Starship Boarding Actions:

a 40k Mini Game

About Boarding Actions
A Boarding Action is a 40k mini-game, usually played in the context of a campaign,
where a small, elite force attacks the interior of an enemy space craft. Each Boarding
Action represents only one of many individual missions against enemy space craft and
is just a glimpse of the larger action happening across the ship and the fleet.

While a single Boarding Action itself is small and can be played in a short time, larger
battles can be found by combining several Boarding Action boards and forces and op-
tionally linking objectives together.

Boarding Action Force Selection

A Boarding Action has an Attacker and a Defender. Each side has different require-
ments for selecting their force, but both sides have the same value of points to spend.

General Force Selection

• Forces can be selected up to a value of 350 points.

• Only Infantry and units that move like Infantry (Walkers and Monstrous Creatures) are
allowed.

• Only units from type Troops and Elites on the Force Organization chart can be se-
lected.

• Forces must be selected using the normal restrictions for each unit (required number
in a unit to access certain wargear or certain required models like a Sergeant, for ex-
ample)

• Basically pick your force just like you normally would, except that you donʼt need to
fulfill the Force Organization Chart requirement of two Troops selections.

Boarding Action Special Units

Imperial Starship Troopers .... 10 points each
Trooper: WS 3, BS 4, S 3, T 3, W 1, I 3, A 1, Ld 8, Sv 4+

Tasked with ship security and defending against incursions, Navy Troopers are the
shipʼs best dedicated fighting force.

Composition: 2-6 Troopers per squad

Troopers are armed with shotguns. Any Trooper in the squad may trade their shotgun
for a laspistol and close combat weapon. If numbering 5 models or more, one Trooper
in a squad may upgrade his shotgun with a flamer for 5 points.

0-2 Multi-laser Gun Emplacement(s) .... 30 points each

Gun: WS 0, BS 3, AV10

Guns are immobile and are destroyed by and glancing or penetrating hit. A gun that
suffers a ʻDestroyed - explodesʼ result always explodes with a 2” radius.

1 Shield Generator .... free

Generator: AV10. The local Shield Generator is immobile and destroyed by any glanc-
ing or penetrating hit. Once destroyed the Attacker may Deep Strike if the model can
deploy by teleportation (usually only models in Terminator armor).

Boarding Action Missions

Select a Mission
There are 3 Boarding Action Missions: Sabotage, Assassinate, and Reconnoitre. Roll a
D6 to determine the mission to be used if one is not given by the campaign scenario.

D6 Mission
1-2 Sabotage
3-4 Assassinate
5-6 Reconnoitre

Ending The Game

There is no set number of turns for a Boarding Action. The game continues until the ob-
jective is achieved by the Attacker or the Attacker is destroyed. If the Defender is
completely destroyed, the game ends and the Attacker loses. With no friendly crew
in the attacked area, the airlock doors are blown open and the attackers are flushed out
into space.

Sabotage
The Attacker must destroy an object of critical importance.

The Sabotage target, placed by the defender, must be destroyed for the Attacker to win.
The target counts as an immobile AV14 vehicle that is destroyed by any glancing or
penetrating hit. Once destroyed, the target always explodes in a 6” radius and models
within 6” of it take hits as per the ʻDestroyed - explodesʼ vehicle damage result. The
Sabotage target should be modeled by a distinctive piece of terrain.

Sabotage IST deployment: The defender deploys a single squad of 6 Imperial Starship
Troopers at each objective. These troops are free, but the defender may spend 5 points
to upgrade one Trooper per squad to a flamer.
Sabotage campaign scenarios: Destroy the generator to lower the bridge force field for
another boarding action, sabotage the engines to prevent interception of an invasion
force, blow the power regulator to cause the shipʼs reactor to overload and explode.

Assassinate
The Attacker kill a person key to the enemyʼs strategy.

In an Assassinate mission, the Attacker achieves victory is the Assassinate target is

killed. The Assassinate target is controlled by the Defender. The Defender may deploy
and move the model normally, but may not move it off the board. The Assassinate tar-
get has the following profile:

Target: WS 3, BS 3, S 3, T 3, W 2, I 3, A 2, Ld 10, Sv 6+

Assassinate IST deployment: The defender deploys two squads of 6 Imperial Starship
Troopers with at least one model within 6” of the Assassinate Target. These troops are
free, but the defender may spend 5 points to upgrade one Trooper per squad to a
flamer.

Assassinate campaign scenarios: kill the Naval commander to disrupt fleet operations,
assassinate the Astropath to prevent warp communications, stop a traitor from handing
over information to the enemy.

Reconnoitre
The Attacker must retrieve information regarding the capabilities of the enemy.

In a Reconnoitre mission, the Attacker must move to D3 locations on the enemy ship
and leave from where they entered with at least one surviving model.

Sabotage IST deployment: The defender deploys a single squad of 6 Imperial Starship
Troopers with at least one model within 6” of any of the Reconnoitre locations. These
troops are free, but the defender may spend 5 points to equip one per squad with a
flamer.

Reconnoitre campaign scenarios: retrieving plans from an enemy data terminal, discov-
ering and freeing a captive, determine location of critical systems for later sabotage.

Boarding Action Deployment

Notes on Terrain
It is recommended that Boarding Action games are played on a maze of rooms and cor-
ridors instead of a normal open board with terrain pieces.

Stairs count as difficult terrain and other special sections of the ship may count as diffi-
cult and dangerous terrain.
Star ship walls and bulkheads are impassible terrain. If teleporting models scatter into a
wall, bulkhead or other ship terrain piece they suffer a deep strike mishap as detailed in
the Warhammer 40k rule book.

Doors open and close automatically behind models. Doors are always considered
closed for purposes of shooting and line of sight. You may not shoot into a room unless
more than half of the modelʼs base is in the room or past the line that marks the border
of the hallway.

Placing Terrain and Objectives

The players place terrain and objectives and mark breach and defense points according
to the scenario. The shield generator is placed by the defender more than 6" from any
mission objectives.
Defender Deploys
The defender deploys his Imperial Starship Troopers according to the mission type.

Attacker Deploys
The Attacker deploys his forces evenly and as close as possible to the breach points
specified in the scenario. The Attacker may leave any of his forces in Reserve.

Playing a Boarding Action

The Attacker takes the first turn and moves, shoots and assaults as per the 40k rule-
book except for the Boarding Action Special Rules given in the next section.

Defender Reinforcements
Starting on the first turn the Defender has a chance to reinforce his troops. These de-
fending forces enter the board at Defender Entry Points. There should be at least two
Defender Entry Points and their location should be specified in the scenario.

Each turn the defender rolls a D6 and consults the table below to determine which units
show up at that entry point. Roll once for each Defender Entry Point.

D6 Unit
1,2 No units
3,4 Imperial Starship Troopers
5,6 Any unit from the Defenderʼs Space Marine force

IST Tokens
If Imperial Starship Troopers arrive as reinforcements an IST Token is selected ran-
domly and placed at the appropriate Defender Entry Point. An IST Token is moved
normally and only revealed when in line of sight of an Attacker. When revealed, turn
over the IST Token. The IST Token will indicate the number of IST to be place at the
location of the token.
If you do not print and use the supplied IST Tokens, you can use any marker to repre-
sent an IST Token and roll on the following table when revealed:

D6 Imperial Storm Troopers

1 One IST
2-4 Two ISTs
5 Three ISTs
6 Two ISTs plus one IST with flamer

ISTs that appear may be equipped with laspistol and close combat weapon or shotgun
at the Defenderʼs choice. IST with flamer may optionally be equipped with laspistol and
close combat weapon or shotgun.

Attacker Reinforcements
Attackers enter the board from one of the breach points, starting their move from the
board edge and moving onto the board normally. Attacker reinforcements that enter via
breach points count as moving for purposes of firing heavy weapons.

Attackers can only enter the board from the breach points until the shield generator is
destroyed. After the shield generator is destroyed, models that can teleport (usually
only models in Terminator armor) may enter the board via deep strike as normal.

Boarding Action Special Rules

Fighting inside a space ship is much different then fighting on the surface of a planet.
For this reason the following special rules are in effect for all Boarding Actions.

Guns Blazing!
Fighting within the labyrinthine passages of a star ship is done almost exclusively at
close quarters. A unit being assaulted may elect to shoot with their guns rather than
make close combat attacks that round. Work out the shooting at double the modelʼs Ini-
tiative. Casualties do not count towards combat resolution. Any model that attacks a
model Guns Blazing! re-rolls misses to hit in assault as the defenders are shooting
rather than bracing for close combat.

Bull Rush
The tight passageways of a starship can easily be clogged by close combat. Some-
times the best way to clear the path is to simply smash your way through. Instead of
making normal close combat attacks any model may make a Bull Rush at Initiative 0.
Models making a Bull Rush make a Strength test. If successful, the model moves any
direction one inch for every 2 points of their Strength characteristic. Dreadnought Close
Combat Weapons double Strength, so a S6 Dreadnought with DCCW would move 5”.

Enemy models are moved backwards to make way for the attackers movement. Note
that this may move a whole pile of models involved in close combat. Do your best to
move them “back” the proper distance to allow the Bull Rush move to complete. Other
models will fill in the void during Pile In moves as normal.
Only one Bull Rush can be made for each side in an assault.

If enemy models in base to base contact both attempt a Bull Rush, each player should
roll a D6 and add the modelʼs Strength and add 1 for every friendly model in base to
base with the model performing the Bull Rush. The player with the higher total score
makes a Bull Rush as normal.

Suicide Mission
All models in a Boarding Action are Fearless.

Tight Quarters
Models may not move down passages narrower than their base. All Template weapons
count as twin-linked.

Familiar Ground
All Defenders (Marines and ISTs) ignore difficult terrain and count as having frag gre-
nades for assault.

One For All

Imperial Starship Troopers always join together to repel invaders. ISTs within 2” of each
other automatically form a single unit with no limit on size.