The Armageddon at Drawbridge Gate campaign is near the end, just the two big Mega-Battles, one for each planet and the warp rift that connects them, are left. This post details the event info for Saturday, August 9th.
Players can bring up to 4,000 points of models for the game. Their initial 2,000 should be their Crusade Roster, with the additional 2,000 being placed in reserve. Exceptions for reserves can be made by the event organizer for exceptional models/units that they want on the battlefield from the start (the big centerpiece models that may not have made the Crusade Roster).
This map of the battle region of Drifblú will be at the store. Players will take a small piece of card (provided) and write their name on it and select a hex. That will determine where they will deploy. Players sent their initial choices to me as Crusade organizer, and there should be sufficient–but we wanted to make sure that they can adjust upon conferring with their team.
Teams should be broadly Chaos vs the Rest, with the majority being Xenos this time. Imperial players can be placed in the central tower or fight for Chaos, whatever evens out the points roughly. The event organizer has the final say on that.
There are seven objectives. Four Empyrion Gates, then the Abandoned Garrison, the Spaceport, and the Megalith Structure. Chaos and Aeldari forces can be adjacent to the four gates as they’re laid out on the actual table, while the others will be split in control based around the deployment choices of players.
The goal of each side is controlling the most objectives, which is obtained by having a higher OC of models on the objective at the end of the game than the opposing side. These objectives cannot be made “sticky” by any special rules that units have (e.g. Storm Guardians or Skitarii Rangers). A model must be within 3″ of the structure for it to be counted as controlled.
Players are also encouraged to be creative about their engagement with the objectives. They are welcome to develop strategies about them and run those past the event organizer, who can adjudicate additional rules about how those strategies may (or may not) work. Remember that the results of the end-state of objectives in this mission affect the way the second mega-battle objectives will be done.
Turns will be timed turns, and up to the event organizer to keep going smoothly. The event will start at noon with setup hopefully done and dice rolling by 12:30pm. The event will run through to 6pm. Given the deployment will be done by proximity on the map, expect that units will be quite close to each other to begin with at times, so the expectation is 3 rounds should be good (so about 45 minutes per turn for the event). Players should also expect to not move, shoot, and assault with all models in their force every time–focus on what matters first. Models that will not be shooting or assaulting gain a special “maneuver” rule, where they can be placed into reserve at the end of that player’s movement phase and come out anywhere outside of 9″ of enemy models as if they had deep struck on a following turn. Also, Aircraft will start on the board during turn 1 and can move normally then (as opposed to entering on turn two and moving only on turn 3).
I’m excited to see the results of the event, and the nature of the clashes that happen over the warp gates!
The final regular week of games in the Campaign is upon us amidst the Armageddon at Drawbridge Gulf campaign happening at Drawbridge Games in Pittsburgh, PA. The mission for this final week is Assault the Warp Gate (pg. 129 in the Crusade Armageddon book). And players will roll for their upgrades themselves.
The Campaign HQ Update video below sets up the way that the two final mega-battles to cap the campaign will run.
Here’s the map of planet Drifblú with potential starting area choices for mega battle on Saturday, August 8th. Text or message me with your choice and what force you’re bringing!
And here’s the map for Ponte Levatoio, which will be the battle on Sunday, August 17th. Same thing, indicate to me in advance which spot you want and what force you’re bringing.
I’ll have the correct map on hand for each event, where we’ll track things during the game. And there’s some other fun plans for the events that will affect the subsequent game (the game on the 8th determines some missions for the 17th). And I’ll do a single video for both games combined as a highlight reel and story wrap-up.
This week the Chaos gods were particularly rough on me, so there is no video update: apologies. I did make progress on the expanded campaign maps (thanks to Topher for printing them!) that will inform the way the two final mega-battles run.
There’s more to add and finish up on them that will match the big games, so keep tuned. I’m hoping they end up looking pretty impressive, and I’ll have them on display for the mega battles as players will make selections about them to inform the spots of those big games.
I’ll do a Week 7 Update as the one to launch Week 7. I noted that no one had any characters suffer battle scars during the Week 5 games–so easy there. If you had a unit gain a trait, use one from your own codex (roll yourself, we trust you!).
The mission for this week (July 23rd through 27th) is Temporal Raid (pg. 123). Run the mission as listed, including the unbound adversaries.
Sorry again for no video update this week–been stretched between here and my family in a different state, and it’s been a lot. Keep up the games and the battles!
Bit of a slow update this week, but here is the Campaign HQ update for the Armageddon at Drawbridge Gate Crusade Campaign for Week Four. Includes the battle results as forces form more finalized battle lines, as well as the mission for the week and Battle Scars and Battle Traits info.
Keep up all the great games, and especially the great painting! Here are the submission links for the week.
Another week in, and another great set of games (at least 26 games played by people–and a few that may not have been reported in time) at Drawbridge for our Armageddon at Drawbridge Gate Crusade campaign. Here’s the current official map of territories held–right now Imperials, Chaos, and Xenos: Order (Aeldari) have won enough games to establish themselves on the map. Currently the holdings are on the planet Ponte Levatoio, but don’t worry–the other forces are likely to secure the other system planet Drifblú soon enough.
Here is the Campaign HQ update from this week with the Tyranids’ point of view about the conflict, as well as the update on units, great shots of games in action, and the mission for next week (Empyric Distortion). It is the first time that Unbound Units will be joining the action, so I’m excited to see how that goes.
And below is the still with the info for the mission for the week. The Warp “Drawbridge” between the planets is being affected by Tyranid synapse Shadow-in-the-Warp projection, causing massive screens of Warp Energy to divide battlefields and frustrate combatants–all while new creatures clamor onto the battlefield.
Finally, there is a new set of submission links for games starting this week. This will help me keep things much more clearly organized, so thanks for your patience with the multiple forms.
Week two comes after most of the battles falling on the planet of Ponte Levatoio being Chaos-driven. That led to the warp “drawbridge” forming there first, and setting up the Metamorphosis mission for the following week. The Week Two Campaign HQ update is here:
For those who cannot watch the video, the basics of the mission briefing are in images below. And there is a store copy of the Crusades: Armageddon book at Drawbridge behind the desk for people to check the Armageddon battle traits, battle scars, and the “Metamorphosis” mission for this coming week (June 25th through 29th). As always, you can submit results for Week Two missions at the forms link below. And players can also “go back” and play the Week One mission if you missed it and would like to do so–the form can accept Week One results too.
This Summer at Drawbridge Games we’re launching a store-wide Warhammer 40k Crusade Campaign, designed for all players in the community to participate in. The goal is for people to get in games to tell the stories of their own armies whilst being a part of the bigger narrative for the store, culminating in two mega-battles at the end of the campaign to decide things. We’ll be loosely using the 2025 Crusade supplement for Warhammer 40k, but players will not need that to play the games. You’ll find the campaign’s story, procedures, and plan below.
Story
Like Angron’s attack on the planet of Armageddon, the planets in the Drawbridge Gulf system are in a moment of extreme, planet-threatening crisis. In the past, strange causeways formed in the warp between planets in the Drawbridge Gulf (see here for an example: https://youtu.be/RBBMz3_EXn4?si=bT3VybVjBlXamYk5 ), and the machinations of Chaos are yet again playing havoc on the connections between planets in the system. Warp anomalies and rifts have begun forming on the twin planets of Ponte Levatoio and Drifbrú. Ponte Levatoio is a mining world rich with resources, recently partially developed by the tech priests of Mars to begin manufacturing. From scrap to rare resources many factions would love to either control the planet or quickly extract its resources and escape. It’s sister planet of Drifbrú by contrast has the other commodities of the galaxy. Not only is it a lush and prosperous agri-world teeming with life and with a huge population of human workers, but its also an ancient touchstone of the war in heaven, with buried artifacts of both Necron and Aeldari significance forming powerful warp ley-lines to converge on the system. In short, every faction has decided that the moment of the warp instabilities connecting the two of them is the perfect time to strike and get their gains or thwart others’s aims.
Mining World Ponte Levatoio with the serene Agri-World Drifbrú in the distance
Procedures
The Campaign will use the basic 40k Crusade system described in many supplements. Any 10th edition Crusade rules description will get you the basics you need to play–here is the basic version from Warhammer Community which includes the printable roster sheet as well as the cards to track each unit: https://assets.warhammer-community.com/warhammer40000_crusade_crusaderules_eng_24.09-x7lpyyilc9.pdf .
Players have a set maximum number of points you can bring to games based around spending requisition points, and units gain Battle Honors to represent their Upgrades (traits, weapon upgrades, and relics) through experience points (XP), and Battle Scars from defeats. Players should draw up a Crusade Roster and track their units, starting at 1,000 points as usual. The specific Crusade goals of each army from their army book will not be used, as each army will be working on the Armageddon Campaign goal. Note that “goal” is the general term I’m using for the back-of-codex rules for each faction’s own progress toward their own narrative that results in faction Campaign Badges (e.g. Death Guard brewing plagues, Orks accumulating scrap, Eldar doing their absurd weaving three strands of fate book-keeping). Of course players can track their own army progress toward these unique faction goals that yields them their faction-specific Campaign Badges–but that’s for fun only–tho it may affect what your forces do to try and gain XP. No benefits for units are accrued from these–only the unit upgrades from the Armageddon book (awarded by Campaign HQ) will be applied.
Campaign HQ will release a weekly guide for what mission should be played in that week by campaign players, with all the info you’ll need for running that mission. Players additionally get ONE Agenda each game that they can pursue, which can be chosen from the list below from the Armageddon Crusade, or can swap in one of their Codex-specific Agendas if they prefer. There will be bonus chances for unit XP based around players bringing and modeling various Warp Anomalies to represent parts of the missions (a number of missions have strange “neutral antagonist” warp creatures that assail both sides of the battle at random as part of the mission).
Battle Honors Upgrades and Scars will be randomly assigned as part of the Campaign HQ update each week–so you’ll need to tune in to those to see what happened to your forces in the aftermath of the battle. This will make the game more fun because players are not cherry-picking upgrades, and also will give a sense of renown for the units that are becoming either glorious victors or scarred-but-scrappy competitors. You can request the type of Battle Honor Upgrade assigned from the following types: Weapons Modification, Crusade Relic, Faction Battle Trait (found in your army codex), or Armageddon Battle Trait (found in the Crusade: Armageddon book).
After a game, players will submit some short information to the following form: https://tinyurl.com/49k6csun. They must submit their name, the name of their opponent, the campaign mission played, the results of the battle, a photo from the battle of their forces in action, and photos and bit of info on any units that gain new Battle Honor Upgrades or incurred Battle Scars. These will then be featured in the Campaign HQ updates. The rest of the info of Crusade progress, such as Requisition Points and how they’re spent, size of force, Crusade Points, and replacement of units are tracked by each individual on their own as normal for Crusade play.
Players can play more than one game per week, but are encouraged to play them with different armies and opponents to vary things up (see “plan” below for why multiple armies are fine). If you play multiple games in a week just know that the effects of any battle traits or battle scars will not be issued until after the week is finished. To play a game players find an opponent (in the store on Thursday nights or weekends is most likely, but also in the 40k chats on Messenger or the Store Discord–ask to be a part of them if you’re not), agree to a points value that works for both players (remember that Crusade can balance somewhat different points values, but keep things relatively even by generally playing where the lower roster size player is at), select units and play the assigned mission for the week. If two players want to play prior missions from earlier weeks to “Catch Up” then you also can do so during the time frame of the campaign. Those may or may not affect the outcomes of the planetary narrative (e.g. it may be too late to “save the village” if the village was wiped out by last week’s results), but I want people to be able to have fun, play the missions, and feel a part of things so it’s fine to go back and play prior missions.
Painting requirements for Crusade games are a bit more relaxed. We ask that people make a good faith effort in painting their models and follow a “more painted this week than last week” approach to their games. The one rule is that unpainted models cannot be part of the Campaign HQ upates. So they cannot receive Upgrades due to Battle Honors as we’ll want photos of the painted models for those updates. So hopefully getting a unit enough XP to reach these milestones would mean that players are incentivized to put at least battle-ready paint on those models. Likewise, unpainted units that receive a Battle Scar means the player MUST spend a Requisition Point on the Repair and Recuperate action to remove it after the battle (or paint up the models before submitting results). Players can delay submission of the Battle Results to allow painting time if they wish (but the results may not figure in to the planetary narrative in that case (similar to playing prior missions).
Remember: “battle ready” can be as quick as a bit of contrast and a couple of highlights
Team games are also permitted in the campaign, so if you want to play as a group you’re more than welcome to do so. The main thing about these is that only one faction (see below) per side gets advanced with the results of the game, so just be clear about which side is being fought for when submitting results from a team game.
Plan
As part of this campaign, each army represents one of four competing general Alliances seeking control of the pair of planets. Those Alliances are The Imperium, Chaos (including any Guard and AdMech forces that wish to declare themselves as Chaos), Order Xenos (T’au, Drukhari, Aeldari, and Votann), and Annihilation Xenos (Orks, Tyranids, Genestealer Cults, and Necrons). The overall campaign tracks the wins/losses of these forces to determine which end up controlling various aspects of the two planets through the course of the summer campaign. At the end of the Summer/conclusion of the campaign, there will be TWO Mega-Battles on two different days to determine the final outcome of the two planets. These will feature one massive board and be all-day Armageddon Style mega battles with objectives for each player and board elements effected by the games of the campaign. This is why players are encouraged to play a couple of different armies throughout the campaign if they like–as you can take part in any Mega-Battle that you fielded forces for in at least one game. The matchups and which planet they take place on will be determined by the results of the campaign games–so it might be Imperium vs Chaos on Ponte Levatoio while Xenos clash on Drifbrú, but it could also be a harried defense of Pointe Levatoio by the Order Xenos facing Chaos, whilst the Imperium seeks to repel the Annihilation Xenos from the shores of Drifbrú. Either way, both should be fun endcaps to the campaign when taken together, and give people multiple days to be able to participate in at least one of the campaign end events.
Right now the plan is a bit flexible by interest from the community, but we’re thinking 7 weeks of campaign games and then the culminating two mega-battles in early-to-mid August. That means roughly the following schedule:
Hopefully this gives our community a fun way to play some linked 40k games this summer, get some cool stories built, and really go all-out for some big 40k fun. We’ll hopefully do footage of the two Mega-Battles at the end of it to again compose a video about the event that people can look back on to remember the summer of Armageddon!
Update: Campaign HQ Mission Briefing Week One is Now Live
For those who prefer to read, here is the relevant data for how the first week’s mission will run:
Time for new 40k nonsense at Drawbridge Games. This time we’re inspired by a ridiculous meme debate that is making its rounds on social media. Who cares whether 100 humans can defeat a Gorilla? What we care about is how much can 100 Imperial Guardsmen handle? What can take 100 T’au Fire Warriors, Aeldari Guardians, Tyranid Gaunts, or Necron Warriors? Let’s find out on the tabletop!
The event will take place on Saturday, June 7th starting at noon at Drawbridge Games in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Players can bring their troops and any big models with which they want to test their luck against these hordes. Can they take a Lord of Skulls? How about a Warhound Titan? Would a Gorkanaut kill the 100 while a Morkanaut would fail to?
For bringing line troops, players can bring models with special weapons but they’ll all have only the basic gear of a line trooper. All models must be painted and based (at least earnest attempt). We will only run groups that can reach 100 models total, and they’ll have limited combined datasheets in the groups (see the chart below). There will be a door prize, and participants can get entry into the drawing by running either side (a horde or a big model), by painting up at least 20 new infantry models for the event, by bringing an entire 100 models of one type themselves (huge undertaking!), and by managing to win with any horde against highest points cost foe they can manage.
Faction
Hordes
Committed to Contribute
Astra Militarium
10 or 20 Cadian Shock Troopers with lasguns; 10 or 20 Catachan Jungle Fighters with lasgnsu; 10 or 20 Death Korps of Krieg Troopers with lasguns
AL: – 20 Catachans
Adeptus Sororitas
10 Battle Sisters with boltguns
Adeptus Mechanicus
10 Skitarii Rangers with galvanic rifle; 10 Skitarii Vanguard with radium carbine
Chaos Space Marines
10 or 20 Chaos Cultists with autopistols
J: 100 Cultists
Death Guard
10 or 20 Poxwalkers with improvised weapons
J: 40 Poxwalkers, AL: 10 Poxwalkers
Aeldari and Drukhari
10 Guardians with shuriken catapults; 10 Storm Guardians with shuriken pistols; 10 Kabalite Warriors with splinter rilfes
10 or 20 Boyz with any mix of sluggas+choppas or shootas+ccw’s; 10 or 20 Beast Snaggas with slugga+choppa; 10 or 20 Gretchin with grot blastas and 1-2 herders
AL: 10 Beast Snaggas; 30 Grots
T’au
10 Strike Team Fire Warriors with pulse Rifles; 10 Breacher Team Fire Warriors with pulse blasters
Kroot
10 Kroot
J: 100 Kroot
Tyranids
10 or 20 Hormagaunts; 10 or 20 Termagaunts all with fleshborers or all with devourers or all with spinefists
DL: 70 Termagaunts, 10 Hormagaunts. RC: 40 gaunts
Genestealer Cults
10 or 20 Neophyte Hybrids with hybrid firearms
Leagues of Votann
10 Hearthkin with bolters
Necrons
10 or 20 Necron Warriors all with gauss flayers or all with gauss reapers; 10 Immortals with gauss blasters or tesla carbines
AL: 20 Warriors, 10 Immortals
More info to follow! Right now we’re just working out how many groups of 100 infantry we can manage to have as options for the event.
It was a stormy day when the scattered forces finally emerged onto the island of Albion proper. The forces of the Goblins, Trolls, Undead, and Chaos were united under the leadership of the mysterious Dark Emissary. Amidst ferocious gale winds and rain, a loose collection of the expeditionary forces of Dwarfs and Elves were joined by strange Lizardmen streaming out of the foliage to try and defeat the collection of marauding forces before they established further reach onto the island.
The Dark Emissary was joined by a strange beast seemingly grown from the island of Albion itself: a Fen Beast. It rampaged into the High Elves’ lines, but stalwart defense managed to resist its predations.
Magical spells from both sides swirled and eddied, and the strange fates woven about the island shifted alongside the battle’s results. The forces united under the Dark Emissary were bested, but only temporarily as they had extensive reserves waiting behind their initial battle line. The defenders had dabbled in Battle Magic and Elementalism, while the full host of magic lores leveraged by the attackers included Waaagh Magic (had been most powerful on Albion, surely what lured the scattered tribes there), Daemonology, Necromancy, and of course the Dark Emissary’s own destructive spells. That left the Winds of Magic on the island at the following point (chart active for upcoming 3/13/25 game):
Lore
Rank
Effect
Illusion
One
+3 to the casting total of each spell, but any double rolled (except a double 6) is a Miscast
Waaagh! Magic (plus Gork and Mork)
Two
+2 to the casting total of each spell
Elementalism (plus Lustria and Troll)
Three
+1 to the casting total of each spell
Saphestry, Naggaroth, and Athel Loren
Four
+1 to the casting total of each spell
Truthsayer
Five
Normal rules apply
Battle Magic (plus the Lady, Hashut, and Great Maw)
Six
Normal rules apply
Dark Emissary
Seven
Normal rules apply
Necromancy (plus Undeath and Nehekhara)
Eight
-1 to the casting total of each spell
Dark Magic (plus Beasts)
Nine
-1 to the casting total of each spell
High Magic
Ten
-2 to the casting total of each spell
Daemonology (plus Daemons, Horned Rat, and Chaos)
Eleven
-3 to the casting total of each spell, but there is so little magical energy here you cannot Miscast or cast a Perfect Invocation
What would happen next? And what of the strange figure seen summoning power atop the ridge line of the hills–lightning striking his upraised staff? The lightning strikes illuminated a set of Ogham Stones in a central clearing–and even at a distance the carved glowing runes in them spoke of immense magical power to those that controlled it. Forces from all sides raced forward to try and be the ones to secure it!
Red Ones Go Faster 