Welcome back to Comp Crusade, the column wherein we update you all about our process of creating our competitive organized play pack for Trench Crusade! Last time we talked about our most recent update to the pack and what we had our eyes on for changes, and since that post we went to Adepticon and ran our event! With those rules no less! Let's take a look at how it went.

The Event

People having fun! At our event no less!

Norman: Before we dive into the event itself, we did a good amount before the event after the packet was done and dusted. First we mandated list submission and proxy approval. List submission was simply because this was a new tournament format and we wanted to make sure folks weren’t trying to take exploration items or other things that wouldn’t be legal in one off games. Proxy approval was a bit more of an involved process. Trench Crusade is a miniature agnostic game, and everything we do for the game is in the name of making it more accessible, not less. That said, we needed to make sure models were within reason, we couldn’t have folks take the Artillery Witch statue from upstairs and throw it on a 32mm base. As such we had folks submit every model they were taking that wasn’t an official FFI sculpt. We didn’t turn down any requests, just a few models like tank palanquins were asked to be based up a tiny bit. We’ll probably consider doing this for all our future events.

For those who didn’t take a look at the event itself, we ran a tournament using our pack that was 4 rounds long at Adepticon. We had 24 players signed up, which filled out in under 5 minutes of launching tickets, and this meant we could end with 1-2 undefeated. Each round lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes, giving players ample (perhaps too much) time to finish their games at a leisurely pace. Each table used the layout we outlined in the pack and was provided with the pieces of terrain necessary for the player placed mechanic. This was fine but honestly the terrain could’ve looked better, we’re gonna have to step up our game in the next event.

Ryan: As with any event, there were some fun logistics bumps we had to hurdle but in the end, our attendees had an amazing time and that’s what’s important. One player had a really good quote that stuck with me, and I would paraphrase it as, “If this is the worst that this type of Trench Crusade event is going to look, then I am really excited to see the next one.” Things are going to keep getting better and having a positive outlook from both the people that participated in the event as well as from all of the other support we’ve had is a massive boost to our morale (and my super fragile and weak ego).

Burgeoning Meta (or Lack Thereof)

Heretic Troopers - Credit: Ace

Ryan: The most common faction we saw was Heretic Naval Raiders, which makes sense as they have access to the Anti-Material Rifle, as well as +1 Dice dash rolls. Although this was the case, there was a really solid spread of factions, with each one being represented at least once. Unfortunately, Black Grail and Court of the Seven-Headed Serpent only had one player each, but with only 24 players, I’m sure a larger data set could provide different results. Something interesting we saw in feedback was the dichotomy between people stating that the layout both “favored shooting” and “favored melee,” meaning that both avenues were valid strategies when list building. The ‘top table’ was Gas-Grenade Launcher Trench Ghosts versus double Anchorite Shrine Saint Methodist – slow pew pew vs fast punchy punch. The game came down to the wire and was very exciting, and I think it’s safe to say at least with our limited playtest size that right now there’s no obvious ‘big bad’ that can abuse the format. Now, if any of you nerds think that the Adepticon field was ‘soft’ and want to flex how big their competitive hog is, you’ll just have to come out to the next event and prove your stuff!

Norman: There is a lot of talk on the World Wide Web about what factions are the best, or busted, or unplayable, or whatever. This sort of thing is natural with modern gaming, but it's important to note that a lot of that is bullshit in the context of TC. Obviously there are good mechanics and good factions, but there simply isn’t enough data with enough controls to definitively rank and stack factions and units. Terrain for example is such a massive factor that is inconsistent across experiences. This is why we have the layout, although that's not to say our layout is what makes for “true” Trench Crusade. An open field will always favor a gunline and a twisting maze of corridors will always favor close range fighters. There are a bunch of other factors too, things like army availability, prominent picks for equipment for locals, and even counter list building can all contribute to an army feeling over or under whelming.

All of that is to say, I think if this event taught us anything about Trench Crusade is that the game is far less solved as some might think. And if you disagree, like Ryan said, show up and shut us up.

The Feedback

Layout/Player Placed Terrain

The sickest shit that could happen on our layout

Norman: Ah, the layout. I gotta tell you guys, deciding to do fixed terrain has been, by far, bar none, the decision that has led to the most pain in my ass I’ve experienced in my design career. We stand by our decision to do it; we feel it's important to remove terrain as a variable for our events in particular and provide a milestone to build from and around for new players making tables at home to make sure the game plays smoothly. Not gonna lie, we were really nervous about this going into the event. We spent a long time working on this and we didn’t have time to make it look as good as we wanted.

The good news is the layout was pretty widely well received. We didn’t see players abusing any particular strategies on it and a lot of different army types all felt like they could do well. We sent out a survey after the event and the biggest complaint folks had was a lack of variety across the event. We’ll be working on that part, but that means we’re on the right track.

The Player Placed Terrain however was kinda a big ol’ failure. As we mentioned in our last dev diary, we felt it wasn’t super impactful in our tests but it was an idea that got a lot of good press when we announced it so we decided to let it ride for the event. Turns out our layout is dense enough that with the rules we put in place to prevent move blocking abuse there wasn’t space to actually put down the terrain in meaningful places. We’ll likely just take the dangerous and difficult terrain and integrate it straight into the layout and ditch the extra barricades all together.

Dual Lists

Ryan: Most players brought two lists, but did not end up using both. With this statistic, it was interesting to see that most players actually do like the concept of it, as it allowed some freedom to not become pigeonholed into ‘auto-losing’ certain matchups, which was the initial intent as well. With more factions, updates, and possibly a ‘meta’ forming for this format, we will be keeping a close eye on any developments involving dual lists. Word on the street for other skirmish type games for example, Infinity, is that success can be done with one list, but those who tailor their second list for either a matchup, or to excel at a certain mission, will find an easier time achieving victory. We will never require both lists to be used at least once at an event, but there may be some scenario designs that could influence players into skewing in a certain direction in order to get an advantage, and further the skill ceiling as well.

Scenarios

Norman: Honestly to my surprise, the scenarios were the most well-received thing we debuted at this event. We had an even spread of love for each one (except Sword Driven Deep, RIP) for each person’s favorite scenario and exactly 0 people had anything negative to say about the scenarios themselves. We’re gonna keep working on these but we’re gonna try and go weirder.

Ryan: For the scenarios, we know we went pretty safe in terms of the design for most of these. We wanted to make sure that the luck and excitement came from the player's decisions and interactions with the layout, rather than coin flips related to seeing if a player was going to score points or not (IE, passing a Risky Action with no bonuses). Going forward, we have a plethora of fun ideas to test that would possibly pull from the default Trench Crusade scenarios and map design, attempting to add more ‘funk’ to the games played while not piling on more cumbersome mechanics to try and remember. To our expected disappointment, Sword Driven Deep, aka American Football wasn’t that well received. We have gotten some feedback about it being a very fun scenario to play, but it needs some cleanup and reworking before the next time we put it back on the table for players. Otherwise, different types of deployment (corners, short sides, long sides) can also help with variation throughout the event and the scenarios.

The Future

Ryan: The grind doesn’t stop! We are super thankful for all of the feedback from both before and after the event, and we will continue to iterate and make this funny little sweaty corner of Trench Crusade a fun and exciting blast that integrates both skill expression and exciting narrative moments on the table. There are a few events coming up where we will be running updated versions of what we’ve been making, including layouts, scenarios, and other fun improvements and tweaks! These will be announced soon enough so you nerds can get your tickets to try and strut your stuff.

Norman: The most important bit of feedback we got from the survey is that everyone had a great time and 90% of players who filled out our survey said they’re excited to come back next year! We’ve got a few more events planned this year so be sure to come through and say hey and roll some dice. There might even be some cool trophies for you to win.

The replica bayonets we used for trophies at the event

Looking forward though, we’re gonna work on expanding all these lessons learned into a proper competitive play pack for the community. In addition to making everything more modular so you can cherry pick the mechanics you like, we’ll be adding something like 4 more scenarios, 1-2 more layouts, and playing with more layered on rules to help foster a more competitive meta. We’re working very hard to provide the community with a set of rules that can do lifting in areas TOs don’t want to handle while also providing a framework where players have the freedom to play the game however they want.

There are even more really exciting things going on now that Adepticon’s done that I can’t talk to just yet, but we’re really excited to share what we’re cooking with you all. We’ll continue to post here on our dev diary as we come up with more stuff and canvas for more feedback so watch this web zone. Until then, feel free to reach out at CompCrusade@Goonhammer.com or shoot us an @ in the Goonhammer Discord. See you all next time!

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