All things must come to an end, and sadly, that includes the Arena Challenge as well. Our contestants have painted their way across the war-torn battlefields of Trench Crusade this year, and each has arrived here with a fully painted warband in tow. The Broken Isle's secrets will be claimed by one who proves the worthiest. Who will come out on top? Who has gained the most Hobby Glory? Who has painted the most minis? Find out in today's finale, and strap in, because it's a jam-packed edition! Check out the finished warbands of each of the Faithful and Fallen, as well as the final games played in Denmark to claim what lies at the dark heart of this mysterious island.

To see the full rules and guidelines for the Arena Challenge you can check out our first instalment. As a quick reminder, though, unlike a normal campaign of Trench Crusade, the only way for our participants to earn Glory points to spend on upgrades and mercenaries is with the Hobby Glorious Deeds table below.

In a special addition to help round out the tables at our final gaming day, extra glory was awarded for helping to paint up and provide scenery for our warbands to fight over. This has been added into the appropriate contestants' final Glory tally.

I really enjoyed my first full Trench Crusade experience. As a lifelong Warhammer player, I’ve always loved bigger armies, more minis, and longer games—but these days, between being a dad, coaching soccer, dance classes, and everything else, I just don’t have that kind of time. And honestly, I’d rather spend more of the time I do have painting fewer minis better. Trench Crusade hits that balance perfectly: small warbands, manageable games, and gameplay that’s thematic, tactical, unpredictable, and—most importantly—fun. Things die. Things survive when they absolutely shouldn’t. Skill matters, luck matters, and nothing has felt obviously breakable. I loved painting my Prussians so much that the Blackwing Khanate is heading to TAP HQ. Now I get to start again—with a new warband and everything the Arena taught me about actually building one.

Final Glory: 9

In the home stretch of the project, I had my biggest and most complex haemonculus to put together for the House of Wisdom! I have been having a ton of fun reading up on all the various upgrades, appendages, and weapons you can attach and kind of went overboard. But that's part of the fun of Trench Crusade, right? 

Continuing to use bits from the communicant, I also joined him with a Lion of Jabir alongside a slightly heretical head from the sorcerer in Courts, after adding some flesh of course! 

I've completed the warband with a Lion of Jabir who is one of my favorite models in the line, this time introducing some verdigris to the theme which I think helps tone down the Weapon Bronze quite a bit. This was a ton of fun, and I am looking forward to getting some games in with the House of Wisdom! 

Final Glory: 5 

I have really enjoyed working on this Procession of the Sacred Affliction warband. Fantastic textures abound – leprous skin, tattered rags, and rusted metals. I'm looking forward to putting these pilgrims through a campaign soon, but I think I'm even more excited to keep expanding the collection. I've already painted three freshly-risen Leper-Knights, and I'm excited to add a few more Stigmatic Nuns to round out a Knights of Saint Lazarus variant list. After that, it'll be painting up a few Lazarist Communicants and Lazarist Castigators for a Procession of the Blessed Flock variant list. In these desaturated hues, I'm confident they'll look great! 

Final Glory: 8 

I think I may have mentioned that when you get motivated all you want to do is paint, and this is exactly what happened here. I painted the entire warband in a weekend. The models went together beautifully; I tip my hat to the Trench Crusade design team. I enjoyed painting the first model, and then you just want to paint the rest, put on some good TV, music or sport and before you know it is done. Never a chore, always a pleasure.  

 I can't wait to see what new models they have planned for the future. I'm in! 

Final Glory: 6 

So now that we've wrapped up this particular challenge, I can report that it was fun to do.  One of my favorite things about gaming is the personalization and the lore we get to make up.  From making up a character for an RPG, or coming up with a backstory for my HQ choice in my army for a wargame, those personal touches are always the best part for me.  The Trench Crusade team have done a great job creating a world that has some dots, but there's enough empty space to connect your own dots for part of the story.  I based a lot of the look and feel of my warband by borrowing from actual history and extrapolating out so that it fit inside the Trench Crusade narrative.  I got to make my warband feel like it's mine.  I'd like to thank the team at Factory Fortress, our team at The Army Painter, and all the rest of the folks who took place in this challenge and followed along with us.  See you out there on the tables.  Don't forget to Build Paint Play.

Final Glory: 6

The Arena Challenge was such a phenomenal experience from start to finish. I tried to push myself to use paints that I had not used before for most of these models, which lead to using mostly John Blanche Masterclass paints. I wanted to stick with a darker scheme, but Moonbeam Yellow was just TOO good not to make my pilgrims all yellowshirts. As someone who has notoriously NEVER finished a full army of just about any game I play, the fact that i can finish a warband in a few days really keeps me motivated to continue painting Trench Crusade. Getting to see these next to some of the absolute works of art that were on display at games day was the highlight of the entire experience, even if I lost every single game I played because of INSANE dice rolls from my opponents. Trench Crusade had me hooked, and since completion of the Arena, I have painted 3 other warbands and am shopping around for my fourth. 

Final Glory: 3 

The warriors of New Antioch are finished and it feels truly amazing. There's a feeling that comes from finishing a full hobby project that just gives such satisfaction - once all the brushstrokes are done, varnish is applied, models are magnetized, dice are acquired, basing is sealed… it's just awesome to know I can add these to my display cabinet and reach in to play a full game of Trench Crusade any time I want.  

Doing this project was truly inspiring, I really enjoyed it! The accountability of knowing there are others in the community working on the same project, and knowing these will be posted on specific dates, is a fantastic motivator. 

Let's be real - it's easy to not paint. It's easy to not hobby. Work is tiring, life is tiring, chores and errands are tiring, and sometimes at the end of the day the idea of sitting down at the painting table feels too daunting and overwhelming.  

But I never regret it. Never once have I painted, or built a model, or fiddled with an army list and thought "Man, I wish I didn't do this and just doomscrolled on my phone instead." 

Turns out having a community, engaging with creative pursuits you enjoy, and learning new techniques and tricks of the trade brings you a deeper satisfaction than chasing quick dopamine hits on social media … who would've guessed!! 

Final Glory: 7 

The initial slaughter on the beach was unprecedented, with artillery raining down on the forces of New Antioch. Bodies began piling into large mounds, with rivers of blood washing away the remnants underneath. Troops fled into the waves, desperate to make it to the ships that were already retreating. There was no return to the mainland. 

Renounce watched, as Antecede traversed the river of blood and into the battle once more. Others followed him. It claimed parts of them and offered something new. The tide began to turn. Maddened and reduced by the battle, the survivors fought with no regard for themselves. Everything Renounce had been taught told him this should not have been possible. Willingly, he stepped into the river and allowed it to take part of him as well. 

Left to right: Sever, Trench Cleric. Antecede, Lieutenant. Renounce, Observer. Toll, Mechanized Heavy Infantry. Succor, Mercy Dog. Verdict, Combat Engineer. Debt, Shocktrooper. Remnant, Yeoman. Tithe, Mechanized Heavy Infantry. 

The Observer is by far the sculpt that I enjoyed painting the most, with the Mechanized Heavy Units coming in a close second. It was the last mini I painted and it was a blast. I decided to use Blighted Green and Sunburst Ochre as the main colors, to separate him from the rest of the Warband with their New Antioch inspired colours, which makes him stand out. I thinned the colours with Ivory White to create the highlights – and in my opinion, it looks great.

I was pumped for the game day. I've had real trouble fighting against the Court players in the office, so I was excited to try to play against other factions. The overall atmosphere was great, and Tyler, Lasse, Steffen and the others had done a great job at setting up, preparing mats and terrain and everything. It was awesome to finally see your miniatures on the battlefield. 

The final game was chaotic as all hell, which was absolutely dope. People were itching for a fight, and it didn’t take long before they began tearing into one another and taking units off the board. I knew that I was outgunned, to say the least, so my tactic was quite simple. I wanted to save my better units for last and use my less important units to go for objectives. I gained an early lead, got a few Glorious Deeds and as turn 3 ended, the others started to realize they had to catch up.  

In the end, Claimed in Blood won the Arena.

Final Glory: 7

The vibe of Trench Crusade is a unique and familiar feeling. The artwork casts snapshots of a nightmare, and I feel the models capture that quite well. As the range continues to expand into plastic, I'm excited to add even more troops to my collection. This marks warband number two, and you know what they say; good trilogies come in threes. I kid but these models were a joy to paint and inspired me to work in slightly different ways. I depicted a good friend in portrait form and even made my own camouflage pattern. It's been a crusade over the months and a well of enjoyable creativity. If the smoke clears, I might see you out there! 

Final Glory: 9 

After several months in the trenches, it's hard to believe the Arena Challenge has come to an end. Finishing this warband while spending time at HQ made for a fitting conclusion, and seeing the entire Red Brigade assembled on the table was well worth the effort. 

To round out the force, I added a few more bigs and littles to the warband. The Crimson Communicant was an absolute joy to paint. It has just about every texture you could want on a miniature and plenty of each to experiment with. Between the cloth, armor, leather, and all the little details, there was always something interesting to work on. 

The model also ended up being a great centerpiece for the warband. Between the Machine Armor, the Lieutenant, and the Crimson Communicant, opponents had some tough target-priority decisions to make. There was never a clear answer on what needed to be dealt with first. 

I also have to point out that Tyler chose to shoot the dogs first. (libel! it was just one... - Tyler)

Thanks to everyone who followed along throughout the challenge. It was a great excuse to spend some time with a fantastic range of miniatures, try a few new techniques, and finally get a fully painted Red Brigade onto the table. I already have my eye on a few more additions, so I suspect this won't be the last time these trench-raiders make an appearance. 

Final Glory: 6 

I saved the Sorcerer mini for last. Between the flames, intestines, and tablet, this ended up being my favorite mini to paint—especially once I let go of trying to have any kind of cohesive colour scheme for my warband and just painted what felt fun. I didn't leave enough time for adding basing material before game day (oops), so I quickly painted on some squiggles of Gladeshard and Lens Flare Glow while at home office. I only got to play half a game of Trench Crusade before a jetlag and cold combo took me out, but it was beyond cool to see tables set up with tons of detailed terrain and to check out everyone's warbands.

Final Glory: 7

The Arena Challenge comes to a close and with my Black Grail Warband. I couldn't be more pleased. I had such a fun time experimenting with colours and textures using the Fanatics paints, especially those in the John Blanche sets. The world in which this game is set in is such a grimdark expression; I wanted to do it justice. I loved getting to know the characters, lore, and watching my fellow painters work. Thank you to the Army Painter and Trench Crusade for letting us experiment, have fun and share our miniatures! 

Final Glory: 7 

Well, this has been quite a ride. From the start, I was working on a strong theme for my Envy Court of the Seven-headed Serpent. Thanks to my friend Brendan, I dialed in on the idea that my warband were incredibly covetous of the power of others. This encouraged me to start digitally kitbashing some minis – putting my Praetor in some Heavy Machine Armour and giving my Sorcerer a Takwin Anqua Bird. I carried that theme through to my Desecrated Saint, a tortured and bound Brazen Bull, and my Hunter of the Left-hand Path standing on top of a slain Lion of Jabir. 

BUT... the recent Warband update for the Court turned my plans upside down. The new Envy variant list leans very heavily into the Envy. No more Praetors or Sorcerers! These models will slink away and sit in the corner for a while, until I find a place for them in a future Court warband. Now, where did I put my Pit Locusts? 

Final Glory: 10

I was so stoked to finally field my completed Heretic Naval Raiders against fellow Arena Challenge participant Joey during NOVA 2026 in Washington, D.C.! A huge shoutout to Jacob, the tournament organizer, for guiding us through our first match and providing some absolutely incredible Trench Crusade boards to battle across. 

Playing the Heretic Naval Raiders was an absolute blast! Their unique rules and playstyle made me feel like I was commanding a ruthless raiding party, fresh from the shoreline and launching an assault against a New Antioch stronghold. While I quickly learned to fear the dreaded Sniper Priests, I found equal joy in discovering just how devastating the Sacrificial Dagger could be in close combat! Seeing two fully painted warbands facing off across such an immersive battlefield made all those hours spent painting feel that much more rewarding!! 

As for The Arena Challenge itself, I'm incredibly grateful to have been part of it. Painting alongside such a talented group of hobbyists pushed me to refine my techniques, experiment with new approaches, and challenge myself in ways I might not have otherwise. I genuinely feel like I've broken through some of my previous painting skill ceilings, and that growth has already started carrying over into my other hobby projects. The bar has been raised across the board! 

Between the painting, the camaraderie, and finally bringing these models to the tabletop, this has been an incredibly rewarding experience. I can't wait to get more games in at upcoming events, and I'm already looking forward to starting my next warband! 

A massive thank you to everyone who made The Arena Challenge possible! 

Final Glory: 10 

All things evil most come to an end, and despite Sudor’s reasonable ambitions to conquer all, drive their enemies before them and bring about the end of the tyrant gods creation, to then retire and listen to the lamentation of all suffering souls in Hell, while sipping on the finest wine from the middle ring of 7th circle of Hell. It was not to be. 

While Sudor’s enemies easily fell before their malebranche sword and could not withstand the onslaught of the defiled St. Anaquinius, nor escape the bullets from the hell knight’s rifle. The very wrath and bloodlust that made Qui ira sudant mighty, proved to be their undoing. While the warband of Qui ira sudant was reveling in the slaughter, the humans scurried around like a never-ending horde of rats and sneakily took all the objectives and in the final battle the tyrant gods servants pitted together their meager might, to fell Sudor. 

It turned out that even a warrior as mighty as Sudor, could not withstand having several satchel charges thrown in their face. 

Thus ended the unholy crusade of Sudor and the warband of Qui ira sudant. 

Final Glory: 5

Painting my Trench Crusade warband was a new challenge. My normal way of painting is usually bright colors on white primer, but I knew that wouldn't work for this setting. 

Rarely do I paint over black primer, so I just wasn't ready for how dark it is. I do love how it came out, though. Any bright colors I chose to put on each model stood out that much more because the rest of it is dark and moody, so it made it easy for me to draw your eye where I want it. 

I will absolutely be collecting and painting more Trench Crusade models, and it's really opened my eyes to new tabletop games and painting methods in general. It has been a real treat to follow this journey! 

Final Glory: 6 

The warband Fanatica Acedia had a devilish plan: Wring the blood of their foes into powerful Goetic magic to lay waste to anyone in their path to conquest. Forego the brutish ways of their demonic brethren and their iron-wrought axes and instead lay waste with fireball, unholy rifles, dark scripture and bolts of pandemonium. And it was glorious! 

This whole Arena was by far my favourite. Trench Crusade is such an easy game to get into. Easy to understand core mechanics, interesting factions and abilities and awesome lore. I love a faction with weird special rules, and the Demons of the Court were perfect for that, so I went all in on Goetic Powers. My whole warband (except my three-man blood battery) had one or more spells and it was great, great fun explaining all my abilities to my opponents and watching them try to comprehend the implications. Teleporting my Hunter of the Left Hand Path behind a poor Yeomen like “Nothing personal, kid”, auto-hitting with a 3” fireball from my Sorcerer or dragging unsuspecting victims into the shadows with my Warlock. All great, evil fun! 

On top of all that I had a blast painting all my minis and I’m very pleased with how they all turned out. I was so into the whole thing that I even built a 4x4’ gaming table on top of everything, so let’s just say I’m hoping we’ll get to do another Trench Crusade Arena at some point! 

Final Glory: 13 

Here we are at the end, and it's time for my Naval Raiders to return to the sea! I painted my display base in sandy tones before using UV resin to create the lapping sea. I added a little bit of Caribbean Ocean Speedpaint to the resin to give it the colour I desired. Then I added the surface texture and seafoam using diorama water effects. Finally, the base was ready to mount in the picture frame. With my warband, their display, and the Arena Challenge now complete, it was time for my Naval Raiders to make their way back to the beach and into the ocean, waiting to be summoned once more. 

Thanks to The Army Painter for inviting me to participate in the Arena Challenge! Everyone has done such amazing work, and it was an honour just to be a part of it. 

Final Glory: 5 

Creating this band was a big responsibility, as I was tasked to represent the studio for the Arena Challenge. Even though it would bring me out of my comfort zone, I felt it could be a homage to the late John Blanche. So, I tried to meld our styles, using washes, dry pigments, and Warpaints Historical to achieve the desired effect (apparently, it shows ^^). With some Hieronymus Bosch inspirations sprinkled all over it. 

For the converting process, I like to put a heap of bitz on my desk and try different combinations, until everything falls into place. With one big recurrent issue: the best ideas usually come very late! 

I knew I would use the Prussian plastic sprues, but under a different light—I wanted to see them corrupted. It all came together in a matter of days. I preferred the helmet with the horizontal slits (the most threatening to me), so I made it the standard design. A Beige VS Dark Olive colour scheme started to appear with red glossy parts, moist with blood for a stark contrast and desaturated green checks to create an animation on the shoulder pads. Then drown them under as many mystic symbols as I could find! 

The chorister blood tendrils nicely tie the faction together. These structures are easier to build than it looks. They are basically greenstuff threads placed on metal wire and covered with True Blood. 

The late addition of the yet-unreleased Haunting Leviathal Chorus complicated things. Naturally, the miniature would strongly suggest a naval theme (especially the way I converted them), but I didn’t want to emphasize this aspect too much, so the army wouldn’t look out of place in different environments. 

Editor's note: Be sure to check back in during the coming months as we revisit Stéphane's warband in more depth on its own! 

Final Glory: 6 

This year's Arena Challenge was, quite fittingly, built around Trench Crusade. 

It's been a challenging year for me in terms of finding time for the hobby, so having a skirmish game as our challenge was actually perfect. It also felt particularly fitting considering our relationship with John Blanche and the Trench Crusade team. 

With limited time on my hands, I decided to focus on one of my favourite disciplines: speedpainting miniatures.  

I wanted to give the entire warband a proper grimdark appearance, while still maintaining enough visual clarity for the individual miniatures and their details to stand out. I settled on what I would describe as a coastal-inspired colour scheme, using predominantly muted, desaturated colours, even for the golds. To bring everything together and push the contrast, I introduced turquoise weathering, which added some interesting colour variation without compromising the overall grimdark atmosphere. 

The entire warband was painted in a single evening! 

If I remember correctly, it was actually the evening after I received the Carcass Front box. I also managed to trade for an additional large miniature with a colleague, giving me another fantastic model to work on. And I have to say, the miniatures are absolutely gorgeous! They were incredibly inspiring to paint, with so much character and detail that they practically begged to be brought to life. In fact, I enjoyed painting them so much that I decided to build a display base for the entire warband as well. That was another evening's work, and I had an absolute blast creating it! 

Ultimately, this challenge was a great reminder of how much fun you can have with the hobby, even when time is limited. Sometimes, just sitting down, letting loose, and enjoying the creative process is exactly what you need. 

I'm already looking forward to seeing what we'll come up with for next year's Arena Challenge! 

Final Glory: 4 

The last member to join my warband was the Sin Eater mercenary. I found this wonderfully nautical sculpt by WargamesCrew and he painted up perfectly in my all-black scheme. Even thought the design is a bit different, once he had the same colours and basing, he looks like part of the team. 

Along with participating in the Arena, I was also the one running it. When it came to the end, that meant organising the game day at the TAP HQ in Denmark. Besides wrangling everyone, I also spent my summer months printing and painting up two full tables worth of terrain to bring with me on the trip. It was a lot of work, but I honestly had quite a bit of fun working on it, I figured out some good ways to paint fast, but effective looking scenery, and now I have a bunch of Trench Crusade terrain to use at home! 

The game day itself was a ton of fun with plenty of memorable moments. Danni tried his hardest to take out my Raiders with his Iron Sultanate in the final game, but they just couldn’t get the job done. Including my captain taking an RPG to the chest before getting back up and proceeding to slaughter a few more of his guys. Alas, I didn’t win the final event, but tons of fun was had. For me, Trench Crusade is a game about memorable moments. While it’s great to win, I would much rather do something cool, silly, fun, or insane on the tabletop and have a good story to tell at the end of the day. 

Final Glory: 9 

During our annual company-wide meeting in Denmark, those of us taking part in the Arena brought our warbands along for the ride. With an entire day set aside for gaming, the fate of the Broken Isle was decided across 7 tables and 14 combatants, with 2 games each before culminating in a massive multi-player game before the gates of the Arena.

Using a bespoke campaign packet and with scenery painted by Lasse (an entire table—board and all!), Tyler, Courtney, Dave, and Uncle Adam, dice were rolled, glory was earned, and Faithful and Fallen alike fell to the weapons of their foes. We were even allowed to tie this in as a decisive battle for the world-wide campaign; Operation Leviathan. At the end of the day, 42 Faithful models returned to the earth, while 38 Fallen suffered a similar fate. While the Fallen may have taken the edge in pure carnage caused, it was the Faithful who carried the day, securing the most victories of individual games.  

However, there could be only one to claim the power that lay buried within the Arena itself... 

And with that, the Arena Challenge 2026 is over! 

Congratulations to all our players for making it to the end with some beautifully painted warbands and a big thank you to them for sharing their progress along the way. Also a big thank you to Baron of Dice for supplying all the wonderful dice you saw in the warband shots above. They're the official provider of Trench Crusade dice, so be sure to check them out!

Over 6 months our contestants painted up a grand total of 196 miniatures to fight over the ruins of the Broken Isle. Of our original 24 contestants, 2 Faithful fell and only 1 Fallen failed to make it to the end, meaning 21 contestants stuck with it over the course of the whole challenge. We had numerous members of the community join in on the fun as well, some of which we've shared on our social media channels. The Faithful managed to earn a total of 64 Hobby Glory points, whilst the Fallen triumphed with 74 points. So, who came out on top at the end? 

• Most Hobby Glory Earned: Lasse Sell 
• Most Minis Painted: Dave Taylor 
• Winner of the Arena Game Day: Rasmus Carstensen 
• Most Scenery Painted: Tyler Mengel/Lasse Sell (Tyler painted 2 tables worth, but Lasse actually made a whole table!) 

While the 2026 season of the Arena Challenge may be over, we'll be back in 2027! Be sure to sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date on any announcements for the forthcoming season, including finding out who's taking part and which grim or fantastical setting we'll be painting and playing in next.