Can't find it right now, but someone mentioned earlier sabotage from within.

A crew upgrade in the form of a hidden saboteur perhaps?

I do agree that it is dificult to work out the in-game mechanic though.

I believe this fits the "fluff" and flavor of the movies, other canon material, and even the EU stuff.

Yeah, the boarding actions in the video games were cool... But how many times did Star Wars characters find themselves in a position to run around inside an enemy ship wreaking havoc?

Saboteur : In game mechanic terms, make it a pricey upgrade. Totally off the top of my head, call it 12 points. Arguably, Rebel only. The Reb ship owning the upgrade spends either a Command Token or Disc to activate the Saboteur. They immediately resolve 1 Black Dice against one ship of their choice. Shields count as normal, but defensive tokens may not be used. (Intended to finish off a ship that is already badly mauled.)

Maybe not so pricey, but discard the saboteur after use?

It would make sense that the person wouldn´t be allowed to sabotage the ship for long.

Agreed -- discard on use.

Special boarding ships and rules don't interest me at all. It's not really all that big of a part of the universe.

Now spec-ops teams as some sort of upgrade ability would be interesting. Get ship to within range 1 of enemy capital ship. Select target of attack and roll corresponding die. Capturing/killing essential crew would be a black die. Damaging shield generators could be a red die, damaging weapons could be a blue die. Something to that effect.

boarding actions are not really part of the SW lore though, ships are too busy pounding each other with turbolasers.

LOL a boarding action is literally the very first thing that happens in the very first Star Wars film.

As a game, I'm fine if they don't include them. However, to say they aren't a part of the universe is really silly. The Rebels, always desperate for ships, aren't going to destroy or even damage a prize more than they have to to capture it. How do they capture it? Boarding actions. The Empire, as we see in the first scene, is fighting a counter-insurgency. Counter-insurgencies are fought with intel. You don't get intel from space dust. You get it from capturing and interrogating Rebels. And you do that by? Boarding actions.

I could see it being balanced by 1) making it very difficult and dangerous to set up a boarding raid, 2) the boarding difficulty obviously being based on the relative scale of the ships involved, and 3) if you attempt a boarding action and fail, your boarding ship is either instantly destroyed, or now controlled by the side you were trying to board.

This also made me wonder: have they mentioned anything about tractor beams yet?

This is probably crazy, but I think it would be fun if you could initiate a boarding action in Armada, then play the boarding party in Imperial Assault. Maybe as part of a campaign joining them together... Maybe even some X-Wing thrown in.

This is probably crazy, but I think it would be fun if you could initiate a boarding action in Armada, then play the boarding party in Imperial Assault. Maybe as part of a campaign joining them together... Maybe even some X-Wing thrown in.

That would be a loooooong (but cool) game! :-)

Do they even have boarding engagements in Star Wars (boarding in this case meaning attacking a fully functional and crewed ship with intent of taking it over)? My understanding was the ships just trade blows until one ship has no shields or engines, then they just saunter over and take the thing. So all the people snidely pointing out Vader's casual stroll through the rebel ship in Episode IV aren't really talking about the boarding actions being discussed here.

Now if FFG revives Battlefleet Gothic, boarding torpedoes for everyone!

Do they even have boarding engagements in Star Wars (boarding in this case meaning attacking a fully functional and crewed ship with intent of taking it over)? My understanding was the ships just trade blows until one ship has no shields or engines, then they just saunter over and take the thing. So all the people snidely pointing out Vader's casual stroll through the rebel ship in Episode IV aren't really talking about the boarding actions being discussed here.

Now if FFG revives Battlefleet Gothic, boarding torpedoes for everyone!

The most deadly torpedoes don't have warheads, they have Space Marines!

LOL a boarding action is literally the very first thing that happens in the very first Star Wars film.

As a game, I'm fine if they don't include them. However, to say they aren't a part of the universe is really silly. The Rebels, always desperate for ships, aren't going to destroy or even damage a prize more than they have to to capture it. How do they capture it? Boarding actions. The Empire, as we see in the first scene, is fighting a counter-insurgency. Counter-insurgencies are fought with intel. You don't get intel from space dust. You get it from capturing and interrogating Rebels. And you do that by? Boarding actions.

I could see it being balanced by 1) making it very difficult and dangerous to set up a boarding raid, 2) the boarding difficulty obviously being based on the relative scale of the ships involved, and 3) if you attempt a boarding action and fail, your boarding ship is either instantly destroyed, or now controlled by the side you were trying to board.

This also made me wonder: have they mentioned anything about tractor beams yet?

Whilst I think the idea is good in merit, and certainly fits with the Star Wars universe, it would be quite hard to bring it into the tabletop game easily.

Looking at the films, books and games - most of the time boarding was from a huge vessel with a large number of forces, (either directly like the Tantive IV or indirectly in the form of assault shuttles), onto a smaller vessel, and it had to be incapacitated in some way first - (though it was usually easier to just blow it up unless there was some critical importance to capturing it).

Yes, you could have a small strike force try and disable a bigger ship, but this is Star Wars, not Star Trek, there are no transporters - so short of physically flying a shuttle into the hanger of the ship then it gets a bit problematic, especially if said ship in question is a Star Destroyer with thousands of crew members. We do still see that sort of crazy heroics happening in Star Wars, but with heroes, not generally mass fodder troops, so as a regular mechanic it probably doesnt make much sense.

Referring back to my thread about using Armada as an RPG though https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/131779-armada-as-a-rpg-experience/ (shamless plug) You could certainly have a mission revolving around sneaking into a shipyard and deploying a covert team to a Star Destroyer currently docked for resupply, and holding off the defending forces hoping your team would be successful in crippling it before it came online and became functional and joined the attack against your forces.

As a Reb -- no way I am getting captured by the Imps. I will suck start my own blaster first. While I would love to capture one of their ships and use it against them, those Destroyers carry far too many troops.

As an Imp: they're Rebs. I will shoot them until their inferior ships are dead. And I will never surrender. The HoloNet has left little doubt r/e the atrocities those anarchists are capable of...

As the mechanics are currently structured, I just don't see boarding and ship captures being a factor. Not unless one side hugely outnumbers the other.

Their are plenty of historical example where a well planned and executed boarding action by a corvette or frigate sized ship against a much larger Ship-of-the-Line or Man-o-War. It is the very thing that I could see the rebels doing. With dedicated command and control systems and life support I think it would e possible to take control of even a Star Destroyer. However this would probably not happen in the middle of a pitched battle. Said boarding actions usually involve guile or at least surprise, usually both.

I will agree that the mechanics of this game don't seem to include boarding actions.

Are there? I can't think of any historical examples off the top of my head. Boarding actions were relatively common in the age of sail, but every example I can think of were between ship in similar weight classes, or smaller. And every boarding action I can think of after about 1850 was against a much smaller target then the boarding party originated from. I am genuinely curious if you have any historical examples.

Boarding actions are just not this game. They would be neat, but it would add additional complexity beyond what I think FFG intends with the Armada game system. There would need to be additional rules for troop casualties when a capital ship is hit, new critical hits affecting BPs,additional cards to track BPs for each ship, rules for what dice are used and how hits are tallied, all together for something that I see being only a sideshow in this game.

Trust me, I am a big fan of Wooden Ships and Iron Men and Star Fleet Battles. Boarding actions are great in those games and SFB even has hit an run raids in addition to boarding actions. Armada is not going to be either of those games though and I'm happy that is the case.

I want to slug it out with the Rebels without having to worry about counting Storm Trooper casualties.

As a Reb -- no way I am getting captured by the Imps. I will suck start my own blaster first. While I would love to capture one of their ships and use it against them, those Destroyers carry far too many troops.

As an Imp: they're Rebs. I will shoot them until their inferior ships are dead. And I will never surrender. The HoloNet has left little doubt r/e the atrocities those anarchists are capable of...

As the mechanics are currently structured, I just don't see boarding and ship captures being a factor. Not unless one side hugely outnumbers the other.

Their are plenty of historical example where a well planned and executed boarding action by a corvette or frigate sized ship against a much larger Ship-of-the-Line or Man-o-War. It is the very thing that I could see the rebels doing. With dedicated command and control systems and life support I think it would e possible to take control of even a Star Destroyer. However this would probably not happen in the middle of a pitched battle. Said boarding actions usually involve guile or at least surprise, usually both.

I will agree that the mechanics of this game don't seem to include boarding actions.

Are there? I can't think of any historical examples off the top of my head. Boarding actions were relatively common in the age of sail, but every example I can think of were between ship in similar weight classes, or smaller. And every boarding action I can think of after about 1850 was against a much smaller target then the boarding party originated from. I am genuinely curious if you have any historical examples.

Queen Annes Revenge in 1717. A former british frigate in french service, captured by two sloops commanded by captains Stede Bonnet and Edward Teach.

Almost all boarding actions in the age of piracy, were launched from smaller vessels against larger ships. (Though, they probably stayed clear of men´o´war).

As a Reb -- no way I am getting captured by the Imps. I will suck start my own blaster first. While I would love to capture one of their ships and use it against them, those Destroyers carry far too many troops.

As an Imp: they're Rebs. I will shoot them until their inferior ships are dead. And I will never surrender. The HoloNet has left little doubt r/e the atrocities those anarchists are capable of...

As the mechanics are currently structured, I just don't see boarding and ship captures being a factor. Not unless one side hugely outnumbers the other.

Their are plenty of historical example where a well planned and executed boarding action by a corvette or frigate sized ship against a much larger Ship-of-the-Line or Man-o-War. It is the very thing that I could see the rebels doing. With dedicated command and control systems and life support I think it would e possible to take control of even a Star Destroyer. However this would probably not happen in the middle of a pitched battle. Said boarding actions usually involve guile or at least surprise, usually both.

I will agree that the mechanics of this game don't seem to include boarding actions.

Are there? I can't think of any historical examples off the top of my head. Boarding actions were relatively common in the age of sail, but every example I can think of were between ship in similar weight classes, or smaller. And every boarding action I can think of after about 1850 was against a much smaller target then the boarding party originated from. I am genuinely curious if you have any historical examples.

Queen Annes Revenge in 1717. A former british frigate in french service, captured by two sloops commanded by captains Stede Bonnet and Edward Teach.

Almost all boarding actions in the age of piracy, were launched from smaller vessels against larger ships. (Though, they probably stayed clear of men´o´war).

Well spotted! I hadn't considered the Caribbian Pirates, nor for that matter the sailing history of the china sea. However! In defense of my point, the Queen Annes revenge, was A, originally a British Frigate which is a large difference in weight class from a 1st rate or ship of the line, and B, she had been largely disarmed and converted for cargo use when Stede and Teach took her. So I completely grant your example of a smaller ship successfully conducting boarding operations against a larger one, I am going to refine the scope of my request for historical precedent to specifically cases where an active warship was boarded by a hostile party.

As a Reb -- no way I am getting captured by the Imps. I will suck start my own blaster first. While I would love to capture one of their ships and use it against them, those Destroyers carry far too many troops.

As an Imp: they're Rebs. I will shoot them until their inferior ships are dead. And I will never surrender. The HoloNet has left little doubt r/e the atrocities those anarchists are capable of...

As the mechanics are currently structured, I just don't see boarding and ship captures being a factor. Not unless one side hugely outnumbers the other.

Their are plenty of historical example where a well planned and executed boarding action by a corvette or frigate sized ship against a much larger Ship-of-the-Line or Man-o-War. It is the very thing that I could see the rebels doing. With dedicated command and control systems and life support I think it would e possible to take control of even a Star Destroyer. However this would probably not happen in the middle of a pitched battle. Said boarding actions usually involve guile or at least surprise, usually both.

I will agree that the mechanics of this game don't seem to include boarding actions.

Are there? I can't think of any historical examples off the top of my head. Boarding actions were relatively common in the age of sail, but every example I can think of were between ship in similar weight classes, or smaller. And every boarding action I can think of after about 1850 was against a much smaller target then the boarding party originated from. I am genuinely curious if you have any historical examples.

Queen Annes Revenge in 1717. A former british frigate in french service, captured by two sloops commanded by captains Stede Bonnet and Edward Teach.

Almost all boarding actions in the age of piracy, were launched from smaller vessels against larger ships. (Though, they probably stayed clear of men´o´war).

Well spotted! I hadn't considered the Caribbian Pirates, nor for that matter the sailing history of the china sea. However! In defense of my point, the Queen Annes revenge, was A, originally a British Frigate which is a large difference in weight class from a 1st rate or ship of the line, and B, she had been largely disarmed and converted for cargo use when Stede and Teach took her. So I completely grant your example of a smaller ship successfully conducting boarding operations against a larger one, I am going to refine the scope of my request for historical precedent to specifically cases where an active warship was boarded by a hostile party.

Well, there was the re-capture of the HMS Hermione by the HMS Surprise in 1799.

Both ships were frigates, but the attack was launched from rowing boats and into a heavily fortified port, which greatly outnumbered the rading party in manpower.

Now it wasn´t a high seas battle, but the spaniards on the Hermione did react with cannon fire, and fierce hand-to-hand combat, so in my opinion, the ship was very much active.

Guf79?

Your example with the HMS Hermione. Was this attack launched at night time? Under fog etc?

It would be interesting to know.

My guess is that in Armada, there would be no such environmental factors to help -unless you were in a nebula gas cloud etc or near a star emitting EMR interference.

I think it will come down to disabling the target vessel with ion cannon capable craft and then boarding it with the intent of capturing it.

Why bother boarding a target in a 'hit and run' attack when you can simply demolish it with long range weapons fire from within your own ship?

Why bother boarding a target in a 'hit and run' attack when you can simply demolish it with long range weapons fire from within your own ship?

Amen. Unless there is a 'capture the VIP' Obj coming out, then boarding seems like a lot of hard work with absolutely no real advantage. It would, however, be an absolute must for all casual table-top play, as we all try to recreate the opening scenes! Extra points for managing to get your pod'd droids through a hail of fighter and SD fire! No life signs? Fire anyway, schmuck! What?! Are we on a freaking budget or something? Shoot the big gun, man! (I love the Empire, but sometimes you have to wonder how it got this far...)

I dare say there will be a collaboration thread to come up with a decent homebrew design soon!

Guf79?

Your example with the HMS Hermione. Was this attack launched at night time? Under fog etc?

It would be interesting to know.

My guess is that in Armada, there would be no such environmental factors to help -unless you were in a nebula gas cloud etc or near a star emitting EMR interference.

I think it will come down to disabling the target vessel with ion cannon capable craft and then boarding it with the intent of capturing it.

Why bother boarding a target in a 'hit and run' attack when you can simply demolish it with long range weapons fire from within your own ship?

It was at night, as a day-time assault with small Rowling boats into a heavily fortified sea port, would probably have ended very badly. ;-)

The raiding party were discovered however, and the ship opened fire upon them.

Why bother? The rebels need ships, and the Empire needs prisoners to interrogate.

Guf79?

Your example with the HMS Hermione. Was this attack launched at night time? Under fog etc?

It would be interesting to know.

My guess is that in Armada, there would be no such environmental factors to help -unless you were in a nebula gas cloud etc or near a star emitting EMR interference.

I think it will come down to disabling the target vessel with ion cannon capable craft and then boarding it with the intent of capturing it.

Why bother boarding a target in a 'hit and run' attack when you can simply demolish it with long range weapons fire from within your own ship?

It was at night, as a day-time assault with small Rowling boats into a heavily fortified sea port, would probably have ended very badly. ;-)

The raiding party were discovered however, and the ship opened fire upon them.

Why bother? The rebels need ships, and the Empire needs prisoners to interrogate.

Interesting.

Haha, no I didn't mean it like that!

I understand why either the Rebellion or Empire would want to board, but that would be boarding with the intent of actually capturing the vessel intact.

To me, the 'Hit and run' type boarding attacks (such as in Battlefleet Gothic) are high-risk affairs -actually in BFG the Assault Craft were expendable single use affairs so in that game, they weren't so high risk.

In Armada though if your intent is only to destroy sub-systems you would rather do so via raw damage at range instead of risking your finite craft in a hit and run attack.

Don't get me wrong, if you've searched through the earlier posts on here, I am Pro-boarding! I'd love to have an opportunity to field Gunboats and Assault Transports in board and capture operations. So so excited about this prospect. Actually admiralcrunch has given us all a headstart with Spacestations...over in his " WIP: Station Assault " thread.

Guf79?

Your example with the HMS Hermione. Was this attack launched at night time? Under fog etc?

It would be interesting to know.

My guess is that in Armada, there would be no such environmental factors to help -unless you were in a nebula gas cloud etc or near a star emitting EMR interference.

I think it will come down to disabling the target vessel with ion cannon capable craft and then boarding it with the intent of capturing it.

Why bother boarding a target in a 'hit and run' attack when you can simply demolish it with long range weapons fire from within your own ship?

It was at night, as a day-time assault with small Rowling boats into a heavily fortified sea port, would probably have ended very badly. ;-)

The raiding party were discovered however, and the ship opened fire upon them.

Why bother? The rebels need ships, and the Empire needs prisoners to interrogate.

Interesting.

Haha, no I didn't mean it like that!

I understand why either the Rebellion or Empire would want to board, but that would be boarding with the intent of actually capturing the vessel intact.

To me, the 'Hit and run' type boarding attacks (such as in Battlefleet Gothic) are high-risk affairs -actually in BFG the Assault Craft were expendable single use affairs so in that game, they weren't so high risk.

In Armada though if your intent is only to destroy sub-systems you would rather do so via raw damage at range instead of risking your finite craft in a hit and run attack.

Don't get me wrong, if you've searched through the earlier posts on here, I am Pro-boarding! I'd love to have an opportunity to field Gunboats and Assault Transports in board and capture operations. So so excited about this prospect. Actually admiralcrunch has given us all a headstart with Spacestations...over in his " WIP: Station Assault " thread.

Hehe, Well my OP were intended for hit-and-run actions only, but somehow most of the contributors to this post, is hell-bent on actually capturing ships. :-)

I just thought it to be interesting to have the option of performing a high-risk hit-and-run action for a corvette, which really don't have the firepower to duke it out with a star destroyer.

I played BG a lot in the day, and loved it!

IF Assault craft were incorporated into Armada, they would probably have to be one-use, similar to Assault craft in BG. :-)

Why bother boarding a target in a 'hit and run' attack when you can simply demolish it with long range weapons fire from within your own ship?

Amen. Unless there is a 'capture the VIP' Obj coming out, then boarding seems like a lot of hard work with absolutely no real advantage. It would, however, be an absolute must for all casual table-top play, as we all try to recreate the opening scenes! Extra points for managing to get your pod'd droids through a hail of fighter and SD fire! No life signs? Fire anyway, schmuck! What?! Are we on a freaking budget or something? Shoot the big gun, man! (I love the Empire, but sometimes you have to wonder how it got this far...)

I dare say there will be a collaboration thread to come up with a decent homebrew design soon!

Ha ha ha ha ha!!! AMEN to the fire anyway mentality XD I have to say I've wondered about this scene for quite some time. Of all the galaxy hinges on this single event type moments in the Star Wars universe, this one would have ended the entire series the fastest, and the funniest thing about it is that it was so ordinary. Star Wars: The forgotten short film!

Why bother boarding a target in a 'hit and run' attack when you can simply demolish it with long range weapons fire from within your own ship?

Amen. Unless there is a 'capture the VIP' Obj coming out, then boarding seems like a lot of hard work with absolutely no real advantage. It would, however, be an absolute must for all casual table-top play, as we all try to recreate the opening scenes! Extra points for managing to get your pod'd droids through a hail of fighter and SD fire! No life signs? Fire anyway, schmuck! What?! Are we on a freaking budget or something? Shoot the big gun, man! (I love the Empire, but sometimes you have to wonder how it got this far...)

I dare say there will be a collaboration thread to come up with a decent homebrew design soon!

Ha ha ha ha ha!!! AMEN to the fire anyway mentality XD I have to say I've wondered about this scene for quite some time. Of all the galaxy hinges on this single event type moments in the Star Wars universe, this one would have ended the entire series the fastest, and the funniest thing about it is that it was so ordinary. Star Wars: The forgotten short film!

But think of all the paper-work!!

Evil force-wielding Sith empire as it is, It is probably just as bueraucratic as any government nowadays!

Who wants extra work?

Lol... You know it's true... Turbolaser Incident Reports, 20-page Armour Replacement Request Forms, Monthly One-to-Ones for all Stormtroopers and their Squad Leaders... And definitely no running in the corridors with Lightsabers...

Much as I love the Empire, I suspect the reality would suck!

With hindsight I would definitely fire that gunner though...