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Hi, below I present alternate rules for boarding operations. I created these rules because I did not like the current way in which they work, more of a drive-by slap than a desparate action between two ships locked in mortal combat (or something like that.)
Anyways I have tried this in a few very small battles of SM vs Orks. I have also tested it, using proxies and just against myself using IG and Chaos. I like the results so far, hopefully I can get a decent sized game together soon and see how it plays out.
This is intended to replace the entire page 34.
Any comments, suggestions, or criticisms are welcome.
Thanks,
Boarding-
A ship or ships may attempt to board an enemy ship if at the end of the controlling players turn, before damage control has been attempted or blast markers removed, the ships bases are touching. A boarding action must be declared during the movement phase. After the action is declared and the ships bases are touching the ships are allowed to fire at each other using half their firepower. If this is a multiship boarding action the defending ship is allowed to fire on the first ship to contact it in each of it's fire arcs. Note: weapons with multiple fire arcs may only fire in one of them. The weapons use the closing column of the weapon battery table and are fired at half strength rounding down. No other modifiers are applied.
In the end phase before blast markers are removed the boarding action is resolved. Each player adds up all remaining hit points on all participating ships. This number is divided by 2 and rounded up. This is the boarding value. Note: Tyranids do not divide by 2 to determine this number. To this is then added the numbers from the following table.
+1 for chaos/orks
+2 for SM/ Tyranids
-1 for Tau (note: Tau only not their allies)
-1 if enemy is Necron
+1 for chaos ships with a CSM crew
+1 for chaos ships with mark of Khorne
-1 if enemy chaos ship has a mark of Nurgle
+2 if enemy ship is crippled
+1 if enemy is on special orders
+1 is own boarding value is greater than the enemy*
+2 is own boarding value is twice or more than the enemy*
+3 is own boarding value is three times or more than the enemy*
+4 is own boarding value is four times or more than the enemy*
(*-only one of these values is applied.)
During the first round of the boarding action the defending player may reduce the number of dice rolled by the attacker by one for every two turrets on the defending ship. This modifier may be applied to each attacking ships boarding value if this is a multiship boarding action.
The final boarding value, after modification, determines the number of dice each player can roll. Each dice that rolls a 4, 5, or a 6 scores a 'hit' on the opposing ship. The player with the highest number of hits is the winner with the difference between the scores being the amount of damage that the loser receives. This damage is distibuted evenly by the controlling player.
Each point of damage may cause a critical hit on a roll of 5+, additionally an extra critical hit may be caused on either ship. Roll a dice for each ship on the following table to determine if the ship receives a critical hit.
difference winner looser
0 +5 +5
1 +5 +5
2 +5 +4
3 +6 +3
4 +6 +2
5 + none auto
If the difference in scores is 0 or the defending player wins then the ships are separated by 1 cm and continue moving normally in the following turns, the defenders successfully defended their ship. If the attacking player wins then the ships remain in contact until the end phase of the following players turn when the boarding action shall be fought again. After the first round of the boarding action only a winning player may decide to separate the ships, a score of a 0 does not separate them. While the ships are locked together they drift 2d6cm in a random direction at the beginning of each players movement phase, as the various ships engines and thrusters fight each other. If a ship with a larger movement class is boarded or is boarding a smaller ship (for example a battleship boarding a cruiser) then the larger ship moves at half speed but otherwise moves normally, no drifting occurs.
While the ships are locked together neither side may fire upon either ship as the risk of hitting friendlies is too great. Note: Orks ignore this rule but must pass a leadership test to not hit their own ships. New ships may attempt to enter the boarding action at any time, but after the first round no ships are allowed to fire upon each other. In a multiship boarding operation all ships must disengage or none can. Assault boats may be launched by nearby ships, turrets work as normal but instead of causing a critical hit they add +1 to the boarding value of the following boarding combat phase.
If either ship is reduced to 0 damage as a result of the boarding action results it is reduced to a drifting hulk, too many of the crew have been killed or wounded for it to continue normal operations. If the ship is reduced to 0 damage as a result of a critical roll on the catastrophic damage table.
^2
(edit: made initially boarding more difficult for the attacker, added in drifting hulk result for being reduced to 0 damage and added extra racial boarding modifiers)
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