[FT] Replacement Boarding Rules v1.0b

Boarding Actions for FT:FB

These rules are a joint effort by Jared Noble and Schoon, with ideas
culled from
others on the list. They replace the boarding rules from More Thrust,
bringing
them on line with FT:FB1.

Boarding Parties and Defense Teams

In More Thrust, ships were given a certain number of Boarding Parties
for free.
This number was determined only on the MASS of the ship. One of the
elegant
aspects of the Fleet Book construction system was the elimination, or at
least
reduction, of "freebies" in the construction system, along with better
defined
crew rules. Thus...

No ship carries Boarding Parties unless they are specifically purchased
during
construction, although Defense Teams may be assembled from the general
crew in
order to defend the ship from enemy invaders.

It was accurately pointed out on the FTML that it is contrary to current
naval
practice for vessels to carry trained teams for boarding actions. It is
not
unreasonable, in an age of increasingly long range warfare, that this
trend will
continue. It was also observed that Full Thrust has a very low frequency
of
actual boarding operations in most games. Thus eliminating the
previously free
boarding parties has very little impact on play or ship design. However,
the
ability to use regular crew as defenders preserves a defensive ability
on all
but the smallest vessels.

Boarding Factors (BF) can consist of Defense Teams, Boarding Parties, or
Grunts.

Defense Teams (Naval Personnel):
For every 2 surviving crew units aboard (round down), a ship may muster
1
Boarding Factor of defenders for purposes of resisting boarding actions.
These
teams are "free" in the sense that they are drawn from the current crew,
and so
are available to all but the smallest vessels. Because they are hastily
assembled and not specifically equipped, they may not be used in
offensive
boarding operations. For every casualty taken, place checks by 2 crew
units to
indicate they may no longer be used as Defense Teams.

Boarding Parties (Marines):
Boarding Parties must be purchased and are represented on the SSD as an
anchor
inside a circle. Each of these teams count as 1 Boarding Factor in
combat, and
may be used in offensive operations. They do not suffer casualties as
crew units
are eliminated, but are subject to thresholds like any other system.
Boarding
Parties lost to threshold rolls may by "repaired" by damage control,
representing medical treatment, but those lost in combat cannot be
recovered.

Boarding Party - 1 MASS, POINT COST = 3

Though 1 MASS may seem high, Marines require a large amount of special
equipment, including recoilless weapons, power armor with thruster
packs, and
other bulky items. They are specially trained and equipped for these
actions.

Carried Troops (Grunts):
Ground troops carried aboard troop ships may be pressed into service to
defend
the vessel. Every 2 MASS of ground troops carried yields 1 Boarding
Factor,
which may only be used for defensive operations. Because most of the
troops'
weapons and equipment are stowed, and that they lack the extensive
training and
specific equipment required for boarding actions, they are not nearly as
efficient as Marines.

Resolving Boarding Actions

These rules, while simple, provide a more flexible and "realistic"
resolution of
boarding actions, while taking into account the new core systems rules
from the
FT:FB.

Using the FT/MT system, any Boarding Factors (old Boarding Parties) that
were
severely outnumbered could not possibly win, nor inflict any casualties.
Even a
two vs. four situation was virtually hopeless for the defenders,
contrary to the
example in MT.

Boarding actions take place after "Step 9: Ships Fire" in the sequence
of play.
To be eligible for a boarding action, the ships in question must be
within 6"
and have a difference in velocity no greater than one. If using the
Cinematic
Movement System, the course may vary by no more than one clock face than
that of
the target ship, or, if using the Vector Movement System, by no more
than 30
°
off that of the target vessel.

Each BF is assigned to either offensive or defensive status. Offensive
BFs,
which must consist solely of Boarding Parties, are those that will
assault the
enemy ship, and defensive BFs, which may be a combination of any type of
BF,
will defend their own.

Any ship assaulted by enemy BFs must resolve a boarding action for the
turn.
Both offensive and defensive players roll one die for each BF, and score
it in
the same manner as a beam weapon, including re-rolls on a 6. The result
is the
number of casualties inflicted on the opposing force. For example, if
two
defensive BFs were assaulted by four offensive BFs, they would roll two
and four
dice respectively. If the rolls were 2 and 5 for the defenders, and 1,
4, 3, and
6 (re-roll of 4), the casualties would be 1 and 4 respectively. The
defenders
have died gloriously, but at least they took a "bad guy" down with them.

If, after casualties have been removed, there are still BFs on both
sides,
another round of combat will ensue on the following turn. A ship could
potentially be in contest for some time, with both players making an
effort to
reinforce their side in the intervening turn.

The defending player has the option of giving up a core system instead
of a
casualty. The effects of giving up the system are exactly the same as if
it has
failed a threshold check, with the exception of the power core. The
power core
will not explode (unless that is the assault team's objective), but
simply acts
as if it had been dumped upon a roll of 5-6 (FB pg. 5). For example, a
defender
with two BFs takes two casualties from offensive forces. Confident that
he can
get reinforcements from friendly ships next turn, he removes one BF and
gives up
life support. The other player rolls one die (as if life support had
failed) and
gets a two. Whatever happens, the defender had better hope that the
action is
resolved within the next two turns.

The contested ship remains in the hands of the defenders and continues
to move
and fire normally (subject to the effects of surrendered core systems)
until the
defenders are defeated in the Boarding Resolution phase.

Note that with this system, a ship can drop off an assault force and
then thrust
away to do other things. Likewise, a defender, who has any capacity to
do so,
can limp closer to friendly forces in hopes of help.

Optional rules:

Attacking Systems (Raids) -

On the initial turn of boarding a ship, a boarding force may declare a
special
effort to damage one specific system. Core systems are not valid
targets. The
attacker then assigns a number of his BFs to the task. The boarding
action is
resolved as normal, except the attacker may not roll for the BFs
involved in the
raid. If the BF assigned to the raid survives, the target system must
take a
threshold roll vs. 6. Each additional surviving BF that was assigned to
the raid
lowers the threshold roll by 1.

Boarding Cutters -

Boarding cutters are an alternate means of getting BFs to the target
ship. They
are based loosely on the shuttle rules from the B5:EFSB.

The Cutter moves in the same phase and in the same manner as fighters,
with a
speed of 18 MU. It takes 2 damage points to destroy. The first point of
damage
to the shuttle yields no effect, but the second point destroys the
shuttle and
all aboard. It attacks as a single fighter if intercepted by fighters.
If the
cutter ends its movement within 6" of an enemy ship and survives PDS
fire, the
boarding parties may attack. Cutters have an endurance of 2 and may
carry 2 BFs
(BPs only).

Boarding Cutter
2 MASS (requires 3 MASS hanger), POINT COST = 6

Prize Crews -

Once a ship is taken, a prize crew must be transferred if it is to be
taken as a
spoil of war. Prize crews consists of a number of crew units equal to
1/5
(rounding up) of the original crew value for the ship. These crew
maintain the
ability to act as Damage Control Parties for establishing control and
repairing
the ship. Prize crews may come from any vessel of the victor's fleet. No
ship
may be reduced to less than 1/5 its original crew rating. This is the
minimum
crew required to maintain standard ship-board operations.

With a prize crew in place, the ship is now under limited control of its
new
owners. Most ship systems will be offline and locked with security
measures, and
control must be reestablished. To establish control, a successful damage
control
roll must be made by one of the new crew acting as a DCP. This roll does
not
actually repair damage, but simply restores control of the systems. Each
category listed below must be repaired individually.

Manuever: the ship may immediately maneuver at 1/2 current thrust
rating.
Reactivation restores current maximum thrust.

FTL: FTL is offline. Reactivation allows normal use.

Defensive systems: initially offline, reactivation permits use of
screens and
PDS, but not ADFC, which requires a refit to conform to another fleet's
control
protocol.

Offensive weapons: Offensive systems are generally held under much
tighter
security than other ship systems, and therefore cannot be reactivated
during the
course of a game. This requires the more extensive resources available
at a
shipyard or other major fleet center.

Life support systems require no reactivation roll.