I love being a space pirate.

I hate silly gender threads.

How can men/women board enemy large/huge ships to capture or raid in keeping with the X-W mechanics, possibly using D20 or any other game system to be part of this?

Any good ideas?

You could use it similar to the way Saboteur works.

Boarding Party: If you are touching an enemy ship, instead of attacking, each player rolls some number of dice. If the attacker wins, they're awesome pirates. If the defender wins, they're better pirates.

You could use it similar to the way Saboteur works.

Boarding Party: If you are touching an enemy ship, instead of attacking, each player rolls some number of dice. If the attacker wins, they're awesome pirates. If the defender wins, they're better pirates.

Ok.... and the huge ship overlap problem? That is to say: the second the huge moves it crushes the boarding craft?

Modification- Magna-Grapples: You are not destroyed if your base overlaps a huge ship.

I do not have any ideas myself, but I really want boarding rules in epic!

I like the magna grapples, and had considered similar.

For boarding I like crew/team "Stormtrooper team" "boarding team" and the like.

Maybe at range one some kind of special boarding attack?

I'm all for thinking about different game mechanics, but I'm not sure boarding works at our scale of the game. Most of the ships on the table are single-pilot fighters, for starters, so they're not going to be participating in boarding actions, even as targets. (Unless you want to board an x-wing with a squad of stormtroopers). At best, the only ships that you could justify boarding would be large-base ships.

Even then, it's hard to picture, and I can't think of much lore backing up this kind of action in the midst of a small dogfight. Something like this might work for huge ships, but below that scale it seems impractical.

You could definitely write up a set of rules for boarding actions that would mechanically work in the game, but I can't imagine it feeling right, especially at X-Wing scale.

Other new game mechanics might be more reasonable, like 3-D maneuvering, a fog of war system, and power management (between shields, engines and weapons). I've been fooling around with these ideas for a while, but haven't perfected a system for any of them yet.

I won't go through all my crazy ideas, but here's what I was thinking for power management:

The basic idea is that you can shift power between weapons, engines, and shields. Shifting power to one system degrades all other systems. For each system you have an effect for increased and decreased power:

Weapons: +:Add one to your primary attack value. -:subtract one from your primary attack value

Engines: +: 'upgrade' the maneuvers on your dial. white becomes green, red becomes white. -: downgrade the maneuvers on your maneuver dial. Red maneuvers are illegal (your opponent can choose your maneuver if you reveal a red maneuver), white maneuvers are red, green maneuvers are white.

Shields: +: restore one shield, up to your maximum. -:remove one shield token

One thing I want to avoid with this setup is making ships with shields inherently better than those without. My thinking is that shieldless ships make up for the lack of regeneration by having less negative consequences for shunting power to engines or weapons (since they do not lose shields for this).

You could use it similar to the way Saboteur works.

Boarding Party: If you are touching an enemy ship, instead of attacking, each player rolls some number of dice. If the attacker wins, they're awesome pirates. If the defender wins, they're better pirates.

I think that the problem with this (and other boarding ideas in the past) is that the time frame of each round is so short. If they were in real time, they would take place in seconds, or at most a few minutes. Boarding actions would take place on the order of tens of minutes.

Boarding was a huge part of the X-wing series of games, culminating in XWA where you in a YT1300 or 2000 could board things yourself.

God knows how many Delta 9 transports i've had to fly cover for...

Generally how it worked was when a ship was disabled, a transport ship containing engineers/troops etc went to dock. it docked, and after a given time "captured" or "repaired" the ship.

You could use it similar to the way Saboteur works.

Boarding Party: If you are touching an enemy ship, instead of attacking, each player rolls some number of dice. If the attacker wins, they're awesome pirates. If the defender wins, they're better pirates.

I think that the problem with this (and other boarding ideas in the past) is that the time frame of each round is so short. If they were in real time, they would take place in seconds, or at most a few minutes. Boarding actions would take place on the order of tens of minutes.

This is very true.

A counter to this is the "last hit ion" for a common objective to simulate disabling a ship.

I can't see that working so well on huge ships though.

Boarding was a huge part of the X-wing series of games, culminating in XWA where you in a YT1300 or 2000 could board things yourself.

God knows how many Delta 9 transports i've had to fly cover for...

Generally how it worked was when a ship was disabled, a transport ship containing engineers/troops etc went to dock. it docked, and after a given time "captured" or "repaired" the ship.

All very true, but those games were on a generally larger scale than what we're working with. I think that any general game mechanic should work with all the ships in the game. Boarding actions require large base ships at minimum to work.

Also, ships were always completely disabled before being boarded, and there is no equivalent mechanic in XWM (even ioned ships can shoot and take actions). It also should take some time for the party to capture and establish control over the ship, etc. etc. I just can't see it working outside of specific scenarios. It's not a generally applicable game mechanic.

I see the need for dedicated boarding craft that may perform actions while touching a ship and if they are, have a, well, boarding action, that dumps troops into the target. Upgrades for such ships (call them "Marine" upgrades?) could be buffs and improvements for the troops inside.

Then, once it comes out, Imperial Assault seems like a natural fit to run the actual boarding. You would need map layouts for any board able ships you use and some playtesting to determine a ratio of IA turns to x-wing turns and then bounce back and forth between the two games. Assorted special effects could be in place that reduce the boarded ship's abilities as compartments get captured.

All in all, combining IA with x-wing sounds a lot easier than combining x-wing and armada.

Of course, I have no idea how IA actually plays yet, maybe it us too slow of a game and you would need to come up with a different set of more streamlined rules to play combined with x-wing.

I would also like to point out that the climax of heir to the empire had a major action where ships were being boarded while a fighter dogfight was going on.

Very true. I've given up on trying to combine X-W and armada....

IA might be where it's at...

The only thing that should be able to be boarded would be the epic ships. I would think even the Shuttle would be too small to effectively board.

I could see a single boarding torpedo on a decimator or YT class ship.

On the other hand, I don't really know how combat boarding operations are "supposed" to be conducted in SW. All I'm familiar with is the opening of ANH and mole miners in Heir.

But, yes, in general I would expect boarding to be something you do the the CR-90 and MAYBE the rebel transport.

I would also like to point out that the climax of heir to the empire had a major action where ships were being boarded while a fighter dogfight was going on.

That boarding action took place on a derelict capital ship in the middle of a small fleet action, though. And I think it made sense there. You could definitely write a scenario where boarding takes place, and many have. But as a general game mechanic? I don't know.

The only thing that should be able to be boarded would be the epic ships. I would think even the Shuttle would be too small to effectively board.

I think that you could justify boarding shuttles too, but realistically it's not something that that makes sense in a standard x-wing match. Wouldn't it be easier just to destroy the enemy shuttle, rather than performing a delicate boarding operation? And even a quick successful boarding operation would take a few minutes, which is a long time in a dogfight.

When does boarding make sense in a 100 point match? If it's going to be a standard game mechanic, it should be applicable to the majority of games played. If it's just for specific scenario play, then that's another thing. It may be interesting to hammer out a sensible set of boarding rules for scenario play.

I believe that boarding would involve a ship that could attach to another ship and either cut through hatches or through the hull to allow a boarding party to attack. I don't see snub nose fighters getting boarded, but I could see some larger ships maybe. YT's or Decimators could be boarded. Who would do the boarding? Probably not a ship that was very nimble. It would also need to be big enough to hold enough troopers to make it worth while. So, you are looking at a ship about the size of a shuttle. Or maybe the Senator's Shuttle token?

You can probably set up a match with some capital ships and fighter escorts. Then, you have the boarding ships represented by shuttles or something. If they were able to bump the ship, then they would board. Give them a limited dial and maybe an ion turrent or something. That's if you are being nice!

In order to do a boarding action you would need two ships that have enough space for multiple passengers, and one of them has to be disabled or immobilized. Then you need a little bit of time to cut through hull and fight it out, and then take over the controls.

Both sides need to bring large ships. You need a mechanic for immobilization, and when you have both those things, you need to account for the time it take to effect a takeover. The smallest scale at which I could see all these things is in epic battles. Even then it would not be guaranteed that the other side takes anything boardable, so you either run the risk of wasting points, or further restrict to epic scenarios.

Great mechanic for epic scenarios. Not realistic for small battles.

I can see it that the boarding events then would be a post battle thing - or between battles.

Still that leads to my next question: disable mechanic for huge ships (accepting large being final hit ion).

That boarding action took place on a derelict capital ship in the middle of a small fleet action, though.

But, yes, boarding actions are only appropriate in large, epic sized games, and probably only in pre arranged scenarios. The OP says as much in the original post and that is all we have been talking about.

I'm not sure what everyone else is envisioning, but I see combat boarding action in space as assault ships getting close to the target and launching escape pod sized boarding torpedoes at the target that are loaded with assault troops. The torpedoes latch onto the target, burn their way through the hull, and the troops inside attack. I certainly don't see any need for the target to already be immobilized.

I can see it that the boarding events then would be a post battle thing - or between battles.

Still that leads to my next question: disable mechanic for huge ships (accepting large being final hit ion).

You could specify a number of Ion tokens that disables the ship. Say, one for every hull, and the Ion tokens persist on the ship. Or you could go with a certain amount of hull damage.

If you are going to do the boarding between games, maybe you could assume that the boarding team can disable the ship if you can destroy all fighters and keep one ship with ion weapons alive.

Maybe. I like ion tokens per hit points left...

Boarding would need to be an epic mechanic. Huge ships attacking large or huge ships. A tractor beam energy device to stop ships and then line up and crush them if they are small and in front of the ship, or get close and board them if they are large or huge. If successful, it adds to your total points if you win the game.

Boarding could use team slots to increase the likely hood of success. Roll attack die equal to epic point cost of the boarding ship, and defending ship rolls defense die equal to its epic point cost or 1 die for large ships. Each hit results in an upgrade loss for the defender. If there are no upgrades left the ship is considered captured. It remains in place on the board but does not move or attack. It counts as an obstacle and at the end of the game, if the player who captured it wins, they receive bonus points toward their score equal to the captured ship's value.

This would be an entirely new style of combat, but as the Oicunn Decimator proves they are capable of doing something new. This method uses already established values, so it wouldn't require any changes to current models or cards. I really think it could work if the tractor beam mechanism works.

How about a title card for ships that can have crew: Here is a starting shot.

Title: Large or Hugh Ships Only

Boarding Team

3 pts

Action: Boarding Team:

You will also need a whole new boarding action card:

Boarding Team Card:

Attach Magna Grapples: When with-in Range 1 of a large ship or Huge Ship. Roll 3 attack dice, on a 3+ hits or Critical hits The boarding team has attached Magna grapples to the enemy ship. Reduce your ships agility to 0. On the following turn the ship is now on your team.

Detach Magna Grapples: At anytime the boarding ship can detach manga grapples, by discard the this card to destroy the boarding team. Which allows it to move freely again.

Well: there is a canonical ship for which we already have a model:

TIE/br Boarding Craft

Title. TIE Bomber only.

You may not equip bombs or secondary weapons. If a manouvre by this craft ends with a collision with an enemy large or huge ship, do not resolve the collision, but instead remove this ship from play and place a boarding party counter on the enemy ship.

This ship is not considered destroyed for the purposes of victory points until the Boarding Party Counter is removed or the ship on which it was placed is destroyed.

Points: ???

Boarding Party Counter (Suggest the Age of Rebellion Starter Set Stormtrooper Counters)

At the start of the combat phase, cause 1 damage on the ship. If the ship is a large ship, place one stress token. If the ship is a huge ship, remove one energy token from the ship or from one upgrade card of your choice. If a section of a huge ship with a Boarding Party Counter is destroyed, the player who placed the token may assign it to another section of the ship.

As an action for that ship, a player may roll one attack die. On a roll of a [Critical Hit] remove one Boarding Party counter.

If you've got a 'disable and capture' mission, then victory would require you to destroy a ship with damage caused by a Boarding Party Counter.