Can De-crewed ships be boarded?

[Davesaint]

Matt ruled "yes" at the tournament last weekend. It can be boarded, for double VP and XP (in campaigns).

The defending troops all die along with the last crew member unfortunately, despite my claims that some were still alive holed up in a bunker somewhere in the drifting ship.

Very cheesey ruling. Frankly if I was running the tournament, I would not allow this. I would only allow the standard VP and XP for a destroyed ship. This is open to tons of abuse.


Imagine a tournament fleet that is 1/2 Brikortas and 1/2 Ikortas. Eeeewww.

Dave

 

[Methos5000]

Well I was reading through Armageddon and now im confused again. In the FAQ section is says a de-crewed ship is counted as destroyed and receives normal VP for scenarios. So I guess the next question is can Destroyed ships be boarded and captured? and if they can is allowed for you to shoot at your owe de-crewed but not destroyed(still having hull damage remaining) ships to prevent the enemy from taking them over?

 

[Iain McGhee]

If the ship is destroyed (at 0 or less damage) there's nothing left of it to board !

If it has at least one point left I don't see any reason you couldn't land troops on it as long as it was during the actual game (no automatic captures if a decrewed enemy ship is left on the table after the scenario ends)

There's a mention in the original rulebook about firing on your own ships. You aren't allowed to as there may be still some crew trapped onboard. Some races might not bother about such things but that's a blanket ruling.

 

[Methos5000]

But that goes back to what is listed in Armageddon. It says a de-crewed ship is counted as destroyed which should mean no boarding using your interpretation. I would just like a clear ruling on it since it seems to contradict what Matt ruled.

 

[Iain McGhee]

A decrewed ship only counts as destroyed for VP calculations. Although in a campaign game if it was part of the victor's fleet and still on the table (or drifted off one of the victor's deployment edges) it could be repaired and recrewed. As long as there is at least 1 point of damage left it is still physically intact.

 

[Silvereye]

I agree with Iain, the decrewed ship is only worth Victory Points as a decrewed ship once the game is over and the points are added up. During the game a decrewed, but not destroyed, ship can still be fired upon - all it is doing is running adrift, so it should still be available for boarding and capture if you want to expend the effort to do so.

Remember you do not get any additional victory points for reducing a ship from Skeleton Crew to Crewless, unless of course you destroy it. So capturing it seems a worthwhile endeavour.