Breaching Pods and ship-boarding

[Anbar]

How do people suggest is a good way to get breaching pods over to a ship to board it?

Not the special action, but the actual pods.

I ask as I have had little luck getting them even on to a ship, "supported" by fighter flights or not, usually they get shot down before they get close.

WHen they do get there there generally are not enough of the troops to do much other than die..my main opponent plays Narn and I am EA (post crusade), so me throwing 1 or 2 pods against his ships is a bit of a massacre to the benefit of the Narn (usually).

As such the "more effective" method is using the special action even though it means i lose the first attack.

any thought and alternative house rules, appreciated.

 

[Burger]

Pods are only any use in large numbers. They take a loss when coming in, take a loss when fighting opposing troops (esp Narn!) and take a loss from valiant crew. Even then they need to have enough troops to do some use - they only kill of a few crew each turn and on a Narn ship that can take a long time to do anything! So really you do need quite a lot of them.

If you're buying them with FAPs then I wouldn't bother against Narn. If you're using pods from a carrier then might as well use them since they're free, but I would bunch them up into a gang before going after some smaller ships. Sending them a few at a time to a Bin'Tak will achieve nothing, whereas they might do something against a Sho'Xxx.

They often make a good distraction too, since many people are more scared of them than they really should be. Great for tricking a G'Quan to waste its e-mines.

 

[Anbar]

Cheers Burger.

Is it possible to swap Breaching Pods for Fighters the way you can swap Fighters for Breaching pods?

 

[Burger]

No, sorry! I don't think anyone would use breaching pods if it were... except Gaim maybe.

 

[Greg Smith]

The best way to use breaching pods is to use loads of 'em. So many they can't get them all.

 

[locarno24]

The best way to use breaching pods is to use loads of 'em. So many they can't get them all.

As noted by Burger they're very target-specific.

Against some races (narn) they're worse than pointless, whilst against others (pak'ma'ra) they're scary as hell.

Essentially if a race (or at least the ships your opponent is taking) has more than one of the following traits, pods are worth looking at:

Below average, almost or literally no troops (Centauri, pak'ma'ra, abbai)
Poor fighter cover (abbai, drakh)
Limited anti-fighter (drakh)
Low crew scores (most 'advanced' ships)

 

[Anbar]

No, sorry! I don't think anyone would use breaching pods if it were... except Gaim maybe.

yeah makes sense... but what about in campaigns?

You can swap out your fighters for breaching pods...and then at some point (in a campaign) reinforce back with fighters again.... isnt that replacing pods with fighters anyway?

(Or once you have swapped your fighters for breaching pods can you not repalce them later with the fighters again?)

 

[Burger]

You can not swap pods for fighters, no matter how you try to spin it.

If you swap a fighter for a pod then yes you can buy replacement fighters, but you can't then swap the pods back to fighters as well. You can never have more fighters than the original ship came with (unless you get a refit).

 

[Anbar]

If you swap a fighter for a pod then yes you can buy replacement fighters, but you can't then swap the pods back to fighters as well.

really? Where is that in the rules book? P&P?

edit: yeah i think you are wrong there.

You can freely swap fighters between ships in a campaign, cant see anything that says that once you swap out fighters for pods, you cant then swap the fighters back in (in place of the pods)

 

[Burger]

It does not say it anywhere. But there are no rules which allow you to do what you are asking. Therefore you cannot do it.

 

[Anbar]

It does not say it anywhere. But there are no rules which allow you to do what you are asking. Therefore you cannot do it.

in which case you cannot replace lost breaching pods as there is no rule that says you can do so.

 

[Burger]

You can buy wings of BP's and put them into carriers just like you can with any other fighter.

 

[Anbar]

You can buy wings of BP's and put them into carriers just like you can with any other fighter.

exactly my point

quick check: nowhere does it say you can buy BPs to replace losses in campaign.

You may also transfer Fighters between ships. Do this during the repairs and reinforcements phase by noting down the reduced number of flights on one ship and adding them to your chosen recipient. A ship receiving fighters must be capable of carrying them in the normal manner and you must not exceed the carrier capacity for any ship in transferring fighters.
Other than this, you are free to transfer fighters as you wish, even leaving a ship completely without fighters in order to re-stock a preferred vessel in the fleet.

doesnt say anything about not replacing swapped-out BPs, does say you are free to transfer fighters as you like. doesnt say you can replace BP losses, just talks about fighters.

 

[Anbar]

f.ex:

I buy a Poseidon and swap all the fighters for breaching pods.

end of campaign turn I am free to replace those BPs with fighters. (says so in the rules. above)

I will also have gotten a couple of fighter replacements by default through the campaign rules... even if i didn't want them.

The says to me, pretty clearly, that i can swap out the (repalced) breaching pods with fighters. Nothing says I am stuck with breaching pods "forever after".

----------------------

As a separate aspect/issue:

whether or not that means i can swap "Vanilla" BPs for fighters is another matter entirely.

But the above legitimate campaign rules do set a precedent.

 

[Anbar]

Another Q:

If a ship has 8 troops and 4 Pods... and you launch the 4 pods, have your Troops now dropped by 4 leaving just 4 on the "Mothership"?

I ask as If i replace the lost pods with a new flight of Pods, they come with their own troops... does this suggest that the original Pods also came with their own troops, over & above, the "Mothership" compliment?

 

[Burger]

Right, well in your quote above you've answered your own question which is where does it say you can't have more fighters than the ship started with:
"A ship receiving fighters must be capable of carrying them in the normal manner and you must not exceed the carrier capacity for any ship in transferring fighters."

As for troops, yes a breaching pod launched from a ship (whether it came with it or was swapped in for a fighter) consumes a troop from the ship. So yes after launching your 4 pods, your 8 troops would now only have 4 left to defend.

If you them buy new BP's as wings and put them in, then they do come with their own troops. You would need to keep track of which have their own troops and which need the ship's troops.

 

[Anbar]

"A ship receiving fighters must be capable of carrying them in the normal manner and you must not exceed the carrier capacity for any ship in transferring fighters."

yeah it does doesnt it? Cheerrs.

Ditto for the BPs.

FWIW I#m the mug with the forum account who has to ask all the stupid questions for the whole group, then go back and show them... hence needing a rule page/example all the time.

sadly i cant just go back and say "coz burger said so!"

although it would be SO much easier if I could :wink: :lol:

 

[Burger]

Really? That works for most people :lol:

 

[Anbar]

page 43 rules say:

A boarding Action can be started in one of two ways – either the Launch Breaching Pods and Shuttles! Special Action or by moving one or more Breaching Pods into contact with the base of an enemy ship or space station (braving any Anti-Fighter defences on the way!).

however an argument that came up against this is:

If my breaching pods launch in the end phase (fighters launch part), and i can put them anywhere within 3 inches of my ship, that means that I can drop them directly on to an enemy ship if it is within 3 inches.

And/if having done so does that mean that in the next turn, my breaching pods, already being "on the enemy ship" move with that ship...also rather handily avoiding anti-fighter fire as they are already on the enemy ship?

Or do my breaching pods *always* have to weather anti-fighter fire regardless of how/when they got on to the actual enemy counter/ship?

Similarly would the enemy ship move regardless of my pods being "on it", after which i have to move my pods "back on to it" (assuming i have the speed/range to do so?) or do my pods move with the ship they are on until the point where the troops disembark for the boarding action (end of the attack phase)?

 

[Mean Mutton]

page 43 rules say:

A boarding Action can be started in one of two ways – either the Launch Breaching Pods and Shuttles! Special Action or by moving one or more Breaching Pods into contact with the base of an enemy ship or space station (braving any Anti-Fighter defences on the way!).

however an argument that came up against this is:

If my breaching pods launch in the end phase (fighters launch part), and i can put them anywhere within 3 inches of my ship, that means that I can drop them directly on to an enemy ship if it is within 3 inches.

And/if having done so does that mean that in the next turn, my breaching pods, already being "on the enemy ship" move with that ship...also rather handily avoiding anti-fighter fire as they are already on the enemy ship?

Or do my breaching pods *always* have to weather anti-fighter fire regardless of how/when they got on to the actual enemy counter/ship?

Similarly would the enemy ship move regardless of my pods being "on it", after which i have to move my pods "back on to it" (assuming i have the speed/range to do so?) or do my pods move with the ship they are on until the point where the troops disembark for the boarding action (end of the attack phase)?

There is no rule that allows breaching pods to "move with that ship". Breaching pods have to move using normal movement. Breaching pods deployed during Fighters Launch (at the end of the End Phase) will be subject to anti-fighter during Anti-Fighter Attacks Resolved (during the Movement Phase) prior to Boarding Actions Performed (at the end of the Attack Phase). Breaching pods which are on an enemy are within 2" and thus are subject to the anti-fighter attack from the defending ship.

Honestly, I've only seem them useful for the Gaim. In that situation, they're insanely useful because you always have a bazillion of them hiding behind a screen of a bazillion fighters (which turn into suicide missiles regularly).

To put it another way, there is no "on the enemy ship" condition that prevents them from being subject to anti-fighter attacks or allows them to move with the enemy ship.