About two years ago now, the amazing Ryan built an enormous 12-foot wide, 4-foot long Space Hulk board for Drawbridge Games’ grand opening celebration at their new location. We ran a special Space Hulk event with it: https://the-dark-muse.com/2021/07/05/drawbridge-grand-opening-celebration/. We ran that event at 25 PL and focused on infantry only with a single HQ character–which is quite similar to what the Arks of Omen rules utilize for those boarding action games. Thus, it’s time to run a new version of the Drawbridge Space Hulk event, with the all-new Games Workshop rules.
When: February 16th, with deployment starting at 6:00pm. Dice roll at 6:30pm sharp. Players who will arrive later can let us know and we can be ready for your force to cut their way in from an appropriate external bulkhead.
Who and What: You! All players are welcome, it’s a $5 entry fee for the event. Bring an Arks of Omen Boarding Patrol, using the mustering rules on page 64 of the Arks of Omen book. Short version is 500 points consisting of HQ 0-1, Troops 0-3, and Elites 0-3. Only infantry allowed and nothing with the Fly keyword, and only a few exceptions (found here: https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/qPJwZxeX8lH4HarK.pdf). Force Warlords gain a single Boarding Action Enhancement (page 63 of Arks of Omen), but no other Warlord Traits or Relics. If you’ve got questions, just inquire on the Drawbridge Games Events facebook page. All models need to be painted–the usual three colors rule applies. If players cannot bring 500 points, they can bring fewer if they wish (as we want everyone to feel welcome to join in, no matter how much you’ve got painted of late).
Background: Amidst the flotilla of Arks of Omen that have been unleashed by Abaddon and Vashtorr, sails the overhauled and dark techno-purposed Space Hulk Baccillum Dulcis. Thought scuttled by an alliance of Imperial forces, the hulk had burst its way back into the warp where it was re-engineered into one of the fleet. Laden with forces of Chaos in the grand assault, once more a rushed set of Imperial defenses dispatch to take out the Hulk as it emerged once again–this time in the Scylla Quintus system. At the same time, varied Xenos forces have converged on the Baccillum Dulcis–keen to get their hands on lost techno-arcana (or to just plain fight in the case of the Orks, and to just plain eat in the case of the Tyranids).
Three Teams: The assembled players will be divided into three teams fighting their way through the Hulk. They will roughly be Imperial, Chaos, and Xenos, tho numbers may mean some adjustments and allies of convenience amidst them. This time the Chaos team will be set up in the middle, as they occupy the Ark, while the Imperial team establishes a joint assault from one side (and Xenos raiders strike across other varied points.
Procedure: Rules for Boarding Actions will be in play, particularly the measuring, visibility, and allocating attacks rules. There will be a set of defined mission objectives that are given in secret to each player for their own 500 point force to try and accomplish, which will add toward the score for their side. The side that scores the most mission points from these across all team members will win the event: either triumphing and forging onward in the case of Chaos, scuttling the Ark in the case of the Imperials, or making off with particularly choice prizes in the case of Xenos. We won’t use any Command Points given the size of the game, and there may be some other changes that we need to do given the situation–but on the whole it should run using these rules pretty smoothly.
Prizes: As always, we’ll have a few prizes for the event that we’ll give out–and all players can win (not just those who side has victory). Players get one entry into the prize draw for attending, and one entry for each new unit they painted specifically for this event. This time our best painted variant will be “coolest boarding force” which is both about painting skill but selection of units that make up a proper boarding party–and winners of that get additional entries. Finally, there will be bonuses for completing portions of your secret mission, as well as bonuses for every player on the side that wins the event. Players must be present at the end of the night to be part of the prize draw.
The Dark Muse 