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I saw the book at the shop the other day and tlhad totally forgotten that the game had even existed.

I've never even attempted to read the rules, let alone build an army to play it.

I asked around, and I couldn't find anyone who actually played Boarding Actions.

A few people remember reading the Boarding Patrol rules in the Arks of Omen books and White Dwarf articles.

I could only find 2 people who played.

Why is this? Were the rules bad? I can't imagine blaming on terrain because people play Kill Team and Necromunda, and that requires a lot of terrain.

Did you ever buy the Boarding Actions book or play the game?

It's a mix of needing a separate book to play and fixed terrain layouts for the missions. It gives many people the impression that they have to dump a ton of money on terrain that for a game mode. And all that without knowing whether you might enjoy playing boarding action or not.
Thus, you don't have many people who own book and terrain, so other people won't be able to try out boarding action against them.

There also is the issue that it's more or less a kill team game with 40k rules, so people who play small games regularly would probably rather go for kill team instead of boarding action.

I played a lot of boarding action, and regular use it when being the CM for a crusade. It's a great game mode, especially when you don't have much time, it's vastly more interesting than playing combat patrol.

You can also use pretty much any terrain, as long as you make sure to more or less stick to the board size and set up the pieces dense enough to create lots of choke points.

I've played it both in 9e & now 10th.
A couple of us play it now & then, usually mixed into some sort of campaign.

It is absolutely NOT Kill Team.

The drawbacks we've found:
1) most people don't want to buy yet another book. Especially for a game varient they won't play very often.
2) alot of people don't like the limits put on units.
3) The biggest one - TERRAIN
●People look at the terrain & are immediately put off by the price tag.
Never mind that this can all be made decently & cheaply by various means.....
(And the local shop has 4 complete sets anyone can use - wich is what we do)
●The GW terrain as-is is also a slight PITA to assemble.
●Lazyness - It takes a fair amount of time to set up the terrain/boards. Certainly more than just tossing down a few L ruins for standard 40k.

I'd also so that people who have 2k points painted generally want to use it all. Boarding Actions are great for new players and slow painters.

I'm in a Boarding Action League, and I love it... But then I always organize large armies into smaller subgroups anyway... So even when I'm playing a 2k army, that's never what it feels like- it's more like playing maybe two 500 point armies and a 1k army at the same time.

This thought process/ organizational structure really predisposes me to Boarding Action style games: sometimes the subgroups within the larger army are full Boarding Patrol armies.

Like if you play Drukhari, you can build the Boarding Action detachment for Kabalites, the Boarding Action detachment for your Wych Cult and the Boarding Action Detachment for your Coven... And you can field any one of those three in a Boarding Action, or combine them to play at 1k or 1500.

That's really cool as a Crusader, because it stratifies the experience profiles of the units in your army.

Boarding Actions is the primary way I play 40k these days. There's a wealth of missions in the book, along with the WD ones (some of which are enjoyably wacky).

It also lets you try a new army with relatively small investment (I've never played Nids in full-size 40k but now have a detachment that scratches the itch).

On the down side, the terrain can take some time to break down and set up between games. The sheer amount can seem overwhelming to paint (luckily, I found a great YouTube tutorial that gave me decent results in not much time).

Pro-tip: mask over the tabs before you begin painting, as the connections are super-tight.

It's great fun, especially if you don't mind games being super swingy at times and accept that some armies are somewhat disadvantaged at some mission types.

I quite like boarding action. It serves as a nice middle ground between 40k and Kill Team and I've found it the best way to play small point games. (Combat Patrol is very limited and restrictive, and straight up 500pt games often lead to one sided wipes.) (Though if you account for fan made modes, Play On's Coliseum mode is also a very fun 500pt mode.)

The rules for Boarding Action feel like they are tweaked very well for the modified system and I like that positioning matters a lot more, with flanking actually being something you need to think about. I also love the wide variety of mission types and crazy things that can happen during some games.

The two main downsides are the investment in the terrain if you didn't get into the Kill Team boxes when they came out, and that the army lists can be a little restrictive. Most of the time it feels like there are only 2 or 3 (sometimes even 1) way to build a specific "Detachment" with the restriction on the models you can take for it, so there is a bit less creativity on that front.

Is Boarding Actions capped at 500 points? Or does it work at higher point levels?

All the missions assume a 500 point force. The board could get a touch congested at higher numbers.

Even if you could go over 500, the army list limitations prevent you from building anything too extreme. Given how restrictive those lists are, 500 points is usually sufficient.

Is there a short version of rules or I need buy fancy books to try it out?

Unfortunately, I think you do kinda need the book. There may have been generic rules that allowed folks to play something like boarding actions while we were waiting for the book, but it wouldn't have included all the detachments.

kabaakaba wrote:
Is there a short version of rules or I need buy fancy books to try it out?

I think the rules are up on Whahapedia.

kabaakaba wrote:
Is there a short version of rules or I need buy fancy books to try it out?

The Boarding Actions rules were originally released at the tail end of 9th edition in the Arks of Omen series of campaign books. The first book (Abaddon) had the core rules, and each book in the sequence introduced additional faction-specific rules across the range, extra missions, etc. White Dwarf also ran a series of articles with lots of additional game modes and scenarios for 9th ed Boarding Actions. This focussed on a space hulk called The Herald of Misery, and added a lot of interesting twists and missions to the standard rules. I thought it was a lot of fun.

For 10th edition, revised Boarding Actions rules were released in a single compendium-style book, so now you just need that one book. Officially.

I find it a fun game mode for smaller collections. Good for times when you don’t want to do a full 2,000 point engagement. I picked up a couple of the Into the Dark kill team boxes, so I was set for terrain, but really you could get by with some polystyrene packaging, or even bits of cardboard, to scratch build some corridor walls.

I enjoy it as a game mode for the Space Hulk vibe of fighting in cramped corridors.

I briefly checked the rules and this really cool. Asymmetric missions are amazing and closed table is nice. I think I gonna buy terrain set myself to try it out.
Also I have a question, does Boarding patrol box is enough to play?

kabaakaba wrote:
I briefly checked the rules and this really cool. Asymmetric missions are amazing and closed table is nice. I think I gonna buy terrain set myself to try it out.
Also I have a question, does Boarding patrol box is enough to play?

The box gives you the terrain you need to set up your boards. You also need the book, which contains the rules and lots of scenarios. Other than that you just need your 500 point army ready to go.

At the beginning of 10th there was a free PDF for the rules and another for the allowed units - I played several times using those rules. If you want to test it, try to find this PDF before buying, the core concepts haven't changed.
You can also build the terrain with card board before committing to the GW Terrain, or try to find some in eBay from all the kill team boxes or was released with.

I would be happy if I can open Warhammer community and download rules. But I can cause gov blocked half of internet. And that not an exaggeration. I checked rules on waha, they are great. Also I found full terrain set for around $70, so it's good deal, and I like this terrain for kill team

The best thing about Boarding Actions are the mustering rules!

By declaring "NO VEHICLES!" you are set for a jolly good game of regular 40K at only 500 points. No static lists here! Take that Combat Patrol!

Don't wan't start new thread so ask here. I see few mentions about Boarding actions corelations with Crusades. Can anyone explain how it's work?

kabaakaba wrote:
Don't wan't start new thread so ask here. I see few mentions about Boarding actions corelations with Crusades. Can anyone explain how it's work?

How we did two Crusades ago:
*500pt BA mission - determine mission
*Your force has to be BA compliant list unit wise.
*Choose appropriate units from your supply.
*All Crusade upgrades to various units apply.

Most people simply had a Boarding Action force "built into" their roster. That way if a Boarding Action mission was drawn they were ready.
A few people didn't do this. Some of them could muster a workable (if not necessarily optimal) force.
2 of them (both Knights players) simply had to concede those games. This was their own fault as they could have included various allies in their Crusade roster. They simply chose to spend all their pts on Knights, Knights, & more Knights.....

To add to what CCS said, one thing about Crusading with Boarding actions is that the point limit ensures you never have more than one Agenda... Which may make some of the longer term goals more difficult to achieve.

Abilities which allow an army to select an extra Agenda are particularly helpful in this format, because without them, you'll only ever have one.

As CCS said though, not all of the Crusade battles you fight have to be Boarding Actions. It's one of the things I love about roster-based play (whether as part of a Crusade or otherwise): you can always play smaller battles when it suits the narrative. Just because you're escalating and increasing supply limit, that doesn't mean you have to use the full limit for every battle.

Boarding Actions are just as good at representing interiors of buildings as they are at representing voidcraft, so setting up a regular 40k with a terrain feature that represents an entrance into a building can set up a separate, smaller Boarding Action side mission.

Got it, thanks. Now I just need terrain and few more little armies.