The Sahelian trade routes through the Sahara throughout time have been bombarded by the forces of Mammon while attempting to travel across the Mediterranean to hopefully transport the cargo of raw and refined gold to those who deem themselves faithful. The forces of hell plague the route of these transports, leaving trails of death and decay. Now, both Faithful and Hellbent assets chase the scattered riches and glory, with the hopes of also uncovering the rumored Timbuktu Manuscripts. How will you form your warband to achieve the goals you’ve set out for yourself? What horrors are you willing to endure – or inflict — in order to succeed within the trenches of the Sahelian Trade Route? 

Malian Scouring is a Trench Crusade Campaign, written by the wonderful Sammie Dae, that guides players through custom scenarios, combining both the traditional Trench Crusade campaign system and Malian Scouring’s own set of fun and interesting rules. You can download the campaign here! These give the players additional goals to work for, along with some fun goodies that thematically spice up the campaign. We had the opportunity to check this out at NOVA during the last day of the campaign and had a blast, so we figured we’d check out the zine containing this campaign in its final form. Here is an excerpt from the book:

The Malian Scouring is designed to be a medium-length eight-round campaign with a focus on conquest, greed, and the conflict over material gain. You will Scour the lands for Gold and Clues, plunder for your patrons, and uncover powerful Timbuktu Manuscripts to weaponize against your enemies. 

Campaign Mechanics

Scour

During the Looting and Exploration part of the post-game sequence, the player will take note of what the results of the dice rolls. Each result of 1 represents a clue that progresses advancement towards discovering a Timbuktu Manuscript, and each 5+ gains the player a Malian Gold. These dice are still rolled even if the Looting and Exploration to Request Reinforcements step is skipped to see if any of these fun tidbits are found!

Malian Gold

Malian Gold is the cash-money that you’ll be gaining throughout the campaign. There are two ways that Malian Gold can be used:

Gild: During the trade phase of the post-game step, a piece of equipment can be gilded by spending Malian Gold equal to its ducat cost divided by 10 (rounded up), or 3 Malian Gold per each Glory the item cost. After an item has been gilded, it cannot be lost from your warband, even if the owner gets absolutely pasted in No Man’s Land.

Tithe: The other option is to tithe your Malian Gold to your patron, generating your warband additional Glory at the beginning of each Trade post-game phase equal to your Tithe Rating. It costs 3 gold during the Update Warband Roster step to increase your Tithe Rating by 1 as you continue to give daddy their big bucks and gas them up throughout the campaign.

This is a great way to juice up the already existing campaign rules to help people get pumped up early. More Glory means more early upgrades to your warband which means things will accelerate quickly if you can get your hands on that sweet sweet gold.

Clue Pool

Your Clue Pool is accumulated from the Scouring step. During any of the campaign games, any of your bozos within 1″ of a scenario objective of any kind can push their glasses up and do a risky action, attempting to discover a Timbuktu Manuscript! This risky action is accomplished by rolling the dice from your Clue Pool, and adding them together, completing the action on a 13.

Timbuktu Manuscripts

Some nerds decided to copy down their spooky homework, which apparently holds all the secrets to the universe or something. If these end up in the wrong hands, the binds of reality could possibly be manipulated for evil and destruction. I don’t know about you, but the last thing I would need is to have an Amalgam spouting some integral statements and getting a PEMDAS or whatever shoved through me.

After discovering a Timbuktu Manuscript by using Clues, the player rolls on the Field of Study table to find out what fun fact or trinket your warband gets. The Manuscript is then held by a single model in your warband each game. If the model is taken out of action, your opponent can pick up your Manuscript, which could totally alter the outcome of the campaign! These doo-dads are supposed to be funky and exotic items that can either hurt or help your warband. 

These additional rules to coincide with the already fantastic, existing Trench Crusade campaign system are a really fun and thematic spice that fits perfectly within the theme. Between the different ways of scouring for Malian Gold and the on table interactions that can happen from the effects of Timbuktu Manuscripts, there are plenty of additional avenues for excitement throughout the campaign.

Scenarios

The Malian Scouring has eight unique scenarios that each have a special sauce that give some additional thematic juice to the campaign as a whole. 

Rustfield

This scenario is perfect for round one, as it sprinkles an Untouched Gold and Permeating Corrosion mechanic to the objectives, while having the deployment and Glorious Deeds be generally traditional. The scoring is simply getting 1 VP per objective looted. Untouched Gold allows for an action to be made by any member of your warband that is within 1″ of an objective. On a success, you have a chance to get additional ducats for your warband or give your model a Blessing Marker. There is always a chance (even after a successful action attempt) to trigger a Rustburst and have to make an injury roll to everyone within 3″ of the marker! Permeating Corrosion is deteriorating the armor and shields of those wearing any on the battlefield, reducing armor by 1 (to a minimum of 0) for any model that moves after the beginning of turn 3. Turn 4 and onwards, all models are affected by this ability, stripping the defenses of all those who may have tried to hide from the rust-plagued sands even if they did not move.

Sightless

An Observer has been crucified within a swarm of Goetic Locusts, and your warband must obtain the potentially valuable information from within the Oculus Helmet upon their head. The main objective of the scenario is to remove the Observer from their bindings, and bring the Oculus to safety to analyze the possible secrets stored within. 

The Observer is represented by an objective marker in the center of the battlefield, but is treated as a model, meaning that it can be charged and attacked by both melee and ranged. Every model that activates or moves within 6” of the objective marker each turn gains a Blood Marker as the demon bugs take a little snack out of your flesh! To get the Observer out of their bindings, three Melee or Ranged actions in any combination must be successful, releasing them from this prison. After this is done, one more Melee action must be completed against the marker in order to finally put the Observer out of their misery, then giving the Cracked Oculus to the model that was able to finish the job. The model is then carrying the Oculus, rendering them unable to attack and dash, although they can pass it to any model within 1” that isn’t in fisticuffs with an opponent. If the model carrying the Oculus happens to be taken out of action, the Oculus is then thrown D6” in a direction picked by the opposing player. The game is completed when a model successfully leaves the battlefield whether they win or lose (successfully making contact with the edge of the battlefield, then beating their opponent in a roll off). If the roll off is unsuccessful, then the game is considered a draw! The Glorious Deeds in this scenario are mostly surrounding different interactions with the Oculus and taking out large amounts of foes in a single turn. 

Begrudged 

Uh oh! There are some funny little guys that go by the Knight of the Fly Butrusius Cystgorger shelling the buns out of the battlefield while you and the opposing warband are gathering treasure (placed as objective markers) throughout No Man’s Land. The deployment is using the Fog of War style, meaning the players roll for which side of the board each model deploys after the first half of their warband is deployed. 

At the beginning of each turn, a D6 is rolled, adding the value of the current turn to the result. If the result is 6+, the players roll a D6 for every model on the board, and on a 1 those models must make an injury roll as if a Shrapnel attack has wounded them. 

Victory is achieved by having models touching the Treasure Markers and completing a successful action roll. After the VP is claimed, the marker is then flipped, showing that it cannot be scored again for the remainder of the turn. Once a turn has ended, flip over the claimed markers  After turns 1, 2, and 4, two of the Treasure Markers are randomly removed from the battlefield. The winner is determined by whoever got the most VP throughout the scenario. The Glorious Deeds have a good mix of incentives between murdering the opponent’s warband and interacting with the Treasure Markers. 

Open Bounty

Protect the President! After placing the objective markers in the two non-deployment quadrants and the center of the board and deploying, each player nominates three of their opponents Elite models as targets that need to be murdered/bludgeoned/clipped/iced/wacked before the end of the game, and one of their own models that needs to remain breathing until after the last turn. When an enemy Elite that has been marked is taken out of action, they are then replaced by a Bounty Token. A model within 1” of the token can attempt an Action with +1 dice, which on a success gives the model the proof of execution and the token is removed from the board, successfully completing the bounty. At the end of the game, roll a die for each proof of execution claimed and add the result, then consult the table in the scenario’s rules to see what additional goodies your warband may or may not have looted from the bounty’s corpse. 

This scenario is extremely flavorful, and has some insane potential for carnage. Make sure to give your warband a pep talk before this one, as failing morale gives the opponent any Bounty Tokens that remain on the board along with the game win.  

Gold Gorgers

Mammon’s freaks have overstuffed themselves on too many treasures (literally) and it’s now your warband’s job to take these weirdos out and see what riches can be found amongst the entrails of these demonkin. During deployment, each warband is split up into three groups as evenly as possible, then three Strike Markers each representing a different group are placed along different board edges, alternating between the players. Each marker must be more than 8” away from each other, as well as 8” away from the Gold Gorger markers that have been placed on the battlefield.

The Gold Gorgers are treated the same as an enemy model, and can be charged, attacked, and accumulate Blood Markers. If a Gorger is taken Out of Action by a melee attack, they are removed from the board, but if they get domed by a ranged attack, then mark the fact that the Gorger’s noggin is swiss cheese, and that it must still be struck by a Melee attack to secure the VP. 1 VP and 5 ducats are granted for each Gold Gorger your warmand has taken Out of Action. Additional VPs are granted for each enemy model taken Out of Action, further fueling the destruction on the battlefield. Glorious Deeds are given to those who take multiple gambles in their same activation, needing to succeed in two or more Risky Actions in one go, along with the other glory you would expect to gain by sending members of your opponent’s warband back to meet their maker.

Price of Greed

Molten lava is inbound from both sides of the battlefield, slowly flooding every trench and bunker with molten death. Two sides of the battlefield that are opposite to each other are the deployment zones, while the other two sides are where the Pyritic Flows of lava are going to be inching forward every turn. At the end of each turn, this flow moves from the edge of the battlefield towards the center 4”. Any model that moves into or attempts any Action while within the Pyritic Flow immediately gains a Blood Marker. If a model ends their activation inside the lava, it must roll on the Injury Chart, using every Blood Marker on the roll to increase it by +1 dice for each marker expended. Any model can risk it for the (presumably burnt) biscuit and search for a Timbuktu Manuscript within 1” of the flow.

To win this scenario, the warband must reach the extraction zone, which is marked by the center of the opponent’s deployment zone. Then, the amount of VP scored by each player is determined by the total of the ducat value of their own models that have escaped the battlefield, divided by 100, rounding up. The player with higher VPs wins. Glorious Deeds are given to those who can survive the treacherous lava, as well as punish those foolish enough to test their luck from within the dangerous Pyritic Flow. 

Rogue Devil

A few days ago some rogue ritualists summoned a whole mess of Dust Devils near a battlefield of strategic significance and you’ve been tasked with seizing that land. This is a pretty standard mission tasking you with taking three pieces of terrain in No Man’s Land called Shelters. Shelters from what? Well the Dust Devils of course. 

The first time a model is taken Out of Action, a Dust Devil is spawned on the spot where the model died (or rather, biting the dust) and next to the model that took it out of action. During the morale step of each turn, the Dust Devils move 2d6” in a random direction which can be increased or decreased by either player by spending Blood Markers. When the Dust Devil stops moving, everything within 3” takes an Injury Roll at -1 Dice, inflicting an additional blood marker to every model without a Gas Mask. We highly suggest taking Zyrtec or another over the counter antihistamine before participating in this scenario. Those models are then pushed D6” which can make for some wacky scenarios like falling off stuff, being pushed into and out of combat, etc. The Dust Devils also impose debuffs to actions and ranged attacks in its area of influence so you really don’t wanna get too close to them. However, the Shelters grant you a safe haven from the Dust Devils, making the members of your warband unaffected by their attacks while you’re near one, as well as making the Dust Devils unable to move when they come into contact with the Shelter. These makeshift sanctuaries are also how you score, giving you 1 VP for each one you contest and 2 VP for each one held. Having a non-player element wreaking havoc can make for some pretty exciting moments, although due to the random movement, there may be situations where the Dust Devils end up going on their own side quest and ignoring the main scrap between the warbands. 

Pressed into Greatness

You’ve been spending the whole campaign gathering together your Malian Gold, and it’s time to get it to the Hell Mint. There are two Coin Mints in the middle of the battlefield and every turn they spew out D6 coin markers. Any model can do an action to pick up all coins within 1” and can do it again on their turns as a risky action. Malian Gold can also be spent to fuel the machine to have it make it rain even more coins. Coins can be stolen to and from enemy models, and when a model with coins is taken Out of Action, the coins spill out like Sonic rings, allowing a member of any warband to come along and get whatever sloppy seconds they can. The game is won by whomever holds more coins by the end of the game. With only two coin presses on the battlefield, there’s bound to be a lot of close quarters bloodshed between the warbands early. It’s going to be a hectic game of killing and picking up the goods. 

Final Thoughts

The Malian Scouring campaign is a great way to level up any Trench Crusade experience, especially when running a one or two day event! Norman and I were lucky enough to play in the last two scenarios at NOVA (Gold Gorgers and Price of Greed) and had an amazing time, not only at the table but also while hanging out with all of the other Trench Crusade staff at the event. Please check out the beautifully written and designed Malian Scouring zine by Sammie Dae, including stunning art by Lil Stevie. 

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