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Exactly a year ago I made my first Trench Crusade gaming board. The Silesian Trenchline was a project of passion combining a lifetime of previous terrain making experiences with a wide array of expectations towards the game of Trench Crusade – I did not yet played at the time.
It is 2026 now and I’ve been playing Trench Crusade extensively for the past twelve months, both at home and at various events. I have tested my wargaming mantle against some of the best Trench Crusade competitive gamers in Poland, emerging that much more experienced in terms of knowledge of the flow of the game. Even though the previous gaming board is considered very playable, it is not without some key issues that grew on me over time. I have adjusted some features and added a few extras. At the end of the day I still felt it was time to ‘update’ the whole set. Thus here we are – the Silesian Trenchline 2.0 project begun on Monday 9th of February 2026.
This time around the main focus was to:
– Prioritize gameplay features over looks,
– Copy the core, well tested and Organized Play viable, board layout,
– Increase stackability (less occupied space when fully compacted),
– Maximize looks within the limits set by the above directives,
The project began in earnest on Monday afternoon, when all the necessary material got delivered at my doorstep. 2″ thick XPS foam, corrugated paper, wooden coffee sticks, PVA glue, lots of Cyanoacrylate glue and other stuff plus some 3D printed bitz and pieces I produced throughout the previous Weekend.
I copied the exact layout of the previous board by outlining each piece on a fresh XPS foam board, then cutting the XPS along the lines with an exacto knife. The next step was to fit the shapes onto a board to see if they require any adjustments. A few dimensions did get tuned slightly. I then followed up with the standard side decoration – a mix of corrugated paper and hundreds (actually over a thousand) wooden coffee sticks of varied shapes, all mounted firmly with PVA glue.
I made sure to glue coffee sticks so that they created a ragged top edge, but stuck out on the underside, to then cut them off along the natural line of the XPS foam, once dry.
In order to improve visuals in a way that will not impact gameplay comfort, I have built a few shrines and ammo caches that I then mounted inside some of the trench walls.
With all the scenery pieces prepared I have arranged a game with my buddy to see how the updated board performs in ‘real combat’. The test was a success. We both felt this was exactly how a top competitive one-off game should feel. The board was approved and ready to get painted.
The painting process was nothing new. I followed the same color scheme as before, except for the texture. This time I used AK Interactive Dark Earth, rather than a DIY mix of fine sand with brown paint and PVA glue. It saved me a lot of time. On Friday 13th of February I was done with the project – for the time being…
The board is very playable, although compared to the previous set of the Silesian Trenchline, it looks somewhat empty. I have purposely resigned from angling the side walls and adding sandbags – for smoother gaming experience, but now feel that the new board is way less fotogenic than the last one was. Because of that I am working on adding a few removable obstacles that should bring back some of that fine color to the entire thing. What do you think – how much worse does it look by comparison? How much more playable do you think it is now?
Stay tuned for updates as projects such as this are never really finished.
PS: The amazing ruined trench bottom game mat is “No Mans Land” from Playmats.eu that I helped to develop.
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