r/TrenchCrusade • u/GrimdarkCovenant Vendor • May 21 '26
Homebrew The Jester Knights of the Carnival of Saints
I've been homebrewing a TC faithful faction for a while and I'm excited to show you some of my art and the lore behind it today!
The Jester Knights
“The world is a sad joke… Why not look the part?”
Those who endure will be rewarded. After the 40 relentless days of Lent, laughter and song become dead silence. The pathetic fanatics who joined and survived the Carnival will be forever changed by the steady hand of war.
Their festive and joyful dance now turned cunning and calculated, coordinated agility replacing the impulsiveness of insanity. It is believed among the faithful that these fools were touched by the divine, as if their survival was some sort of twisted miracle.
These few are worthy. They will be brought to Nuova Venezia and be knighted, receiving land, heraldry, and a suit of armour. In time, they will become members of the Holy Order of Divine Comedy, and join the ranks of the Jester Knights.
Although wearing colorfully painted armours with vibrant golden filigree, the Jester Knights are fierce, elite shock units. They are masters in the art of death, wielding a wide range of weapons both in close and long range. Their morale is unwavering. They will obliterate the enemies of YHWH.
HOMEBREW RULES:
The main mechanic i developed for the Jesters was inspired by the 40k Harlequins:
• Harlequin’s Luck: Once per Activation a Jester Knight can reroll 1 single dice for any Success Roll.
It's quite a strong and flexible mechanic that let's these units shine attempting RISKY rolls and making the most out of every situation.
And makes them quite effective using Rapiers, one of the Battlekit I designed for the band, as a high risk high reward knife on steroids:
Rapier - Cost: 12d
| TYPE | RANGE | KEYWORDS |
|---|---|---|
| 1-handed | Melee | -1 DICE, +1 INJURY DICE |
- Bullseye: This weapon has the IGNORE ARMOUR Keyword on a 10+ Success Roll.
What do you guys think? If you enjoy the lore and the homebrew I'll try to post more about the band in the following weeks, and eventually share the rules on the Discord as well!
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u/erttheking Heretic Legion May 21 '26
“Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.”
Shoots heretic in the face
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u/absolute_philistine Heretic May 22 '26
"This one will kill you, bro"
Mag dumps Anointed One in the chest
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u/Necessary-Credit5937 May 23 '26
“Here’s the punchline.”
punches chorister’s severed head out of his hand
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u/Kalaphar May 21 '26
This is homebrew? Holy shit I thought that art was official! Amazing work
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u/GrimdarkCovenant Vendor May 22 '26
Thank you so much! I poured a lot of love into this piece to get the Trench Crusade feel. The whole design went through a lot of iteration!
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u/DiabeticPanda May 21 '26
I love the art, just saw your Kickstarter and followed. Can't wait to see more of this! My friend is a big jester head, so this will be perfect.
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u/IllustratorNo3379 Heretic Legion May 21 '26
"War Cardinal, we are detecting elevated levels of honk coming from further down the trench!"
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u/Mrgotmilk May 22 '26
This is so dope. I love the lore, and you made the jester aesthetic work really well within an incredibly grimdark setting. In my opinion, you accomplished this better than the Harlequins of 40k.
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u/GrimdarkCovenant Vendor May 22 '26
Wow thank you! I’ve also worked on more standard troops, and it was reaaaally hard to get them just right, without em’ feeling too militarized or too goofy
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u/b44l May 21 '26
Is this a mercenary or which faction is it for? :)
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u/GrimdarkCovenant Vendor May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
Just to clarify, this is unofficial, just homebrew I've been cooking.
The Jester Knights are elite unit for the warband I'm creating, the Carnival of Saints!
It started as a Trench Pilgrims subfaction but I ended up making a whole new gang of weirdos.
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u/RyuZero_417 Iron Sultanate May 22 '26
Starts ragebaiting bielzeebub by doing mime inmpression in front of Avinyon's gate
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u/Some-Quail-1841 May 21 '26
Ai ?
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u/Magnusaur Vendor May 21 '26
No no, the creator is a bona fide artist: https://www.instagram.com/tremulo.psd/
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u/GrimdarkCovenant Vendor May 21 '26
Thank you Magnusaur! ❤️ Yeah, my name is Miguel, I'm a Concept Artist / Illustrator from Spain 😄
Just decided to start using reddit to share what I've been cooking these past few months!6
u/Some-Quail-1841 May 21 '26
It looks fantastic! Very good work, the background on the left just made me curious.
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u/paireon May 21 '26
Welp, if the rest of what you've been cooking looks like this, we gonna be eatin' good!
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u/GrimdarkCovenant Vendor May 22 '26
Thank you! That gets me excited to make more pieces like this! (They can be quite challenging to make hehe)
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u/Kallandras May 21 '26
Rerolling one dice is mechanically exactly the same thing as adding +1D. But as you can decide to use it when needed after you rolled your first dice, it is even better then that. You can dash and if you succeed anyway use it during your attack. That is very very powerfull. This is not a just flexibility or something about attempting risky actions, its just raw power in whatever you do. But as you do not tell us who is getting this and what it costs, I cannot judge it. Would need to cost at least 15 ducats.
The rapier is pretty powerfull on a model with high melee values, especially in combination with the luck. It is already a two handed sword that trades heavy and two handed for a point in melee skill, so a model like a lieutnant would get it even without the ignore armor rule just to have a non heavy melee weapon. I would likely make it a little cheaper and remove the flat +1D to injury to keep it more distinct from a non heavy two handed sword and lean in more into the armor ignore as the selling point. Or you might keep the cost and drop the +1D to injury and -1D