Community Questions & Answers
This page is a crosspost of the content from the ATrollInTheTrenches community FAQ page. To avoid duplicate content, all content listed here are questions whose answers are uncertain or hard to determine from the rules alone. The answers provided here are an attempt at solving the questions by seeking consensus among the Trench Crusade Discord community. They are in no way definitive and their application should always be agreed upon by players beforehand.
Keywords
KEYWORDS Q1: When an effect (e.g. Voice of God, Faithful Followers, Hold Your Fire!) requires a player to pick a model to be activated, and the chosen model is part of a
A: Yes.
KEYWORDS Q2: If I have to take a
A: According to the rules for
Terrain
TERRAIN Q1: I’ve followed the suggested terrain setup rules and my battlefield doesn’t look dense enough. Have I done something wrong?
A: Remember that the provided rules for setting up terrain [TCDR 65, 66, 67] are presented as guidelines and suggest adding at least the listed number of terrain pieces. Here’s a few more suggestions you might want to take into consideration when building your battlefield:
- The denser the board is, the better. Remember that, due to how Cover works in Trench Crusade, if a model can see an enemy, having multiple obstacles between the shooter and the target would not affect the attack if the target is not adjacent to terrain. Many weapons also have the Ignore Coverkeyword therefore it’s important to have obscuring terrain to prevent models from being shot down easily.
- For the same reason, avoid creating “firing lanes”: areas where a model can see unobstructed from one deployment zone to the other and terrain that provides elevation in or close to deployment zones are to be avoided to prevent long range weapons from dominating the battlefield. Diagonal or sideways firing lanes are acceptable though, as they reward maneuvering and tactical plays.
- Take into account the size of terrain pieces relative to the size of the board, not just their number. The suggested setup rules list 14 pieces, up to 8”x8” each. If all are at their maximum size, they’ll cover about 69% of a 3’x3’ board, or 39% of a 4’x4’ board. Try to aim at least as 50%, and count multiple smaller terrain pieces as one of a similar area (for example, four 4” x 4” pieces cover the same footprint of a 8” x 8” piece and should therefore count as 1 item, not 4).
- Verticality is an important part of the game. Don’t leave it out. Use terrain that can be climbed upon at least 3” above the ground so that the Elevation and Diving Charge bonuses can be used and models can risk taking damage when falling. Use planks and walkaways to connect elevated terrain pieces to create alternate routes.
- While Dangerous and Difficult Terrain should be part of the game and makes for interesting boards, avoid having too large areas. The same for obstacles, sheer surfaces and deep trenches: models should always have the option to move around the board with relative ease. Covering half of the battlefield with Difficult Terrain will disincentivize movement and lead to static, unfun games.
- Give players tactical options, particularly around objectives. Spread out cover and obscuring terrain so that models can advance slowly and safely, or can take risks in order to move quicker. Allow multiple paths to get to objectives and let the player figure it out what is the best one.
Skills
SKILLS Q1: Is Deceit of Beelzebub a redeployment effect? (i.e. does not cause a Fight
A: While not explicitly using the term “redeploy”, Deceit of Beelzebub is functionally similar to other redeployment effects such as the Goetic Spell Coveted Position [WoTC 156]. It is likely the text was not updated in v1.0.2 due to an oversight but there is no harm in treating it functionally as a redeployment.
SKILLS Q2: When I roll on a Skill Table for a model, do I need to count Patron Skills among the skills the model already has or are they skipped? If they do count, is each Patron Skill counted individually or is a single Patron Skill enough to satisfy the requisite of “already possessing a Skill”? For example, I roll a 4 on the Melee and Strength Skill Table, but the model already has both the Stand Firm (3) and Parry (4) Skills. Do I scale down to “Patron Skill” or up to Close Quarter Combat?
A: Rules-as-written, you would have to check if the model already has the exact skill you rolled for, and there’s nothing written about not counting Patron Skill. Therefore each Patron Skill would count individually, so technically unless a model has every Patron Skill it could have, you would never check the skill above the one you rolled.
SKILLS Q3: What happens when a model with both the Stand Firm and Hard as Nails skills goes Down for the first time during a game? Can I use the skill that has not been used the following time the model goes Down?
A: As the two skills trigger on the same event, they are resolved as simultaneous effects therefore the player with Initiative decides which one applies. Afterwards, consensus is that any subsequent Down result the model would suffer would no longer count as “the first time” so the other skill cannot be used in the same game.
Principality of New Antioch
NEW ANTIOCH Q1: Can Concentrated Attack allow multiple discounted Bloodbath rolls in the same joint Activation (by the same or different models)?
A: Yes. The “second attack” mentioned in the Concentrated Attack rules is to be intended as one of the two attacks that make the Concentrated Attack combination, not the second attack in the activation. Therefore any two attacks made by the two members of the Fireteam qualify for the Concentrated Attack as shown in the examples below.
- Example 1: Model A and B activate as a Fireteam. A hits an enemy with a Ranged Attack. B hits the same enemy with a Ranged Attack and spends 3 Blood Markersto trigger a Bloodbath. The enemy doesn’t go Out of Action. It has 3+Blood Markersnext to it (counting anyBlood Markersinflicted by the previous attacks) so A or B can attack in Melee and trigger another Bloodbath roll.
- Example 2: Model A and B activate as a Fireteam. A hits an enemy. B attacks the same enemy with a weapon with the AutomaticorCleaveKeyword. The first attack succeeds, but B doesn’t trigger the Bloodbath (either they don’t want to or they can’t because there are less than 3Blood Markerson the target when resolving the Injury Roll), then the second attack hits and B triggers a Bloodbath.
The Sultanate of the Iron Wall
SULTANATE Q1: Is a Fida’i of Alamut Dervish allowed to wear Reinforced Armour if promoted to
A: Rules-as-Written no, as Dervishes cannot have Reinforced Armour [WoTC 80].
SULTANATE Q2: A Sultanate Assassin using the Temporal Assassin ability “must use the same Melee Weapon for both attacks”. Does it mean it can only use a single Melee Weapon or that it can use multiple weapons as long as at least one is the same?
A: While the Temporal Assassin ability has been reworded between v1.0.1 and v1.0.2 of the rules, the functionality hasn’t been changed and it is intended for the Assassin to use a single Melee Weapon for both attacks.
SULTANATE Q3: A Jabirean Alchemist with the Secrets of Takwin ability is hit by an attack with the
A: Rules-as-written, the Homunculus will suffer the hit instead of the Alchemist, plus any hit they would normally be suffering for being in the Blast area. However, as Secrets of Takwin is functionally similar to the Bodyguard ability of the Communicant [WoTC 54] and Corpse Guard [WoTC 136] [there is reasons to believe it’s mistakenly missing the “This ability cannot be used against attacks that have the BLAST Keyword” line bodyguard has.
SULTANATE Q4: The rules for the Sipahi Automaton Cavalry say they use the Mercenary Entry for a Mamluk Faris “but you cannot change their Battlekit in any way”. How does this interact with the three weapon options a Mamluk Faris has available?
A: The “cannot change their Battlekit” line refers to items beyond the choice of Greatsword, Sword/Axe and Pistol or Polearm and Shield: you have access to any of the three combinations in the same way you would with a Mamluk Faris.
SULTANATE Q5: The rules for Takwin Homunculus in a House of Wisdom warband seem to imply it is possible to purchase Alchemical Formulas between campaign games. Is that so?
A: This was explicitly allowed during playtest and the following line “a Takwin Homunculus associated Alchemist is killed during the campaign, it cannot be deployed during a game, its Battlekit cannot be changed, and no Alchemical Formulas can be applied to it” [WoTC 95] strongly suggests it is still so.
The Cult of the Black Grail
BLACK GRAIL Q1: Can a Plague Knight with the Knight of the Rotten Cross ability acquire a Machine Gun, even if it has the Amalgam Only stipulation? If so, does this allow a Black Grail Warband to have 2 Machine Guns?
A: While the rules are not 100% clear on the topic, consensus is that items taken from other factions’ armouries follow their own, independent set of stipulations [See also Q12.3], therefore a Knight of the Rotten Cross can have a Machine Gun and can do it even if your warband has an Amalgam with a Machine Gun.
BLACK GRAIL Q2: If a model is activated while within 1” of multiple Hounds of the Black Grail, does it receive a single
A: The rule is not 100% clear. Consensus seems to lean towards a single
The Court of the Seven Headed Serpent
THE COURT Q1: Can Sorcerer gain a Ranged Weapon or a Grenade using the Envy Goetic Ability Envious Eyes?
A: While the rules are not 100% clear on the topic, consensus is that the clause that prevents the Sorcerer from having Ranged Weapons or Grenades [WoTC 162] refers to those from the Court’s Armoury Tables, not to those acquired from other tables via Envious Eyes, therefore a Sorcerer with Envious Eyes can have Ranged Weapons or Grenades from another faction’s armoury.