Starting a Warband
Your Warband represents one of the innumerable small combat formations that fight to the death in the battle-scarred hinterlands known simply as No Man's Land. Every Warband is unique, and it will be up to you to decide which warriors to include and how they are equipped. You will first pick which of the six Factions your Warband belong to. Each Faction has its own Faction List, that provides information on the models that the Warband can include, the battlekit that they can carry, and any special rules that apply when you use the Warband in a game of Trench Crusade. Each model that you include and any Battlekit your take will cost a certain number of ducats, represented by a crown symbol. Usually you will have 700 Ducats to spend on your Warband, and you will need to consider carefully how to spend each one of them!
The six Factions included in this book are very different and have their own way of fighting.
Each Faction includes a varied selection of models that you can use. All of the information you need to use the model is included in the Warband Entry for the model. Each Faction also includes an Armoury Table that lists the Battlekit you can take for the models, and descriptions of any unique Battlekit that is only used by that Warband (you'll find rules for any other Battlekit in the Standard Battlekit section of the Trench Crusade Rulebook). Last but far from least, each Faction List includes information on one or more Variant Warbands that you can choose to use instead of the standard Warband list. Variant Warbands are unusual forces that have their own special rules and include specially trained and equipped warriors.
As well as the Faction Lists, this book includes a selection of Mercenary Warriors that can be hired by Warbands. Mercenaries cost Glory Points (shown as ☼) to hire rather than Ducats. Your Warband can earn ☼ during a Campaign (see the Campaign rules in the Trench Crusade rulebook), or you and your opponent can agree to supplement the Ducats you can spend on your Warband with a number of Glory Points. We've found that allowing each player to spend 6 ☼ is a good number to use for one-off games between two experienced players.
If you are new to Trench Crusade, then picking which Faction you will use for your first few games and deciding which models to take can be a little bit daunting. Before you decide, we recommend that you read through the lore for each of the Factions and take a look at the photographs of the models for the Warbands on the Trench Crusade website. Then just use the Faction that inspires and excites you the most. You can use the same principle when you pick the models and their Battlekit; if you just 'trust your gut' you will rarely go too far wrong. Once you've played a couple games with your starting models, you start to consider what new models you'd like to add to your Warband, and if you want to hire any Mercenaries.