"Supply Run" - Boarding Actions Game - Gameplay

A daring raid against an enemy transit terminal

is a superb way to acquire valuable resources 

for your own war effort and deny them to the foe.

- Boarding Actions Book (p. 158)

Welcome back to another Friday on The Art of Caesura!

Last week we read my short story "The Cost of Knowledge" which was based on a game of Boarding Actions that two friends and I played a couple months ago. Today, I want to share some photos and some fun moments from that game. 

This being the first game of Boarding Actions that any of us had played, we chose quite a straight-forward mission [The orange objectives were worth 5 points and the Supply crates were worth an extra 5 if you controlled more than your opponents, they also gave the chance to gain an extra Command Point (a valuable in-game resource)], we went through all the usual pre-game activities of choosing a board edge, determining first turn etc. 

Boarding Actions is played at 500 points each, I brought all melee Black Templars: Primaris Crusader Squad (which gets split in half in Boarding Actions), Sword Brethren, Emperor's Champion, 5 Assault Intercessors and, because I had 50 points remaining, an Ancient (represented by Grimaldus' Servitor holding the banner). 

Ruairi (pronounced "Rory," for our Non-Irish readers) brought TWO Winged Tyranid Primes, a bunch of Genestealers (not technically included in the detachment, but too iconic not to have clambering through a Space Hulk) and he rounded out his list with about a million Termagants. 

Eoghan (pronounced "Owen," for our Non-Irish readers) took a Lieutenant, Hellblasters, Aggressors, and Intercessors of the Regular and Assault varieties. 

Mirroring my actual geographical locale in Ireland, I started in the South West corner with Ruairi's Tyranids just north of me and Eoghan off by himself in the North East corner. 

My tried and tested game plan was to charge into the middle of the table, claim whatever objectives I could, and basically hope for the best! The close confines of the Gallowdark definitely suited my close combat Black Templars!

The opening turns saw us all vying for position, Ruairi's Winged Prime was knocking on Eoghan's door (which was locked in the first turn) and I had the master plan to leave my Ancient on the Western Supply Drop while defending him by creating a bottleneck with my Primaris Crusader Squad against Ruairi's hordes approach from the northern corridor...

...Unfortunately, I hadn't noticed that there was a door right behind my Ancient! The Genestealers happily burst through and devoured him without mercy. It was hilarious. 

Suddenly, I was being attacked on both two sides, which I totally hadn't anticipated!

My backfield was not looking great, but the Tyranids were taking a bit of a beating trying to get through Eoghan's door to the north. The new 4-shot Bolt Rifle rules are brutal!

With Eoghan's marines bravely fending off the xenos to the north, my Sword Brethren slammed into the Assault Intercessors holding his eastern supply drop.  

The Emperor's Champion stayed right in the middle of the board (leaders don't join units in Boarding Actions), holding the centre objective with his best "come at me, bro!" energy. 

I'm not going to lie, my exact recollection of events is a bit hazy from the intervening couple of months since this game occurred (but more due to the copious beers that were drunk on the night).

I think Eoghan sent his Lieutenant into the Emperor's Champion - more for fun than for tactical advantage. The Emp Champ (whose whole role is to make mince meat of characters) accepted the challenge, lopping off the Lieutenant's head just before the Sword Brethren blended the Assault Intercessors. 

Ruairi's Tyranids were in the lead until the final turn of the game where, despite some iffy dice-rolling...

...the Black Templars, now owning all three of the supply drops, snowballed their way to victory!

It was such a fun game! I am definitely a Boarding Actions convert! We even got to use LASERS!!

Thank you Ruairi and Eoghan! I look forward to more Boarding Actions in the future, but in the meantime, I'll see you next week, right back here on The Art of Caesura!

Watching: White Lotus (Season 3)

Reading: Enter Ghost - Isabella Hammad

Next Week:

The third dimension...