Silesian Trenchline 2.0

Last year I started playing Trench Crusade and made my first gaming board for this fantastic skirmish game. The Silesian Trenchline was a set made first with heart and dedication, then adjusted exponentially throughout the year to better suit the gaming aspect of the Trench Crusade.

I wrote a series of articles about the Silesian Trenchline, available at my blog. There you can see every step from concept through cole layout, complete creation process etc.

But the Silesian Trenchline is in the past now. This project is all about the Silesian Trenchline 2.0 – a new scenery set based on the previous ‘iteration’ with all the experiences accumulated until now taken into consideration.

This time around the main focus was to:
– Prioritize gameplay features over looks,
– Copy the core, well tested and Organized Play viable, board layout,
– Increase stackability (less occupied space when fully compacted),
– Maximize looks within the limits set with the above directives,

All that in mind, the main features to change were the sides of the ‘trench-hills’. The previous board had all of the sides slightly angled. This looks badass, but is also problematic for gameplay, as such angled sides are more costly to climb onto. Combined with with sandbags mounted permanently on some of the tops, it ended up cumbersome to play on.

This was the mindset I have embraced when starting the Silesian Trenchline 2.0

I started the project on Monday 9th of February 2026.

All the necessary materials ordered for the occasion arrived early on Monday. 2″ thick XPS foam, corrugated paper, wooden coffee sticks, PVA glue, lots of Cyanoacrylate glue and other stuff plus some 3d printed bitz and pieces I produced throughout the previous Weekend…

The standard process begun with copying the previous board layout 1:1, adding two more ‘shapes’ made of the leftover XPS foam to the mix. Marked, outlined then cut with an exacto knife – fast and furious, as it should be.

Below is a short video where you can see how I cut the XPS foam. Be warned though – I’ve earned a few ‘scars of honour’ back in the day when making scenery this way 😉

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGjRwcGtx4a/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Next step was to fit the shapes onto a board and see if they need any adjustments. A few did got tuned actually. I then followed up with the standard:
– Strips of corrugated paper glued with PVA glue.
– Hundreds (actually over a thousand) mixed wooden sticks of varried thickness glued onto the remaining sides of each shape.

I made sure to mount coffee sticks so that they created a ragged top edge, but stuck out on the underside, to then cut them off in a straight line, once dry.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUkttGhiJVt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I also added a few extra details mounted in some of the walls. Small ammo cashes, a dead set of Mechanized Hevy Armour, Artillery Shrines etc…

Finally I set the game up with a buddy of mine to test the new board. The test was successfull, the board felt excelent.

It was time to paint this puppy…

With the scenery set tested in battle it had undergone the standard painting process. You can see the whole Color Recipe for the board here:

Colour Recipes: Trench Crusade Scenery

The Project got ‘finished’ on Friday 13th of February, so a five day hardcore adventure with XPS foam and coffee sticks 🙂

Finished is too much of a word, cause projects like this are forever alive, things getting added, stuff getting adjusted. Already I am working on some extra details such as removable sandbag barricades to add to the set – but for now, the goal was achieved. I have a new gaming board with proper Organized Play layout and free of any gameplay related issues I had with the previous set.

Definitely less impressive visually due to more ’empty’ space on top – but I am already working on mitigating this particular aspect of the board. Most importantly the set looks OK and is very (VEEERY) playable! Plus the new trech floor themed gaming mat from Playmats.eu (that I provided the idea for) turned out really well. I am happy with the results and cannot wait to add some more stuff to the board.

What do you folks think? Does it look far worse than the Silesian Trenchline?

Trench Crusade Silesian Trenchline