This rule set is a fusion of combat patrol, space hulk (I fight these battles on old space hulk print off templates) and kill team 40k rules in the scenario of a boarding action in Battlefleet Gothic. As in a kill-team there will be an attacking team and a defending team, but possibly using more than one unit to make the assault, on top of the defending site being aware of the enemy incursion, at least on a room by room basis anyway. This should be a fun way to link up 40k and BFG in campaign form, or at least some fun 40k scenarios. The overall frame I’ve made doesn’t cover all situations one might encounter, at least not yet, so I’d love to get some input on what I may have left out or what things might be added. I’ve left a lot of room for individual armies to make up special rules for their boarding units, as well as encouraging people to make up their own special characters in the way of ship captains/fleet commanders, and their bodyguards. The main points being addressed is exactly how the defender deploys, and how to make it enjoyable for the defender. Also what points levels for each side might be most balanced and feasible for this type of battle. I’d love input on either.
I do hope to fill these out and make them formal when I get the chance, so I do recognize they are not fully finished. As I get a better feel for how I want these to play out, I will start syncing them more with the rule sets of combat patrol and kill-team.
Picking The Scenario:
A boarding team may seek to reach a few key areas of an enemy ship, which may include:
1-the engines
2-ammo storage
3-the bridge
4-the reactor
5-sensor control room/hub
6-weapon systems/shield generators or holo-field projectors
Because of difficulty of boarding ships reaching an enemy vessel while avoiding anti-ordnance turrets, main weapons (whether or not they are actually targeting boarding ships they must still be avoided!), potential defensive fighters, astro-phenomena, not to mention the simple fact that it is not always easy to make contact with a ship that is moving and maneuvering in a live battle. Because of these variables, the boarding ship may not be able to land directly on the bulkheads near a vital area of the target ship. There is also the additional challenges involved caused by the enemy ship possibly being of alien or chaos design/alteration. Few but the most experienced Imperial commanders or those of the Inquisition may know the layout of xenos or Chaos vessels. Eldar holo-fields and other devices exponentially complicate zeroing in on a good breach point, not to mention blast fields from shield impacts, ship damage, or other distortions. To reflect this, when boarding parties breach their target vessels (that is if they manage to make contact at all!) they will not know exactly which vital area they have landed near, or even how to reach it.
Because of this, players may choose to fight a battle where the boarding party does not automatically land near a specific known room, such as the bridge, but instead land on an unknown area and must roll a D6 while traversing the innards of the enemy vessel hoping to find a worthy target for sabotage.
In game terms, the boarding party will enter the field of battle at the various entry point(s) and proceed to journey through the ship searching through the ship to conduct their assault of sabotage while fighting off crewmen and any defensive squads. Upon reaching 'large rooms' the assaulting team rolls a D6 to see if they have found a vital area, or if it is nothing of consequence for the boarding party. On a 6 the room is indeed a vital area, and the attacking player rolls again to see which area they have breached. If the roll is a 3-5 a non-vital area (type 4) has been found as described below. On a roll of 1-2 an unimportant room is found and the team moves on in search of areas to attack. Certain variables do affect the dice roll, however. If the following conditions apply, alter the dice roll:
Add one to the roll if:
-the ship being assaulted is of the same 'race' aka: imperials attacking imperials.
-the boarding party contains Space Marines or Eldar Aspect Warriors.
-the ship being boarded is an escort.
Subtract one from the roll if:
-the ship being boarded is battleship. These ships are so large and contain such a higher degree of turrets and other counter measures that assaulting vital areas is far more difficult.
-the ship being boarded is an Ork vessel of any kind. Subtract two if it is a space hulk. Apply either result as appropriate, even if the assaulting player is also Ork.
-the assault is part of an actual BFG battle and blast templates were in contact with the ship being boarded.
The players may choose instead to pick a specific vital area that the boarding party is near and trying to reach, so that they may plan and pick certain units (for the defender), traps/defenses, and rules to apply. It is normal practice for a ship to keep defensive forces near vital areas, especially areas that may cripple or destroy the ship, such as ammo storage, the bridge, the reactor, and sometimes sensor/holo-field/shield hardware and control rooms. The defending player may set up an elite defensive unit in any vital area, but some vital areas will have more defenses and others will have less, as is appropriate to their importance and the size of the ship. The players may also choose a middle grounds option, rolling a D6 to see which ships system the boarding party is near (the 1-6 results being those above).
Each of these areas are treated as following:
Type one: These rooms are the most vital, potentially destroying or completely taking the target ship out of action and will always have the maximum amount of defenses set up, such as reinforced bulkheads, shields covering entry ways, armed crewmen, and naturally both larger amounts of defensive units, and a higher level of alertness to respond to threats. Because of the high degree of defensive response these areas will host, attacking units may decide they are incapable of destroying them, and may seek easier targets if the player rolls a successful leadership test. A successful attack will automatically turn the ship into a crippled vessel. On a 4+ the ship becomes a drifting hulk, and on a roll of a 6 a critical attack has been made and the target ship explodes.
These areas include:
-ammo storage areas
-the reactor
-the bridge
Type two: These rooms are still extremely important, and vulnerable to attack. The disabling of these rooms would not likely destroy the ship, but would still leave it substantially less capable in battle and possible unable to defend itself. Attackers will praise their leaders (be it a good landing or an especially skillful team leader) for finding such important targets. Attackers must attempt to sabotage these areas if found. They will naturally be allocated substantial defenses and defensive units, but of a lower grade and quantity than type one rooms. A successful attack on these areas will either halve the movement capacity or firing capacity as appropriate. Against the engines, on a 4+ all movement and turning is disabled (the ship drifts 10cm a turn, unless retros are burned to stop movement permanently) on a 6 the damage to the engines causes an explosion, crippling the ship. Against sensor rooms on a 6 all weapons systems are unable to function further due to the damage to targeting equipment.
These areas include:
-the engines.
-sensors and sensor control rooms
Type three: These rooms are also important, but are again less likely to be as well defended as more vital areas of the ship. Less crewmen will be well armed, there will be fewer defensive units on station, and minimal defenses. Attacking units may skip these rooms and search for better targets on a successful leadership test. A successful attack removes 1 strength from a weapon system of the defenders choice. On a 4+ one weapon system halves its strength, or on a 6 one weapon system is completely destroyed, which system is chosen by the attacker. Against a shield of holo-field generator, on a 4+ one shield is removed permanently or the holo-field save is reduced by one, on a 6 all shields or holo-fields are permanently disabled.
These areas include:
-weapons systems
-shield generators or holo-field projectors
Type four: These rooms will be various areas of importance, such as power conduit hubs, ammo elevators, launch bays, and so on, but no vital areas that if destroyed would cause crippling damage. Attacking teams may choose to carry on to find more worthy targets. No defenses of consequence are present, but some armed crewmembers may be on station, defensive units may be patrolling through the area, and there is a higher alert response than type five areas. A successful attack on one of these areas results in:
D1-2: the decrease of movement speed by 5cm
D3-4: the removal of one torpedo strength/one attack craft squadron capacity/turret if applicable, chosen by defender.
D5-6: one weapon system loses one point of strength, chosen by the defender
Type five: These rooms constitute the rest of the ship. These could be as unimportant as crew quarters, machine shops, or storage rooms. An attacking party will not bother to sabotage any of these areas, and will continue journeying through the belly of their foe in search of more important targets. Defenses will include no counter measures such as shields, and will have no defensive teams or armed crew members waiting around. Alert responses will be generally low.
Game Points Levels: The size of the attacking and defending forces and their equipment depends on the size of the vessel being attacked, and the size of the ship/fleet putting forth a boarding force. The boarding force may be from a single ship, or several ships that made one wave of assault craft, so it doesn't actually have to be a cruiser that sends an attack force onto a cruiser, for example, while the defenders can only marshal the defenders who are already on board. However, for our purposes, games are played at an even points level unless the players decide that their commanders decided to execute a daring gamble and sent an inferior boarding force against a larger ship, or an overpowering force against a smaller ship.
Escort level battle: Each side gets 200pts for units, and 50pts for gear.
Cruiser level battle: Each side gets 400pts for units, and 75pts for gear.
Battleship level battle: Each side gets 500pts for units, and 100pts for gear.