Boarding Action
Placeholder for the Arks of Omen Boarding action... thingy GeeDubbs is releasing for 40k soon.
So You Want to Board A Spaceship?[edit | edit source]
If you're lucky we'll be nice and split this into smaller sections with a table of contents one day. One day. Boarding Actions are the new "game mode" being pushed by GW from their new Arks of Omen series (akin to Psychic Awakening and Gathering Storm). In typical GW fashion, they're heavily pushing what is easily more than $500 of setup for the entire thing. In distinctly un-Games Workshop fashion, this is easily avoidable, whether due to game design, intentional input from the designers, or most likely, GW didn't think all the way through. It's a good thing though!
For the young'uns out there, Boarding Actions are the bastard child of Kill Team and a 2,000 point game. For the ve[t/g]amers out there, Boarding Actions are the (un)holy successor of Zone Mortalis. Game play revolves around small (<500 points) armies on a small and dense map, meant to represent the interior of a void ship or space hulk, but which can easily also represent a cramped underhive or dense Ork slum with some modification. The terrain being pushed by GW is ridiculous: the box of terrain that builds one full sized board is $200 dollars. But Boarding Actions are pretty much entirely two-dimensional, so there's literally nothing between you and building 3-4 inch high walls out of LEGO's or something. If you really want to thrift, get a large piece of paper and a pencil, discuss how line of sight works ahead of time with your opponent, and voila - an entire game board for a couple dollars.
Gameplay wise, the game is 90% identical to a full size game of 40k, with some important rules changes to make such small games a bit interesting.
The most important is your limits on what you can bring. A boarding torpedo won't fit a Leman Russ, hell, if you're in the Guard it barely fits you and there's probably a leak in the hull somewhere. Each Boarding Action force gets 1 HQ. That's it. You also can't take a lot of unit types, including vehicles or anything in the Heavy Support slot with some exceptions. Also no Flyers obviously.
Your 1 HQ is also limited. No Warlord Trait + Relic Weapon + "can't run away on such a small board huh?!" for you. They get 1 "Enhancement," and the core rules (available from Wahapedia) have 6. They either act as a Warlord trait or weapon, never both. Factions have their own specific enhancements, available for free from Warhammer Community, or found in their respective Arks of Omen books, along with stratagems (of which there are now markedly fewer, thank the Emperor).
Gameplay is more strategic, as most missions require actions to be taken by one of your very few units on objectives, and it requires actions to open doors to access parts of the map. Finally, Overwatch and Set to Defend are now actions: when a unit that has Set Overwatch sees an enemy unit, it opens fire, hitting on 6's, or 5's depending on special rules. Set to Defend does the same thing it does in the base game, giving you +1 to hit in melee when charged.
Finally, that expensive terrain being pushed by Games Workshop is super important. Firstly, no firing through walls (duh). But according to the rules, any models that cannot see each other are considered INFINITELY far apart. That means no aura or Witchfire psychic powers for hidden models. Additionally, you can only fire at models you can see all of. And no, Mr. That Guy this does not mean hiding a boot behind a pillar is enough. It means that if only one model in front is visible, and that model gets removed, then the rest of the shooting is wasted, as it cannot hit people behind corners. Finally, it requires an action to open doors, which is required as doors often start closed, limiting your mobility.