Ex-Warhammer 40k game designer Andy Chambers, and Black Library novelist Graham McNeill, are creating stretch goal rewards for the massively successful Trench Crusade miniature wargame Kickstarter. At the time of writing the crowdfunding campaign sits at $984,000 dollars, against an original target of $66,666.
Andy Chambers was the lead designer for the second, third, and fourth editions of Warhammer 40k, among a huge body of work on other wargames. He’s signed up to design the rules and lore for Trench Crusade’s first ever Dramatis Personae (special character). During his stint in the GW design studio Chambers was well known for his love of Orks and the Skaven ratmen – we have high hopes he’ll bring some of that back-stabbing, maniacal energy to Trench Crusade.
Graham McNeil is a novelist best known for his numerous Warhammer 40k books, particularly his hit Ultramarines series and his Adeptus Mechanicus trilogy, not to mention his Horus Heresy books about the Iron Warriors and Thousand Sons Space Marine legions. He’s creating an original short story for the Trench Crusade rulebook.
The Trench Crusade Kickstarter runs until 12 noon PT / 3pm ET / 7pm GMT on November 12. Pledges start at $45 (£35) plus postage for a hardback rulebook, and there are multiple options to get digital or physical miniatures. I’m currently backing it for the Trench Pilgrim warband and the modular, 3D printable trench system, because I’m an Iron Warriors player and I can’t resist a trench…
The Trench Crusade universe is the original creation of Mike Franchina, a veteran concept artist with credits in Diablo 3 and 4, Magic: The Gathering, and Path of Exile 2. It’s a hellish world in which renegade Templars opened a portal to hell in the 11th century, creating a cosmic battle that has escalated until reaching the grimy trench warfare of WW1.
The team collaborating on Trench Crusade is full of talent. The rules are designed by Tuomas Pirinen, lead author of the beloved skirmish miniature wargame Mordheim. On the sculpting team are great names like James Sheriff – who recently adapted John Blanche’s female witch hunter art into miniatures – and Doug Hamilton, a lead designer on Warmachine, to name just a couple.
The project has contributions of art and sculpts from many more members of the Inq28 community. If that terms foreign for you, Inq28 is a movement of gamers that initially played Games Workshop’s Inquisitor wargame at 28mm scale, creating heavily customised miniatures to represent the weirder fringes of the Warhammer 40k factions.
Over time the term has expanded to encompass an aesthetic for model design and an scene with its own original indie games. In keeping with its Inq28 origins, Trench Crusade explicitly encourages kitbashing, and other studios can create and sell miniatures using the game’s name under license.
If you want to discover another great Inq28 title that’s already in print, make sure you check out The Doomed: our review explains why it’s a treat for kitbashers. For another game that’s attracting a lot of ex-GW talent, have you seen who’s attached to Konflikt ’47 now?
Source: Wargamer
