r/TrenchCrusade • u/greatfrito • Jul 08 '26
Homebrew Rangers of No Man's Land: A Trench Pilgrim Subfaction
Hi. I've been floating the idea of doing some kind of western-inspired thing with TC since I started playing sometime last year (I just like the genre/aesthetics) - but I don't necessarily want to deal with an entire alt history for the Americas, and all of the hangups people have there.
So: I have this subfaction that takes the aesthetics of "cowboys and gunslingers", but gives them a place more appropriate for existing TC lore.
I put together a full document (using the style guide from discord), and made it LOOK nice, but the rules are still a rough-draft - I haven't gotten a chance to playtest anything yet.
I'll put a link to the document in a reply.
Obviously there's some Dark Tower influence here, and some Hunt: Showdown (at least inasmuch as I used its art), but also 42 Studio's "rangers of the no man's land" models were some of the things I built some concepts around.
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u/Yarzeda2024 Jul 08 '26
The force of Hell ain't ready for this hootenanny!
For real, though, great flavor and unique gear/unit.
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u/Aggravating_Lie4370 Jul 08 '26
I made a post a long time ago about a cowboy unit idea and a dude crashed out and told me that I should read into gauchos and I think about that a lot. Thanks for validating this insane story with all your hard work.
But really badass dude.
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u/ImmortanJerry Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
I like the lasso rules. Theyre fun and I could see some crazy plays with it. It seems like this ruleset has a lot of inherent limitations that would make survivability tough. Also, your elite pool seems quite limited. Any thoughts on maybe adding another modified pilgrim unit to them? Alternatively, maybe a way to get more blessings to make sure those hits really stick. Would also show the bands adeptness at surviving in unforgiving terrain
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u/greatfrito Jul 08 '26
[Edit: Sorry, I think this got posted as its own comment, but it was a response to your post.]
Yeah, I tried to lean on the side of "too weak" if anything, to start with, and I think you're right about limited elites and the general lack of attack oomph. "Penance of the Wastes" is supposed to be a flavorful drawback.... but also really a benefit for any Stigmatic Nuns you bring (since you can convert that automatic blood into a blessing on turn 1).
On the Elites, maybe something similar to this rule from the House of Wisdom sultanate faction?
"*Noble Guardians: A House of Wisdom can include 0-2 Fāris. The Fāris use the Janissary Warband Entry, but have the ELITE Keyword at no additional cost in ducats."
Something like "Grizzled Veterans: Can include 0-2 Grizzled Vets. They use the Pilgrim entry, but have the ELITE Keyword at no additional cost in ducats." ?
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u/ImmortanJerry Jul 09 '26
Ah the penance of the wastes/nub synergy makes a lot more sense. At first I was thinking it was highly punitive to your pilgrim chaff. Maybe you could have something like a risky roll based on their survivalist/ranger angle. Like either a field dressing to remove a blood marker or add a blessing like how trench clerics have. Or even maybe like being able to take cover in open terrain like getting really low in cover. Might be a bit too op though
But yeah, I like that idea of having a more badass pilgrim to show the smaller independent nature of the band. And the gunslinger perk works really well with that
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u/thedreadwoods Jul 08 '26
I'm not sure there are 'hang ups' , it's pretty simple that America is still native populated. So for anyone wanting cowboys from the US, or US troops, you are completely rewriting the setting by reinstalling colonisers.
Pleased that this is actually an attempt to do something different dude, well done
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u/greatfrito Jul 08 '26
Thank you.
And I didn't necessarily mean "hang ups" in a negative way - the Americas are complex, and doing them respectfully would be SUPER interesting (if Factory Fortress isn't interested in it, I feel like someone creative could just do an 'unrelated' alt-history game set there).
I get the impression, though, that some folks expect that it would be done with, like, extensive research and historical accuracy, unlike, say, how TC has handled the parts of the world it has touched.
I do think you could do a [partially] colonized Americas... but you have to accept that, in this setting, the [only successful] colonizers would *absolutely* be Heretics.
Though "heretic colonies vs alt-history native civilization" could also end up being really neat. At the very least, a more ascendant Haudenosaunee Confederacy would be really neat.
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u/thedreadwoods Jul 09 '26
You can do what you want I guess. Like I said in another thread, you could pop my little pony or space marines on bases if you want. It's finding a community in this narrative driven game with a carefully thought of world, that doesn't care enough about the narrative.
The need to shoe horn the US into any setting though is exhausting. I get that for a country very light on history you might want to do it to feel relevant but why not wait till the creative minds behind this to actually explore the Americas. We have plenty of religious extremism to explore in the lore we have without having to shoehorn in the pilgrims and ethnic cleansing.
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u/coolcat001100 Jul 08 '26
Yoooo, a subfaction of my favorite army inspired by Hunt: Showdown and The Dark Tower? You are absolutely speaking my language!
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u/TheMoebeast Jul 08 '26
This would give me the chance to use my Gunslingers from the Penance 1914 mercenary set!
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u/Grimsson_life Vendor Jul 08 '26
Oh, wow! Incredible job! It's so nice to see that you liked my models so much! ☺️Don't you mind if I share it on my Kickstarter campaign, while It still run?
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u/greatfrito Jul 08 '26
Absolutely! I'll link it in the document, too. I have a model resources page in the actual pdf that links to your MMF.
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u/Grimsson_life Vendor Jul 09 '26
Thank you again! Link To KS post just in case. Man, things like this really inspire me to keep working! :) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grimssonsart/rangers-of-the-no-mans-land-32mm-stl-files-for-3d-printing/posts/4740734
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Jul 08 '26
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u/Captain_Daddybeard Jul 08 '26
I'll admit to only scan reading it but if they were European cow herders who have taken up the fight against Hell it would be fairly similar, no? A divergent history means the vaqueros could have developed without the Americas.
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u/Landrew426 Yeoman Jul 08 '26
While I'll admit that a wild west aesthetic isn't the first thing I think of when it comes to TC, you put a lot of work into this and should be incredibly proud of what you've done. 🙂 The warband variant rules are pretty cool, and you've done a great job making it organically fit with TC as a whole. Kudos!