The Battle for Space Hulk Baccillum Dulcis

When: Thursday, August 12th. Start time at 6pm (if you can only join later let us know you’re coming so we can plan for you to join and we can plot for reinforcements)

Where: Drawbridge Games’ fancy new location!

Who: You! Any and all players are welcome, whether it’s your first visit or 50th. This is about gathering the Pittsburgh 40k community to enjoy the great new space at Drawbridge’s new location. Prospective members welcome. Just come and have fun!

Background: The Space Hulk Baccillum Dulcis has been detected drifting out of the warp near the outer edges of Segmentum Solar. Thought lost during the Horus Heresy the hulk was used during those dark times as location of human sacrifice to the dark gods. Many filthy and terrible rituals played out within its twisting corridors in preparation for Horus’ invasion of Holy Terra. It was rumored to contain a rare weapon of near-unrivaled power, which could be used to defeat the Emperor—or save the Imperium if it found its ways into the right hands. The enigmatic quasi-Captain of the Baccillum Dulcis was known for trading knowledge and resources to the Dark Mechanicum for an extensive amount of stasis systems—enough to warrant the warband’s leader the nickname of “The Collector”. Having sighted the returned and seemingly ruined Hulk, the Imperial forces are quick to explore and subsequently destroy it before it poses a hazard. It’s clear that some forces of Chaos, the Dark Mechanicum, and even potentially Daemons are still “manning” the hulk after a fashion, determined to take the weapons it contains and use them against Holy Terra. And with Imperial landings on the Baccillum Dulcis damaging core systems with their very impacts, who knows what manner of other threats await in a ship that has seen 10,000-some years of stasis.

What to bring: Players should bring a fully painted and based 25 power level Patrol detachment. This is a great reason to get a first part of your force painted if you’re new, or finish some of the pile of shame if you’re more veteran. Players should ideally choose either an Imperial or Chaos force from a single codex (no soup for you). Players may only bring units with the INFANTRY keyword or the BEASTS keyword (edit: the latter was added upon player requests).

What if you don’t have that much painted? Well, you still absolutely are welcome to participate! We definitely want as many people to come and have fun celebrating the new space for Drawbridge. So if you can’t paint a full 25 power level in a month, well… paint what you can. You can bring less than 25 PL if you wish. Alternatively you can bring just a single non-named Character model with the Infantry keyword. To give these solo heroes (or villains) a fighting chance, they gain the following bonus abilities for the event: “I Ain’t Got Time to Bleed” (+5 to the model’s wound characteristic), “Knife Hands” (+1 to the model’s attack characteristic), and “I Can Do This All Day” (At the beginning of a round roll a d6 if your character has been slain. On a 5 or 6 the character revives with 1 wound at the location of its defeat. If the location is currently occupied by future targets, select an empty location with 5”. Still occupied? Too bad! Roll again next round.)

What if you’re all Xenos and not interested in Imperial nor Chaos? Fear not, we’ve got a spot for you too! You’ll just be exhibits and collected samples in The Collector’s stasis fields that have broken free in the breach of the attack. To represent this, you can bring up to 20 PL of fully painted models with the Infantry keyword and that count as Troops or Elites. Any leadership models would have been dissected by this point, but you can still field a nasty force with these! Xenos players will begin with their forces coming out of stasis fields at various points on the Hulk. Want to fill the hulk with a rumbling horde of Ork Boyz or scampering Genestealer Hybrids? Have at it.

Set Up: Using our custom space hulk tables that we’re building for this event, players will be assigned starting locations by the GM’s. We’re hoping the tables will be a lot of fun to explore and battle over.

Procedure: At the start of each round a GM will roll 3 different colored dice to represent the imperium, chaos, and xenos forces. Highest faction die goes first and so on. Each faction will then get to take their turn for the rounds. No Command Points will be available for use by forces (keeps things smooth). In the case of multiple combats, all models defending in the combat will get to fight (same round turn order will determine who is first, second, third). Combat on a drifting space hulk is a bloody affair!

Objectives: Vary by which force you’re fielding. Imperium players gain one Victory point for each completed “Demo Charge Placed!” Action that succeeds—there will be a number of spots on the board you’ll need to fight to in order to be able to do these actions. Chaos players gain one Victory point for each completed “System Override!” Action that succeeds, again expect some spots where you’ll need to get to in order to do these. Xenos players gain one Victory point if you eliminate a player from the game by delivering the attack that removes the last of their forces (either via direct casualties or forcing morale losses).

Game Length: The game will last 7 Rounds, or at the GM’s discretion, they will notify the players at the start of a new round that it will be the last.

Prizes: A Space Hulk is sure to have all sorts of ephemera left over which your forces can secure for your side. While some may end up being useless, others may hold great promise. There will be a set of movable objective items on the ship as well as hidden items to search for, with prizes for some if they’re held by a player’s forces at the conclusion of the game (but not all—good luck guessing correctly what might be useful, and what is just ancient rubbish). Players with a model adjacent to a based portion of the Hulk can take an Action (per usual 40k rules) to search. There will be a descriptor of what is found (if anything), and there may be subsequent rules (some good, some problematic) for what is discovered in some searches. Units that find the marker retain that marker until destroyed or choose to relinquish it at the start of one of their turns. And sorry, no friendly fire in order to steal someone else’s find! Gotta get searching yourself–or conveniently leave threats to wipe them out and then swoop in to capture it yourself. Abandoned objective items that have been revealed can be picked up by ending a move adjacent to them.

We’ll also have a door prize raffle for all who stick around thru the end of the game as usual. Players on the winning side who scored at least one victory point themselves get their names entered twice in the door prize raffle (so all have a chance, but still a reason to compete). And any prize objectives that remain unfound or are not controlled at the end of the game will also be given out via the prize raffle.

• Warhammer 40k