. The first time the prophet suffers an Out of Action result, it’s blanked as a No Effect instead. This is a neat and flavorful way to give the Trench Pilgrim leader a second chance, sometimes without even having to be Downed, while also not needing the Tough keyword.

The Communicant is your 100 ducat beatstick, with +2 Melee and Strong. The Castigator on the other hand, is a neat utility piece. On a Risky Success Roll, every friendly model within 8” that is Down immediately stands back up! This is a great way to recover from a big Blast weapon, or even just when the squad is sleeping on the job. This also combos well with the Castigator’s Whip of God. When the Castigator makes a Melee attack, they can target a friendly model instead of an enemy. If this attack takes what used to be your homie Out of Action, you get to add +1 Dice to the next Moral Check. The last bonus for the Castigator is that they can also pay 5 ducats for Zealot Strength, making them a great candidate for the Punt Gun or Anti-Tank Hammer.

The Warband Variants for Trench Pilgrims are a great way to completely switch up how you want to play your shoeless compatriots. Procession of the Sacred Affliction is a strong choice if your goal is to roid up your Pilgrims to the moon with access to give Zealot Strength to multiple troops, along with no Elite requirement on Anti-Tank Hammers. Fun fact, although it’s listed as an ‘anti-tank’ hammer, it works well to murder things that aren’t tanks too. Another variant is the Cavalcade of the Tenth Plague. This one is really interesting, as it switches up what the Castigators and War Prophet do, as well as letting your models sacrifice a lamb to ignore the first Blood Marker of the game. There seems to be a lot of tech that can be dissected from this one, although I am more curious of what the deal was with the first nine plagues. Lastly, Saint Methodius must have really been into Big Dudes, as the War Pilgrimage of Saint Methodius allows you to bring two Anchorite Shrines. This last variant also gives you a plethora of additional equipment and weapons to strap onto these walking behemoths.

Notable Changes

The Trench Pilgrims were mostly untouched between the Playtest Rules and 1.0, but here are the highlights:

Anchorite Shrine: The wording of how its weapons work, along with the Broken on the Wheel ability have been cleaned up greatly.

Martyrdom Device: 1.6.3 specifically spells out that no action roll is required to have the Martyrdom Device explode, while the updated rules here say that a Success Roll is needed. Although flavorful, this is definitely a nerf, making the investment on disposable dudes even less worth it since there’s a 50 percent chance they will simply perish due to non-explosive reasons.

Laying on Hands: The War Prophet’s Laying on Hands ability got a rework, eliminating the D3 roll. Overall the potential healing is lowered, but at least you know what you’re getting for the most part.
Ranged weapons: Trench Pilgrims now have access to the Blunderbuss, as well as a way to access Sniper Rifles with ducats. Although there are no ways to give buffs to the ranged characteristic of your Trench Pilgrim troops, a cheap firing line of pyramid head snipers sounds extremely cool.

Iron Sultanate

Iron Sultanate Brazen Bull. Credit: Urr

The Iron Sultanate is the greatest surviving force of the Islamic faith within Trench Crusade. When the Templars opened the thrice-cursed Gate to Jahannam, Shaytan spilt across Dunya, and all seemed lost. Yet, as foretold, the Creator raised the Great Wall of Dhu al-Qarnayn within the Sultan’s lands, and hope returned. Many from across the faith answered the call, though countless millions perished on the journey; those who endured found refuge in a land that endured and even thrived. When the gates finally closed, the defence of the Great Sultanate, of the Invincible Iron Wall of the Two Horns That Pierce the Sky, had begun.

On the board, the Iron Sultanate can employ a number of different playstyles and some good solutions at all ranges, but leans a little more into shooting, given their easy access to Alchemical Ammunition, which grants a +1 Dice to attacks made with their array of unique firepower. The Iron Sultanate have also mastered the creation of Artificial life, with the Lions of Jabir and the Brazen Bull being key pieces for the army.

After centuries behind the Iron Wall, the smiths and engineers who create the Sultan's formidable arsenal have been able to forge a wide array of weapons that can deal with Hell’s threats. The Iron Sultanate possess many different firearms within their Battlekit, aptly made to be wielded either in No Man’s Land, or atop the Iron Wall itself. The most common ranged weapons you’ll be using are the Jezzail and the Siege Jezzail, with the latter gaining a +1 Injury Dice. Both can also be upgraded with Alchemical Ammunition. When it comes to defence and utility, the Sultan certainly provides. Alchemical Armour grants a flat -2 Injury modifier, with Negate Fire and Gas and an added -1 Injury Dice for Injury Rolls for attacks made by weapons with the Fire and Gas keyword. Stick a Combat Helmet and Trench Shield on a model with this Armour, and you have a model with -3 Armour and resistance to all three extra Blood Marker generators. The Cloak of Alamut ensures an Elite is safer from shooting than most, as cover bonuses grant -2 Dice instead of the usual -1. Lastly, for utility, a Wind Amulet can grant a once-per-game +3” movement characteristic boost for one activation.

One key aspect of the Iron Sultanate Battlekit is the large selection of weapons for the Brazen Bull. We’ll get into the model itself soon, but in summary: It big. Because of that, it needs big weapons. For a melee weapon, the Titan Zulfiqar is what you’ll want to grab, offering a flat +2 Injury Modifier and the Critical keyword, ensuring you’ll cut down anything in your way. For ranged weaponry, you’ll want to choose either the M.U.R.A.D Bombard, which can take out enemies hit directly with a 3d6 injury roll and knock down surrounding foes, or the Flame Cannon that shoots out a torrent of flame that ignores armour and can hit multiple models (watch out for your allies!).

For the roster, we begin with three Elites, with the Yüzbaşı serving as your leader. With +2 in Ranged and Melee and the usual Tough keyword. They also rock the Negate Fear keyword, with the bonus, thanks to the Mubarizum ability, of gaining +1 Injury Dice for attacks that target a model with the Tough keyword. At a base level, there is a nice synergy between Mubarizum and the Negate Fear, which can be compounded with the newly added ability in 1.0, the Janissary Veteran upgrade. This gives the Yüzbaşı the Strong Keyword, as well as the Counter-Charge ability, which provides the model with an extra +1 Dice to their melee attack, if the first action the Yüzbaşı took was a Charge. All in all, this glow up is great and cements the Yüzbaşı as a powerhouse focused on taking down enemy leaders and large models. The Jabirean Alchemist, a master of the elements, is able to add either the Fire, Gas or Shrapnel keyword to all of their weapons, enabling them to quickly generate Blood Markers with the right weapon choice. With a +2 Ranged, you’re going to be focusing on shooting down your enemies with this model, and it can certainly do so effectively. In the opposite corner, the Sultanate Assassin is your tricky melee threat piece, able to attack two different opponents after a charge, thanks to their Temporal Assassin ability. Its Time Slip ability allows the model to move out of harm's way if an enemy fails an attack Success Roll. These abilities make it really difficult to tie down an Assassin and prevent it from overwhelming your key threat pieces.

When it comes to your troops, we begin with the Azeb, who have poor melee capabilities, but with a simple Jezzail with Alchemical Ammunition, can punch above their weight for a cheap price. Upgrade them with the Light Skirmisher ability, and you have a cheap shooter that can scoot around the board to avoid being charged. The Sultanate Sapper, as the name might suggest, is specialised in setting and defusing mines that can be attached to terrain pieces. As long as they are touching a terrain piece up to 8”x8” in size, they can make a Success Roll, and if it succeeds, then the terrain is mined. Anyone who comes into contact with the mined terrain piece makes an injury roll with the Shrapnel keyword. In order to ensure your sappers can get into position quickly, they may be deployed up to 6” away from the deployment zone and touching a terrain piece. The Lions of Jabir are formidable hunters born from Alchemy. This grants them an innate -1 Injury Dice for attacks that target a Lion. Being unable to take weapons, they instead prefer to fight with Teeth and Claws, with their +1 Dice in melee providing some extra consistency in hitting their targets. Their Lion’s Grace ability gives them +1 Dice to their Climbing, Jump, Diving Charge and most importantly, Dash actions. Lastly, their Pin ability means that enemies on a 40mm or smaller base can’t stand back up if they are downed. All in all, a nice fast mover that can b-line it down the sides of the board and try to grab those juicy lone models. The Janissaries are the elite warriors of the Sultanate, who gain the Counter-Charge ability previously mentioned, as well as the Strong keyword. With a balanced +1 in Ranged and Melee, they are versatile fighters that can fill any role you like. Rounding out the roster, we have the Brazen Bull, the gargantuan bovine. Stomping on the battlefield, it possesses the Fear, Strong, and Tough keywords, making it a formidable foe to deal with. If that wasn’t enough, if it didn’t outright take out an enemy with its melee weapon, it may make a second attack that does not use a weapon profile, but ignores armour. This can only be used against enemies that are Downed, however.

Variants

The Iron Sultante, more than most other factions, prefer to lean into one of their variants, which typically revolve around one of the three Elites of the warband. Starting out with Fida’i of Alamut – The Cabal of Assassins, which you may have guessed, focuses on your Sultanate Assassin. You may recruit up to three Sultanate assassins, with one being promoted to Master Assassin, and gaining the Tough keyword. To complement your assassins you can purchase a bunch of abilities for them that range from defensive to movement tricks. Your Azebs and Janissaries (called Dervishes here) gain some nice optional bonuses that complement the sneaky and hard to hit playstyle. Equip an Assassin with a Blow of Alamut to hit them from afar and teleport in and finish them off with the Golden Khanjar.

If Frankenstein is your favourite book, then the House of Wisdom is for you. Masters of the mystic arts and leaders in the field of creating artificial life, the House of Wisdom is home to the Sultanate's many respected Alchemists. This variant leans heavily into the elements and provides some of the most variance and choice in list building. Right off the bat, the House of Wisdom may take two Jabriean Alchemists and your Janissaries (now called Fāris) become Elite. With no innate model with Tough, the Elixir of Al-Khidr solves that issue with a consumable granting a model that keyword. A key ability of the variant is the Weapon Collections ability, which allows you to purchase one piece of Battlekit from the New Antioch Armoury and one from the Trench Pilgrims Armoury, allowing for some variance and experimentation. If that isn’t enough, each Alchemist in the warband may purchase a special ability to further add some variance and uniqueness. One of the defining aspects of this variant is the chance to create your own unit, via the Takwin Hominculus. You may include one for each Alchemist in the warband, and starting with a measly base profile, you can purchase upgrades and weapons based on what role you want it to fill. There are so many combinations available that it is personally one of my favourite things in the game. Being able to fill a weakness or double down on your strengths or anything in between is fantastic to have.

The House of Wisdom has some fantastic opportunities for list-building creativity, which makes it a popular faction. It struggles against high-armoured targets, but is still able to do work nonetheless, thanks to the overlapping potential of equipment and abilities afforded to the smaller roster.

After Sultan Malik took the throne in 1902, he proclaimed that all lands that once belonged to Muslims should be reclaimed. To make this a reality, he ordered his troops to venture beyond the wall and take the fight to the heretical forces. These Defenders of the Iron Wall are unparalleled in ranged combat, having been selected amongst the finest warriors, shown with the Janissary Officers ability, giving your Janissaries the Elite keyword. Employing the advantage of an elevated position, thanks to years atop the Iron Wall, warriors who shoot from an elevated position gain a bonus to their attack roll. Your Yüzbaşı becomes a Silahdar, gaining the Strong keyword, as well as gaining access to some of the unique items in the Battlekit. Those who wield Siege Jezzails gain a +1 Dice to the Success roll should they be within 1” of another friendly model.

For the equipment, the Defenders gain a plethora of unique items. From the Anqā Guard, which acts as a deployable piece of cover, to the Iron Wall Kalkan, which acts a shield for the Brazen Bull, but can also push enemy models to push them off ledges or cause injury when squished against terrain. The Sultanate Grand Cannon is the epitome of Sultanate ingenuity and destruction. It can be equipped by a Brazen Bull, or deployed as a gun battery, able to be used by any model near it. With a 48” range, +2 Injury Dice and also ingnoring Armour, this will cause your opponent to think very, very carefully about how they approach up the board.

Notable Changes:

Yüzbaşı: Receives a little glow up that enforces its role as a large model / leader hunter.
Brazen Bull: Loses the Artificial Life rule, so no longer has an innate -1 Injury Dice for incoming attacks.
Addition of the Takwin Anqā Bird in the Battlekit.

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Tags: trench crusade | new antioch | iron sultanate | trench crusade 1.0 | trench pilgrims