Trench Club Legacy

From PKB Games:

Create your alternative history World War I. Command your tanks and troops through battles, develop new technology and make history.

1 – 5 Players

Legacy Campaign or single casual game

Solo mode

Cooperative or competitive

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).

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.

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.

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:

What’s in the game?

Trench Club Legacy:

Game Box with Insert Tray

Game Board

4 Unit Mats (Germany, France, Great Britain, Austria-Hungary)

Punchboard with Tokens

Dice Chart

Rule Book Trench Club

Rule Sheet for Legacy Campaign

3 Sealed Envelopes (include: Unit Mat USA, 2 Map Tiles, 3 Sticker Sheets, Mission Sheet)

8 Little Boxes (include: 20 Miniatures (USA and Legacy), Green Beads)

Sticker sheet with flags

Deck of “News” Cards

Deck of “Legacy” Cards

Legacy Game Board

Plastic bag with cylindric beads (gray, white, yellow, red)

14 Fort (bunker) Miniatures

48 Faction Miniatures (12 for each of the 4 factions); 8 transparent attachements for tokens

12x green dice, 12x dice gray dice, 3x red dice (12-sided/D12)

20 Metal Coins

Hourglass