TRENCH CLUB: LEGACY – Create your alternative history World War I. Command your tanks and troops through battles, develop new technology and make history.
TRENCH CLUB: LEGACY can be played either as a single casual skirmish game or as an epic campaign
It is an easy-to-learn but complex strategy game. 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.
Close up of miniatures (fan painted; minis come unpainted)
Detailed Miniatures
82 detailed miniatures including infantry, cavalry, howitzers, mortars, planes, tanks, armored cars, etc.
Fan-painted miniatures (minis come unpainted)
Extra-large minis
Level-up your units
Each unit can suffer damage in battles and gain combat experience in a unique game system. Add markers to the unit miniatures to 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!
Detailed maps
The game includes two extra large (80x60cm/31×24″) and highly detailed maps (on the front and back of the game board).
Fan-painted forts (thanks, Thomas Gade!)
High re-playability
The game has high re-playability because no game starts like the other. Each player uses their start units to build 3 armies. These armies are then randomly placed on the game board for the game setup. This puts you right into action and allows for different strategies with high variability. Also, you can use the large map tilesto vary the map.
The LEGACY scenarios will make each game unique even more – whether you play them as part of the legacy campaign or if you just enjoy a one-off casual game with your friends. You can use specific mission briefings, rule variations, triggered events, and more, to customize your game and make no game like the other.
Conquer forts
You can conquer strategically important forts in the game. The forts are represented by 14 extra-large miniatures for more immersive experience.
The forts will produce money you can use to repair your damaged units or buy reinforcements. The money in the game is represented by beautiful metal coins.
Easy to learn
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.
Also, there is how-to-play video, that explains all the rules in just 10 minutes:
Move your units
The unit types have different speed, but also the terrain influences their movement range.
How combat works
Combat is a lot of fun in this game! So let’s talk about how it works:
The combat mechanic is very complex, yet intuitive to understand. The amount of damage a unit has, determines the number of dice you may role. For example, if a unit has 2 damage (indicated by the gray markers), it can attack with 10 dice. If you attack from a strategic position (“flank” or “surround”), then you get extra (red) dice.
The type of unit and its combat experience determines which numbers on the dice will land a hit. For example, an Infantry only lands a hit with every dice showing a “2” or less, versus a Howitzerwill land a hit with dice showing “3” or less. If the Howitzer already has combat experience, it will hit even with every dice showing “5” or less. These numbers are shown on a “Unit Chart” every player has in front of them.
The hits will translate into damage, depending on the unit’s armor and the terrain. For example, 5 hits will give an Infantry 3 damage. If the attacked Infantry is however entrenched in a forest, it would require 6 hits to receive 3 damage.
The hits will translate into damage, depending on the unit’s armor and the terrain. For example, 5 hits will give an Infantry 3 damage. If the attacked Infantry is however entrenched in a forest, it would require 6 hits to receive 3 damage.
Dowload the rules:
The game includes a printed rule book in English/German language. Spanish, French and Italian versions are available for download.
In the LEGACY campaign, you will play the game multiple times (10 games in the campaign unless you are victorious earlier). Each game will be different based your decisions and the results of the previous game(s), with new rules, events, briefings, mission goals, and more. These are tracked on the Legacy Board (~30x20cm/12×8″) which shows the progress of the war on a map of Western Europe.
You can research technology which will unlock new unit types (with according miniatures) for the next games.
You can customize your character and learn new abilities over time. This way you can not only level-up your units within a battle (with combat experience) but you can also level-up your skills for future battles.
You will modify the map, which will leave a mark for future games in the campaign. For example, if you dig a trench, you will add a sticker to modify the map. This opens up new strategic decisions: when you realize you are on the losing side in a battle, it might make sense to focus on leaving the battlefield in a way that favors you in the next battle. E.g., you could try to kill an enemy officer at all costs, so the enemy will not be able to use him for the next battle.
Your actions will not only influence how the next battle will be, it will also create your individual alternative history storyline that unfolds during the game. The game starts in 1915, after the failed (!) assassination attempt of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne Franz Ferdinand. Europe is a powder keg with nations armed to the teeth and just waiting for a spark to unleash a global war.
You decide!
The storyline will be told by a deck of fictitious newspaper articles you draw stories from, depending on how victorious you are in the war, how noble or ruthless you act during the battles and what technology research you focus on.
Reset & Replay the Campaign
Don’t worry! If you don’t want to make persistent changes on the map, you can use tokens instead of stickers, cut out and lay stickers on the map instead of actually sticking them to the map or download printable replacement materials on trench-club-legacy.com. You can replay the campaign and don’t need to destroy anything. Instructions and materials how to play the campaign without permanent modifications can be downloaded here.
The game is more complex than “Risk” but also not meant to be a historically accurate war game simulation that many hex and counter games aim for. The complexity and depth is comparable to games like Axis & Allies or Scythe.
You don’t need to be a hardcode wargamer to enjoy the game. If you enjoy games like Scythe, Risk, Axis & Allies, Root, etc. chances are good you will also like Trench Club.
The game has great solitaire-rules where the opponent is simulated by an “artificial intelligence” (following a decision rules sheet – see last 2 pages in the rule book). This works great for solo play and cooperative play. See a play-through video of a session below:
A drop of plastic glue might be required for the miniatures
The miniatures consist of multiple pieces that are glued together and sometimes a piece gets disconnected and needs to be re-glued. Unfortunately we couldn’t avoid that and want to make you aware of that to avoid surprises. It is really easy to fix that with any kind of transparent plastic glue. Check out this video to see how easy it is. Also, please note that the plastic of the miniatures is quite soft to avoid thin parts from breaking off. The downside is that some parts of the miniature might be a bit bent, e.g., the leg of a horse or the wing of a plane. If you want to bend these parts back, you can heat them up a bit, bend in correct position and let cool down. If you face any problems, please reach out to us at any time (info@pkb-games.com).
Some game materials are in sealed envelopes/boxes
Some game materials (US faction units; map tiles; etc.) are hidden inside the little boxes or sealed envelopes and will be revealed bit by bit during the campaign as surprises. So don’t worry if you don’t find a game component right away. It is likely in an envelope or a little box. We have published a component list here, in case you want to check what’s in the game. You can check the components of the game from this unboxing video (German language, but you can see all components even if you don’t speak German).
