I was thinking about the new epic ships and the Imperial epics that are inevitably coming and I had an idea. What if FFG added a crew member for huge and large ships only called "Boarding Party." It would work like this, "When boarding party is in the crew slot of your ship, said ship gains a boarding action to it's action bar. When a ship is range 1 of a huge ship, it may into contact with that ship and boarding party is placed on the enemy ship's card." I'm not really sure where to go from there, but perhaps it would be like a free attack on the ship every turn and the ship could use it's attack as the crew fighting back against a boarding party. I would also think it would interrupt actions by the huge ship as well. The other thing I can think of, the ship boarding would have to be considered attached to the huge ship until it can move the following turn, thus ignoring collision destruction or damage.

What do you guys think?

I think ramming a huge ship gets you killed fast.

I guess you didn't read my entire post then?

Such a party seems more like a team upgrade card, not crew.

No need to add anything to the action bar. Instead, start the card text with the header Action:

Such a party seems more like a team upgrade card, not crew.

No need to add anything to the action bar. Instead, start the card text with the header Action:

Indeed!

Needs to be limited either to range 1, or can be used in base-to-base contact. How about:

Action: Choose an upgrade card on the target ship and flip it face down. Then, deal one damage card to the target ship.

Such a party seems more like a team upgrade card, not crew.

No need to add anything to the action bar. Instead, start the card text with the header Action:

Indeed!

Needs to be limited either to range 1, or can be used in base-to-base contact. How about:

Action: Choose an upgrade card on the target ship and flip it face down. Then, deal one damage card to the target ship.

I can dig it, it just seems there is so much untapped potential. What if they rolled to disable the engines for a turn or more, or killed enemy crew slots?

Given that even huge ships are actually moving pretty quickly, the idea of two huge ships coming into contact long enough for a boarding party to transfer seems a bit off for the scope of the game. What if the two ships are moving in opposite directions? Of course, the ship being boarded would do everything in its power to move away from the ship attempting the boarding, which seems to limit that tactic. I could see the idea of a boarding pod, which could replace a weapon, that instead of getting destroyed when coming into contact with a huge ship, attaches to it. It would also give the defending ships an opportunity to destroy the pod before it makes contact.

Might limit the entire idea to a huge ship attacking another huge ship.

Action: Choose an upgrade card on the target ship and flip it face down. Then, deal one damage card to the target ship.

Some people would interpret that so there needs to be an upgrade card to get the damage.

Upgrades are flipped down only in tournament play. Standard rules discard them.

How about the following:

Action: Deal one face-down damage card to the target ship. Discard one upgrade card from the target.

No, I read it. Your fix just doesn't solve anything because it only takes that turn into account. You don't risk crew carry ships by putting them that close to a big ship. The placement required to make it work, toward the back end of the ship and angled to get behind.... It makes any such upgrade useless. Especially if your opponent doesn't run huge ships.

Boarding parties could work. Each epic ship has an epic value attached. You could use that value as the defense value of the ship's crew against boarding. I personally think they need to make it to where the ship has to be immopilized for it to work and only at range 1. You could link it to the tractor beam from a big imperial though this could later be included on rebel huge ships as well if they wanted. Basically the tractor beam from the imperial ship decreases the energy available of the affected ship by the tractor beam value. If it reaches 0 the ship is considered immobile and can be boarded. Tractor beams could also decrease fighter agility = tractor beam value. Boarding teams for imperials would likely be called something like storm troopers and would be a team on the huge imperial ship that would allow boarding. You could even make crew that could make it better like General Veers acts like a focus for your boarding attack rolls. It could be fun and different from what the rebel big ships have shown. Also if they don't have huge ships at least the tractor beam can reduce agility of small ships and make them sitting ducks

I could see the idea of a boarding pod, which could replace a weapon, that instead of getting destroyed when coming into contact with a huge ship, attaches to it.

Battle droids in the Clone Wars series used pods that would attach to the side of ships, then drill until they breached the hull. Either that, or pierce the canopy of smaller ships and let them decompress.

_{The thing about boarding parties, however, is that they can also fail. They might need a contested roll, such as a fixed number of dices from the card (let's say 4 attack dice) vs the 1 + number of shield tokens of the section of evade dice:}

_{- If the attack is higher than the evade, the stormtroopers get in}

_{- If both are equal, the stormtrooper fail to get in, but are still alive.}

_{- If the evades are higher, the stormtroopers get vacuumed into space (discard upgrade card).}

_{Afterwards, every round, you could get contested rolls again: 4 attack vs 1 + 2 x number of energy that the ship is willing to transfer to defense.}

_{- If the attack is higher, deal damage or put one upgrade card in the section face down.}

_{- Both are equal, nothing happens.}

_{- Higher defense, the boarding party gets killed.}

_{Food for thought.}

No, I read it. Your fix just doesn't solve anything because it only takes that turn into account. You don't risk crew carry ships by putting them that close to a big ship. The placement required to make it work, toward the back end of the ship and angled to get behind.... It makes any such upgrade useless. Especially if your opponent doesn't run huge ships.

I don't see how that becomes an issue, you move into range 1, you action to board, you are considered part of the enemy ship until you move the following turn which you would get away as fast as possible.

No, I read it. Your fix just doesn't solve anything because it only takes that turn into account. You don't risk crew carry ships by putting them that close to a big ship. The placement required to make it work, toward the back end of the ship and angled to get behind.... It makes any such upgrade useless. Especially if your opponent doesn't run huge ships.

I don't see how that becomes an issue, you move into range 1, you action to board, you are considered part of the enemy ship until you move the following turn which you would get away as fast as possible.

There's already a boarding party. His name is Vader.

I have a new idea for a card myself: "Soup Kitchen." I'll let you guys figure out the particulars.

No, I read it. Your fix just doesn't solve anything because it only takes that turn into account. You don't risk crew carry ships by putting them that close to a big ship. The placement required to make it work, toward the back end of the ship and angled to get behind.... It makes any such upgrade useless. Especially if your opponent doesn't run huge ships.

I don't see how that becomes an issue, you move into range 1, you action to board, you are considered part of the enemy ship until you move the following turn which you would get away as fast as possible.

How much have you flown around big ships. The Lambda is probably dead. The Falcon and Firespray have to do a 4 forward and if they came in at the wrong angle they literally can't escape, they'll bump. From there, with all the fish tailing on those banks you stand a **** good chance of getting run over anyway. It's not worth the risk. Playtest the idea a bit. You do not want your valuable large base ships getting run over. It's too hard to escape.

I could see that if you were flying in the same direction as the huge ship, but if you are flying in the opposite direction, theoretically, if you maneuver correctly you should be safe every time.

No, I read it. Your fix just doesn't solve anything because it only takes that turn into account. You don't risk crew carry ships by putting them that close to a big ship. The placement required to make it work, toward the back end of the ship and angled to get behind.... It makes any such upgrade useless. Especially if your opponent doesn't run huge ships.

I don't see how that becomes an issue, you move into range 1, you action to board, you are considered part of the enemy ship until you move the following turn which you would get away as fast as possible.

How much have you flown around big ships. The Lambda is probably dead. The Falcon and Firespray have to do a 4 forward and if they came in at the wrong angle they literally can't escape, they'll bump. From there, with all the fish tailing on those banks you stand a **** good chance of getting run over anyway. It's not worth the risk. Playtest the idea a bit. You do not want your valuable large base ships getting run over. It's too hard to escape.

I could see that if you were flying in the same direction as the huge ship, but if you are flying in the opposite direction, theoretically, if you maneuver correctly you should be safe every time.

No, I read it. Your fix just doesn't solve anything because it only takes that turn into account. You don't risk crew carry ships by putting them that close to a big ship. The placement required to make it work, toward the back end of the ship and angled to get behind.... It makes any such upgrade useless. Especially if your opponent doesn't run huge ships.

I don't see how that becomes an issue, you move into range 1, you action to board, you are considered part of the enemy ship until you move the following turn which you would get away as fast as possible.

Except that each turn in the game is a very short amount of time, probably on the order of 10-20 seconds. The amount of time needed for a boarding party to attach to the outside of a ship, cut through the hull, do their thing, fight off defenders, and get away (assuming that the carrying ship has magically managed to stay in one spot) is on the order of minutes or tens of minutes.

No, I read it. Your fix just doesn't solve anything because it only takes that turn into account. You don't risk crew carry ships by putting them that close to a big ship. The placement required to make it work, toward the back end of the ship and angled to get behind.... It makes any such upgrade useless. Especially if your opponent doesn't run huge ships.

I don't see how that becomes an issue, you move into range 1, you action to board, you are considered part of the enemy ship until you move the following turn which you would get away as fast as possible.

Except that each turn in the game is a very short amount of time, probably on the order of 10-20 seconds. The amount of time needed for a boarding party to attach to the outside of a ship, cut through the hull, do their thing, fight off defenders, and get away (assuming that the carrying ship has magically managed to stay in one spot) is on the order of minutes or tens of minutes.

That's a really good point, I never considered the time elapsing. I know it needs to be a high-risk, high reward thing so maybe the boarding POD is the right idea. I know that for detachment you could have the large ship drift one away then maneuver to help with the collision aspect.

To me a "boarding party" card would be an upgrade that can trigger when you overlap a large or bigger ship. In some ways it would be the opposite of Anti-Pursuit Lasers in that you want to run into a big ship to trigger it. Now as the discussion points out just what that effect could be is highly debatable.

PS. I thought that if a small/large ship overlaps a huge ship it is treated as an overlap normally would be treated. It was only if the huge ship initiates the overlap that ships start falling appart.

To me a "boarding party" card would be an upgrade that can trigger when you overlap a large or bigger ship. In some ways it would be the opposite of Anti-Pursuit Lasers in that you want to run into a big ship to trigger it. Now as the discussion points out just what that effect could be is highly debatable.

PS. I thought that if a small/large ship overlaps a huge ship it is treated as an overlap normally would be treated. It was only if the huge ship initiates the overlap that ships start falling appart.

I favor the idea of a Gamma-class Assault Shuttle, which would be a large ship, but capable of putting Space Troopers aboard a huge vessel. But, yeah, the rules and mechanics would have to be given a lot of thought.

I'm really happy with all of the responses so far. It would be a difficult task for sure, but it's a fun element to consider

Isn't boarding done with specialty crafts? I don't think Slave 1 or the M Falcon can just get close and send some guys over.

I think it would be interesting to have some 'boarding shuttles' be depicted in the game and give them a boarding option. They would probably be of a size that a large base would be appropriate.

I disagree with giving a crew upgrade to allow the existing large ships to become vessels used for boarding