This is from Steve, when he introduced boarding:
Boarding Combat
This replaces the existing combat vs PDCs and adds the ability to board disabled or slow-moving ships. A new "Attempt Boarding Action" order has been added which can be used against sensor contacts. You select the ground units involved just as if you were making a combat drop. At the moment you can only board ships and PDCs. I will probably add shipyards in the future once I figure out how to have defensive forces for that situation. When the fleet intercepts the target, a boarding attempt is carried out. Actually docking with a target that is evading is virtually impossible so the assault involves using a combat drop module to fire the troopers at the enemy ship. They land on the hull, lock themselves in place and either enter through holes in the armour or blast their way in.
Trying to board a ship moving at several hundred or several thousand kilometers per second in this manner is still incredibly risky. Because of the speeds involved, the intercepting vessel must have a huge speed advantage to make the boarding attempt without suffering heavy casualties among the boarders. The cause of those casualties will vary but could include missing the target and ending up within the exhaust plume, impacting the hull at too high a speed, missing entirely and being lost in space, etc. The percentage of casualties from the boarding attempt is equal to 20xD10, giving a range from 20-200%. However, the amount of D10 rolled is reduced by Interception Speed / Target Speed. For example, if the interception speed is 6000 km/s and the target is moving at 1000 km/s, the number of D10 is reduced by 6. Therefore, if the intercepting ship is at least twenty times faster than the target ship, the attempt is automatically successful and no casualties are suffered during the boarding. Because of the risks involved, in most cases before a boarding attempt can be made the target ship will have to be slowed down or disabled.
Once the boarding units land on the enemy ship or PDC, they will attempt to enter. If the armour has already been penetrated by weapon fire, they will enter through the damaged section. If the armour is intact or the damage does not penetrate to the interior they will begin using breaching charges to gain access. One breaching charge will be detonated every thirty seconds and will destroy one point of armour. The boarding units will always chose the point at which the armour is most damaged to place the breaching charge. They should gain access to most ships fairly quickly, especially if the ship has already been slowed down by damage. It may take longer to blast into well-protected PDCs.
Once the boarding units have gained access to the interior alien ship or PDC, combat takes place between the boarders and the crew of the alien ship plus any alien ground units on board. The crew will not be as effective as dedicated combat troops but they are still military personnel with at least some basic combat training and they will be familiar with the layout of their ship. Therefore the combat strength of the crew is equal to 1 defence point for every 100 crew. Below is a comparison of crew vs likely boarding units in terms of attack and defence strength per 500 personnel or a battalion
500 Crew: 0/5
Mobile Infantry Battalion: 5/10
Assault Infantry Battalion 10/5
Heavy Assault Battalion: 12/12
Marine Battalion 20/20 (in boarding combat)
Marine Company 4/4 (in boarding combat)
As this is a high intensity, close quarters engagement it is resolved much more quickly than ground combat. Combat is calculated using the same formula as ground combat with the following exceptions:
1) Combat takes place every five minutes after movement and combat. Once a unit has successfully boarded a hostile vessel, the Boarding Combat Clock begins counting. Once it reaches 300 seconds or greater, a round of boarding combat is fought and the clock is reduced by 300.
2) Low readiness units on both sides cannot avoid combat
3) The boarders cannot retreat so they must keep attacking until they capture the ship, die trying or surrender.
4) As a result of the boarding combat, collateral damage may be inflicted to the ship itself. If this is severe enough, or causes secondary explosions, it is possible the ship might blow up in the midst of the fight.
5) If all the defending units and crew are eliminated, the ship is captured.
Pretty much of the above is coded and working although I still need to carry out more tests. I may also add some type of close quarters defence system to attack troops on the outside of a ship or PDC that are trying to get in and I might also add some form of security detachment for ships. This would be equal to about a platoon of Marines but they would exist as a ship system rather than an independent unit. I'll post any further changes to this thread. I hope the changes already described will make the ground element of Aurora a lot more interesting and add some extra flavour.
Steve
