Forge the story of your own 40k character, and have them enshrined in Drawbridge Games lore. The Legends of Drawbridge campaign is beginning.

This campaign is a set of simple rules to motivate games amongst all 40k players at Drawbridge, and allow us to record our conquests, reward our army HQ’s and players alike, and generate a “Hall of Heroes” to commemorate the campaign. All Drawbridge members are welcome to join in the fun and story-building together.

The campaign focuses on character models, in particular the “generic” character models that each army has, where players can put their own specific spin on them. Could be just naming them and developing a story through games played, tho also conversions and fun modeling projects are welcome. The sections below will detail the campaign rules and the “hall of heroes” rules.

Campaign

The campaign focuses on battles for control of a nebula that divides some Imperial worlds, nicknamed “the Drawbridge Gulf” after the defensive technology on Terra in ages past. Imperial settlements founded the sector: a clustered set of planets composed of two Hive worlds, a Shrine world, a Forge World, and then an Agri-planet across the gulf. But all the other factions have converged fighting forces in the area to try and wrest control of the Drawbridge Gulf. May be out of spite (Chaos), conquest (Tyranids), Lootin’ (Orks), freedom (a Genestealer Cult on one of the Hive Worlds), safety (Aeldari and Drukhari joint raids from a Craftworld), peace (T’au), knowledge (Votann), or just the simple quiet of all life being destroyed (Necrons).

This map will be used to represent the flow of battles between the varied factions. Players can play battles against any other factions, tho we generally encourage only fluff-appropriate clashes (tho even then, rival branches of hive fleets clash and sometimes disagreements happen between Space Marine chapters). As the campaign goes, wins by faction will increase the size of their influence, and loss by faction will decrease the size of their influence. That will determine who is dominating the system–and set up the sides for the culminating mega battle we’ll do to cap the campaign this summer.

Players can connect with each other through the Drawbridge social media connections and chats, the discord server, or just plain saying “hey” at the store (Wednesday and Thursday nights and weekend days tend to be most popular for 40k).

Battles should be generated using the Leviathan mission deck, and can be any points level the players agree upon.

After players have finished a game, each can submit a report using this link (https://forms.gle/vBKm4p3Gm7cNfnx18) with the info about the results to help track the progress overall, and to the track the successes and failures of their Rising Legend character from the force (see below).

Hall of Heroes

The main “campaign” element of this is the advancement of the heroes who lead your forces. These must be characters of your own invention, having a specific name you’ve given them (tell their story!). If you want to use a “named character” from 40k that you’ve heavily converted to be your own, that’s allowable as long as the model is converted somewhat for that purpose. If the characters come with a unit (e.g. Astra Militarum Command Squad or a Votann Grimnyr) then the player can choose to name and add the story of the entire unit. These characters will be referred to as “Rising Legends”.

Each time you play a battle where your Rising Legend is fielded, keep track of the following: whether their force wins or loses, whether they were removed from play as a casualty or ended the battle still on the table, and what all units they engaged in combat with (shot at, was shot by, melee’d with, or otherwise faced off in dramatic way). You can then report this in the reporting link shared above.

Once a Rising Legend has participated in three battles, we’ll arrange to take a good photo of the model and they will be included in the “Hall of Heroes” for the campaign. Hall of Heroes characters need to be painted and based for this reason, but it can be whatever level of painting (no judgement, we just want to commemorate them!). For every two subsequent battles where the character takes the field, they will then unlock a Special Leader Ability to affect games representing their mastery of the battlefield. These are designed to be fun and fluffy abilities, that have a bit of an effect on the battlefield but more represent ways to challenge modification and storytelling about the character.

We’ll have a dedicated page on this blog detailing the Hall of Heroes, all the Legends of Drawbridge, including: a short backstory and in-campaign history, attribution to you as a player, and notes about what their special abilities are for our campaign games so it’s all visible to players. My hope is that this system gives us good incentives for playing the games and telling the tales of our battles together, and building a shared narrative for the Drawbridge community about some of the most notable Legends to walk these tables.

And when we’re done, if people really put time and effort into this one, I’ll be making a big high-quality poster with photos of all the Hall of Heroes Legends and your names to hang on the walls of Drawbridge to commemorate them and their battles.

Special Leader Abilities

This list will be growing as we go, so if there is something you think would be cool to add you can let me know and I’ll see about including it. These things should be characterful and flavorful, but not game-breaking. The idea is a fun way to enhance the “way” that your character leads their forces. Do they form the tip of the spear or lead from the back? Have they suffered a number of defeats and doggedly fight on with scars, or do they move across battlefields with un-touched destructive grace?

Master Tactician	This character knows how to command a battlefield, and keep the battle flowing in an advantageous direction.	Once per game, upon drawing a secondary mission card, if this character is not yet removed as a casualty then that secondary mission card can be discarded and a new one drawn immediately to replace it.
Signature Transport	This character always arrives at the battle in their signature vehicle, which their warriors recognize and respect.	When this model is embarked in a dedicated transport vehicle, that vehicle counts as them for purposes of conveying rules to other models (e.g. if they buff nearby models, that buff works from the vehicle) or rules that work if they are on the battlefield.
Advanced Senses	Whether via a scanning device or heightened senses (biomorph, daemonic), this character can spot the weak points of opposing forces	Once per game, when nominated to shoot or fight in melee, this model can declare it’s using its advanced senses. For that phase’s attacks the model can ignore any modifiers to dice rolls that they wish.
Advanced Armoring	A variety of sources (better equipment, defensive plating, new chitinous growths), but they all function the same: this character is more difficult to kill.	Once per game this model may re-roll one failed Armor or Invulnerable saving throw
Assistant, Lackey, Adjutant, or Crony	This character gains a companion to assist it on the battlefield. Assistants help with logistics and medical treatments. Lackeys bear useful equipment and extra ammo. Adjutants support their command. Cronies do their dirty work.	This model gains an additional companion model. The model is treated like other “marker” models (e.g. bomb squigs). They confer a once-per-game effect and are removed from the game when they are used. They must be on the battlefield to use the ability, and they are removed from play if the Leader they are attached to is killed. They have the following effect based around their type: Assistant: Restore one lost wound to the character (cannot be used on a model reduced to zero wounds) Lackey: Re-roll either one to-hit or one to-wound roll with a ranged weapon Adjutant: Immediately remove the Battle-Shocked condition from a unit within 24” of the leader Crony: At the start of the combat phase, immediately inflict one mortal wound on an opposing unit within 1” of the leader model Note: This must be represented by a model custom-built to be this add-on for this character.
Operational Protection	Whether interference fields or air support, this character is able to prevent enemies from surprising them and the core of their force	Enemy models arriving from reserve, deep strike, or any other placement method, cannot be placed within 12” of this character (rather than the usual 9”, and this also means models that normally could deploy closer also cannot).
Favored Terrain	This character has a knack for picking good spots for a fight	After terrain has been set up, deployment zones decided, and objective markers placed, but before armies are deployed, if this character is on the battlefield the player controlling it can change the location of one piece of terrain. Roll 2d6 and move the piece in any direction up to that many inches.
Fleet Command	This character has close connections to the air assets available to it.	Aircraft models in this character’s army can deploy on the board during deployment (rather than being forced to be in reserves).
Grudge Against ____	This character bears a grudge against an opposing faction commander it has faced multiple times.	This character gains the “Precision” key word for all attacks that target a specific opposing Rising Leader’s unit. In addition, it can re-reroll one to-hit roll against that Rising Leader once per game. And it can also re-roll one to-wound roll against that Rising Leader once per game.   Note: This can only be selected if you’ve faced the same opponent’s Rising Leader twice, and it gets affixed to that specific Rising Leader for the rest of the campaign.
Make Way for the Real Boss	This character has been just a lieutenant, or their force has only been a feint that allows the real threat to emerge. The real commander is about to hit the battlefields of the Drawbridge Gulf sector.	This one is a bit more meta to the campaign than the others. It allows a Rising Legend to be retired and replaced with a different model. When selecting, this model is removed from the Hall of Heroes. A new Rising Leader is conveyed to the campaign organizers, and they are treated as if they have participated in three games and thus get added to the Hall of Heroes. This is so that people who change their minds amidst a campaign or want to bring a different sort of model later on when they develop a larger force (or just decide on a cool conversion) can do so. It’s a way of trading a Rising Legend with more battles played for a new model to be one’s inclusion in the Hall of Heroes.