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Admiral d'Artagnan
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Post subject: Boarding  Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 11:03 pm |
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Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2005 12:56 pm
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Sure. Say boarders manage to reach the engine room and blow up an important system that renders the ship inoperable. Makes it a drifting hulk then, right?
Yes, I have also heard about HP also being part crew. Hard for me to see half of a boarding ship eliminating half of the boarded one without the attacking crew also being killed, though.
The thing I don't like about the proposed system is what I have already pointed out: boarding in this case becomes as efficient and as deadly as lances. With the previous rules, sure, you take damage but unless the rolls are really extremes, usually one takes only 1 to 2 points of damage, which I also don't like but isn't really that unbalancing.
But, yes, I would personally prefer to roll on the full crit table at 2D6-2 instead. Much more realistic I think.
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Magsu
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Post subject: Boarding Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 3:13 am |
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Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2005 3:22 am
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I like the idea of crits though, it seems more likely. Perhaps this:
Ships get one attack die per point of boarding value (which is derived from some arcane system I don't feel like coming up with). On a roll of a 4+, they inflict damage. Roll 2D6-2, inflict that critical hit. In addition, every three (maybe two?) successful boarding rolls (whether or not they inflict a critical) inflict one point of damage to the target vessel. Ships destroyed by the extra damage become drifting hulks, ships destroyed by a critical hit during a boarding action roll on the catastrophic damage table on a -2.
Ships are free to move off in subsequent rounds, unless one ship attempts to "bind" the other. A ship is "bound" if binding ship can roll a 7 or higher on 2d6, modified by the difference in hits between the ships. 2's always fail (so an damaged cruiser with 7 hits boarding an crippled cruiser with 4 hits would have a +3 modifier, whereas the cripple would have a -3. Obviously, they can mutually bind eachother)
Bound ships drift in the direction of the largest vessel (most hits if same size, dice it if they are equal) 2d6 cm. Ships cannot do anything while bound, except use turrets against incoming ordnance.
This makes boarding powerful, but quite dangerous to both sides. You may have 12 boarding dice against them and they have 3, but they might get lucky and knock out your battleship's shields. You might also consider it worthwhile to throw a weaker ship into a suicidal boarding action, because you can bind them and eliminate some serious firepower for a while.
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My name is Magus. I just managed to spell my name wrong while registering. How? Because I'm a dumbass.
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Squared
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Post subject: Boarding Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 4:10 am |
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Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2005 12:07 am
Posts: 61
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| Quote (Admiral d'Artagnan @ 05 Jan. 2006 (22:03)) | Sure. Say boarders manage to reach the engine room and blow up an important system that renders the ship inoperable. Makes it a drifting hulk then, right?
Yes, I have also heard about HP also being part crew. Hard for me to see half of a boarding ship eliminating half of the boarded one without the attacking crew also being killed, though.
The thing I don't like about the proposed system is what I have already pointed out: boarding in this case becomes as efficient and as deadly as lances. With the previous rules, sure, you take damage but unless the rolls are really extremes, usually one takes only 1 to 2 points of damage, which I also don't like but isn't really that unbalancing.
But, yes, I would personally prefer to roll on the full crit table at 2D6-2 instead. Much more realistic I think. |
Um, maybe you should reread my rules. The to-hit value of 4+ is just a mechanic, it does not actually cause damage when you get a hit. The number of hits caused by each ship is compared with the looser taking damage equal to the difference between the two scores. For cruiser sized ships with no damage this usually means only 1-2 damage per turn.
As far as critical hits are concerned I simply kept the current system, not seeing any real reason to change. However as many have stated, criticals would be an important part of a boarding action and while the current rules do add an extra possible critical hit for both ships and cause critical hits as normal for each point of damage. Would it possibly be better if the criticals caused by damage occured using the critical hits results table instead of the normal 6+? In other words if the ship received 2 damage it would roll two dice and receive a critical for each dice rolled 4 or greater.
^2
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Admiral d'Artagnan
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Post subject: Boarding Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 12:30 pm |
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Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2005 12:56 pm
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Magus:
Your proposal seems ok. The additional hit might confuse people but rewording it might fix that. If you want to solve the drifting problem, just use the scatter dice.
Squared:
I re-read your rules and it's cleared things up a bit. It's feasible but I still prefer Boarding causing crits instead of damage.
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blackhorizon
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Post subject: Boarding Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 7:51 pm |
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Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 9:40 pm
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Location: Netherlands
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So, okay, I like the idea of only the critical hits in a boarding action. The 2D6 - 2 seems appropiate.
Should we work this into a proper proposal? Then drop it on the SG site + Yahoo to get additional feedback. Feedback is good, negative or positive.
Squared, you write it up?
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Squared
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Post subject: Boarding Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 4:50 am |
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Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2005 12:07 am
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I have made a few changes to the rules, the most important being making turrets reduce the initial boarding value of the attacking ship(s) I have also made it more difficult for the attacker to continue the boarding action past the first round.
There were a few other minor modifications, note that the mark of Nurgle and the Mark of Khorne might require points adjustments. Not too sure about these ones anyways.
As far as a criticals only rule goes I feel that it does not adequately cover a full scale boarding operation, it would be more like a large hit and run attack. Remember boarding operations are one of the Nids primary means of attack and they do kill all of the crew on the ship they are attacking...
Please note that boarding is not really meant for IN or chaos, though Khornate CSM is a whole different story. It is a primary weapon for Nids, a target for Orks to shoot for, and another option for the SMs.
^2
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