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How do!

So whilst early days yet as I don’t think anyone has been fully hands on with the rules, we’re starting to get bits and pieces of info about the Boarding Action rules coming in the Arks of Thingy Abaddon book.

I’m genuinely quite hyped for it. 500 points, relative handful of models sounds good, as does a more flexible FoC, in that there are no “tax” units.

I’m hoping my Necrons might have a slight edge, thanks to Immortals being fairly tough to begin with, carrying fairly nasty weapons (Gauss Blaster or Tesla both have appeal in such small scale engagements) and of course Resurrection Protocols might prove pivotal, as few others will be getting back on their feet. Ophydian and Skorpekh Destroyers may also prove interesting, as they have a decent enough number of hard hitting attacks.

There will of course be more to it than just killing and getting back up, but it’s still looking like an interesting challenge.

Main downside I can see is having to shell out for terrain, or build your own from scratch. I’ve loads of Zone Mortalis for Necromunda so I’m pretty much covered there, I think.

How about you? From what we’ve seen so far, are you looking at units in a new light? Might you be parted from precious currency to add something you previously saw no use for?

Looks cool, but going to pass on it. I love my guard tanks too much.

Looks like a fun variant. if the rules were a free PDF or a WD article, I’d take them for a spin. Sound like a nice little riff on a fast and fun combat patrol game.

But I’m not shelling out real money for a book that’s going to be obsolete by the time I finish reading it, and that with the amount of time I spend at the FLGS, might never actually get played.

I’ll buy cool models all day, but GW’s love of splatbooks needs to stop.

I see it was a way to use units you wouldn't normally use.

Deathmarks in 40k aren't great, but in KT they seem useful.

Likewise, normally I wouldn't use flayed ones, but boarding actions seems to suit them well; a lot of tight spaces and apparently they get a rule that makes them harder to hit.
Similar case with Lychguard.

how will this differ from killteam i wonder?

Knowing how 40k players are I predict that they'll play one or two games for the novelty then go back to standard games.

I am interested but reserved, I feel it’s a good start.
But it’s still not great.

I think best hope is it’s an experiment and can be used into the future, or updated into the future.
Good excuse to not play normal 40k if I only bring smaller army


For terrain we will probably just use the city terrain, easy to put in lots of trucks and busses and cars. And lots of little corridors can be made easy

How many of y'all are still playing whatever the last Cityfight expansion was called, or Apocalypse, or that thing with the planes?

I'm pretty excited, honestly. The small scale 40k variants tend to be my favorite form of 40k. I haven't played the newest version of Kill Team, but I really enjoyed the version before that. I really liked 7th edition's Zone Mortalis rules (technically HH rules iirc). I really liked 7th edition's Combat Patrol to the point of it being my preferred way of playing at the time.

I'm cautiously optimistic that Boarding Action will be similarly enjoyable.

 Lord Damocles wrote:
How many of y'all are still playing whatever the last Cityfight expansion was called, or Apocalypse, or that thing with the planes?

Well, the most recent Apocalypse was an entirely different ruleset from 40K and the dog fight expansion was from 7th, so not really relevant. IIRC, the 8th Ed City Fight box wasn't so much a new play style as a linked game campaign system which Crusade does better anyway.

I enjoy smaller games. After taking a break from 40k for some time, Kill Team 2018 brought me back into the hobby. My Primaris Space Marine collection started as a KT.

I like the streamlined approach to lists, and cramped corridors makes me think of old school Suevival Horror video games and Sci fi movies. The only thing stopping me from trying Boarding Actions is the gameboard itself. I'm chock full of Terrain as is.

It favours cheap armies, and by a lot too. With 150-160pts characters and 200pts units, I can't even fit three things in to a 500pts lists.

The fact that it requires people to buy extra books and extra terrain for 270$ is an extra no thank you to me and people playing in my area. I would rather buy models for myself, then spend a lot of money on something, I maybe will play 1-2 times and have no to little fun with.

This would be the thing to get me back into 40k... but, I looked at how many books I would need and said nope. It really should be a free PDF.

As for the terrain being expensive, make your own. It is just walls with the occasional hatch/door. Not very hard to make.

I think I'll just stick to Space Hulk and Betrayal at Calth for my claustrophobic games.

It looks interesting at a glance. The individual army rules look very wonky, though.

Karol wrote:
It favours cheap armies, and by a lot too. With 150-160pts characters and 200pts units, I can't even fit three things in to a 500pts lists.

Reminds me of when my friends and I would play 500pt games back in 3rd.

Necrons:
Necron Lord - 100pts
10 Necrons - 180pts
10 Necrons - 180pts
Total 460pts

The above were all mandatory, so that left all of 40pts for optional units and wargear. Fun times.

 vipoid wrote:
It looks interesting at a glance. The individual army rules look very wonky, though.

Karol wrote:
It favours cheap armies, and by a lot too. With 150-160pts characters and 200pts units, I can't even fit three things in to a 500pts lists.

Reminds me of when my friends and I would play 500pt games back in 3rd.

Necrons:
Necron Lord - 100pts
10 Necrons - 180pts
10 Necrons - 180pts
Total 460pts

The above were all mandatory, so that left all of 40pts for optional units and wargear. Fun times.

Ah, I also remember being a Necron player with the 3rd edition Codex as well. At least the 500pts left 40pts for a Resurrection Orb, those things were pretty much mandatory for Necrons.

It was a very bland 500pts, but it could do quite well, due to gauss and just how damn resilient those Necrons were.

Has anyone been tempted to do an entirely new force purely for Boarding Actions?

Swooping Hawks! Be caged little birdies, CAGED!

 stonehorse wrote:

 vipoid wrote:
It looks interesting at a glance. The individual army rules look very wonky, though.

Karol wrote:
It favours cheap armies, and by a lot too. With 150-160pts characters and 200pts units, I can't even fit three things in to a 500pts lists.

Reminds me of when my friends and I would play 500pt games back in 3rd.

Necrons:
Necron Lord - 100pts
10 Necrons - 180pts
10 Necrons - 180pts
Total 460pts

The above were all mandatory, so that left all of 40pts for optional units and wargear. Fun times.

Ah, I also remember being a Necron player with the 3rd edition Codex as well. At least the 500pts left 40pts for a Resurrection Orb, those things were pretty much mandatory for Necrons.

It was a very bland 500pts, but it could do quite well, due to gauss and just how damn resilient those Necrons were.

Unfortunately, mine usually got chewed up by a tooled-up Deamon Prince, as they sucked badly in melee and We'll Be Back didn't work if they were cut down.

(You're right though, you'd always take a Resurrection Orb for that list.)

 stonehorse wrote:

 vipoid wrote:
It looks interesting at a glance. The individual army rules look very wonky, though.

Karol wrote:
It favours cheap armies, and by a lot too. With 150-160pts characters and 200pts units, I can't even fit three things in to a 500pts lists.

Reminds me of when my friends and I would play 500pt games back in 3rd.

Necrons:
Necron Lord - 100pts
10 Necrons - 180pts
10 Necrons - 180pts
Total 460pts

The above were all mandatory, so that left all of 40pts for optional units and wargear. Fun times.

Ah, I also remember being a Necron player with the 3rd edition Codex as well. At least the 500pts left 40pts for a Resurrection Orb, those things were pretty much mandatory for Necrons.

It was a very bland 500pts, but it could do quite well, due to gauss and just how damn resilient those Necrons were.

Be a rebel. Leave the orb at home just to show that you can!

 Sim-Life wrote:
Knowing how 40k players are I predict that they'll play one or two games for the novelty then go back to standard games.

Exactly why I wouldn't bother. If this arrived earlier in the edition then maybe it would be worth it.

Kill team players who already have the terrain are probably happy playing kill team already.

Everyone else will wait to see if the new edition invalidates it.

I love the concept though. Reviving ZM for 40k is a good idea but should have been done sooner.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m genuinely quite hyped for it.

It's hard to get hyped when a company wants you to pay $100 for a set of rules that won't matter by June.

And my cynicism can't see this as anything other than GW attempting to justify the cost of tooling all that boarding action KT terrain by expanding where it gets used.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m genuinely quite hyped for it.

It's hard to get hyped when a company wants you to pay $100 for a set of rules that won't matter by June.

And my cynicism can't see this as anything other than GW attempting to justify the cost of tooling all that boarding action KT terrain by expanding where it gets used.

Yeah, this basically. Been down this road before, going as far back as Armaggedon, Cities of Death, Cityfight, Apocalypse, Psychic nothings and all that. By the time its out, people have geared up for it and started to play a couple games, it'll be gone and forgotten.

For the rules themselves, based on what's been previewed, I have no urge whatsoever to pay for rules on 'how to use walls and doors' and being forced not to use half or more of any given army. Especially not the stuff that is functionally equivalent to units other armies get special exemptions to take, as if that's going to be vaguely balanced at all.

 vipoid wrote:


Unfortunately, mine usually got chewed up by a tooled-up Deamon Prince, as they sucked badly in melee and We'll Be Back didn't work if they were cut down.

(You're right though, you'd always take a Resurrection Orb for that list.)

The Orb allowed you to roll for WBB even if hit by a power weapon or anything that ignores armour saves. So the lord could get back up.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Wyldhunt wrote:
.

Be a rebel. Leave the orb at home just to show that you can!

Sadly impossible, in truth the Orb's were stuck to the Necron Lord, trying as they might those Orbs just could not leave the Lord's hand.

Anyway, back on topic.
I agree that the shelf life will also be short, so GW have a proven track record for pump and dump. Just a shame that along the way they make some interesting game formats that get over looked.

Voss wrote:
For the rules themselves, based on what's been previewed, I have no urge whatsoever to pay for rules on 'how to use walls and doors' and being forced not to use half or more of any given army. Especially not the stuff that is functionally equivalent to units other armies get special exemptions to take, as if that's going to be vaguely balanced at all.

That's also a point I hadn't considered: The ass backwards army construction rules, and all those utterly nonsensical restrictions and caveats. Can't bring Zoanthropes and Venomthropes in the same army because... reasons! Can bring as many Death Guard Terminators as the new FOC allows, but Ork players can only ever bring 2 units of MANZ because... don't know!

I'm not hyped, but it's nice that IttD gameplay mode comes to 40K as well, just to spice things up in Narrative play. There can always be more variety in missions when playing a longer Campaign. Also, my modest T'au collection will finally find its use as a 500pt boarding patrol (to be used as NPC Space Pirate faction in our upcoming Crusade)

I don't think I'd be into it if I weren't into KT21 though; that terrain takes a bunch of space and getting it assembled and painted will no doubt take ages. There should also be more synergy with the Arks of Omen & Zone Mortalis terrain than there is, seems like a wasted opportunity.

The books are a dumb idea though. Why not just sell the terrain and those new bases, rest of the rules should be free just like the Mustering PDF. I hate book bloat in general, doubly so when GW doesn't offer current 40K books as digital downloads. It's a lot of work authoring digital copies out of the printed books just for your personal use, I'd much rather pay for them than spending the hours scanning/OCR'ing/typesetting etc. I don't want to use physical books when playing, much more convenient to have them in my 'slate where I can splitscreen/bookmark/screenshot etc and still have carrying capacity left for my models etc. My slate doubles as a jukebox playing 40K theme music from Tidal when the game is running

I like what I read about it and as a coincidence I started to build my D&L spaceship corridors last month so I'd be nearly prepared to do these kinds of games. I also painted 50 aliens last year that could count as tyranids.
I think GW will price me out of this though, but maybe some folks sell their books for 10€ when 10th comes around, I could see me picking them up then.

Edit: For me GWs pace is just too fast these days, by the time I'm thinking: now I'm ready to buy these books and play with them they'll probably be out of print and their rules out of date due to 10th.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

Voss wrote:
For the rules themselves, based on what's been previewed, I have no urge whatsoever to pay for rules on 'how to use walls and doors' and being forced not to use half or more of any given army. Especially not the stuff that is functionally equivalent to units other armies get special exemptions to take, as if that's going to be vaguely balanced at all.

That's also a point I hadn't considered: The ass backwards army construction rules, and all those utterly nonsensical restrictions and caveats. Can't bring Zoanthropes and Venomthropes in the same army because... reasons! Can bring as many Death Guard Terminators as the new FOC allows, but Ork players can only ever bring 2 units of MANZ because... don't know!

GW games should have fluff nd design notes explaining such things, would be easier to swallow.

As others have said, possibly interesting concept which will likely get no further love from GW. Pass.

Here's Ash with a first look and a batrep




The book is laughably thin on actual content, hard pass from me at that price.

It's also the typical hard pendulum swing on GW's part.

Does this version have a more reasonable approach to stratagems, warlord traits and relics? Nope! You just get none of them! All gone. You can't bring even one from your book.

Instead have 3 generic strats, 5 generic traits, and a 6th trait that's a generic "You have a Relic" that is +1S/+1D.

They threw the baby out with the bathwater so hard that they lost their grip on the bath...

 tauist wrote:
Here's Ash with a first look and a batrep




The book is laughably thin on actual content, hard pass from me at that price.

Sounds about right for GW.
Little content and rules, but at a premium price.
Everyone gripes about the model prices, but it's actually the rules that are the real grift.

Also -
"You have to use the Boarding Action(TM) terrain to use these missions"
Lol, GW gonna GW.
Just use some shoe boxes and styrofoam to make corridors.