Trench Crusade is a grim, beautiful mess of a tabletop game. It’s gritty. It's unapologetically weird. If you’ve spent any time looking at Mike Franchina’s art or digging into the lore of a 1914 that never ended, you know the vibe. But when it comes to playing the Heretic Legion, there’s one specific way to lose your humanity faster than the rest. I’m talking about the Path of the Beast Trench Crusade sub-faction. This isn't just about adding some spikes to your armor or shouting for the Devil. It’s about the total devolution of the human form into something purely predatory.
You’re basically playing a pack of rabid, divinely-cursed wolves in the skin of men. Honestly, it’s terrifying.
Most people get into Trench Crusade because they want the "knights with gas masks" aesthetic. They want the iron and the salt. But the Path of the Beast is for the players who want to lean into the primal horror of the Great War. You aren't just fighting for territory here. You’re hunting.
What Actually Is the Path of the Beast?
Lore-wise, the Path of the Beast represents a very specific flavor of Heresy. While some heretics are busy bargaining with demons for forbidden knowledge or mechanical prowess, those on the Path of the Beast just want to rend flesh. They’ve rejected the "civilization" of the Hell-influenced cities to embrace the raw, bloody nature of the pit.
It’s a transformation.
Think of it as a spiritual rabies. Your fighters start losing their ability to use complex machinery. They stop caring about the fine points of a bolt-action rifle. Instead, they get faster. They get stronger. They get much, much harder to kill because they simply don't care about pain anymore. In the rules of the game, this translates to a warband that excels at "shock and awe" tactics. You aren't sitting in a trench taking potshots at a Paladin. You’re leaping over the parapet and tearing his throat out before he can even draw his sword.
The Warband Composition
When you build a Path of the Beast Trench Crusade list, you’re looking at a very specific set of tools. You’ve got your Heretic Priest, sure, but the stars are the Beast-marked. These are your heavy hitters.
They usually have higher movement stats than your average human trooper. This is huge. In a game where positioning is literally life and death, being able to close the gap in a single turn is a massive advantage. But there’s a trade-off. You lose versatility. You aren't going to have a lot of long-range fire support. If you get caught in the open against a Sultanate warband with good line of sight, you’re going to get turned into Swiss cheese.
It's a high-risk, high-reward playstyle.
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Why the Gameplay Feels So Different
Playing this sub-faction feels like playing a different game entirely. Most Trench Crusade matches involve a lot of cautious movement. You use cover. You worry about suppressive fire. You try to manage your "Blood Markers."
With the Path of the Beast, you sort of ignore the traditional flow.
You’re playing a game of momentum. If you stop moving, you die. If you fail a charge, you’re probably dead. But if you connect? It’s a butcher shop. The special rules for these units often involve bonuses to "To Hit" rolls in melee or the ability to ignore certain types of damage that would normally pin a regular soldier down. It’s brutal.
Dealing with the "Beast" Keyword
Units with the Beast keyword in this game have a specific interaction with the environment. They move through difficult terrain like it’s nothing. While the Iron Sultanate is struggling to drag a heavy weapon through the mud, your Beast-marked are sprinting through it.
I've seen games won purely because a Beast player ignored a forest that the opponent thought was an impassable barrier. They just went through. Surprised the hell out of the guy.
The Modeling Aspect: Gore and Fur
Let’s talk hobbying for a second. If you’re going to run a Path of the Beast Trench Crusade warband, you have to lean into the conversion side of things.
Standard Heretic Legion models are great, but they’re a bit too "soldier-y" for this path. You want to see the mutation. You want to see hands that have turned into claws. You want to see heads that are halfway between a man and a hyena.
- Use Green Stuff for fur textures.
- Look for 28mm scale werewolf bits.
- Don't be afraid to use a lot of "Blood for the Blood God" technical paint.
Seriously, these guys shouldn't look clean. They should look like they haven't washed in three years and have spent most of that time eating raw horse meat in a shell crater. It’s a very specific "dirty" aesthetic that makes them stand out on the tabletop against the more "orderly" Heretic forces.
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Common Mistakes New Players Make
The biggest trap? Thinking you’re invincible.
Because the Path of the Beast units have such scary stats in close quarters, players get cocky. They run straight down the middle of the board. They forget that even a lowly trench rat with a pistol can get a lucky shot.
You still need tactics.
You use "chaff" units—basically human shields—to soak up the overwatch fire. You wait for the right moment. You use smoke grenades (if you can scavenge them) to hide your advance. Just because your guys are monsters doesn't mean they aren't made of meat. Bullets still hurt.
The "Bloodlust" Problem
In many iterations of the rules, there’s a mechanic reflecting the loss of control. Sometimes your units might be forced to charge the nearest enemy, even if it’s a suicidal move. Managing this "instinct" is the difference between a pro player and someone who gets tabled in turn two. You have to position your leaders—the ones who still have a shred of human intelligence left—to keep the beasts on a leash until the time is right.
How to Counter the Beast
If you’re on the other side of the table, how do you handle a Path of the Beast Trench Crusade surge?
Distance. That’s it.
You need to create "kill zones." If you see a unit of Beast-marked coming, you don't spread your fire. You focus everything on one unit until it’s wiped out. Don't worry about the small guys. The big hitters are the threat. If you can break their momentum in the first two turns, they usually don't have the staying power to win the long game.
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Also, use terrain to your advantage. Yes, they move through it well, but if you can bottleneck them into a narrow alleyway or a bridge, their numbers don't matter. One solid Knight with a shield can hold off a lot of beasts if the geography is right.
The Psychological War
Trench Crusade is a very "vibey" game. There’s a lot of tension. When you put a bunch of snarling, mutated monsters on the table, it affects the other player. They start playing more defensively. They start making mistakes because they’re worried about that one unit that can jump 12 inches and delete their commander.
That’s the secret power of the Path of the Beast. You aren't just fighting their models; you’re fighting their nerves.
Final Practical Steps for New Heretics
If you’re sold on the Path of the Beast, here is exactly how you start without wasting money or time.
First, don't buy a massive army immediately. Start with a standard Heretic Legion starter set or the equivalent models from the official range. You only need about 10 models for a solid skirmish game. Focus on two "Beast" types and fill the rest with standard Heretics who are "on the path" but haven't fully turned yet.
Second, read the lore. It sounds cliché, but knowing why your warband is fighting makes the hobby process much better. Are they followers of a specific fallen angel? Are they just a group of deserters who found something dark in the woods of Verdun? Give them a story. It makes the conversions more meaningful.
Third, practice your "Pile-In" moves. Since this warband lives and dies in melee, you need to understand the nuances of how models move once they’re in combat. A half-inch mistake can mean the difference between tagging an enemy's support unit and being left out in the open.
Finally, get used to losing models. You are going to play aggressively. You are going to lose your favorite mutated wolf-man to a lucky grenade. It’s part of the experience. Embrace the carnage. The Path of the Beast isn't about survival; it's about the glory of the hunt before the end comes. If you want to stay safe, join the Church. If you want to taste blood, this is the only way to play.