Trench Club is a complex strategy game in which, in addition to attack strength and armor of the troops, their tactical setup, combat experience, damage and terrain have a decisive influence on the outcome of the battle. Since each unit brings its own strengths, you must cleverly assemble your army to win the victory over your opponents.
Here is what players consistently said they most enjoyed:
- Highly complex strategy game, yet very easy and intuitive to learn the rules
- Detailed miniatures
- Individual strengths of the different nations and units, yet balanced chances
- The game stays in balance for a long time, so every player still has a chance to win and stays excited
- High re-playability due to the variable start setup
The game includes two detailed maps (on the front and back of the game board). The movement range of the different units depends on their speed and the terrain they are moving on. For example, streets allow for faster movement and forests slow you down.
The game has high re-playability because no game starts like the other. Each player uses their starting units to build 3 armies. These armies are then randomly placed on the game board for the start setup. This puts you right into action and allows for different strategies with high variability.
You can conquer strategically important forts in the game. The forts will produce money you can use to repair your damaged units or buy reinforcements.
Markers which you can add to the unit miniatures indicate the amount of damage the unit has taken (gray markers) and the combat experience the unit has (white, yellow, red markers). This way you can level-up your units!
The unit types have different speed, but also the terrain influences their movement range.
Trench Club is a highly complex strategy game, yet very easy and intuitive to learn the rules. And you can start playing immediately: The rule book includes a quick start guide of only 3 pages that allows you to start playing immediately without reading the rules before. You read one paragraph then play the according turn phase, then you read the next section and continue playing.
The game includes a printed rule book in English/German language. Spanish, French and Italian versions are available for download. The solo/cooperative rules are available for download in English/German/Spanish/French/Italian.
Trench Club 2nd Edition includes the “Special Forces” extension with 8 new unit types (cannon boat, medic, airship, poison gas launcher, ground attack aircraft, railway gun, gun turrets and minelayer) for even more fun and variability. The special forces work like technological developments: you can purchase them, but you don’t know what you will get! It can turn your strategy upside down if you hoped for an airship but actually get a medic.
While the normal game units are carefully balanced, the special forces units are not. Each one adds heavy disruption to the game-play and requires an entire new strategy. Let me give you some examples:
- The Minelayer can install explosive mines throughout the battlefield. You know where they are – but your enemy doesn’t!
- The Poison Gas Launcher (one of the many horrors of World War I) damages units on multiple fields at the same time – friend and foe!
- The Medic lets you repair units in the field – normally you would have to retreat from the front line to your own forts
What’s in the box?
Contents of “Trench Club – 2nd Edition”:
- 1 Game Box
- 1 Plastic insert
- 1 Game Board (~80x60cm/ 31×24″), double-sided with 2 different maps
- 2 Rule Books (English and German)
- ~300 Markers for damage and experience (grey, white, yellow, red)
- ~20 Metal coins
- 4 Faction mats (~30x20cm/ 12×8″ ; France, Great Britain, Germany,
- Austria/Hungary)
- 1 Damage/experience mat (~10x20cm/ 4×8″)
- 27 12-sided dice (12x grey, 12x green, 3x red)
- 48 Unit miniatures (12 each for France, Great Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary)
- 8 “Special Forces” unit miniatures
- 8 Unit cards for the Special Forces units
- Hourglass (to limit the time per turn for more stress and excitement)
- 14 extra large miniatures for Forts (bunkers)
- 18 Double-sided cardboard chips with flags
- 12 Cardboard tokens for start positions
- 44 Double-sided cardboard tokens as proxies for extra units (if you run out of miniatures)
- 8 Token attachments as carriers for damage/experience markers
- Some Plastic bags
Why would I need more miniatures?
You can purchase an extra set of miniatures. The game works perfectly fine with only one set of miniatures, since the game starts with just these units. However, during the game you can earn money (war bonds) from conquered forts that allow you to purchase new units. If you run out of miniatures, you would need to use cardboard chips as proxies. That’s when additional miniatures come in handy. Also, more units would allow you to deviate from the standard rules and start the game with more units for an even more epic battle.