With Arks of Omen approaching, GW previewed how Boarding Actions rules will work in Warhammer 40k- check it out!
The boarding actions rules of Arks of Omen look to be the big focus for at least the first new book.
Obviously, fighting on a ship will be much more claustrophobic than fighting on a planet! So expect a lot of the rules to focus around close quarters. If you want to see more about the Arks of Omens books, you can check that out here. For now, let’s jump into the boarding actions.
How to Build Arks of Omen Warhammer 40k Army Lists: (January 3rd 2023)
Warhammer Community unveiled a bunch of rules and even a downloadable sheet for building army lists for all the different factions in Arks of Omes. Let’s take a closer look!
Mustering the right force for a Boarding Action presents its own strategic challenges, as the unique environment revokes access to some of the fastest and biggest units available to most factions. VEHICLES, MONSTERS, BIKES, and CAVALRY are out, as well as anything with a JUMP PACK or some other way to FLY about. You can also only take a single CHARACTER – no sense risking your whole command corps inside a shadowy space hulk.
Instead, Elites and Troops take centre stage in the new Boarding Patrol Detachment.
“The immediate difference between the Boarding Patrol and other Warhammer 40,000 Detachments is that nothing is compulsory,” Rich explains. “It’s perfectly viable to take no Troops or HQs whatsoever, allowing lists to lean into clear concepts like an all-Navy Breacher force, or take nothing but Khorne Berzerkers – the gentleman’s choice.”
Well, this is definitely interesting, as some armies can’t take a fast portion of their units. Still, it makes sense on a ship, you have more troops flooding in. You don’t even have to take a certain amount of anything. If you want, you can take three elites and have your whole force!
Several factions get special dispensation to bend these rules. For instance, T’au Empire Boarding Patrols can take a unit of Crisis Battlesuits provided they shut off their jet packs and promise not to FLY, while Space Marines can slip a squad of Hellblasters or Eradicators past inspection, despite not normally having a Heavy Support slot.
“In some cases there were units that weren’t HQ, Troops, or Elites, but that we wanted to include anyway because they’re cool,” says Rich. “The idea of Flesh Hounds rampaging down a corridor alongside Karanak is awesome, so we allow Chaos Daemons to take a Flesh Hounds unit despite them being Fast Attack.”
Each faction has an errata of sorts regarding what units they can take and what those units do. You can download everything for all the armies here!
Sample Army Lists
The (tweaked) Agents of the Imperium ability allows Navy Breachers to join up with any IMPERIUM Boarding Patrol – appropriate, as it’s their job – and means they won’t even disrupt the Chapter playbook.
It’s just pretty interesting to see how to build your armies!
While the small scale of Boarding Actions restricts many factions to a handful of models, the Astra Militarum have no trouble flooding the board with bodies. This Boarding Patrol takes advantage of the new Cadian range – using a Command Squad, Shock Troops, and Kasrkin units to pack a serious ranged punch into a tight package, backed up by two squads of hulking abhumans.
Obviously, you’ll still have to bring a decent number of minis for an IG list!
The Corsair Voidscarred bring all the toys from their Kill Team set, taking up the lion’s share of the points but punching far above their weight with psychic powers, blasters, fusion pistols, and a shuriken cannon. The Voidreavers deploy light with a pistol and power sword each, but have the option of switching to long-ranged shuriken rifles should you be raiding an area with plenty of fighty foes like Tyranids and Orks.
Download All the Faction Rules Here!
It’s cool to use your Voidscarred for a game like this, as they were basically meant to do this!
Boarding Actions Rules For Warhammer 40k
The latest Boarding Action rules for Warhammer 40k come from this Warhammer Community post. While they say this won’t be for normal matched play rules, they could be fun to try out every now and then.
They will also use the core rules for 40k but with some pretty interesting changes.
Walls and closed doors are more than just a visual obstacle in Boarding Actions. When judging distances between two models, you’ll have to measure all the way around them, no matter how close two miniatures are in a straight line. This may seem natural for movement, but it’s also the case when line of sight isn’t needed, such as aura abilities and psychic powers.
They said they tried their best to keep the core rules but just streamline them for this style of game. Overall this is a big change as it forces you to get right up in each other’s faces to either shoot or charge.
These rules force squads to engage each other in dangerous situations, unable to take pot shots from the safety of another room. In fact, while many kinds of weapon can normally be fired beyond your line of sight, this is expressly forbidden in Boarding Actions.
Hatchways can be opened and closed with an action, so it’s important to keep an eye on where they are. Infantry waiting in ambush around a corner might suddenly find themselves within range of deadly abilities when a door swings open.
It seems like an interesting change to the game and will make the games feel claustrophobic like they are supposed to.
Shooting Rules
You can only fire upon a unit if a straight, unimpeded line can be drawn directly from the shooter’s base to the target’s. Other models will block your shooting – friend or foe – so make sure you don’t pack your own troopers into lines of fire. This gives tough units with large bases – like Aggressors and Tyrant Guard – a new role as mobile cover for their squishier comrades.
Walls and corners and closed doors also provide cover, making chokepoints a key part of Boarding Actions. Games have an exhilarating ebb and flow, as armies carefully approach defended locations before violence erupts in a fierce struggle for control.
This will make shielding units (but they also block your shots) far more important, and it seems to go off bases, not height. So, grab some of those cheap shielding units for those expensive ones. Positioning will also be very important, as you have to shoot around all those corners and walls!
New Stratagems
The new mode also pares the list of available Stratagems right down to a handful of key options – initially allowing just for Command Re-roll, Counter-offensive, and Insane Bravery. Later books will introduce an arsenal of Stratagems for each faction – and even some sub-factions – starting in Arks of Omen: Angron.
This makes sense and is pretty great. As you can shield your more important units, then when you’re ready to shoot, have them get down and fire into the enemy.
This makes it so you can just open the hatch and pile in! It’s a very Orky rule and could let you get off some very sneaky charges in your opponent’s turn and your own!
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
