The End Phase¶
During the End Phase, players sort out any events which have been set into action during the turn, such as repairing any critical damage. Some of the Blast Markers are removed from the table, as the energy and debris they represent is naturally dissipated. The End Phase is also a good opportunity to tidy up the table top, count victory points, check up on scenario victory conditions and break out the biscuits. The End Phase works in the following order:
- Conduct Boarding Actions/Hit-and-Run attacks
- Attempt to repair critical damage.
- Remove D6 Blast Markers from the tabletop.
Damage Control¶
Both players can attempt to repair critical damage during the End Phase. Repair crews will be working continuously of course, welding up hull breaches, re-routing power conduits, putting out fires and generally trying to keep the ship functioning. To represent this, capital ships roll 1D6 per Damage point remaining in the End Phase. Each roll of a 6 enables the ship to repair one critically damaged system or put out one fire. If the ship has any Blast Markers in contact, the player only rolls half as many dice as usual (rounding up).
Blast Marker Removal¶
With time, the debris and shock waves represented by Blast Markers will dissipate sufficiently to be of no further impediment to ships or their weapons. To represent this, the player whose turn it is rolls a D6 and removes that many Blast Markers. Blast Markers in contact with ships’ bases may not be removed, but otherwise the player is free to choose which ones will go.
Boarding Actions¶
Boarding actions are bloody, desperate battles between ships at very close range. The boarding vessel manoeuvres close to an enemy ship and sends a wave of armed crewmen across via teleporters, shuttles, life pods and in pressure suits to grab a foothold on the outer hull of the enemy vessel. The attackers then blow breaches in the hull and swarm in to try to overcome the defending crew in vicious firefights and hand-to-hand combat. Boarding actions are dangerous for both sides: even a victorious ship may suffer critical damage in the fighting or a prospective victim may explode with catastrophic results.
Moving in for Boarding¶
A ship may attempt a boarding action if it’s in base contact with an enemy vessel in the End Phase before damage control has been attempted or Blast Markers are removed. If a vessel is going to attempt a boarding action it must be declared in the Movement Phase when contact is made. Vessels attempting to board an enemy ship may not fire weapons or launch ordnance in the same turn because their crews are too busy participating in the boarding action.
Under no circumstances may a player initiate a ship-to-ship boarding action during the enemy’s turn, though it may defend against an enemy boarding action normally.
Boarding Value¶
A ship’s boarding value is equal to the number of damage points it has remaining, modified by any special rules that apply to your ship or race, such as the Mark of Khorne doubling its boarding value, or Tau Kor’vattra vessels which have their value cut in half.
The ship being boarded then adds its number of remaining turrets.
This is the final boarding value which translates directly to the corresponding modifier in the table on the next page (i.e. this is this value, that grants the +1, +2, +3, or +4 boarding modifier with an asterisk *).
Resolving the Boarding Action¶
To resolve the action, both players roll a D6 and add the appropriate modifiers from the following list.
Boarding Modifiers¶
| Condition | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Own boarding value higher* | +1 |
| Own boarding value is twice the enemy’s* | +2 |
| Own boarding value is three times the enemy’s* | +3 |
| Own boarding value is four or more times the enemy’s* | +4 |
| Enemy ship has Blast Markers in direct base contact | +1 |
| Enemy ship is crippled | +2 |
| Enemy ship is on special orders | +1 |
| Orks or Chaos | +1 |
| Space Marines | +2 |
*Only apply highest modifier.
Boarding Action Results¶
The player with the highest total score is the winner. The losing ship suffers 1 point of damage for each point it lost the combat by. The total score is NOT limited to 6 and can potentially result in a roll of up to 12 or more.
There is also a chance of each ship suffering a critical hit during the fighting as shown on the table below. If a ship is reduced to 0 damage by a boarding action do not roll on the Catastrophic Damage table, instead the ship automatically becomes a drifting hulk (exception: if a ship is reduced to 0 damage by a critical hit, roll for catastrophic damage as normal). Ships which survive being boarded may move off normally in their next Movement Phase.
Results Table¶
| Difference in scores | Boarding result | Winners/Losers Score Critical Hit on |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stalemate | 5+/5+ |
| 2 | Heavy Fighting | 4+/5+ |
| 3 | Driven Back | 3+/6+ |
| 4 | Stormed | 2+/6+ |
| 5+ | Overwhelmed | Auto/None |
For example the Hyperion (remaining damage 3) is boarded by the Plagueclaw (remaining damage 6). After modifiers, the Plagueclaw scores a 6 while the Hyperion scores a 4. The Hyperion has lost by 2 so it loses 2 damage points. In addition, the result of Heavy Fighting means that the Hyperion will suffer a critical hit on a D6 roll of 4, 5 or 6. The Plagueclaw will also suffer a critical hit on a D6 roll of 5 or 6.
Drawn Combats¶
If both players have the same score after modifiers the combat is a draw. In this case the ships grapple together and continue fighting in each subsequent End Phase. Neither ship may move, shoot or launch ordnance until the boarding action results in one of the ships being reduced to zero damage. The victorious (i.e. surviving) ship can then move off and continue to fight in its next turn.
Multi-Ship Boarding Actions¶
When several ships attempt to board an enemy vessel the attacking player may elect to let them board together or separately.
If they board together, add their boarding values together and a single dice roll is made to work out the boarding results.
Race and other modifiers are only counted once, so if both a Chaos Murder class cruiser with a normal Chaos crew and a Devastation class cruiser with a Chaos Space Marine crew boarded an Imperial cruiser together they would get a +2 race modifier, the +1 from being Chaos being superseded by the +2 for having a ship with a Chaos Space Marine crew. This is in addition to the +1 for the two ships having a higher boarding value than the ship being boarded (it is not twice the boarding value because the ship being boarded gets to count its turret value) for a total of +3 for the Chaos player.
This is also not taking into account whether or not any of the ships have any other modifiers that must be added or subtracted into the total or effects that either halve or double their respective boarding values, whether or not ships are braced, crippled, etc.
Any damage points inflicted are distributed amongst the attacking ships by the attacker himself, but the chance of critical damage being caused applies to each and every ship attempting to board.
In the case of separate boarding, roll for each capital ship or escort squadron separately.
In this case the defending ship must roll separately against each attacker and the damage it takes is cumulative, but each attacking ship or escort squadron must modify its boarding roll based only on its own value, not on the values of the other ships and escort squadrons it is combining with in the action.
Escorts Ships Boarding¶
Escort ships can attempt to board other ships using the rules above. They can even attempt to board capital ships if they wish, although escorts will only stand a chance against a badly damaged vessel. Remember that when escorts are boarding or being boarded a successful critical hit will destroy them, so it is quite possible for an escort to win a boarding action but be destroyed in the process.
Hit-and-Run Attacks¶
In a Hit-and-Run attack, a select force of warriors is dispatched to attempt to attack a specific location on an enemy ship, planting charges to take it out of action. An enemy vessel can be left helpless from damage inflicted by a Hit-and-Run raid, leaving it to be finished off with conventional gunnery at leisure.
Hit-and-Run attacks can be made by assault craft and torpedoes, or by ships teleporting troops onto nearby enemy vessels.
Ships that cannot be boarded (such as Chaos vessels with the Mark of Nurgle) are NOT automatically immune from Hit-and-Run attacks.
Fleets that benefit from a +1 bonus to their Hit-and-Run attacks roll a 2 to 7 on a D6, meaning they will never fail to inflict some critical damage on their target.
Assault Boats¶
Assault boats attack by clamping onto the outer hull of an enemy ship and then cutting their way through to allow their crew to attack inside. Assault boats can be launched just like any other ordnance from flight decks and move 30 cm in any direction in every Ordnance Phase. The ships which may be loaded with assault boats are noted in the fleet lists.
If an assault boat marker comes into contact with a ship’s base, it can be shot at by turrets in the same way as bombers. If it survives, it makes a single Hit-and-Run attack in the Ordnance Phase and is then removed from play.
Boarding Torpedoes¶
Boarding torpedoes carry dedicated assault troops and can be partially guided while in flight. They punch through the armour of the target, disgorging their cargo of warriors into the midst of the enemy. If boarding torpedoes move into contact with a ship’s base, they attack just like ordinary torpedoes (roll for turrets and to hit). Each one that hits makes a Hit-and-Run attack in the Ordnance Phase rather than inflicting a point of damage.
Teleport Attacks¶
Ships which are close to their enemies may attempt to initiate a small-scale boarding action using their teleporters. However, active shields interfere with the teleport beams, so such attacks can only be made against an enemy whose shields have been knocked down. Only the largest ships have the teleport capacity to move enough men onto their target to inflict the necessary amount of damage and such teleport attacks require prodigious amounts of energy from the ship’s reactors. A ship may make a teleport attack in the End Phase against an enemy ship, that has no shields, within 10 cm.
Teleport attacks can be conducted by capital ships that are on Lock On or Reload Ordnance special orders. All other special orders preclude the use of teleport attacks. Necron Portals are not teleport attacks in the normal manner.
Crippled ships may not make teleport attacks.
As you can imagine, it takes a lot more manpower to disable the weapons batteries of a battleship than it does a destroyer’s. Therefore, escorts and defences with only one damage point left cannot make teleport attacks. In addition, a ship can’t make a teleport attack against a target with more hits at that point in the battle than it has itself.
A ship may only make one teleport attack each turn. For each teleport attack make one Hit-and-Run attack against the target ship.
Resolving a Hit-and-Run Attack¶
To resolve a Hit-and-Run attack, simply roll a D6. On a score of a 1 the attack has failed, on a 2 or more look up the score on the Critical Hits table and apply the result immediately.
This critical damage can be repaired as normal.
Due to their much smaller size, escorts do not have a specialized critical table. Instead, all Hit-and-Run attacks (including assault boats and teleport attacks) destroy escorts on a roll of 4+ as opposed to 2+.
Fleets that enjoy a bonus to their Hit-and-Run rolls still benefit from this bonus, needing a 3+ to succeed in Hit-and-Run attacks against escorts. Fleets that enjoy a -1 modifier to enemy Hitand-Run attacks benefit in this regard as well, meaning Hit-and-Run attacks require a 5+ to destroy their escorts. Anything that rolls 2D6 and adds the result during a Hit-and-Run attack still do so, such as Dark Eldar Impalers, in which case the added result still normally (before any modifiers) destroys an escort on a roll of 4+, though they must roll 2D6 twice and take the lowest roll against Tyranids.
Remember that an escort which has suffered critical damage is automatically destroyed, though they can Brace For Impact! to counter the effects of the attack.