"Ideas Needed For 40K Imperial Navy Boarding Force" Topic

What possible troop types and what would they be equipped with? I need your ideas!

1. Ensign (junior grade expendable officer to lead the force)

2. Commisar

3. Enlisted ratings from the deck department equipped with shotguns, gaffs, smg, pistols, flamers etc…

4. Elite squad with body armor, melta guns, power fists etc… lead by a Master at Arms.

5. Corpman

6. Tech Priest

Any ideas are welcome and please comment on what I have come up with so far.

Miniatures-wise, or rules/army list wise? For the latter, Imperial Guard:
1) Command Squad with Junior Officer
2) Commissars (obviously)
3) Conscript Platoons with Warrior Weapons doctrine
4) Storm Troopers or Hardened Veterans
5) Command Squads can include Medics
6) Techpriests

Miniatures-wise, for the ratings I'd suggest Necromunda gangers – Orlocks are probably your best bet, with some Van Saars stuck in here and there.
the elites would probably be Storm Troopers or Kasrkin. You could also use Necromunda Enforcers.

Space Hulk 1st addition

am I wrong? but is that not the "Marines" job to repell and make boarding actions?? thats why they were put on ships to begin with but I could be wrong.:)

Space Marines in 40K have their own ships and they are a seperate organization from the Imperial Navy.

Yes quester, it is the Marines' job, along with anything else that comes along :)

Semper Fi

In the good old days it wasn't just Space Marines who had powered armor. Almost all the factions had some access to powered armor. I'd want my boarding parties in a sealed suit with some protection from shrapnel at a minimum for hostile boarding.

Space Marines are larger and stronger than regular humans so perhaps the smaller original plastic beakies would work as Imperial Navy boarders, just paint them up differently than the recognized Space Marine chapters.

Being that non-space marine powered armor would be less common, I'd follow up the initial powered armor team with reserve troops in carapace armor and breathing masks, then light infantry to mop up isolated non-vital areas of a ship or hulk. There should also be some kind of Adeptus Tech team with some oversight from the Inquisition or some other Ministry just to prevent or warn of a boarding party becoming tainted by Chaos/The Warp.

If you want more canon reference material you can try here:
link

I roughed out a similar idea a few years ago having read some of the BFG fluff text that said that in many systems naval landing parties were the only sign of imperial power that the population ever saw.
I was using Van Saar gangers with the command structure turned on its head. The nominal commander or 2ic would be a 14 year old midshipman or cadet. Of course a wise commander would make sure there were a couple of hardened petty officers around to keep an eye on things.

I'd make the bulk of the force built around the a corp of ship personnel – ship laborers, deck hands, low grade mechanics, so you can get a wrench or two in there because it looks cool. I agree with the choice of low-tech weaponry that you've chosen.

Leading them would be a number of ensigns and perhaps a corpsman or two to tend to the wounded (in latter stages of the assault).

I also imagine that the during the initial boarding, the ship would send in combat servitors armed with saws, torches, power crushers, hammers, etc to gain a foothold amongst the enemy ship. They would be a shock force, and are subject to neither pain nor morale, would make a good foothold into the enemy ship.

Yes to the veteran boarding squad with body armor, rebreathers, heavier weaponry, and grenades.

I suppose an argument could be made that a Commissar might go along on a risky, low chance operation, but Commissars are attached to Imperial Guard Army units so I wouldn't put them in there. But the adepts and priests/preachers of the ship's ministorium could be included for the assault to encourage insane acts of bravery for the Emperor to win the boarding action.

I wouldn't include a techpriest either. There's too much knowledge and expertise to be lost if they are killed in the dangerous business of a boarding action. Instead, I'd send along a tech-adept (enginseer model would work great), a junior member of the Mechanicus, who could assume all the rudimentary functions that a Techpriest might be called up to do. When the action is over and the ship secure, then the Techpriest would come aboard for his investigations.

Definately sounds like a fun idea. I've never had the chance to work on an army like that, but I've been working on my own Mechanicus army list.

As someone mentioned, there was a special release for BFG that included rules for 40k for boarding actions. Pretty basic stuff (a shot with a str X+ weapon has a y% chance to breach the hull, etc.).

Also for rules, if this is going to be 1000 points or less, I'd recommend using Schaeffer's last chancers from the current IG rulebook. Just model Schaeffer as the Commissar, Kage as the Ensign/JO, and then you've got a pile of fearless dudes who can carry anything you set your imagination to (Lots and lots of plasma guns FTW).

For models: if you're willing to go non-GW and want that 'light-spacesuit' look, check out the Urban War Veridians. If you want to stay GW, I actually think the Plastic Cadians would do just fine; just find someone to hook you up with the VOX head and call it a rebreather and you're all set.

When are youse mugs gonna learn?!! A boarding action on a starship is like taking abuilding by storm; pistols, grenades, and your trusty chainswords are the order of the day in the 41st Millennium!!

Kids these days…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net
(Yes, I *did* indeed play ROGUE TRADER back in the day…)

In a recent White dwarf there was a boarding party shown. Had some weapon servitors, Officer type, guys in armor.

But the coolesrt was an Orgyrn (coverted Orgre from WH fantasy). That had a huge battering ram to knock down some doors.

Armed only with swords and knives, hull breeches are a killer.
One round though a bulkhead and you're going to loose some of your guys to hole 10mm in diameter. Ok 40K doesn't get that technical about it, Battletech and Jovian Chronicles sure did.

Extremely (or even slightly) rapid decompression from small holes is purely a cinematic effect. Small punctures just don't let atmosphere out all that fast, nor does anybody get sucked through them.

That said, this is 40K, so a cinematic effect is fine.

Strongly suggest you read Execution Hour and Shadowpoint from the Black Library, both of which are BFG-themed novels. There were also a number of BFG short stories published in Inferno magazine, and you might (much as I hate to recommend them) find the Soul Drinker trilogy (at least the first book) worthwhile for a look at Marine/Navy/Adeptus Mechanicus interactions.

As far as gaming goes, there was a rumor that GW was planning a "boarding combat" book ala the recent Cities of Death supplement, but until it comes out CoD has some pretty useful ideas. "Ruined buildings" could easily be damaged areas of the ship's machinery, "roads" could be relatively clear corridors, etc, etc. Certainly many of the cityfighting strategems (Combat Engineers, blockades, various key buildings) could be handy in a congested boarding action.

The best codex to adapt as a "navy boarding crew" is probably Imperial Guard, with liberal use of doctrines to allow different armament and tactics. You might want to skip on most of the vehicles, though, for obvious reasons. Modified Sentinels, OTOH, fit in just fine as equipment handling rigs or super-sized Servitors.

The vast majority of a Naval boarding force should be relatively poorly-armed crewmen, stiffened by a smaller cadre of better-equipped armsmen and motivated by various officers. Which translates nicely to IG troopers plus Stormtroopers plus the usual HQ units seasoned to choice.

I suppose an argument could be made that a Commissar might go along on a risky, low chance operation, but Commissars are attached to Imperial Guard Army units so I wouldn't put them in there.

The Navy has Commisars assigned to it as well (read the novels, you'll see), albeit in relatively small numbers…they're around mostly to shoot the senior bridge crew if they misbehave, not mixed into squads like with the IG. But they're also inspirational leaders, and more expendable than the Captain or Mate would be, so finding one at the sharp point of a boarding action would make a lot of sense.

Armed only with swords and knives, hull breeches are a killer.
One round though a bulkhead and you're going to loose some of your guys to hole 10mm in diameter. Ok 40K doesn't get that technical about it, Battletech and Jovian Chronicles sure did.

Given the size of a BFG cruiser (somewhere between 3 and 30km, and still under debate on some boards), and the established hull thickness (described as meters of armor), a 10mm hole isn't going to cause decompression worth mentioning in a short skirmish. OTOH, using tank-busting weapons like lascannon does run the risk of hitting something explosive inside the ship, like ammo or a plasma reactor. Shorter ranged stuff like melta weaponry probably make more sense as bulkhead breachers.

Rich

If you are wanting "real life" examples extrapolated out to space, make all shooters armed with shotguns; maybe for the leader types if you are giving them a shooter, a laspistol.

You would want SHORT range, effective weapons that would not cause too much internal collateral damage in case of misses or scatter. Definately no armor-piercing or concussive-type weapons. A light flamethrower would actually be a good choice – but the ship's flame-retardant system may take exception to that after it's first use…

Out of curiosity, why a Techpriest with the team? I though Techpriests were mainly useful for repairing broken down tanks and the like – you thinking of using him like a hacker to get into the boarded ship's mainframe or somesuch?

I'd want a techpriest to help identify harmful alien technologies that might be on board an enemy vessel, to disable the enemy's automated defense systems, and to repair existing facilities that might be purposely destroyed by fleeing defenders like jammed blast doors, ventilation/air circulators systems, lights, gravity, etc.

Thank You for all the suggestions some are fantastic.

The tech priest was mainly included for mission specific objectives and to repair damaged facilities as Goldwyrm suggested. An Enginseer would work just fine for what I had in mind.

I was also considering a few crude exosuits, from converted Urban Mammoth Junkers.

Servitors are a must have for the force.

The ensign could be over the top pompous. I was thinking he could wear a vaccsuit and great coat covered in medals and braids (mainly unit citations). The great coat would be for show and no other practical purpose. Spitshined boots with heavy gloss to impress his superiors.

I was also thinking of a small wheeled cart from the Ainsty terrain line to carry a heavy flamer with extra shot capacity in the form of spare fuel tanks. A gun shield on the front to give armor saves. A crewmen or two to push the contraption down corridors.

Since you mentioned the fire cart idea you might also want to try something else along those lines like having high tech (40K style) Pavisses. Have the servitors move in, each with a Plasteel Pavisse, to block crossfire from side passages or to weld them into place to prevent the flanking of an assault. So if your mission is to get to the ship's bridge or engine room, you'll want to seal off, at least temporarily all the secondary access routes along your main approach so you are not cut off from your ship. The defenders will need high strength weapons or really powerful claws to break through these temporary blockages.

Very Good Idea Goldwyrm and perfect for Space Hulk.

For some of "the look", check the Inquisitor line, as there was a Navy rating done for that line at one point.

Speaking of Inquisitor, Preacher Josef was a Navy boy in his younger days:

link

And Joe Bodyguard here is an ex-bosun:

link

And finally, let's not forget the Navigators, who might (at the very least) make interesting scenario objectives:

link

Come to think of it, an Astropath might also be a good character choice for a boarding action. Their psychic powers seem to be wildly variable, so you could use rules ranging from the wimpy IG Sanctioned Psyker all the way up to powerhouse Inquisitor stats, complete with bodyguard team.

Rich

The bodyguard is the one I was thinking of.

For the elite squad, look at the older Stormtroopers, still available from GW. Not the ones in the berets (sadly), but the heavy armor ones that preceded the Kasrkin. Some of them have open faceplates, but a wise person can convert those pretty easily.

Man, I'd like to get a hold of some of those old-old 'beret' stormtroopers. They were cool.

I'd like to see the original Stormtroopers again, as well. I don't need them as IG Stormtroopers, though, so the "hotshot" backpacks are easily replaced with a regular pack, making them "just another IG regiment". Which would be fine with me.