LAST EDITED: July 20th @ 09:57 GMT - First edition of boarding rules

A) First edition of general boarding rules: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/182147-idea-ship-boarding/?p=1692528

B) Idea for boarding wrecks and derelicts: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/182147-idea-ship-boarding/?p=1697704

*Stand by for my attempt at evolving this into a territorial Control gamemode, where players rush to Board stations, wrecks and derelicts to gain enough victory Points to win the match. All the while dogfighting each other to intercept or protect boarding parties or hunting Down the hostile teams Capital ship.

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I`ve been looking at ideas to combine Imperial Assault With X-wing and this seems to me as a good Place to start.

Ship boarding could easilly be a mechanic in missions, campaigns and epic games.

Ship boarding can work in numerous ways:

1. Board hostile ship to incapacitate OR capture

2. Board derelicts on map to achieve Technology or AOE abilities

3. Transport defence - i mission could be to capture a VIP or Technology being transported between two planets

4. Could be expanded to orbital stations and later to the planets themselves.

Ship boarding would not only allow for a Limited merging of the two games, but it would also allow for greater tactical variations when attempting to defeat players With huge ships- especially when you don`t have one of Your own. Would also make for interesting campaings. Most importantly, the inital monetary Investment would be small, as ship boarding would only require a minor amount of ground units.

ALSO:

In epic games, boarding a Huge ship to kill Palpatine or a rebel hero could also be a win condition for the match.

In order to maintain current balancing in both games it would be important not to mix up the points. Rather than combining the Points, you could have games With a 200/100 point Balance- e.g. 200 X wing / 100 Imperial Assault.

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Please comment if you have suggestions for additions or modifications...

Check this example of corellian Corvette wreckage:

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-X-Wing-Miniatures-Game/dp/B00V14EFH8

Combatzone.co.uk: provides lots of stuff fluff up games and perpetrate some really large matches and even territorial Conquest With boarding and Exploration.

http://combatzone-scenery.co.uk/epages/e25b18fb-c32b-422a-8493-a8baeb0f1a17.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/e25b18fb-c32b-422a-8493-a8baeb0f1a17/Categories/Space/Scenery

Bummer is that everything is supplied unpainted. I`ve contacted the store to see if they can somehow Paint before shipping (at added price), but they`ve not answered me yet.

Oooh, I like this idea. Very thematic and story driven. Possibility for some great nail biting campaigns. Yes, I like this idea a lot.

I tried to do this once but after testing it needed much tweaking and I abandoned it:

For example, these cards should occupy 2 crew slots (like Palpatine) or a Team slot.

I tried to do this once but after testing it needed much tweaking and I abandoned it:

For example, these cards should occupy 2 crew slots (like Palpatine) or a Team slot.

I think that to make this easy to implement it will be important not to mix the game rules.

My current thinking is that all "large" and "huge" ships get a "passenger" or "marine" and "vehicle" category. That way you can implement ground miniatures and not upset the game Balance in either of the games.

As far as connecting mechanics i`m thinking of a couple of "boarding phases":

1. Docking - I have the details worked out and i`ll Write it up in the OP later today.

2. Positioning units*

3. Breach - details not worked out, but i`m thinking this should be an important phase choosing "explosive breach" vs other types of entry should be important. Should also be multiple Places to dock and perform a breach from.

4. General combat - if the boarding players looses- he may very well loose the ship he boarded With..

*I`m thinking there should be carboard mockups of the ship interiors.

AGAIN.

My thinking is that implementation should not introduce changes to current rules or balancing, but simple additions that provide a meaningfull bridge between the two.

I`m thinking about gameplay focused around docking With and penetration wreckage and various forms of derelicts- could be exciting stuff. Imagine docking With the wreckage of a CR90 - Research vessel. While you`re searching the wreckage for salvageable Tech/Components, the other player docks and penetrates the same vessel and both parties need to fight it out.

OR

While you are searching the wreckage, the other player blows up the ship you docked With and now you need to perform a rescue or loose all the Points relating to the ground units.

As far as looting wreckage, i`m thinking any loot would have to be brought to a "large" or "huge" ship before it could be used. Unless there is some kind of Tech that could be repaired/activated from within the wreckage.

I`ll update the OP once i`ve put some more thought into this..

I came up with a method for doing this (IA X-Wing hybrid) a while ago with the CR90. Never got around to testing it.

Ship Boarding Rules

Make an internal map for the ship. It needs a bridge, an engineering room and a gunnery control station. It may also have a security centre. Mark each of these with one of Imperial Assault's console tokens. If you need to, put a faction token next to or underneath it. It also needs at least one airlock on the map, ideally two on opposite sides of the ship. If it has only one, you'll need to choose a side of the CR90's rear base to be the docking side.

The side starting with the CR90 places a figure adjacent to each of these stations if it starts crewed, of if it's unmanned it starts empty.

Docking

Ships with crew slots can be used as boarding craft. Assign Imperial Assault deployment cards to their pilot cards, possibly make it one card per crew slot (which takes up the slot).

To board the ship, fly into the side of its rear base while aligned alongside the ship (don't fly into it head on). Place the side of the boarding craft's base flush to the side of the rear base as if the CR90 were going to use it to perform a barrel roll: it is now docked. A docked ship doesn't assign a maneuver dial and may undock as an action. While docked it moves with the CR90. It can be targeted as usual.

Optional Rule: It has its agility reduced by 1 while docked.

In the round of IA after the round of X-Wing where the boarding craft docked, you may place your boarders into the airlock. If you have multiple deployment cards of boarders, you may only deploy one per round.

Optional Rule: Non-unique deployment cards may reinforce from their boarding craft if it is still docked. Reinforcing a card counts as deploying it for the purposes of the one set of boarders per round rule.

Taking the Ship

The CR90 is considered to be part of any faction that controls a console: thus it can be simultaneously friendly and hostile. Any faction it is hostile to may target it.

The fight for the ship is the fight for the consoles. At the end of each IA round each console with only one faction's figures adjacent to it switches to that faction's control. Consoles with both faction's figures adjacent return to neutral. Consoles with no figures adjacent stay controlled by the faction that controlled them last round.

Bridge: If you control the Bridge you select the CR90's maneuver dial in the Planning Phase and its fore section action in the Activation Phase. If an enemy faction controls Engineering, the Fore Section takes its action first. Initially the CR90 has no dial set. If a dial is set and then the bridge returns to an uncontrolled state, the dial remains on the maneuver it was on last round: eg: if last round it executed a 2-turn to the right, it executes a 2-turn to the right this round.

Gunnery Control: You control all weapons during the Combat Phase. You may only target ships hostile to your faction.

Engineering: You make all decisions for the CR90 during the Energy Phase and you choose the action of the Aft Section. If an enemy faction controls Bridge, the Fore Section takes its action first. If an enemy faction controls Bridge or Gunnery Control, you may not voluntarily waste energy by leaving it on the rear card in excess of the energy limit when it could be assigned to an upgrade such as an Ionisation Reactor or a Hardpoint.

Security Centre: If you control this console you can place two Closed Doors onto the ship at the end of each round. These doors can be opened normally (with an action) but even then they can be vital in slowing boarders down for a critical round.

Optional Rule: Whenever the side of the ship map you are on is critically hit, roll one yellow die against every figure in that section.

Optional Rule: If you feel the ship has too few consoles, you can split Bridge into Communications Centre (fore action) and Navigation (dial) and Engineering into Reactor (Energy Distribution) and and Engineering (Rear Action).

I`ve worked out the initial gameplay rules for "Boarding" and will attach them in the OP.

I`m going abroad for a few days and will make an update next week. In the next update of the ruleset, I`ll aim at including pictures and better examples.

At that point i will also upload my initial ruleset for boarding wrecks and derelicts, their exploration and allocation of loot. This will mostly be an issue for story missions and campaigns as well as epic games with objectives to control rather than simply dogfighting to the end (dogfighting with a greater purpose)...

EDIT:

Couldn`t upload the file so i`m simply pasting them here:

GENERAL RULES FOR “BOARDING”

The following represents the first attempt at designing rules combining Imperial Assualt with X-Wing miniatures through “Boarding” mechanics. This will initially be expanded upon with “Advanced rules” to deepen the mechanic as well as rules for boarding, exploring and looting wrecks and derelicts placed on the map. Later the intention is to elaborate further with rules relating to orbital stations and the basics for how people can design chains of solar systems for prolonged epic gameplay of territorial conquest.

“BOARDING” – The basics

Boarding follows the skirmish rules in IA. However, as far as heroes, resting and strain is concerned; boarding follows campaign rules.

Game start- Players agree on the gamemode and point distribution. An example could be 200/40 (e.g 200 X-wing Points and 40 Imperial Assault Points). Players also agree on what locations within each ship is going to have a terminal (bridge, engineering etc.). Huge ships can have 4 terminals, Large ships 2 and ships designated medium can have 1 (Hawk-290 and similar smaller transports).

To execute the ground combat portion of the match the map of the ship internals are copied in enlarged Versions and units are placed directly on the ship map. Note that no such maps exist at the moment and we need to use whatever internal layouts can be found on Star Wars fansites. Below are two examples.

Boarding ship (Millenium Falcon): http://img4.wikia.no...conInterior.jpg

Boarded ship (CEC-XS 1200 Freighter): http://www.deviantar...ghter-288210363

“Passenger” and “Vehicle” categoris

All ships the currently have a crew category ALSO receive a passenger category and vehicle category (only Huge ships). The capacity of these categories depend on the size of the ship in the Star Wars universe. Tweaking and balancing will be required. The passenger category may include soldiers, civilians, politicians or other kinds of VIPs- it all depends on the game or mission being played. These categories are also introduced in order to NOT upset current balancing.

Note that crew and pilot in both the ship doing the docking and the ship being docked to, can participate in the boarding operation and ensuing ground combat. This means however, that the ship performing the docking will be unable to detach and continue fighting during the boarding operation. It will also NOT be able to defend itself or use any abilities. If the pilot remains, but the crew go with soldiers taking up the “passenger” slots, then the ship can be piloted as normal, but will not receive any benefits or abilities from the crew slots. Thus, crew cards taking part in the boarding and turned face down, to signify they are no longer active on the ship.

Example: Millenium Falcon piloted by Han Solo with Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca as crew and 4x Rebel Infantry board a Raider class corvette to assassinate Palpatine. After a successful “Breach”, Han Solo detaches the Falcon to keep fighting the Raiders escort. Without the support of his crew however, he no longer has access to their abilities.

Suggested “passenger” and “vehicle” limits:

Medium ships: 2 passengers / 0

Large ships: 4 passenger / 0 vehicles*

Huge ships: 8 passengers / 1x vehicle (Max size = AT-ST or 2x vehicles of half the size)

*Some large ships are dedicated transports with bigger cargohold than YT-1300. Community should help come up with some numbers and sizes.

Boarding makes an addition to the rules about collision. As the bases need to touch in order to execute boarding, rules for collision are ignored IF the player PRIOR to reaching for the maneuver piece DECLARE the intent to Board. If boarding is declared then collision is ignored and players move to docking phase.

Boarding has the following phases:

1. Docking

2. Breach

3. General combat

DOCKING PHASE:

A) A player can either succeed or fail in the attempt to dock With target ship.

B) Docking is either neutral or aggressive - docking With a derelict or drifting ship is considered neutral. Docking With an actively controlled player ship, is considered aggressive docking.

C) Players can attempt to evade aggressive docking

D) As far as docking is concerned- the round ends when docking fails or succeeds. I.e. Breaching starts NEXT round. This makes the boarding player vulnerable until breaching is resolved.

1. Target ship must be "locked" in order to focus ship computers to aid pilot in docking.

2. Range must be 1-2 in order to declare docking

3. Docking player declares where on the ship he intends to dock- using the ship interior maps to pinpoint.

4. Specific rules relating to the docking process:

I) Ships cannot perform aggressive docking against smaller ships - Exception if they are immobilized (can`t maneuver)

II) Ships cannot perform aggressive docking against ships of similar size - Exception is they are immobilized)

III) Ships being targeted for aggressive docking by smaller ships can evade docking for x rounds depending on the size difference*

5. Multiple ships can attempt boarding of a single larger ship- as long as they declare different docking locations

*Evading a docking attempt: If a huge ship is targeted for docking by a Large ship- then the size difference is 1 and the Huge ship can evade twice. If the huge is being targeted for docking by a medium ship, then the difference is 2 and the huge ship can evade once. Evasion vs non-evasion is decided using the standard dice*. Further detail about these dice rolls and modifications will need to be further adressed. If two or more medium ships attempt docking this means ONLY one can be evaded- meaning one breach can be delayed. If two or more large ships attempt docking with a huge, then a maximum of two can be evaded. This implies that if the defender has maximum luck when being boarded by 3x large ships then only one breach will be resolved next round and the other 2 breaches the round after that.

*Evade results means the docking failed and a new attempt needs to be made next round. Focus means the docking attempt succeeded. Blank results requires a re-roll until an Evade or Focus is rolled.

Detaching from dock after successful or failed breach

Both docking and undocking are considered as an “Action” and do NOT count as MANEUVER.

After a successful breach, if the pilot is still in the ship, the player may spend an action to undock and can use abilities that are not dependent on crew. The player cannot move the ship, since the action phase comes AFTER the movement phase.

When undocking, the ship is placed from the ship it docked with, at the distance of the base the model resides on (measure the width of the base and maintain that distance between the two models). The undocking ship should be directly vis a vis the original point of docking.

Note on failed breach and retreat: If boarding is aborted after a failed breach on there is a withdrawel under fire, the ship will undock with one hull damage.

BREACH PHASE

A) This starts the round AFTER successful docking has been achieved

B) Breach starts before movement is declared on the X-Wing map. E.G. Breach is the first thing that happens in a round.

C) When breaching is resolved- players resolve movement and actions on the X-Wing map.

D) Combat on the ground map starts when combat on the X-wing map has been resolved.

This phase starts With both players moving to the maps showing the ship interiors. This is the staging phase where all ground units are positioned for the "breach".

Units are placed INDIRECTLY by way of markers. These markers are all the same on one side. On the other side they`re either empty or they depict a specific ground unit. The point of this is to preserve "fog of war" and the ability to Place and organize units without the other player knowing what you are placing where. Markers are turned around only when units are within "line of sight" (LOS)*. E.g- if hostile units are going through a door, the player can only see markers on the other side. He`ll have to open the door in order to reveal whether those marker reveal soldiers or whether the room is empty. Opening a door Counts as an action for the unit doing the opening.

*Line of sight (LOS): Any ground unit considered obscured (whether by walls, doors or other inventory or beyond range ruler is considered out of sight. This will make moving through a ship, a VERY tense experience

IMPORTANT: Defending player does NOT get any deployment card bonus for terminals during "breach"-phase. Attacker does get this bonus. This is to simulate th shock of getting boarded and balance the fact that the attackers will typically board with inferior numbers.

1) Breaching can either be "explosive entry" or "normal entry". The latter simply means opening the door. The former means using explosives to shock, stun and possibly kill any defenders in the blast area. Using explosive entry on an already damaged spaceship or even any kind of spaceship is inherently dangerous.

2) Attacking player is considered to have initiative, if he conducts "explosive entry". Otherwise defending player has initiative.

3. If conducting explosive entry: The attacker rolls an attack dice depending on the sice of the boarded ship. 1x attack dice on huge ship 2x attack dice on large ship etc. Resolve any damage on the boarded ship resulting from the "explosive entry". If the ship survives then proceed with breach resolution. Any exposed defender in range 1 is mortally wounded. Any exposed defenders in range 2 roll a standard 6 sided die to determine if they get stressed or take light damage (1-3 = 1x strain token / 4-6 = 1x damage).

COMBAT PHASE

A) Once the breach is resolved, further rounds of combat is resolved as usual.

B) The ship is ONLY captured once all hostiles are defeated.

C) The purpose is to activate and control the terminals. Once all terminals are activated and under control of the boarders, the defenders surrender. If all attackers die or retreat, the defenders win

NOTE: Win/loose conditions for missions and derelict exploration will differ from the above.

ADVANCED RULESET will expand on the combat phase.

On heroes and epic characters:

IA Hero characters (any jedi or sith, luke, han solo, darth anyone etc) and Epic characters (palpatine, admiral ackbar, thrawn etc) can be used if they are fielded in X-wing miniuatures OR if they are selected as crew/passengers on Huge or large ships.

The loss of an IA Hero character results in a morale hit that prevents the owning player from conducting any attacks the following round in. In addition, the survivors receive +1 strain. The loss of an epic character results in a loss of the match.

Field them at your own peril!!!

Idea behind boarding of wrecks and derelicts.

There are now some Companies designing and selling wrecks and derelicts for X-Wing games. At the moment they`re nothing more than scenery, but how cool would it be to use them tactically in X-wing games.

I want to expand my ideas for boarding to include boarding of wrecks for the following game modes:

1. Long Epic games

2. Missions

3. Campaigns

4. Territory Control gamemode - once rules for wrecks have been implemented, these can easilly be expanded for Space stations*

Territory Control mode is something i`ll Write up in another post. In the following text i will stick to Points 1-3.

I will outline my ideas first and then in a couple of days i`ll Write up a first Version of suggested rules.

Think about this scenario for Your campaigns, missions and large scale epic games:

You observe the wreckage of a ship. You have no idea how old the wreckage is or what purpose the ship once had, but you know there could be something interesting onboard. You have a YT-2400 loaded up With an elite boarding team that you deploy for the wreckage. Once there, you scan the wreckage to determine it`s age. You now know it`s a derelict Tantive IV less than 10 years abandoned. You know it was used in several configurations (Research, military, civilian transport, Medical), but you need to Board and hack a terminal to Discover what purpose THIS wreckage filled. Will you find military Upgrades, spare parts for repairs or Secret biological Research on exotic Creatures that could attack Your People at any moment???

I`ve worked on dice rolls and tables required for the above text

The idea is that once the wreckage has been secured, you can find either Upgrades you can use in the game mode, retrieve mission/campaign specific items or even spare parts that can be used to repair Your large or Capital ships.. I`m thinking the spare parts can come in 3 variants- hull repair, Shield recharge or a combination. What you can find will depend on the type of wreckage, it`s age and what sections of the wreckage are possible to dock With (if the wreckage is broken into multiple parts).

A) Boarding wrecks should be rewarding enough to entice both players into going for them and fighting to claim them.

B) Any loot discovered, will have to be transported to the ship needing them. If you find spare parts for Your Tantive, then Your boarding ship needs to move them to

the Tantive in order for the Tantive to install them.

Note: Boarding wrecks and boarding in general will be best suited for larger games that are going to last for a larger amount of turns than typical matches. Boarding is perfect for missions and campaigns. It will also be very well suited for territorial Control games (very long games).

Please comment on the ideas and present any suggestions you may have. Do you find this interesting??

while I like the idea or boarding actions there are a few problems. One is that well X-wing was a pilot in starfighter theme from the ground up so with that foundation it is really hard to put multiple character in the ships and is apparent by the limited upgrade capacity of shuttles and also how capital escort ships work in X-wing. The whole mechanics and setup is very restraining when you come to take a look of it. It would be like trying to make a ground based combat simulator with stormtrooper platoons using the flight path system, aka Attack Wing D&D, it just don't feel right.

Now where boarding should be in play and is not well Armada. The first firefight was a boarding action and Armada has 0 boarding mechanics so far (maybe when the ISD comes out). Also boarding actions make sense in large scale ships. Maybe you want to recover the ship because capital ships are expensive. Starfighters you can just blow up and get a new one. You got to be honest there is no boarding actions or close up fights on Starfighter class ships in star wars, with the one exception of Buzzdroids which make no tactical sense what so ever. They should have just blown up when they got in contact with a starfighter but G. Lucas wanted a droid battle.

while I like the idea or boarding actions there are a few problems. One is that well X-wing was a pilot in starfighter theme from the ground up so with that foundation it is really hard to put multiple character in the ships and is apparent by the limited upgrade capacity of shuttles and also how capital escort ships work in X-wing. The whole mechanics and setup is very restraining when you come to take a look of it. It would be like trying to make a ground based combat simulator with stormtrooper platoons using the flight path system, aka Attack Wing D&D, it just don't feel right.

Now where boarding should be in play and is not well Armada. The first firefight was a boarding action and Armada has 0 boarding mechanics so far (maybe when the ISD comes out). Also boarding actions make sense in large scale ships. Maybe you want to recover the ship because capital ships are expensive. Starfighters you can just blow up and get a new one. You got to be honest there is no boarding actions or close up fights on Starfighter class ships in star wars, with the one exception of Buzzdroids which make no tactical sense what so ever. They should have just blown up when they got in contact with a starfighter but G. Lucas wanted a droid battle.

You should really read the ruleset i wrote up for boarding operations and the integration of Imperial Assault. I`ve thought about everything you mention. Fighters do screen, picket or interception while medium sized transports and large ships perform the actual boarding.

You clearly haven`t read passed the headline. Please read the actual boarding mechanic that I wrote up..

But this is flawed on a conceptual and thematic level, reading past the title should not be necessary.

I don't see how it's flawed conceptually or thematically, especially if all you read is the title.