Trench Crusade Backdrop Books

First invites to Backerkit Pledge manager have been sent
3 days ago – Wed, Apr 15, 2026 at 07:26:07 AM

Hello!
Just a quick heads up - some of you will have received your invitations to the Pledge Manager.

This is the smoke test, which allows us to check if everything is working before the bulk of the invites go out. So don't worry if you hear of other backers getting an invite, and you don't yet have one. They go out at random.

I'll update when the rest of the invites go out, once we're confident we did mess anything up.

Thanks!
Jon

A first look at printed books, pledge manager imminent
11 days ago – Tue, Apr 07, 2026 at 09:39:49 AM

Hello! 
Hope you had a good Easter weekend if that's something you celebrate!

Ok, as promised, here's a video look at the first print copies of the Trench Crusade Backdrop Books:

Pledge Manager

The pledge manager is all set up and ready to go - we're having the experts at Backerkit look it over right now, and we'll send out the first test invites this week unless I've got anything wildly wrong. I took a bit longer than planned, because I wanted to make sure UK customers in particular were getting the best value shipping we can provide. So I've made it a bit more complex for us, but a lot less expensive for you. That delayed us a few days, but all for the good I believe. 

(Of course if I could have similarly reduced shipping for everyone else I also would have done so, but we have a few less options for international shipping)

That's it for now! Enjoy the video and I will be pestering you about this pledge manager very soon!

Jon

March Update - Printing now, Pledge Manager Imminent!
26 days ago – Mon, Mar 23, 2026 at 08:42:45 AM

Hello! And welcome to your March update!

We are printing!

Despite the best efforts of a suspected brain aneurysm to actually kill me earlier in the month (it wasn't a brain aneurysm -  medical science is currently baffled!) all of the Trench Crusade Backdrop Books are complete and approved! We have placed the initial print order for the first proof copies, and those will be with us this week. I can work with even a splitting headache, our team is the best, so life is just going to have to try harder to end me and this project!

Being more serious and practical, we're well used to working with this printer, have produced a dozen different Backdrop Books with them, printing thousands of copies, and so I anticipate zero issues with what we're printing. I'll be back to share images and maybe video of the real thing when they arrive. And then we'll place orders for print runs of the main body of your copies! 

As a reminder, we're printing in the UK, so it takes less than a week for printed books to arrive with us. There's no slow boat from China involved.

Pledge Manager

I've been hard at work all day today getting the pledge manager set up. We're going to use BackerKit for this, after repeated attempts to get the beta KS pledge manager to work, I've decided to go with what we've used many times before. I wanted to allow everyone to stay on the same platform, but if I can't get it to work properly it seems sensible to switch tracks to BackerKit and just get on with it! 

The pledge manager, where we'll take your address, charge your shipping, and allow you to add-on any additional books you'd like, will open in the next week or so, all being well. It's always a fiddly process to get just right, and we will need to test it carefully, but we're almost there. All the data entry grunt work is done.

I'll be in touch with more details about how that all works in the coming days, and we'll be on hand to guide you through any problems with it. I anticipate the pledge manager period will be a short one as we will soon have books ready to send out to you.
 

Late Pledges

If you happen to be reading this on the Kickstarter campaign page, and are pondering making a pledge: Late pledges here on Kickstarter will close tomorrow, 24th March 2026 at noon UK time. After that we will open pre-orders on our webstore and as part of the Backerkit Pledge Manager. 

PDF version of Tricks and Tips

I was very happy with how this one came out, and Paul has done a brilliant job of making the various tutorials flow across the pages. There's a whole new unseen section on making floor to go with your trench walls, and I've reshot lots of photos to include Trench Crusade figures, which we didn't have the ability to use for daily updates during the campaign.

Tomorrow, just after late pledges close, I will send out the PDF version of Tricks and Tips to you. This will be sent via a coupon from Wargames Vault/DrivethruRPG, and I will send it to the address you use for your Kickstarter account. 

Using Wargames Vault/Drivethru means you get it added to your library there, and can access it from anywhere. Sometimes these free coupons do go astray - most often appearing in your spam folder, but sometimes they never appear at all. 

If you don't get a coupon by noon, UK time on Wednesday the 25th of March, please drop me a line via [email protected] and I'll get you sorted out. I hate to ask, but from experience, can I please ask you be polite if you do need to ask for a resend? This was a bonus freebie, and we aren't trying to insult or hurt you if your coupon has not arrived! These things just happen, it's routine for us, and we will of course make sure you get your PDF, even if it takes a couple of tries.

Right! That's it for now. I'll be back soon to let you know when those PDFs have gone out!

Thanks again for all your support.
Jon

February update
about 2 months ago – Sat, Feb 28, 2026 at 02:59:33 AM

Hello!

I have to keep this update short for reasons that will become apparent. 

The important thing is work is continuing, book 2 is a whisker away from done, and book 3, the tricks and tips add on is also almost done. 

This update is later than planned, and we’ve slipped a couple of days because 2 completely unexpected things happened this week, which I will be candid about. 

So firstly a close family member who lives in my household suffered a severe health crisis and was hospitalised. This has been a huge strain on everyone of course, and necessitated I take some time out. 

Alongside that, I also suffered a thunderclap headache (a very suddenly occurring “worst headache you’ve ever had in your life” kind of deal) this week, and spent all day in hospital yesterday getting scans to rule out a brain aneurysm. I still have a lumbar puncture/spinal tap to go to rule out anything very serious. Although the week long headache has felt pretty serious, I can tell you. 

Like I say, the good news our my little team have seamlessly picked up the slack, most of the current work is prepping print files, so we’re keeping on keeping on, but we have missed my target of being at print for this update. My apologies, it wasn’t planned and could not have been predicted. 

My next update will be a lot more cheery. (Well unless I’ve had a brain aneurysm, obviously. But even then, that won’t stop these books being finished because my work is all but done now!)

Thanks for your patience at this time, I appreciate it. 

Jon

January Update - Book One is done
3 months ago – Fri, Jan 30, 2026 at 06:36:56 AM

Hello! Monthly update time!

Progress:
Book One: Visions of War is now complete and ready to print! (which is by far the most popular reward by a significant margin, so that's the most important reward completed)
Book Two: The Golden Seal needs a couple of pieces finishing off, and is almost done!
Book Three: Tricks and Tips is in layout now!

Printing takes a very short amount of time since we print in the UK with a really brilliant print partner, so I'm not too worried about this minor slip in the schedule - everything is powering ahead despite a particularly virulent flu bug taking me out for a couple of weeks this month. 

I anticipate shipping will commence in February. Before that we'll open a pledge manager to gather your addresses, shipping payment and to allow you to add anything on that you missed. Stay tuned, we'll have more info on that as it happens.

Of course I've been continually testing out backdrops, and here's some more of the results:

That's it for now - keep your eyes peeled for that pledge manager!

Jon