The Trench Crusade train left the station a while back, with me on the platform. It’s ok, I’m not a huge bandwagon guy.
But folks have been building some momentum, and with the new releases of rules and boxes, the garage gamers were excited to give the Crusade a try!
Our fearless leader is planning an amazing narrative campaign (probably about 6 games) so I wanted to make sure to get my warband together and to help support with some terrain and NPCs and such. It’s a huge lift to organize everyone so I want to make sure I help out! This is gonna be rad, I’m sure.
I had bashed my warband back in Feb (yeeeessshh that was a while ago) at the DotD Bash/Bash event for Trench Crusade. I skimmed the warbands quickly and decided I needed to do one of the alternates. Of those, the Legionnaire’s Trench Ghosts caught my eye. The ghosts of WWI have been on my brain recently I guess.
So I’ve posted the build before, which you can find here: Trench Ghosts, Coast to Coast!
Now, I used my airbrush to paint up the foam quickly, then drybrushed the ghost bits with some purply tones. I then painted up the base pieces and threw some pigments on the ground. Hopefully there is good contrast between bases, ghosts, and smoke.
The idea is these are the ghosts of a Legionnaire unit killed in a surprise mustard gas attack at the start of Brusilov’s great offensive on the Lithuanian front.
Like gas, drifting across no man’s land… the sentries would see the clouds drift and sound the alarm. They would shout for gas masks but it would be too late. The banshees would materialize, driven by avarice and a will to end all life. The bullets of the defenders would pass through their spectral forms as they approached…
The year was 1917. The 15th Legion of Belzebub was tasked with defending the unholy sepulchre of the antipope Jacob, the most critical unholy relic on the Lithuania front. Little did they know the soon–to-be legendary Red Brigade General Brusilov was planning his great offensive. The mustard gas shells rained down in the surprise assault. The 15th legion was suffocated in their unholy rest before the alarm could be raised. Brusilov’s troops stormed the position and stole the sepulchre… which was their great mistake.
Denied the completion of their duty, the legion was not allowed to pass through the gates of hell. They rematerialized into the world, as banshees seeking the sepulchre. They now roam Europe, seeking Brusilov and their unholy relic…
I also put together the BOYL 2026 mini as a little NPC.
This is Equeus Theophilus, of the 1st Air Reconnaissance Squadron of the Neo-Byzantine Successor States, who has crash landed near the great steel factories of Toledo.
Looking forward to a fun campaign! Next time I will hopefully highlight some WIP terrain and maybe even a game or two!
-BS