Tabletop miniature games rely on a sense of creativity and community more than most mediums. Even a “stock” army, with no modifications and painted to resemble their box’s art, requires genuine creativity and effort. Without automated bots, most games require a second player.

Many publishers struggle with this. In an effort to keep the players locked into their ecosystem, and keeping those players spending, tournament- and contest-legal models have sometimes stringent requirements. A certain percentage of the model must come from official sources, and certain sources for materials are not allowed.

Trench Crusade, an upcoming miniature wargame from Mike Franchina (Diablo 2r/3/4, Path of Exile 2, Magic: The Gathering), Tuomas Pirinen (Mordheim, Warhammer 6th ed.) and James Sherriff (28 magazine, Ian Miller’s Grim Tarock), does away with these restrictions.

Up until now, if you wanted to play Trench Crusade you needed to convert or kitbash your models. We want to say, here and now, that custom miniatures will always be completely legitimate. Some minor stipulations (i.e. things like base size, etc) aside, we want to encourage creativity on and off the tabletop and will even be providing kits in this campaign to help you do just that!

Moreover, Factory Fortress will offer all armies as STL files (3D printing files) and the rules will always be online for free.

The core of respect for their players makes all the difference. Players are responding. At time of writing, the Kickstarter has been online for a few days and is already pushing toward $1.5 million.

Trench Crusade is available on Kickstarter now.

Disclosure: The author backed previous Trench Crusade Kickstarters.

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Featured Image: Factory Fortress

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