Star Marine Boarding Defence

[ironicwolf]

So I started my first SM game, my first campaign is War, which as I see will consist almost exclusively from Boarding actions, a bit underwhelming but OK (I probably will modify the table to include a bigger variety of missions later when I get a better grasp on the game). In any case, I roll the first mission to be defence of a Cutter from Zhuh-Zhuh and now I am confused. How do I defend? The rules say When defending, your Squad or Squads, (1) will be placed in the Sections that the enemy boards you. Ok but where does it board me, and how many of enemy squads will board me? What happens after the first encounter is finished? The rules say "If defending, move into any adjacent Section, usually towards the enemy." But where is the next enemy? How many of them are there? Basically this is where my first attempt at 5150:SM stopped, because I have no idea how this works. Could anyone please help me?

[easyeight]

Jul 1, 2019 22:27:51 GMT ironicwolf said:

So I started my first SM game, my first campaign is War, which as I see will consist almost exclusively from Boarding actions, a bit underwhelming but OK (I probably will modify the table to include a bigger variety of missions later when I get a better grasp on the game). In any case, I roll the first mission to be defence of a Cutter from Zhuh-Zhuh and now I am confused. How do I defend? The rules say When defending, your Squad or Squads, (1) will be placed in the Sections that the enemy boards you. Ok but where does it board me, and how many of enemy squads will board me? What happens after the first encounter is finished? The rules say "If defending, move into any adjacent Section, usually towards the enemy." But where is the next enemy? How many of them are there? Basically this is where my first attempt at 5150:SM stopped, because I have no idea how this works. Could anyone please help me?

Hi,
The number of squads you're encountering depends on the size of the ship. The focus in Star Marine is small scale actions, though it would be easy to scale up. So here's what you do when you have Boarding Action mission:

1. Determine what ship you're facing: "Gaea Prime and Zhuh-Zhuh use Cutters. Hishen use a Cutter (1 – 4) or Slaver (5 – 6). Pirates will use Pirate ships while Smugglers and Merchants will use Traders."

2. The size of the ship determines how many Contact rolls you'll have to make (how man enemy potential squads): "You can have control of up to two Squads if playing a Cutter, Slaver, or Pirate. If playing a Trader, you will only have one Squad."  So anything except a Trader will have two Squads you could encounter. Keep track of that.

3. Determine where the enemy is trying to board you - this is rolled the same way as determining where you will board: Roll 1d6 and read the result as rolled. This is the Section that your Squad orSquads, (1) are placed in.
 When defending, your Squad or Squads, (1) will be placed in the Sections that the enemy"
boards you."

4. Check the small ship maps, they are labeled with six sections. So, for example, if I'm boarding a Cutter I roll 1d6. Say I roll a "4," on the ship diagram that's a "Firepower" area -- basically a weapons bay. This is where the initial contact will take place.

5. Then roll to resolve the Contact (on page 38). Each section of the ship you enter could resolve as an enemy Squad. Remember that for small ships the most Squads you will resolve will be two -- and if you're attacking, one of them will be on the Bridge segment. Same goes for Defense, the most attacking squads you will face will be two. Also, some Contacts could resolve as an Anti-Boarding measures situation -- which don't count towards the number of enemy squads you're fighting.

6.  Do your fighting -- once the number of squads on that ship are defeated, the ship is yours.

I hope that helps.

[ironicwolf]

Jul 2, 2019 4:02:53 GMT easyeight said:

Hi,
The number of squads you're encountering depends on the size of the ship. The focus in Star Marine is small scale actions, though it would be easy to scale up. So here's what you do when you have Boarding Action mission:

1. Determine what ship you're facing: "Gaea Prime and Zhuh-Zhuh use Cutters. Hishen use a Cutter (1 – 4) or Slaver (5 – 6). Pirates will use Pirate ships while Smugglers and Merchants will use Traders."

2. The size of the ship determines how many Contact rolls you'll have to make (how man enemy potential squads): "You can have control of up to two Squads if playing a Cutter, Slaver, or Pirate. If playing a Trader, you will only have one Squad."  So anything except a Trader will have two Squads you could encounter. Keep track of that.

3. Determine where the enemy is trying to board you - this is rolled the same way as determining where you will board: Roll 1d6 and read the result as rolled. This is the Section that your Squad orSquads, (1) are placed in.
 When defending, your Squad or Squads, (1) will be placed in the Sections that the enemy"
boards you."

4. Check the small ship maps, they are labeled with six sections. So, for example, if I'm boarding a Cutter I roll 1d6. Say I roll a "4," on the ship diagram that's a "Firepower" area -- basically a weapons bay. This is where the initial contact will take place.

5. Then roll to resolve the Contact (on page 38). Each section of the ship you enter could resolve as an enemy Squad. Remember that for small ships the most Squads you will resolve will be two -- and if you're attacking, one of them will be on the Bridge segment. Same goes for Defense, the most attacking squads you will face will be two. Also, some Contacts could resolve as an Anti-Boarding measures situation -- which don't count towards the number of enemy squads you're fighting.

6.  Do your fighting -- once the number of squads on that ship are defeated, the ship is yours.

I hope that helps.

I am still a bit confused. So the number of enemies depends on the ship size (two for big ships one for small) regardless if I am attacking or defending? And does that mean that in the case of Cutter I get one initial contact to fight immediately but then blindly search for a second one? Isn't there any security systems of the ship that at least give me some kind of situation awareness?  "The rules state: If defending, move into any adjacent
Section, usually towards the enemy."  Which suggests that I should have an Idea of where the enemy is. I think I will try to put enemies as a PEF's instead and move them towards a bridge. Will see how that works. 

Thank you for your answer easyeight!

[easyeight]

"I am still a bit confused. So the number of enemies depends on the ship size (two for big ships one for small) regardless if I am attacking or defending? And does that mean that in the case of Cutter I get one initial contact to fight immediately but then blindly search for a second one? Isn't there any security systems of the ship that at least give me some kind of situation awareness? "The rules state: If defending, move into any adjacent

Section, usually towards the enemy." Which suggests that I should have an Idea of where the enemy is. I think I will try to put enemies as a PEF's instead and move them towards a bridge. Will see how that works.



Thank you for your answer easyeight!"

Hi,
1. Yes, the size of the ship determines how many enemy squads you can encounter, defending or attacking.

2. In the case of a Cutter you are boarding there are two squads. One will always be on the bridge of the ship, the other will be encountered via the Contact table.

3. You have two ideas that clash -- can I get "situation awareness" via security systems as a defender and place enemies as PEFs (which means no situation awareness). So either we have good situational awareness, or poor awareness. One of the draft rules had a cybercombat phase every turn to see who had influence or control over the ship's computers and sensors, and would let you as the attacker activate counter-boarding systems on the defender's ships, reveal the location of an enemy squad, etc. But it slowed things down without really improving play all that much. But you could try something like that using the Hacking rules on page 39.

• When the Boarding action first starts, make a Hacking roll. 
•     Attacking: If successful you may resolve the location of the two enemy squads on the ship. If you fail you've been locked out of the system and this also reduces your chance to stop anti-boarding measures (-1REP penalty)
•     Defending: If successful you may resolve the location of the two enemy squads on the ship. If you fail the enemy has blinded your internal sensors and you must use the Contact table and could be effected by your own anti-boarding measures.
  
  
  
• You must still make Contact rolls at each ship section to resolve any anti-boarding measures
  
  
• Move the enemy squad like a PEF (page 58). Your choice to always keep one enemy squad on the bridge, or move both as PEFs.

What do you think? Let me know how that works. Btw, I've drafted templates for large ship and space stations where moving PEFs around makes more sense.
Cheers!

[ironicwolf]

That sounds interesting! Thanks! I will try this. And yes, I had the same feeling that having a bigger ships with more areas would work much better with PEFs. I will experiment with the game to find what works with me best.

[easyeight]

Jul 2, 2019 16:21:19 GMT ironicwolf said:

That sounds interesting! Thanks! I will try this. And yes, I had the same feeling that having a bigger ships with more areas would work much better with PEFs. I will experiment with the game to find what works with me best.

The "Z-Lab" map on page 53 gives you an idea, and here's a sample from the broader map set that was drafted. This is a "High Port" space station. Given the size, you would roll 3d6 for point of entry, and it would be well suited to using PEF movement in addition to Contact rolls. Maybe i should something with these...

[ironicwolf]

Jul 2, 2019 17:21:43 GMT easyeight said:

The "Z-Lab" map on page 53 gives you an idea, and here's a sample from the broader map set that was drafted. This is a "High Port" space station. Given the size, you would roll 3d6 for point of entry, and it would be well suited to using PEF movement in addition to Contact rolls. Maybe i should something with these...

I definitely will try this.

Just played out my first encounter, it went better than expected. Had to make a few judgement calls but otherwise the system worked really well. Will be posting a short AAR soon. 

[ironicwolf]

And yes, the game needs more ship maps!