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Ahoy Sailors! As you know I am most and foremost a passionate hobbyist. That being said I am also a pirate, a scoundrel and a fanatical enthusiast of Mantic Games Kings of War: Armada – a naval strategy game set in a rich world of Pannithor, pitting multiple wonderfully crafted and strongly themed factions against one another. In this article I present to you a new, fan made, “Creeping Death” Scenario.
Armada Scenario: Creeping Death
An unnatural fog starts to creep into the sea. Two fleets caught mid-battle must now face a chilling touch of an enemy they cannot fight against!
Setup
Each player’s deployment zones are two 16″x16″ triangles at the opposite sides of the board.
Both players deploy their fleets one ship at a time, as usual, except no player can place two ships in the same deployment zone one after the other.
Roll a D6, on a 1-3, the Wind starts from the West, on a 4-6, it starts from the East.
Victory Conditions
The game lasts 6 turns.
Players score VP at the end of the game, as follows:
● 1VP for each destroyed enemy ship up to a maximum of 4VP.
● 2VP if the most expensive enemy ship (‘Capital Ship’) is destroyed.
● 2VP if more than half (rounding up) of the enemy ships are destroyed.
The Player with the most VPs is the winner.
Scenario Rules
At the end of each turn, the deadly unnatural fog creeps further onto the board. Any ship caught in the fog is immediately hit* and suffers a Critical Hit (Critical Hit Table p.26 Rulebook). Any Tiny and/or Surrendered Ships that are caught in the fog are immediately destroyed instead.
*Ships can freely start and end their Activations in the unnatural fog. The hits occur at the end of turn only.The deadly fog creeps from the outside of the gaming board as follows:
● First Turn: 3” from the board edges.
● Second Turn: 6” from the board edges.
● Third Turn: 9” from the board edges.
● Fourth Turn: 12” from the board edges.
● Fifth Turn: Players roll a D6. On 4+ the fog progresses another 3″ from the board edges and towards the middle.
● Sixth Turn: Players roll a D6. On 4+ the fog progresses another 3″ from the board edges and towards the middle.
I hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below or via Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional Warhammer miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
Ahoy Sailors! As you know I am most and foremost a passionate hobbyist. That being said I am also a pirate, a scoundrel and a fanatical enthusiast of Mantic Games Kings of War: Armada – a naval strategy game set in a rich world of Pannithor, pitting multiple wonderfully crafted and strongly themed factions against one another. In this article I present to you a new, fan made, “Hellish Trident” Scenario.
Armada Scenario: Hellish Trident
Three Islands in this area are believed to be the cursed tips of a Hellish Trident. Every now and then the Islands resonate creating waves of vast magnitude, dealing massive damage to nearby ships. Most fleets avoid the area, but on this very day the orders were given to gain control of this cursed place…
Setup
In addition to any terrain, players place three small Islands, representing the tips of the Hellish Trident, on the table in the following configuration:
● 1 Objective Marker in the center of the table.
● 1 Objective Marker, 8” from the left side and 8” from the top side of the board.
● 1 Objective Marker, 8” from the right side and 8” from the bottom side of the board.
Each player’s deployment zones are 24″x24″ triangles at the opposite sides of the board.
Roll a D6, on a 1-3, the Wind starts from the West, on a 4-6, it starts from the East.
Victory Conditions
The game lasts 6 turns.
Each player scores VP at the end of the turn, as follows:
● 1VP for the player who controls more Islands.
Additionally, at the end of the game players score VP as follows:
● 2VP for the player who controls more Islands.
The player with the most VPs at the end of the game is the winner.
Scenario Rules
From the second turn onwards, one Island will start to Resonate. Any ship that ends its Activation within/partially within 8” from the Resonating Island must pass a Skill Test. If the test fails the ship will suffer D6 Damage. If the Skill Test fails on a natural roll of “1” the ship will suffer an additional Critical Hit (Critical Hit Table p.26 Rulebook).
During the last game Turn all Skill Tests made by ships within 8″ from the Resonating Islands suffer a -1 modifier and each Damage Roll suffered as a result of Resonating Islands are automatic Critical Hits (Critical Hit Table p.26 Rulebook).
● Second Turn: Players roll-off, the winner selects the Island to resonate this turn.
● Third Turn: The opposing player selects a different Island to resonate this turn.
● Fourth Turn: The last Island is the one to resonate this turn.
● Fifth Turn: No Islands resonate this turn.
● Sixth Turn: All Islands resonate this turn.
Each player scores VP at the end of the turn, as follows:
● 1VP for the player who controls more Islands.
Additionally, at the end of the game players score VP as follows:
● 2VP for the player who controls more Islands.
The player with the most VPs at the end of the game is the winner.
Controlling Islands
Tally up the CS of non Surrendered friendly ships within 6″ from an Island for both players. The side with greater CS within the area Controls the Island. The majority of the ship’s base must be within the area to count towards the tally.
I hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below or via Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional Warhammer miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
Playing miniature wargames used to be all about textured boards and fluffy static grass mats. These days there’s a variety of alternatives, the best of which is in my opinion a proper gaming mat. Gaming mats look great, they’re durable, easy to store and most importantly offer a wide spectrum of themes to improve the gameplay experience. When it comes to gaming mats there’s a few clear leaders in the market, but my favorite is the Playmats – a well established Polish brand of gaming accessories and Battle Mats for wargames. For years now I have been a faithful customer, improving my wargaming experience with Playmats, be it with their original designs or via commissioning them to produce items to my personalized specifications. This review is less of a classic price/quality/etc. and more of a product-focus. As it happens the Playmats just released a Battle Mat produced in association with yours truly. A great opportunity to present to you my own idea realized as a fully fledged product of a well known company.
The product in question is the “No Man’s Land” mat for wargames. The idea behind the mat is to provide a ravaged trenchline background for a desolated battlefield, so that any configuration of so-called trench-hills will fit, regardless of setup. The inspiration came out of nowhere when I was making a new Trench Crusade gaming board and weighted my options between fully 3D modelled, plank covered ‘ground floor’ and a standard battlefield type gaming mat. Modelling floor tiles is a tedious task that limits setup options for scenery, whereas for a gaming mat – there was just no design of what I had in mind anywhere out there. Most gaming mats are designed to look good as standalone products and are not necessarily treated as a background for a full scenery set – I figured to pitch my idea to Playmats and to my surprise they took it in with an open mind.
I will skip the entire design process and focus on the finished thing instead. The gaming mat I got is a standard 48×48″ (122x122cm), one sided print on a rubber pad. I have many Playmats products already so to no surprise the quality is very good, with strong and vibrant colors, smooth cutting lines and perfect rubber pad to print adhesion. The final design is very much to my liking, full of messed up trench floor, ideal to stick out from beneath trench-hills.
The No Man’s Land comes in a variety of sizes and as such it fits a variety of games, including Trench Crusade (like in my case), but also an Imperial Guard themed board for Warhammer 40,000/Kill-Team or a cool Warzone trench line. I am very happy with the results.
For the record: I do not earn any affiliation based returns from the sales of this product. Now that I have a cool No Man’s Land gaming mat of my own, I have no further horses in this race, if you catch my drift. I’m here spreading the hobby love because I do appreciate Playmats eagerness to release my idea, not to forget the great quality of all the cool stuff they delivered throughout the years. At this point I am a fan of theirs for life!
This and other Playmats products are available at Playmats.eu or Playmaty.pl for all of you – Polish friends.
I hope you find this review interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or at Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
Ahoy Sailors! As you know I am most and foremost a passionate hobbyist. That being said I am also a pirate, a scoundrel and a fanatical enthusiast of Mantic Games Kings of War: Armada – a naval strategy game set in a rich world of Pannithor, pitting multiple wonderfully crafted and strongly themed factions against one another. In this article I present to you a new, fan made, “Marked for Death” Scenario.
Armada Scenario: Marked for Death
An opposing fleet was spotted on the horizon. Soon the orders got relayed to mark priority targets for the immediate destruction. Unbeknown to the fleets captains the enemy prepared plans of their own…
Setup
Each player’s deployment zone is 6” deep and 12” from each table edge.
Roll a D6, on a 1-3, the Wind starts from the West, on a 4-6, it starts from the East.
Victory Conditions
The game lasts 6 turns.
Players score VP at the end of the game, as follows:
● 1VP for each enemy Marked for Death ship destroyed.
● 1VP for each enemy Marked for Protection ship destroyed.
● 1VP for each friendly not Surrendered Marked for Protectionship in the enemy half of the table.
● An additional 2VP for the player who destroyed more Marked for Death enemy ships.
The Player with the most VPs is the winner.
Scenario Rules
Before Deployment each player writes down in secret two of their own ships of size M or larger. These ships are now “Marked for Protection”. Next, players write down in secret two enemy ships of size M or larger. These ships are now “Marked for Death”. If there is only one ship of the appropriate size in a fleet, it is Marked automatically by both players and counts as two ships for the purpose of Scoring.
At the start of each of the first four turns, both players reveal one of the Marked ships simultaneously, as follows:
● First Turn: Reveal one enemy Marked for Death ship.
● Second Turn: Reveal one friendly Marked for Protection ship.
● Third Turn: Reveal second enemy Marked for Death ship.
● Fourth Turn: Reveal second friendly Marked for Protection ship.
The Marked ship can already be destroyed when revealed. The same ship can be Marked for Death and Marked for Protection at the same time.
I hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below or via Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional Warhammer miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
To those of you who follow my work it will be of no surprise that I am a huge Armada enthusiast. The game by Mantic Games hooked me up since day one. My personal collection consists of eight fleets of varying sizes and multiple dedicated scenery sets. I went deep and beyond, dedicating a part of my hobby blog exclusively to Armada, not to mention a huge part of my life.
Regardless of multiple fleets I have been playing the Salamanders fleet almost exclusively for the past few years. This is because I really like their playstyle, but also due to the simple color scheme and a fast painting methodology that allows me to add more ships ASAP whenever I decide to test out some borderline insane lists. One might even say that in the end comfort and speed of painting won with all the other, much fancier fleets.
But my only true miniature love of all time was always the Undead. We’re talking since the early 90s. I have been collecting skeletons and wrights, vampires, mummies and zombies of all kinds in a variety of miniatures games. The time finally came for Armada to get spiced with some bones if you catch my drift.
As it happens I am a part of the Mantic Games Rules Committee and participate in the design process of the new fleets that come to the game. When an opportunity to write the Undead fleet rules presented itself I called dibs! I was given a guideline of what types of ships I was to focus on, created a draft, then playtested the ruleset extensively before presenting it to Mantic Games for further testing and eventual approval. All that to say I had the opportunity to write the rules for my favorite faction in my favorite miniatures game…
…but the rules are just half of a fleet. The models are a different story. Although Armada has a set of beautiful STL files for every existing faction available through Mantic Vault (including the Undead), there’s nothing stopping players from outsourcing models. More so, I do believe that the game is somewhat miniatures agnostic – it is the base size that represents a ship class and it is easy to track what’s what as long as players know what faction is being played.
With that in mind and being a creative dude, I wanted to really flesh out the Undead that I feel. A mix of old Warhammer with Heroes of Might & Magic 3, more bones, more gothic afts, more spikes and tattered sais… but also something disturbing and strange about the fleet I had in mind.
In the end I digitally kitbashed my own fleet with official Mantic’s files of the Twilight Kin (hulls) and Forces of the Abyss (sails, flames, bones), adding a few extras (tombstones, piles of bodies, etc.). It was all done in Meshmixer, which I learned from scratch as I went. The end result is clunky, but has some charm to it.
At that point I had a fleet of Undead ships built in advance to the possible maximum and over the top. For those who don’t know – Armada is a game of usually between five to nine ships with some borderline examples of over a dozen. Still, with multiple fleets and a multitude of list archetypes there’s ways to lean into a particular ship class or playstyle, thus covering some extremes. I’ve covered this particular topic in Armada Expanding Collection Guide for those interested, but for now, allow me to state that with the Undead I aimed at truely embracing the fleet with all of its possible configurations.
And it broke me! Because of the sheer number of ships, the magnitude of the project somehow turned it from a ‘hobby boner’ into a downer. I laid the undercoat, then shelved the project for a later date. It was June 2025 and the moment of inspiration did not come in 2025. I just continued to play the Salamanders as usual…
That is until Saturday 17th of January 2026! New year, a lot of commissions completed ahead of time (I’m already working on stuff planned for the end of May), a lot of gaming spread across the month… an Armada event hit! “Black Waters 16” is a cyclic local event I organize. This one was a blast. We had a full house with players from across Poland driving in to attend. I had a great time and as usual the event energized me for everything Armada. I managed to focus this power of hype into painting a shelved project – the Undead got onto my desk the day after!
In the end it took me about 16 hours of intense painting, spread across Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. After over half a year of waiting the Undead Fleet is now completed and I cannot wait to take it to the sea and play my very first game! (other than the beta testing).
More pictures and close-ups for every ship class at: UNDEAD FLEET GALLERY
Lemme know what you think of the ship designs, how they feel and how you like the color scheme for these bony puppies!
I hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or at Facebook or Instagram. If, by any chance, you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
One of the key aspects of the Trench Crusade gameplay is taking risks in order to get an edge over the enemy force. Today I will show you an easy way to make your own sections of Dangerous Terrain – a handy feature that can be added to your trenchy gaming boards. Furthermore, below you will find a set of home-brewed rules to spice things up for both you and your opponent!
Some notes:
Useful items:
Core Features:
I cut a 3mm thick plasticard into strips of approximately 4×1″ to create bases for the scenery. There’s no requirement to use plasticard for this – personally I like how simple it is to work with this particular material. Next I applied fast drying PVA glue in the middle of each strip and glued a few cut and/or snapped wooden sticks on top trying to create a ravaged, war-thorn pattern. Finally I applied Cyanoacrylate glue on top of PVA glue and added a few 3D printed mines.
TIP: If you don’t have access to a 3D printer, you can use small size buttons or even small coins.
Texture and Volume:
I then applied Cyanoacrylate glue on top and around the core shape made of PVA glue and all the extras. Next I covered everything in K&K Hobby Village Debris, which is a nice mix of fine sand and gravel.
Base Finish:
The next step was to use a hobby knife to cut off any excess plasticard from around the hardened texture, so that the scenery looked more irregular.
Barbed Wire:
I rolled K&K Hobby Barbed Wire around the back of an old brush to shape it, then glued it on top of every scenery piece, mounted in a zigzag pattern between each wooden stick.
Afterwards I’ve painted each piece the same way as the rest of the Silesian Trenchline – Trench Crusade Scenery Set. You can read about the process in Basing: Trench Bases step-by-step tutorial. The end result:
RULES:
In order to spice things up in a (hopefully) balanced way I have created this set of rules that you are free to use in your games of Trench Crusade.
After determining who has the Initiative, but before setting up the first model, players set up two 4x1x0,4″ sections of Dangerous Terrain. Starting with the player who has the Initiative, both players alternate setting up one section anywhere on the Battlefield but not inside the enemy Deployment Zone and more than 3″ from any Objectives, until both players set up two Sections of Dangerous Terrain this way. Players then proceed with setting up their models as per scenario describtion.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below or via Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it interesting. Finally if you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
Have you ever wondered how much Armada is too much Armada? Personally I used to go about my hobby life without a care in the world, collecting Armada fleets one after another. Just when I thought I was the one at the very pinnacle of Armada excitement I met Krzysztof – probably the most Armada hyped person in the entire world (Including the fine folks at Mantic Games)!
Today I present to you an interview (translated from Polish) with Krzysztof Grosiak, a passionate hobbyist, miniatures collector, successful gamer and most importantly – acclaimed Armada Admiral.
Scarhandpainting: Krzysztof, we have known each other for some time now and I was there when you set sail onboard an Armada ship for the very first time. Now, a few years later, you have won more than a few tournament trophies and are in possession of an impressive Armada collection. It is pure joy to witness first hand how you grew as an Armada fan, but I have always wandered how you got into Wargaming?
Krzysztof: A few years back I accidentally stumbled onto a Deadzone review. I was a big fan of board games at a time with zero knowledge of wargames. The game made a big impression on me so I got it only to be shocked, realizing the miniatures must first be built by hand! It proved to be challenging but also a very rewarding experience.
Scarhandpainting: Why Armada? What was the trigger that got you into this particular game?
Krzysztof: I played a lot of Deadzone events at a hobby store run by a good friend of mine. At one point he was running an Armada demo game and the game’s simple but rewarding mechanics and amazing visuals hooked me up instantly.
Scarhandpainting: Any other miniatures wargames you’re into?
Krzysztof: These days I play a wide range of games, including Deadzone, Kings of War, Firefight, One Page Rules and Frostgrave. I am a man of many wargaming passions.
Scarhandpainting: Back to Armada, you have over a hundred fully painted ships in your current collection. Many might wander if it was difficult to paint such quantities and how did you manage to keep your motivation up?
Krzysztof: I believe there’s actually close to two hundred ships in my current collection. Painting such quantities is tedious, but I don’t want to find myself unable to field a certain combo or archetype because of a lack of a few painted ships. I’d rather put the work in beforehand. And I never play with unpainted miniatures, so one just leads to another.
Scarhandpainting: It’s definitely easier to count the fleets you are missing rather than the ones you own already. What fleets are still left to go for?
Krzysztof: I am still missing the Kingdom of Men and the Salamander, although both are already printed. You play the Salamanders so I was reluctant to jump onboard, but now when it’s one of the only two fleets left I am that much closer to sitting down and getting them done – probably soon.
Scarhandpainting: Speaking about the fleets – you are a jack of all trades when it comes to tactics. What is your collecting strategy for particular fleets though?
Krzysztof: I do my best to optimize the collection towards all available archetypes within up to 300 points. I bounce between elite and spamy lists (often gravitating towards the latter) and I’d hate to be locked in a particular list due to lack of sufficient ships in my collection. I love to test things on the board, finding interesting combos and the borderline configurations. If I break the game at any point – you’re there to patch it up before the next event.
Scarhandpainting: Let’s talk about the Armada gameplay and especially the ‘competitive play’. You are a successful and undisputed Armada champion here in Poland. How does your typical tournament prep routine look like? Do you test your lists concepts beforehand?
Krzysztof: I tend to follow my guts. I like to surprise my friends with something new and exciting and I hate boredom. I never bring the same fleet two times in a row. Testing ideas is a mixed bag. Sometimes I have a few games before events, other times I don’t. One thing I try not to do is drink (alcohol) the day before. The previous experiences showed me it is not worth it.
Scarhandpainting: You’ve successfully played so many fleets. Is there a particular fleet that you might consider your favorite?
Krzysztof: I do like Elves. Fragile, but fast and nimble. I love to spam the $t of them and see my opponents fleets squirm before the Elven might. Seven Elven ships throwing themselves at an Orc Ripper Hulk? Easy! One mistake and a ship is gone. I love this. Fast & Furious!
Scarhandpainting: Speaking of which, is there a particular fleet you don’t like to face against?
Krzysztof: Not really. Each fleet offers a different experience and I gladly take on any challenge.
Scarhandpainting: How about our local Armada scene? What cen you say about Polish community, our events and how we play Armada, compared to the rest of the world?
Krzysztof: It’s difficult to compare our scene to different countries without gaming there beforehand. Judging by the online activity I feel like our scene is more aware of the rules exploits. Fortunately we are very friendly and welcoming. Whenever one of us finds a way to legally abuse the rules, we keep it lighthearted and find a way to (home rule) patch any exploits and ‘feels bad’ mechanics in a timely manner. It feels like we’ve been playing ‘Armada 2.0’ for some time now.
Scarhandpainting: Trying to gaze into Armada’s future, are there any specific fleets or rules you’;’d like to see added to the core game?
Krzysztof: Maybe a balancing sweep across the board? Things like Ocarina of Korgaan, Jyinn Grethunder are brutally good for the points cost. On the other hand there are a lot of useless items that could use some balancing love. Other than that, more interesting stuff is always good, just keep it balanced. The latest fleets seem on point, keep up the great work Mantic!
Scarhandpainting: Thanks for the interview my dude. Before we wrap things up, is there anything you would like to tell/ask Mantic Games? Who knows? They might read the article at some point.
Krzysztof: Bear with me Mantic Games – Deadzone style game but in the Kings of War setting. Tiny Armada ships board game on a hexagonal board. This is something I would throw my cash at instantly!
Here it is – a little peek inside the head of an Armada maniac 🙂 I hope you enjoyed this short interview. If you have anything to ask Krzysztof, or just want to comment on some of the stuff – I invite you to leave a comment below and I will be sure to let Krzysztof know.
I hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or at Facebook or Instagram. If, by any chance, you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
I’ve been having a blast playing on the Silesian Trenchline scenery set for the last two weeks. Spoiler Alert: The set has been completed for quite some time now. That out of the way, let’s rewind a bit and get right back to where I left in the Silesian Trenchline part two article. That would be the undercoat…
In order to save time I prefer to get everything built first, then apply undercoat wholesale. This is where two 2×4′ folding tables and a set of thin HDF trays tends to come in handy. I go one tray / large piece at a time, spraying black undercoat where it’s required. I then set the tray on one of the tables and get another one. Once out of free space, I stack the trays on top of the previous layer, using small plastic cups as supports with a minimal point of contact. Fifteen minutes later everything’s nicely black.
For the painting process I went with a trusted, simple color scheme. The goal of which was to produce effective results while being easy to repeat across the entire set or to return to with any new scenery additions in the future (Such as the Antenna Cross added later on).
The core list of paints and a video tutorial following each step of the painting process can be found at Tutorial: Painting Trench Crusade Antenna Cross.
Easy to say the painting process was much faster than the building and modeling part. One to two hours of airbrushing followed by a few more hours spent on detailing. Finally a break after applying the AK Interactive Dark Earth texture on top of each piece, to come back another day and finish with a round of drybrush, apply varnish, add a few dozen Gamers Grass Brown 2mm tufts and call it done.
Although the Silesian Trenchline was complete and I had a few games on the set, the inspirational release never came. A few days later I still felt hunger for more Trench Crusade scenery for my tiny dudesmen to explore. The set felt complete and was pretty playable, but upon giving it more thought I figured to double down on some fancy centerpieces – or at least fancier than the ones I already had…
First, I added the probably most iconic Trench Crusade scenery piece – the Antenna Cross. I used a widely available STL with a few tweaks to increase playability and set the piece within my existing scenery set visual cues. A large wooden step around the base of the cross with a small sniper’s nest mid way up the cross and some Sandbags here and there made it work. I felt sated for the day…
The very next day, I had to come back to the project for another round. Got super inspired with a set of DIY objective markers seen at a local Discord – just had to make a set of my own. Nothing special, just a mix of resized 3d printed weapons, crates, ammunition and candles. I threw in a Meshmixered statue of Saint Karen – Patron of Supplies Acquisition, for a strongly themed secondary centerpiece.
Done in two hours, with a bit more work put into making the objective markers pop on the gaming board, finally put my scenery hunger to rest. For now…
This is it. The Silesian Trenchline is now ‘fully’ completed, ready to be fed the blood of plastic fighters. Will it ever get expanded? Maybe, but I already moved on to more projects, including half a dozen commissioned lightweight Trench Crusade scenery sets. I also feel like putting a lot more games in, before deciding what scenery might improve the playability on the Silesian Trenchline. If you have any fun ideas – be sure to drop them in the comments below. Until then – keep your helmets on!
hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or at Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
It has been a few days in the grips of the Trench Crusade fever. The squad and I had a few games, and went deep into the no man’s land. With the construction of the Silesian Trenchline (part one) we have crossed the point of no return. In order to finish the scenery set and be able to play the game for real, an array of proper peripherals and extras had to be made. So here we are…
I kicked off with a set of most essential peripherals, being the walkways, ladders and firing steps. These are necessary to get the most out of the entire trench line. Fortunately they are also fast and easy to make.
For the walkways I used two thin pieces of 3mm thick plasticard to support the length and adhered some broken stirring sticks on top. I was considering cutting the sides to fit the ‘rails’ underneath but ended up liking the ramshackle look.
The ladders were made by gluing a few steps on top of two, precisely cut, stirring sticks. I then glued decorative halved balls to fake nails. Not very realistic, but a cheap additional detail to spice things up.
Finally I used the leftover sides of the XPS foam as the base for the firing steps. These got cut into 4″ and 6″ long pieces then covered with PVA glue and stirring sticks one side at a time. Once properly adhered, the stirring sticks got nipped off. The process was then repeated on another side until completed, resulting in a set of very light, but durable firing steps.
The Extras such as damaged barrels, stacks of ammo crates etc. are great to hinder miniatures movement and provide some additional cover on the board. Most importantly this type of scenery adds much needed detail to the composition and can be moved around easily for best visual results.
I used a bunch of 3d printed elements (full list at the bottom) and mounted them on a 3mm thick plasticard with cyanoacrylate glue. I then added some small gravel and poured thin cyanoacrylate on top, sealing it with an activator. This created extra texture and volume around the 3d printed objects. I then cut off the excess of the plasticard, forming an irregular shaped base for each piece. In my opinion this makes the scenery look less artificial and allows for individual pieces to be combined into larger shapes by siding them with one another.
The scenery set was taking shape, but it still lacked the most important thing – the ‘soul’. The Trench Crusade follows a certain artistic theme and I wanted to tap into it and create some memorable centerpieces. Elements of scenery not just to steal a glance or two, but seem significant on the gaming board. To try to achieve this goal I have built two shrines, by breaking and mixing 3d printed elements with stirring sticks. I then based both of them on 3mm plasticard, then combined them with two smallest pieces of the trench wall – both of which have a straight vertical space designed for this particular purpose. Gravel and super glue followed to build volume and texture.
No proper Trench Crusade board should be devoid of Bunkers and I have added three 3d printed pieces to the set. All properly based on 3mm thick plasticard and surrounded with extra details. I used this opportunity to introduce two rows of anti-tank fortifications to go alongside one of the bunkers, further enhancing the militaristic theme of the set.
In order to push the overall theme of the set one step further I glued a few dozen sandbag barricades along the trenches with the PVA glue. Initially I planned to keep these separate, but a few test games convinced me otherwise. The reduction of modularity was a fair price to pay for the decreased setup time, comfort of use and improved transportation.
With everything built and ready, the undercoat followed. A lengthy process of mounting every scenery piece on top of a tray with two sided tape, then spraying black undercoat all around. I do like my undercoat done right after all…
And with that out of the way the only thing left seem to be the painting process, but this I will leave for the next article – coming soon. In the meantime feel free to engage with me about this project at Scarhandpainting social media or down in the comments below. I’d be happy to chat 😉
List of used STL files:
Sandbags & Barrels by DICEVERSE
Bunkers by GRADDESIGN
Tanktraps by BIMBUSPRINTABLES
Cannon Ammunition Crates by MKHAND_INDUSTRIES
Cannon Shells by MKHAND_INDUSTRIES
Artillery by ALPINEWEISS3D
I hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or at Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
The Trench Crusade got me my friends. Apart from the allure of the online hype, a lot of my buddies spent the last few weeks entrenched in mud, inviting me in. I gave up and fell victim to their plea for reinforcements. If you follow my blog for a while, you already know that when I get into a game I go all-in, thus here we are – I am making the Trench Crusade gaming board. Now put your helmets on and follow me into the Silesian Trenchline.
Usually, when planning a scenery set for miniatures wargaming, I start by making a rough sketch, or set up a provisional board to gauge how much scenery elements feel right. With the Trench Crusade, the community is wildly creative. Scrolling through some amazing examples of gaming boards online I got an idea of how much stuff there should be and how I’d like to approach things. I purchased a few pieces of 50mm thick Styrofoam (XPS foam), a large bottle of PVA glue, 1L of brown acrylic paint, few packages of thin wooden stirring sticks and got to work.
The core concept of the board was to have it modular, but not limited to square panels. The brilliant idea of creating trenches via stacking walled hills on top of the battlefield really spoke to me thus I went with that. I’m not one to sit down and precisely measure stuff and prefer to work fast and intuitively. The way I do things is cut a single piece of material, then use it as a measuring tool and cut the rest following the lines of the template and a piece of straight board or something currently at hand. I find minor lapse in precision working for the visual benefit and realism of the scenery set. This is what I did, cutting a single 4×4″ triangle and using it as a tool to mark core shapes in XPS. Once done I cut out the shapes with a wallpaper knife.
For the angled sides of the ‘hills’ I marked the top of each piece with a marker, following a previously cut piece of XPS about 1″ wide. This way I had the top of the slope, the supposed bottom being the actual edge of each piece. I then cut, focusing on holding the knife in a steady position and following the imaginable angle between the two lines, not caring if I made any slight errors on the way.
Once I had a few core shapes I set them up on a 4×4 gaming mat in order to see how the set ‘feels’ and how much I need to add to reach the goal.
I wanted to have my ‘trenches’ textured with something simple, but effective and look rough. I chose to go with gluing texture on top of the walls with PVA glue. For this I cut old wallpaper alongside a piece of badly damaged transportation paper into strips slightly wider than the height of the ‘walls’. Glued them one at a time on each scenery piece, then upon reaching the second round I used scissors to cut off the excess of the dried out piece, before adding another one beside it.
I then used a large synthetic brush and sealed everything with a mix of PVA glue and water. Left it to dry afterwards.
Once the scenery was completely dry, I used a portable gas burner to diversify the texture on top of each piece – done outdoors. I then used PVA glue to mount some roughly cut stirring sticks in semi regular intervals on the sides of the trenches. Finally, using Super Glue, I glued a lot of these 3d printed crosses on each wallpaper covered side, then cut the bottom excess using clippers. This provided a visually interesting setting composition with just enough detail to fit the world of the Trench Crusade, but not too much not to stand out from under the actual scenery.
The final step for the day was to seal everything again. I mixed water, PVA glue, brown acrylic paint and fine decorative sand then used it to apply texture on top of each piece. I then added a bit more paint and water into the mix and gave the sides a spin. With the help of my valiant daughter we’ve done another round just to build up volume and increase future durability of the scenery.
The pieces got stacked on top of one another and left to dry through the night, while I sat down to tinker with some extras, mainly walkways, ladders and trench platforms, but I will leave that for the upcoming Special Project: Silesian Trenchlines part two – Peripherals and Extras.
I hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or at Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate it if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
