"Suggestions for 15mm boarding parties?" Topic

Looking for some opinions on which 15mm models to use to represent starship-based marines/boarding/defense troops. Which would you use, and why?

And, no, 'none because it's implausible/improbable' isn't really helpful here. ;)

For boarding and assault troops, I'd recommend some in battle armor, for self-protection and a bit more capability.

Assaults inside ships, up defended corridors, or even by blasting through interior bulkheads is bound to be brutal, and bloody, and you won't have an endless supply of troops far from home, especially on smaller vessels. It's not like you can really outflank people on a spaceship or starship, in many cases, so frontal attacks will probably be the norm, much of the time.

Of course, the exception to that rule will be some ships with multiple decks, and/or many side corridors, but that probably won't apply in a lot of cases, and even if it does, those should be fairly well defended too.

Same goes for the defenders, who will want battle armor too, if they can afford the equipment.

Still, I keep thinking back to the poor rebels in the opening scene of the first Star Wars movie, episode 4. So, you may see mismatches like that at times. As presented in the movie, the guys without battle armor don't do too well, but I was a bit surprised at the number of losses of stormtroopers who were wearing battle armor.

For everyday transports, and shuttles, I suspect there will be few, if any battle armored troops, or suits available for the security personnel, or crews/passengers, so regularly dressed figs would work too, in many scenarios.

Ground Zero Games, Rebel, Khurasan, and others make some nice troops with, and without battle armor, so you can pick and choose between their offerings.

I for one have a collection of troops in Hardsuits for invaders and softsuits for defenders.

Hardsuits are easy as nearly everyone makes a example.

GZGs has a number of packs that qualify as softsuits and Rafm Has a couple as well.

link

these guys look cool 8)

For hardsuits, GZG does the UNSC and the New Israelis.

I'm hoping we'll eventually get some new sculpts for the UNSC hardsuits.

GZG also offers troops in light and heavy vacuum suits, which seems like a good idea for boarding actions, in case weapons fire holes the vessel, or the defender decides to open all the airlocks to try to have the attackers ejected into space.

For softsuits, their UNSC light troopers are quite nice, as are their NAC, and OUDF. There are other options too, from them, for security personnel, and/or marines.

As mentioned, Rebel and Khurasan do some very nice troops too.

For some older figs, which are still very nice, in Space Suits, with weapons, have a look at RAFM's 15mm range. They are wearing very nice, bubble-style helmets. They are about 30 years old, but still some of the nicest sculpts around.

RAFM and GZG both offer some useful civilians too, for various situations you may come across in boarding actions.

Rebel Minis Earthforce Marines:

rebelminis.com/eafoma.html

Alternatively, 15mm.co.uk Imperial Troops:

link

You could use robots to board ships as seen in "The Ice Pirates".

So the scenes, 15mm.co.uk or gzg robots will do