Explaining Boarding Actions in Science Fiction

Spacedock delves into the time honored tradition of breaking into spaceships and shooting the place up.
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[@johnbenson4672]

I like the Dr. Who version of boarding where you materialize your entire vehicle into the other ship and just open the door and stroll innocently out.

[@DreadX10]

Absolutely agree with that! Esp the word 'innocently' is what makes it so good. And therefore better than Q's boarding action in Star Trek TNG.

[@LAJ-47FC9]

"State your name, rank, and intention!" "The Doctor, Doctor... fun."

[@DreadX10]

@@TheCoolCucumber Does the Doctor board people? And, no, he did not. It takes a real bastard to bring along something as annoying as a Mariachi band when visiting someone.....

[@Wastelandman7000]

And considering that you could have multiple platoons in a TARDIS you would take over the ship rather easily. Thankfully the Doctor is not that warlike LOL

[@SIS3W3N]

@@Wastelandman7000 Demons run...

[@TehAsianator]

I feel like jedi were almost specifically designed for boarding action. They're fast, hideously dangerous in close quarters, ship corridors mean their primary weakness of getting surrounded is heavily nullified, and to top it all off their primary weapon is also a fantastic breaching tool.

[@inductivegrunt94]

Talking about boarding actions and not showing Astartes was a missed opportunity. It's boarding scene was amazing and shows a good example of a successful boarding action. Boarding Torpedoes are a great way to board since you can pierce enough decks so that the vacuum is far behind and fill it full of Terminators to deal with anything inside, be it Orks, Tyranids, or simple humans with autoguns.

[@10thCompanyCaptain]

I'm shocked he didn't use astartes as well.

[@Sparticus595]

No space hulk either. Terminators are perfect for boarding actions, high damage pistol, powerfist and the like for melee and heavily armoured enough to wade through regular gun and laser fire

[@CrimsonTemplar2]

Right?!?

[@tisFrancesfault]

GW are infamously litigious, its always best to avoid using their content.

[@Bird_Dog00]

They have their own drawbacks to consider: If my enemy had something like a space marine but I don't, I would deliberately design the interior of my ships with corridors and hatches to narrow and low to acomodate something with the bulk of a space marine's power armour. A solder in normal kit can easily manouver in an enviroment where one of The Emperor's finest simply won't fit. Hatches the size found in today's navy vessels should do the trick..

[@charlesvattimo4674]

This reminds me of Door Monster’s skit on FTL, “Use The Doors” where every issue from a fire in the engine room to getting boarded by enemies are resolved by opening doors to the airlocks, jettisoning the issue into space. This has inspired me to ensure any ship I make has a lung room, a massive cavity full of high pressure air to restore the atmosphere of rooms depleted upon exploiting the doors, and thereby space itself.

[@justusbrinkmann5206]

A top 5 of boarding actions would be really nice. Or maybe even a top 10.

[@benthomson1132]

Let's have a top 5 best and bottom 5 worst... and while I LOVE Star Trek I feel it'll probably sweep the bottom 5. 😁

[@Ruzaraneh]

and no surpise if astartes are the first one or the donnager boarding by protogen since both of them are pinnacle of boarding actions for fantasy sci-fi and hard sci-fi...

[@user-im7uh5nl6t]

The Expanse would be high on my list but up top at #1 it's gonna have to be Starcrash (1978)

[@DrakeAurum]

Flash Gordon Vs War Rocket Ajax had better be in there. "DIIIIIVE!"

[@benthomson1132]

@@DrakeAurum Oh my God, yes! Tactics be damned, a flying Brian Blessed with a mace will always be top tier boarding action.

[@JVarley9001]

40k's Boarding Torpedoes are just such a delightfully insane concept.

[@MiriaJiyuu]

Delightfully insane describes a lot of 40k

[@Hust91]

Sadly they don't work very well at anything approaching realistic orbital speeds as each boarding torpedo would generally have a velocity comparable to one of the tau railgun slugs at their slowest. If they hit you get the spaceship version of "everything in the room turned to plasma and sucked out the small hole in the back".

[@dragonturtle2703]

The best explanation I’ve seen for boarding is in 40k. The ships are kilometers long and naval battles (with some authors) can take hours or days. Plenty of time to send elite CQC specialists, murderbots, and super soldiers in to a ship to disable key components.

[@rommdan2716]

Kilometers long ships can have antiboarding cannons that makes those torpedoes useless

[@dragonturtle2703]

@@rommdan2716 that’s why you either take them out first, or accept the losses. It’s always a risky move.

[@PhthaloGreenskin]

But instead of sending 5 space marine terminators to kill some mooks. Why not just teleport a WMD through the teleporter onto the enemy vessel? That's a pretty easy way to kill a primarch.

[@Skuggihestur]

@@PhthaloGreenskin at that point just set off a cyclonic at point blank range

[@rhodes3983]

@@PhthaloGreenskin Because void shields are a thing

[@lokiorin5520]

If you have not read it, I highly recommend "The Lost Fleet" by Jack Campbell. It has an incredibly realistic take on futuristic space battles including the effects of time dilation when moving at significant percentages of the speed of light. Related to boarding, it is called out multiple times that while boarding does happen it is rare because the Defender holds the ultimate trump card: the reactors. If push comes to shove they can send the reactor of the ship into meltdown and blow the whole ship and any nearby enemy ships as well. So boarding actions tend to be hard and brutal conflicts over the engineering spaces and typically what is left after a successful boarding is not worth salvaging. You loot the place of any intelligence material and then set the reactor off anyway from a safe distance.

[@ParanoidMarvinMk2]

Also a great account of a huge scale boarding action with the ship they later rename the Invincible.

[@Maeldruin]

The Lost Fleet is such a good series in general. Main character actually makes reasonable decisions instead of relying on plot armor to get him through. The whole series just feels really well thought out.

[@murphy7801]

I think issue is when run up against fanatics. There happy of you blow your reactors.

[@JamisonMK3]

Another fantastic series, in my opinion, is "The Black Fleet" triliogy by Joshua Dalzelle.

[@jesseadams8933]

I was at the library the other day seeing if they had the first book in this series. I'll have to try again--thanks for the reminder!

[@kesmeseker9593]

IMHO boarding actions are an excellent vehicle to add reasonable mechs into your setting. Like modified and uparmored heavy EVA frames (which may normally be used as forklifts or maintiance tools) which are capable of withstanding light point defence fire. Arm them with a heavy duty plasma/fusion torch and auxiliary weapons like autocannons and missiles and voila, you have mechs which actually serve the distinct objective of cutting bulkheads and paving the way for more bulky instruments of boarding. You can even have melee "torch duels" as a bonus, how can you get more cooler than that!

[@thundergunner4284]

Ok so I'm totally working this into a little story I'm writing thanks for the idea lol

[@patrickkenyon2326]

Drones, gunsurvitors, robots all good. Use cheap expendable drones to save lives . Or, go the 40K route, use cheap expendable humans, mutants, or demons.

[@zchen27]

That's basically how mechs are used in Lancer's space battles. Sure, they are sometimes just used as fighter craft a la Gundam, but they can do the one thing fighter can't do: show up on the enemy ship with a tank-sized shotgun.

[@kennethleo4471]

So basically like the tactical dreadnaught armor, better known as terminator armor, from Warhammer 40K

[@kyriss12]

Also a good excuse for space melee weapons. Probably not the best idea to be firing ranger weapons around all Willy nilly when you’re in a big metal tube surrounded by the void of space, and the only thing keeping you alive is the delicate equipment made from pure explodium that’s randomly placed all over the place. As far a valid mechs go, I still think the best example was an old cartoon called exo squad. They were initially heavy mining equipment that was repurposed by civilians to put down a the first neo sapien uprising on a Martian mining colony. The mass produced military version became a thing because neo sapiens were 7 foot tall, could hold their breath for half an hour in total vacuumed, lift a few tons, and durable enough that standard infantry weapons would just piss them off. So big mech suits loaded with light artillery weapons put your standard field grunt on a more level playing field. Although Star ship troopers was also pretty valid on their use of mechs since unlike the movie, the military in the book actually valued the lives of its soldiers, and wanted to maximize the amount of damage they could do without wasting all the time and money it took to train them.

[@ZinXlX]

This reminded me of that CG movie Captain Harlock. Their boarding action was a lil flashy but the boarders had practical equipment for the task. Instead of just regular spacesuits their boarders were in heavily armored but very mobile mech suits which was perfect for leading the first wave of boarders. These mech suits were also armed with both ranged and melee weaponry if I remembered right plus some heavier ordnance for breaching armored doors.

[@CRAFT7445]

I was thinking of the same scene.

[@murphy7801]

If you have space ships its not unreasonable to assume you could make mech suits.

[@entropy11]

the Legend of Galactic Heroes remake went the same way, with elite marine units like the Rosen Ritter using armored powersuits.

[@ZinXlX]

@@entropy11 I remembered that ! They also introduced a unique story device into it too in the form of that gas that will cause ranged weapons to explode if fired while that gas was around so it forced everyone to go melee only. Makes it more sensible for them to use those low tech heavy melee weapons. God I really like that show ! 😃 Edit: not sure if that gas was still added in the reboot though.

[@kyriss12]

@@ZinXlX Not mention ranged weapons probably aren’t a good idea when the only think separating everyone from an ugly death is the hull of the ship you’re in, and lots of delicate equipment scattered all over the place. A new hope would have ended very differently if those explodium panels the stormtroopers kept hitting were related to life support instead of door controls or lite switches.

[@theaerieshistorian9764]

There's also the additional discrepancy in that, unlike naval boarding actions or slugging matches here on Earth, space has three dimensions, so unless you completely annihilate the opposing ship, it's still going to be salvageable for the crew, unlike on the open ocean where the ship may sink.

[@Brigand231]

I think that's what he meant by they don't just disappear when they reach zero health.

[@thomasfplm]

Even for ships at sea, frequently they are defeated widout sinking.

[@451degreesF]

Well to be fair during the times ships were boarded they were all made of wood and rarely actually sank. They just float on the water until the elements broke them into pieces.

[@tuananhtrngng820]

Space battle is more like of submarines vs submarinesbattle than normal ship vs ship.

[@thomasfplm]

@@tuananhtrngng820, I'm not so sure. Submarines have a lot of limitations in terms of armaments and detection reach. I don't think there is any form of combat that would be really comparable.

[@DarcyCasselman]

Loving the ongoing use of Legend of Galactic Heroes for background footage. Although we could have used more LoGH boarding axe fights. Because those are bad-ass.

[@danshea1166]

Any idea where I can watch this?

[@neillindgren8992]

@@danshea1166 Crunchyroll, or the “high seas”.

[@neillindgren8992]

Yeah. Those power armors with the axes were really cool.

[@Justanotherconsumer]

Not as impressive as the Julian Kick!

[@danshea1166]

@@neillindgren8992 thanks!

[@mattstorm360]

I love the reference to For all Mankind's firefight. Yeah, you don't want to put the secret reactor into melt down when you are trying to take control of a base. I think another thing to note is what you are sending to board an enemy ship. We might not launch a boarding action because it will put people's life at risk which you don't really want to do in space but there are situations where it's okay. Such as the expanse, boarding actions in the first season are taken more like a police action. The space cops roll up, board, and ask for you ID and cargo manifest and later they are done to secure a specific asset and are either done via marines or by a drone. In Clone wars we had battles where droids boarded republic ships with boarding craft or just jet packing onto the hull. Who cares if the enemy scuttles their own ship or defeats your droids, you can just go pick up more at the factory. Or the immortal clones of Dust 514, when that was still playable. In theory, you could send them in dropships, hard drop pods, or jetpacks to board a ship and if they die their consciousness is uploaded back to the main vessel and they are reborn in a new clone. They can give tactical information and get thrown back out into the fight.

[@jonathancole5179]

What about the Covenant? They boarded the pillar of Autumn to try to catch the Master chief in cryo sleep.

[@project9701]

I'm only surprised that you didn't use "Astartes" as a complete list of how to handle a boarding action.

[@roberts4089]

or just 40k in general you could probably find an example of everything talk about in the lore somewhere

[@e.s.4017]

To be perfectly fair it is kind of cheating to use a series where the only boarding tactic was roam around a ship tanking every shot and not giving a fuck

[@MrJamesatWork]

Why? Those guys all died.

[@raidellcorps]

I guess is has to do with Copyright

[@shaggycan]

I was totally thinking boarding torpedo. That was kinda the only error of astartes, boarding is pretty much always done by Terminator units. Maybe they were an inquisition detachment and didn't have them available.

[@kevingriffith6011]

I still love boarding drones, a great way to get all the advantages of bording actions without risking your crew... plus even if they can't breach the hull, having a squad of them running around on the surface of your ship wrecking any surface-level systems like point defense batteries is still a serious problem, maybe even more than if they actually managed to get inside where your interior defenses and personnel can get at them without EVA assistance. Have the ones that make it through the defenses bring those defenses down to make way for an even bigger second wave of boarders!

[@Fiirow1]

The expanse is my favorite sci-fi series, boarding is one of the things I think it does great... They'll sometimes discuss what weaponry to use, low powered ammunition or high power makes a difference here. More shows should go into the depth and really consider the consequences of firing weapons inside a pressurized tube. This would really enhance the boarding scenes, seeing how one or both sides have effective PPE against SAF, then rewarding accuracy and the use of less powerful fragmentation devices. We hear it all the time "be careful not to puncture the hull", but a minute later they're absolutely sending it with MG's and grenades...

[@thatstarwarsnerd6641]

If I remember correctly, that was the in universe explanation for Babylon 5’s energy weapons, which could harm organic beings without penetrating them, like a bullet would, which then means that they can’t penetrate the hull of a spacecraft

[@reganator5000]

one of the things is trying to get a good overlap of 'people who understand spaceships' and 'people who know the technical differences between different gun cartridges and their appropriateness for different applications'. Like a lot of stuff relies of video-game weapon grades, and look, I mostly play Destiny, so I'll point out that a perfectly reasonable weapon on that basis would be 'bow and arrow' (weirdly enough, weapons that were outdated around 500 years ago probably aren't good for boarding space-ships). This leads to weird stuff like shotguns being recommended because people don't really know what their practical application is in modern armed combat. Which is increasingly hilarious when you realise that job is 'opening wooden doors'. Shotguns are mostly used because they make big holes in weaker materials (there are a few other reasons to do that, such as bomb disposal, or creating holes in walls where there previously weren't any doors), but 'hurting people' isn't their main job, and if your in space and wanted to blow up more bits of the enemy ship, it'd probably be more effective to just throw the shotguns at them from your own airlock whilst going fast, given the lack of cheap plywood doors in space.

[@elizataylor1726]

@@reganator5000 I mean, wouldn't that make shotguns even better? Assuming your ship can survive those metal balls going everywhere (not puncturing the hull but they could probably screw with some systems in the wrong place), buckshot isn't bad for taking a person apart at close range. Now that really really depends on the level of personal armour. If your armour can survive it the shot would probably hurt like hell, if it can't then uhh.. god help you. There's a reason germans wanted shotguns banned from trenches in ww1 after all.

[@reganator5000]

@@elizataylor1726 The issue is that close quarters weaponry has come along a long way since WW1, and that shotguns weren't really designed for it to start with. The point of a pellet spread isn't lethality (a single, much smaller bullet can easily kill) but effectiveness at longer ranges against unarmored targets that are running away and where a clean killing blow matters because you want to eat them (buckshot isn't called 'dudeshot' after all). It's main disadvantages in close quarters are that shotguns are, even in the special purpose models, relatively bulky, as well as being low capacity weapons with a slow rate of fire, large rounds and often awkward reloads. This doesn't make them bad for law enforcement or civilian purposes- criminals generally are fast moving unarmoured targets who are likely to run away, and anyone who's thinking to shoot and kill the 25-30 person capacity of a UMP isn't doing self defence correctly. However, for military or para-military use, the SMG is lighter, easier to handle in tight spaces, higher capacity and quicker to reload, whilst being just as capable of disabling a target in a single hit, with the added benefit of probably disabling the person next to them as they attempt to patch up the wound. Weirdly, this just made me realise that militaries don't really need to shoot to kill as often as law enforcement (though they more often need to turn a building and everyone inside into a find powder, so its a bit swings and roundabouts in the end).

[@Fiirow1]

@@reganator5000 During large scale war, it is more beneficial to wound a large group, rather than outright killing them. Wounded enemies take up expensive supplies and manpower, a dead enemy will just motivate the rest to not die. This myth or depiction of kill everything, is from Hollywood's obsession with special forces, they typically avoid detection entirely, and in rare cases they just outright kill the enemy. This is because they operate with different tasks, always out-gunned and out-manned, they cannot afford to play the numbers game, so they are as brutal as they need to be. But even if shows go to much into depth about weapons technicalities and spacecraft, it's still better to have the show obey those rules and then explain it through actions or showing the consequences of not obeying them. This adds depth and makes it so much more interesting to the hardcore fans, while not subtracting anything from the overall show. The main downside I see to this, would be that they'd need to hire writers who know these subjects - or at least willing to look into it, maybe even hiring an advisor or two.

[@padawanmage71]

I remember in Babylon 5's 'Severed Dreams' the Earth Alliance used breaching pods to get in close and land on the side of the space station to let marines in and take over certain sections.

[@Coolman13355]

I haven't watched the vid (B5 reference!), but that was the first thing I thought of other than of course The Expanse in the thumbnail.

[@armedmage]

That was one of my favorite B5 episodes, and I think the boarding scene was well done.

[@Coolman13355]

@armedmage When the sound cuts out. Oh man.

[@davebignell773]

​@@armedmage A fight which shouldn't have happened - at least, not like that. The security personnel led by Garibaldi had located a choke point, and were getting setup to hold the Marines there until the Clarke loyalist Omega's and Hyperion's (if I recall 2 of each in the first wave - although I don't recall seeing either of the Hyperion's once the fighting had started) were destroyed or driven off, at which point the Marines would be left with no options other than surrender. But the recently recruited Narn security personnel simply ran straight past them and headed straight for the point where the Marines were entering the station from their boarding pod, resulting in a vicious and chaotic fight at knife range...

[@EricMeyerweb]

I was a little surprised not to see any B5 footage in this one, given how often it shows up in Spacedock videos.

[@NJHamilton30]

I would be THRILLED to see a breakdown of your top 5 or 10 boarding actions! As a personal request, can you do a "dishonorable mention" where things went hilariously wrong? 😊

[@Alligator81]

The “dishonorable mention” would get my vote, too. Even if only for a laugh.

[@RorikH]

Proposed candidate: The time in FTL where I sent boarders onto a ship that was trying to get away, and then the ship just took the boarders with them when they left.

[@marsar1775]

in my own story i've been working on, boarding actions happen after each and every naval battle. reasons vary depending on circumstance, but it's usually to recover any intel and/or prisoners you can, as well as salvage. or if your really lucky, a ship to add to your fleet! boarding is also critical in seizing orbital infrastructure like space stations and construction yards

[@RorikH]

Yeah, I think it would be interesting of it was played a little more like the age of sail than WWII, with a bigger emphasis on taking prizes and maybe even a bit of a moral component of not wanting to have to kill everyone on a ship.

[@patrickdusablon2789]

@@RorikH that could be added as part of the setting's rules of war. Once a ship's been defeated but not turned into a debris field or has surrendered, the victor is responsible for the lives and safety of the defeated crew. Which could also be expanded into "so long as a surrendered crew stays surrendered, they'll be treated as well as humanly possible until they can be interned in a suitable facility and eventually exchanged, repatriated or integrated into society; but if they don't stay surrendered then they forfeit their right to gentle treatment". Now, I'm not sure if I'd use captured spacers to crew a captured ship beyond, perhaps, well-supervised damage-control and crew support tasks (ie: medical or cooking/distributing meals) , or just keept them confined as comfortably as possible with some Marines to stand watch while a prize crew takes her to a friendly port.

[@grievouslytired7886]

Aside from the Invisible Hand and Tantive IV, my favourite boarding action is in the second Red Rising book. In Golden Son, two starshells, mech suits meant to be fired towards a planet from orbit by a magnetic accelerator, breach the bridge of a capital ship and force the crew to cooperate after killing the bridge garrison and command after threatening to vent the ship.

[@jameshuke354]

I think the red rising franchise have to be one of the best examples of boarding actions, and there wider implications (capturing a ship then immediately turning it against your enemies or using it for false flag attacks).

[@miguelguerrero8763]

Don't forget the boarding of the Colossus during the battle of Illion in the third book, using a mining machine as a makeshift breacher-shuttle was so genius lol

[@grievouslytired7886]

@@miguelguerrero8763 Or the diversion attack in the begining of Dark Age so Rhona could rescue "Slave 2". Bloodydamn brilliant series.

[@miguelguerrero8763]

@@grievouslytired7886 Haven't read Dark Age yet 💀💀💀

[@icotica921]

I like to think that some factions would have 'ramming pods' with combat robots inside, to avoid the issue of G-force. Plus, if it does get intercepted, or destroyed on impact, it's just a drone getting lost, as opposed to a living being.

[@Fen_Wolf]

I’d love to see you go into your favorite boarding actions. Overall all it’s such a crazy idea of boarding a space ship cause so much can go wrong when doing it. Can’t deny how cool it is though and there are definitely benefits to doing it.

[@sylak2112]

Klaes Ashford Boarding the Granicus, is probably my favorite. especially that dual wielding pistol and floating scene. Elegant and deadly.

[@raideurng2508]

Hands down the most terrifying boarding action are the Borg. A single drone can take your ship and crew if you let it. Immune to vacuum and forcefields, it's own limbs able to cut through bulkheads, all while adapting to every weapon you have (including kinetics). Methodical, persistent, able to infect all they touch.

[@kauske]

They don't ever seem to adapt to being stabbed by a batleth though, so I doubt they can truely adapt to a firearm on the fly.

[@PepRock01]

I'd say the replicators are scarier

[@Sky_Guy]

I try my best to not think too hard about Star Trek boarding actions. Every battle should immediately end as soon as shields are down, since that would give one side transporter supremacy. You could beam out the whole bridge crew into space or into cells, or beam munitions directly inside their hull. The only time we see these strategies are when the plot demands it, which makes it so frustrating. If beaming in a photon torpedo so damn effective, why do we only see it happen like three times total in all of Trek?

[@aikrichter5403]

@@kauske borg are portrayed rather inconsistant. i never understood why they need a couple of them beeing gunned down before they activate their bodyshields. Combat-assimilation of a 1000 Crewman-ship should go fast AF,since they can beam in 500 drohnes while beaming out half of the crew into assimilationchambers on the cube. most of the damage a batleth would cause the nanoprobes should be able to repair on the fly. and why does no borg ever have a gun in his armprostetics? a stun-phaser,a shockblaster,even a damn rubber-bullet? I guess,if you make the borg act like we imagine it,they would have assimilated the whole franchise at first appearance ;-)

[@erdelf]

@Aik Richter a couple of them need to be gunned down before adapting so the borg can gather enough data about the attack, compute a defense modulation and transfer the data to all remaining drones.

[@ethangonzales8230]

Let me be the first one to say: I love spacedock, and I appreciate everything you guys make. Keep up the good work!

[@mousermind]

You are not the first to say it. Not by a long shot.

[@templarw20]

I would go for a top 5 on boarding actions. I'm guessing: -Boarding the Tantive IV in A New Hope (with bonus end of Rogue One stuff if time allows) -Thoth Station Assault -the early season 2 Centurions on the Galactica (or late season 1? The Heavy Raider crashed into the museum is what I remember) -Klingon attack on DS9

[@Sephiroth144]

For BSG: Season 2, Episode 2, (though the actual breach was in Episode 1) Though I'd consider the final action with the Colony as well; that they had a hard dock/ramming boarding, that got turned on its head when Cavil decided to return the favor- something we don't really get often.

[@mattwhorlow9900]

What About Ashfords zero g assault to capture Marco in Expanse S4, 10?

[@templarw20]

@@Sephiroth144 Maybe. But the later seasons are... tainted in my mind, so I discounted it.

[@Sephiroth144]

@@templarw20 "The later seasons are tainted"; okay, when a show has 4 seasons, and you use the plural, that limits a lot of the show... =p Besides, even if you weren't a fan of the ending (and personally, I prefer stopping like 3 minutes early), the action can still be enjoable, yeah? (Heck, I'm worried you feel the Battle of New Caprica is tainted, and that's still a joy to behold... and a great "PUT THEM THRU WAR COLLEGE" explainer)

[@templarw20]

@@Sephiroth144 I think the first season was good, as was the first half of season 2, but much of the stuff after gets nonsensical and grimderp. The Husker Hail Mary was good, but the needless destruction of the Pegasus wasn't. So mixed bag.

[@Treveli45]

Space boarding actions (at least realistic ones) are one of those things that's cool when you're young but gets less so as you get older and wiser. It's only a good idea when the target vessel has either submitted to you (because you're faster or better armed), or it's after a ship-to-ship battle, at which point it's more search and rescue for enemy survivors and salvage. All a ship needs is the in-universe equivalent of a CIWS and the willingness to use it and your shuttles/pods are toast.

[@murphy7801]

Or your ship has no weapons but has a lot of people onboard Vs there ship. Desperate yes, but viable. Been case that a large merchant ships though out gunned would go for boarding due to larger crew against small pirate vessel in a desperate act in the 1700s. Rare TBF but not unheard of.

[@slender_snake]

The Expanse showed this well, as long as the enemy is willing to fight back, high loss is expected. Thoth station: An astroid defense gun took out a boarding pod, and half of boarding team with it. Donnager: Boom. Ashford's end: Boarding team overwhelmed by defenders. Some Earth marines: Boom. Ring station boarding action: over 2/3 strike teams killed by defensive fire.

[@patrickdusablon2789]

David Weber's later Honorverse novels do feature a number of boarding actions against Solarian ships, and indeed a lot of it is search and rescue for survivors in ships practically shattered by superior Manticoran weaponry. Another good lot of it is indeed information retrieval, salvage and just plain old making sure a surrendered unit stays surrendered because they wisely decided that fighting on was a bad idea.

[@patrickdusablon2789]

@@slender_snake and the novels go into further detail, about how a boarding action is a game of chicken between the boarding parties trying to take engineering and shut down the reactor as quickly as possible, as whoever controls engineering owns the ship/station regardless of what's going on on the command deck, and the captain's nerve with their finger on the self-destruct switch that would release containment on the reactor.

[@jhmcd2]

One thing he didn't mention, but I suppose it goes without saying, boarding actions are going to be high casualty events. Trek sort of make it make since, but we do see high casualty boarding in DS9, but overall, there is no way half your team isn't getting slaughtered unless they are really stealthy or the crew is Borg and spends half their time not caring you're there.

[@elizataylor1726]

Yep. In one of the expanse books Holden mentions that the most successful earth boarding action had something like a 40+% casualty rate.

[@thomasfplm]

I'd say that it depends on the difference in equipment for each side. If they are about equal, probably it would have a lot a casualties. But if we take the Expanse as an example, a team of Martian marines equipped like Bobbie in the first seasons against Beltars that don't want to destroy their own ship, I think it would be feasible to have all of them surviving. The armour is not invulnerable, but to damage it you could risk the ship itself. And it depends on the access you get to the ship's systems. If you can get hold of the ventilation, you can use something to make them loose consciousness, and even if they have a space suit, the air in them is usually finite, so you would inverse the situation, now you have the defensive position and they have to expose themselves. If there are drones (non sentient ones) in the setting, maybe the boarding action can have zero casualties, even with lots of lost equipment.

[@minhducnguyen9276]

​@@thomasfplm I'm surprised they don't take automated defensive measures into account. The game endless space 2 pointed this obvious feature out. If a civilization can figure out interplanetary space travel they probably already figured out automation. In the game you a module called Automated defensive drones that can be installed in a support module slot. It significantly increase the enemy manpower cost for a boarding action. Not to mention if you have enough boarding torpedoes to hit a ship you can also just outright destroy it with conventional weapons. This implies that your economy is so swelled your ships can overwhelm the enemy their ships easily there is no point capturing them as they worth nothing. Especially since inflation also exists in endless space 2 they gonna drop in price once you sell enough of them anyway. Not to mention you can also install a salvage module on your ships, allowing them to yield resources from destroyed enemy fleets and they are not subjected to inflation.

[@thomasfplm]

@@minhducnguyen9276, I would think that if you are boarding a ship, is because there is something you want in there that you can't get if the ship is destroyed. Either the crew itself, or someone, or some living being is important, or some other thing similar.

[@minhducnguyen9276]

@@thomasfplm For an important item, it would still be impossible to board a ship to retrieve it. People would rather blow up their ship than letting their sensitive materials getting captured. And for personnel, it depends on who you want to capture, politicians can be captured for ransom and people would probably avoid torturing a head figure unless they want to set up a precedence. Military leaders on the other hand would rather die than getting captured because they got access to too many sensitive information. In endless space 2 in the quest line for the United empire faction, as the emperor, you can choose to build a fleet to capture your sister capital ship and force her to surrender. That's probably the one of the few cases when boarding action is possible because as part of the royalty both sides would prefer not to kill each other so they are guaranteed safety if they surrender.

[@elchjol2777]

Ships can be expensive and time consuming to construct, capturing an enemy vessel on the other hand is risky but having to only repair the ship instead of build it saves time and money. And I'm fond of the idea of capturing enemy equipment/vehicles and turning them on their former owners. Thus a large amount of the ships I have in Distant Worlds 2 weren't mine to begin with. Though some of those were old salvage that I just found as well.

[@mercuryredstone2235]

Nice to see THAT GUY in the thumbnail.

[@Stile4aly]

The breaching pod from B5's Severed Dreams is a good example of a forced boarding action, but my personal favorite is the Prometheus maneuver from Robotech/Macross, and the countermeasure employed by the Zentreadi.

[@mitwhitgaming7722]

I'm literally writing a scene with a boarding action right now. Replayed the openings of Halo 1 and 2 for inspiration.

[@banebeard]

Who has the advantage? Boarders or defenders?

[@mitwhitgaming7722]

@@banebeard Well, the boarders are of an unknown alien race who don't require an atmosphere, and some of them are big enough to wield modified thruster engines as giant cutting torches... so I'll let you guess...

[@banebeard]

​@@mitwhitgaming7722that sounds like a nightmare 😂

[@FrozenPhoenix15]

Honestly, you'd be better off reading the novels. _"First Strike"_ opens with the Master Chief boarding and stealing a Covenant cruiser. Plus the Unyielding Hierophant towards the end. _"Ghosts of Onyx"_ features Blue Team boarding a pair of Brute destroyers. _"Cole Protocol"_ has Captain Keyes and Gray Team gain access to an asteroid by boarding and going through a ship that's docked at it. _"Silent Storm"_ starts with the Master Chief trying to steal a Covenant vessel during the first year of the war. _"Retribution"_ has undercover Spartans trying to sneak onto a secret Brute base. In _"Shadow of Intent,"_ the ship of the same name gets boarded by a Prophet faction after the war. _"Envoy"_ begins with Gray Team waking up on a Covenant ship that's in the middle of being boarded by another Covenant faction.

[@mitwhitgaming7722]

@@FrozenPhoenix15 I have read Ghosts of Onyx

[@Dorphie]

The Assault on Thoth Station has to be the coolest boarding action of all sci-fi. Better be #1 in your top 5. Followed by Nagata's boarding of the Chetzmoga and then Draper's & Burton's assault on the Ring Station. "How do we know when to go, what's the signal" "That wall will explode and turn into a door."

[@murphy7801]

I Thoth is hard not to win, given how close it is. I think in part is the battle to even clear the space for the boarding with bullets flying through ship is chillingly suspenseful.

[@AridosUK]

i love Drummer

[@AridosUK]

Thoth was a turkeyshoot once they actually got on board, but Rocinante defending the pods and taking out the stealth ship before they landing could take place, is brilliant

[@Dorphie]

@@AridosUK Yeah the actual CQB inside wasn't some tactical masterpiece, I just mean the way they boarded the ship was probably one of the coolest and most realistic portrayals. No convenient docking ports, no magic teleportation, just a bunch a soldiers inside a "beer can strapped to a rocket engine" that latches to the hull and creates it's own entry point. That scene hits pretty much all the talking points in this video. Especially the whole taking the danger of trying to dock off the main ship and having smaller purpose-built boarding vessels that are vulnerable but very effective.

[@mco119jj]

This is why I love this channel. You guys cover a lot of really interesting sci-fi topics that nobody else would ever think to make a video about. Keep it up!

[@herm43506]

Yea, I 500% want to hear your top 5! Also, I love the idea of boarding actions, and thank you for using one of my favorite movies in the background, “Master and Commander.”

[@MrSirwolf2001]

I just came here to say, the thumbnail while not a boarding scene is still one of, if not the best scene in The Expanse! "I am that guy".

[@patrickdusablon2789]

Strickland, all so happy that an understandably very angry dad got talked down from blowing his head off, and just a flash of "oh shit" when he realizes that talking down angry dad wasn't for his benefit, bur for dad's instead. Amos' moral compass is all sorts of screwed up on a good day, but there are a few cases where it points true no matter what. Like his dislike for bullies (ie: "how much damage do you think I can do in two minutes? 'Cause I bet it's a lot".)

[@NorthVandea]

Yes,Top 5 boarding actions please!

[@IN-tm8mw]

The Klingons boarding during Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock is my all time favorite. The destruction of the USS Enterprise, a longtime character of the show and films. Sacrificed to give its crew a fighting chance and save Spock. I also remember how powerful the skills were in games, capturing ships to join your fleet or sabotaged systems during combat.

[@IN-tm8mw]

@@TheCoolCucumber Ah man, i'm super happy someone else remember how fun that was! Them Borg Fusion Cubes were broken.

[@ParanoidMarvinMk2]

To add to the many already here: I'd love to see a boarding action list. I'd also add a nominee to the list, although it is a book and to my knowledge no one has made much visual media of it. Poor Man's Fight and it's sequel Rich Man's War feature several boarding actions. One major one serves to establish our protagonist as a hero though a series of unlikely but possible reasons you covered here. Another major one is an utter Hail Mary on the part of the good guys which is specifically called out in-universe as only working because no one expected it, and that they took 75%+ fatalities to do it.

[@maybetoby]

I would like to hear your top 5 boarding actions. Surprisingly, longarms (like an M4) are preferable for clearing rooms and long hallways in real-life situations. I used to instruct courses on room-clearing when I was in the military.

[@DocD173]

Oooh, love FTL. And yes, I do want to hear about your top boarding actions!

[@britishrex5515]

Perfect timing with the new 40k expansion :p

[@nyxorelius]

Great Video and thank you for including the boarding scene from the 2003 clone wars micro-series in the reel at the end. That moment is just amazing to watch even if its over the top

[@SuwinTzi]

The most basic reason for a boarding action would be customs inspection, and it goes onto being a reason why there's "space marines" on starships from an older video, not just for policing the crew. Kidnapping, hostage extraction, the McGuffin must be recovered are also legit reasons to board a ship instead of blowing it up outright. Lastly would be settings where ships are hard to come by and there's strategic reasons to board and capture instead of blow to smithereens.

[@patrickdusablon2789]

Hell, that was the pretext used by Holden and his crew to take over the Weeping Somnambulist in The Expanse. And they responded to a boarding attempt by some Ganymede thugs a little later. And later on, they board some busted Martian ships to secure some extra bullets and whatnot, and at the same time wind up picking up a handful of survivors. David Weber's later Honorverse novels do show a fairly large number of boarding actions, and quite a few of them are of mangled Solarian ships and a good deal of the mission is search and rescue. And for intact and salvageable ships from the Second Battle of Manticore, it's to ensure they're emptied of crew after their surrender, followed by survey crews to figure out what can be salvaged from them (ie: energy weapon mounts and reactors) to help start rebuilding their orbital and deep-space industry after they got sucker-punched.

[@Angrist17]

Absolutely need a top 10 boarding actions video. There are some great sequences from BSG and the Expanse just to get started.

[@brianhenry152]

Would definitely be interested in a top 10 boarding actions video! This one definitely mentioned several that I would rank. My choices, in no particular order: Vader hallway scene in Rogue One. Stormtroopers raiding the Tantive IV in SWANH, Galactica raiding the Cylon base in the finale of BSG, the attack on Thoth Station in The Expanse... just to name a few.

[@Camooses]

I had a fan design for a Star Trek weapon. Its a rifle that fires the transporter tags the drones shoot from Insurrection. You can shoot borders and have them beamed right into a cell with all their weapons removed. Bonus for not damaging you own ship with phaser disruptor fire.

[@ariffetorlase9783]

I can no longer think of boarding actions without both homeworld iterations coming to mind.

[@AridosUK]

those salvage corvettes really helped out early game, i had a tonne of Ion array frigates, and even captured a cruiser in the Supernova station level once

[@TheSybermedic]

Yes please, a top 10 boarding actions would be most welcomed.

[@angmordagnithil7127]

I am quite interested in a list of your favorite boarding actions! A mixture of validation for our own choices and recommendations for things we may not have seen yet can never go amiss.

[@rfletch62]

B5 had a great boarding sequence in the episode "Severed Dreams". A stealthier boarding in the episode "War Without End".

[@mirochlebovec6586]

I would love to see top 5 boarding actions but I would also like a video on the different types of cryosleep\stasis across sci-fi

[@dreamcatcherben8214]

i cant help but think this is conected to the new bording action rules/stuff in warhammer 40k

[@peet67812]

I love seeing legend of the galactic heroes as footage! Great series

[@hansmerker5611]

When I think of boarding scenes in the sci-fi genre, I always think of the scene that is seen at the beginning of A New Hope.

[@DamonCzanik]

The new version of Star Citizen has ships that can be disabled & boarded. Pirates can EVA to the ship & grab the cargo off the ship, and the occupants can defend it. Disabled ships also cuts off gravity and wrecks stay there until a player salvages the ship. It's just a lot of fun, that I didn't realize how much other games need proper boarding mechanics.

[@thomasbakkenmoe6605]

Would love to see a top 5 boarding actions. Also: Astartes

[@Psikeomega]

In my personal writing, I've had my characters on "dead" ships after a bad melee in space. I feel it's a good way to illustrate how low the survival rate of a lost big ship battle can be while reinforcing that it's still not zero and how all the creature comforts of the ship now inconvenience them after the power is gone. As far as the boarding goes, I like to breeze through it with the narrative showing that it's basically moving fast because it has to be fast. That way when a detail comes up, it must be important. Like "we cleared the next 4 rooms with the adjoining corridors A grenade was waiting for us as we opened the 5th" type deal. While I do semi regularly have my characters' ships boarded, I don't like sending them over to other ships too often because plot armor is earned, not divinely gifted. I don't want them taking undue risks just because they are going to make it to the end of the story, and also for the most part, they are supposed to be smart enough to be in command.

[@kilianortmann9979]

Another important consideration for Age of Sail naval battles, wood floats. So it is really difficult to sink a wooden ship, not impossible, but they probably took much longer to sink than steel hulled vessels.

[@Bird_Dog00]

Not necessarily. You can't realy compartementalise a wooden hulled ship. I'm no engineer, but given the flexibility of a wooden hull, trying to create internal bulkheads that are even remotely water tight sounds like a fool's errand to me. One reason would have been that without internal compartementalisation, a wooden ship is far more likely to settle on an even keel. And a ship going down that way takes far longer to sink than one that capsizes due to one-sided flooding. Additionally, given the available weapons technology and the combat ranges, I would immagine that just getting shots to hit and penetrate the enemy ship's hull below the water line in sufficient numbers to actually threaten the ship takes some effort. Effort most ships would have rather used to try to silence the enemy's gun battery.

[@usel1500]

Great video! Keen for that Top 5 Boarding Actions video too. Some fun suggestions for this series, maybe a video dedicated to improvised weapons? You've touched on that topic in other videos in the series, but I thought it would be cool to consolidate the information. Also thought it might be cool to talk about navigational hazards in space, post combat debris, pulsars (which you do have a video on), minefields, the fact that asteroid fields have a lot of empty space. Stuff like that. Great channel, great videos, love what y'all do.

[@Sephiroth144]

Definitely hope you were soft putting together the top 5/10 boarding actions already, because yes, let's go alreeeeeady! (And personally, wondering which BSG boarding action will be at the top- torn between two myself, but since they are so mismatched, curious how they'll shake out in the bigger list)

[@antwan1357]

before I even watch the video I've always wanted boarding actions in science fiction mmo games.

[@jaffarebellion292]

Well, if you're alright with playing an unfinished game and have a good group, Star Citizen lets you do just that.

[@stephenjdutton]

When I wrote one story that included a boarding action I had the defenders begin by using just pistols, shotguns and SMG type weapons but then facing the problem that their attackers were very heavily armoured and having to make the choice of fighting on with weapons that had little to no effect or breaking out heavier weapons that risked damaging their own ship.

[@451degreesF]

Man, The Expanse was full of boarding actions. I loved it.

[@earld1403]

Not exactly a Boarding action but one of the best examples of why NOT to dock with even a friendly ship was in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S1E04 (Memento Mori) where the Gorn disabled a ship and then when the Enterprise docked with the disabled ship they attacked.

[@LiamDennehy]

So happy to see the assault on Jamestown base in For All Mankind. While not on a spaceship it was an amazing, high realism boarding action. From the initial approach taking out the command center window slaughtering the crew there with zero risk, to the utterly silent assault inside the corridors, it was spine tinglingly tense and genuinely thrilling, with real stakes.

[@anthonylovesey1137]

The boarding scene of Babylon 5 (series 3 ep 10) with a breeching pod. And, the boarding scenes in the film Wing Commander would be in the top five.

[@derekp2674]

Thanks for an enjoyable video. It was great to see all the clips that you used to illustrate this theme. I also always enjoy hearing that Battlezone 2 music.

[@Delta501st]

I think one of the biggest blind spots in Sci fi space battles is electronic warfare. I'd be interested to see your take on how EW and ECM could be used in space battles.

[@spacedinosaur8733]

They do a pretty good job of EW in Bodacious Space Pirates. Everything from automated systems to scrub spam and pop-ups, to more advanced things like honeypot traps and total control over an enemy ship.

[@WhereIsTheSpartan]

The main issue with electronic warfare in space battles is that space is already a hostile environment for electronics. For example computer chips must be either hardened against radiation or the whole ship in order to work properly. That's why also the crew of the ISS are using very old laptops in order to have a functioning computer. The smaller the electronics are the higher the risk it might fail because of radiation. Also countermeasures are much more harder as in space there are already a ton of all sorts of EM waves and radiation which you had taken already into account for your sensors and communication.

[@alexboehm3919]

Have to say I love the boarding sequences from infinite Warfare! I took inspiration from those scenes for my own work. I am thinking of adding teleportation into my setting. But it’s a fickle technology, only used in specific or emergency situations. Dropships are more common.

[@Martell364]

I just want to say, that this video is expertly edited and the chosen clips always underline what is said. Really well done.

[@AlexSDU]

There are so many boarding actions that's are memorable for me. One of them is the boarding action by the crew of USS Seaquest in season 2 finale. Anyone old enough to remember it?

[@colekenney2965]

Why everyone should wear vac rated combat armor

[@jakemarzano2298]

I'd love to see a boarding action tier list

[@armedmage]

Thank you. I suggested this very topic a few videos back and was delighted to see it on my feed.

[@chaosfire321]

Melee weapons are underrated for boarding. Paradoxically, they make a ton of sense in a scifi setting, especially at lower tech levels. When bullets could potentially punch through a bulkhead and destroy sensitive equipment, sometimes you really do need to get close up to limit damage. And what's more damage containing than a club or pneumatic spike through a spacesuit in hard vaccum?

[@JimmyAgent007]

You could have included the Invader-class Breaching Pod from Babylon 5 as taking a space station from the inside might be easier than overpowering it.

[@TheVeritas1]

You're not the only one to bring up the B5 scene. That was so gripping.

[@Sephiroth144]

See, this is why we're asking for a top 5/10 list; they only had so much time in this one... Also, my biggest problem was them FOLLOWING the Narns. Either get their asses back to the choke point, or "okay, fine, go be the cannon fodder, we're gonna stay at the strategic point we talked about".

[@JimmyAgent007]

@@Sephiroth144 To be fair, getting to the breech site would be ideal and if security hadn't paused, they might have been able to get them as they hopped out of the can.

[@compmanio36]

@@JimmyAgent007 I think the point was that they had a defensible position with cover, whereas the section where the boarding pod came in was wide open and easily able to be covered by the invading force. Yes, they would be in a choke point too with the breaching point being something they'd have to get past, but once they got past it, they would be able to be on even footing with the invaders. At the point Garibaldi chose, they had cover, would see the enemy coming and be able to fire at them effectively while avoiding return fire. Also, they'd be in a better position if the breaching pod decided to bug out and pull away, leaving the space exposed to vacuum.

[@Sephiroth144]

@@JimmyAgent007 IF, and if they knew the exact room they were boarding into; and since we saw the Narns rushing into fire from already embarked breachers, they would not have had time to get there (let alone set up). They DID have time to set up (and maybe even move a few crates around to set up better positions) by the time the breachers would have reach the position that Garibaldi told them to establish- set up a few fields of fire and all that. The Narns f'd up, and frankly, given how well Garibaldi knows the station (Grey 13 notwithstanding) I'd hazard he knew what he was doing when he told the team to take position. (Also, I'd be a little wary of being in charge of people who flat out don't listen to your orders.)

[@robwalsh9843]

I remember playing Homeworld 2 and wondering how my marines were doing when I sent them to board a carrier.

[@Justanotherconsumer]

I never liked the marine frigates. They just weren’t as good as the five finger discount corvettes from the first game. Those things were broken AF.

[@davebignell773]

Sounds like Homeworld 2 - 2 had Marine frigates which would get close and board the enemy ship to take control of it wherever it was on the map. In the original Homeworld and Cataclysm, the target ship was shutdown by docking salvage corvettes (or workers) to it (the bigger the ship, the more salvagers were needed) and dragged back to the Mothership (or the Kuun-Lan in Cataclysm) to be captured by boarders once it was docked.

[@elijahsellers3727]

A top list of boarding actions would be awesome

[@Hust91]

Something important to remember before lowering your defenses to lure an enemy boarding party aboard by teleport or shuttle: The boarding party might just be an EMP, nuclear or antimatter bomb with a very short fuse (especially when teleporting).

[@Zigg8833]

Love the separatist boarding pods in star wars, the way they pierce and tear into a ship and they pop out droids so it doesn't matter if they don't make a vacuum seal

[@jeffbenton6183]

When he was going through all the various methods of boarding and showing different specialized craft various shows and movies have depicted, I was half-expecting him to include the Separatist's boarding craft which was first shown in Season 1 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

[@maraudercatt8564]

One great thing that was discussed in the Expanse books, was that everyone used plastic/non-penetrating rounds inside ships which would not penetrate many layers and definitely not the hull. It was a pro and con, in that it protected the vessel but also meant even light armor was a bigger issue and more regulated...etc. Just a cool approach.

[@AridosUK]

that explains why Holden was shit scared of the Canterbury XO in the first episode, he had Mike Ehrmantrout's big gun, that fires actual dangerous rounds

[@patrickdusablon2789]

And something really cool in The Expanse, really better explored in the novels, is how a boarding action is a contest. It's a race between the boarding party rushing to take engineering so they can effectively own the ship and the command spaces, hoping to take engineering (and therefore dump or scram the reactor) before the captain blows the ship and the command spaces before the computers can be wiped.

[@Brigand231]

Yes please, a top

[@Kanzuke]

Thank you for FINALLY trying to source the clips you use. I'd prefer if they were more specific than just the series by including episode numbers, but this is already a huge step forward.

[@derrImperator]

My favorite boarding scene is from a clone wars episode where Anakin just uses some AT-TE to land on a separatist frigate.

[@taylormorton2731]

The Hullbusters in the Galaxy's Edge audio book series are one of my favorite sci-fi boarding specialists. It takes an absolute mad lad to stuff yourself into a tin can of a spacecraft designed to fly into and breach the hull of an enemy ship. Not to mention this usually occurs during a pitched battle where a stray blaster bolt or even debris can end your life before you even make it to the hornets nest.

[@johncage5368]

Very nice analysis and overview of a not very commonly discussed important topic with lots of very good fitting scenes! Nice work!

[@TheJosephB333]

Thanks for adding captions to your images!

[@ChakatBlackstar]

With boarding actions, my favorites (and I admit are a bit obscure) were the ones done in Outlaw Star. The titular ship had an extendable boarding tube in its dorsal hull of sorts that would drill through the enemy hull and board that way. Special mention also goes Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, where Magog boarding pods would latch onto the sides of the Andromeda's hull and punch through. The anti-boarding action was equally fun when they deployed their two warbots to magnetically adhere to the hull, and blast the pods away.

[@Chsae314]

Top 5 boarding actions would be awesome! Loving all your recent videos :-)

[@ostlandr]

Great video! Fans remember the Bablyon 5 episode "Severed Dreams" for the epic space battle, but there was also a boarding action. CIC tracked the breaching pod in, and Security Chief Garibaldi, commanding a mixed force of station security and Drazi militia, was able to set up a hasty defensive barricade. Garibaldi orders the Drazi to stay behind the barricade and pick off the Earth Force troops as they exit the pod. Tragically, staying put behind defenses is not something Drazi are capable of. As soon as the pod force-docks, the Drazi immediately charge into the teeth of the enemy fire, with predictable results. Very expensive victory for the defenders.

[@Z31Turbo]

Wing Commander 4 had one of my favorite sci-fi boarding techs, they used "MIPs" manned insertion pods, they would only fit one person but were the size of a torpedo so they would go into the bombers and fired at the side of a capital ship or space station. Then they would suction on and a laser cut through the hull so the marine could capture the target.

[@Blitzjaeger08]

If I was to write boarding action for a story my main idea is to use small craft that come out of other dimensional space (like slip space from halo) and drill or crash into the side of a ship putting troops on board with complete/almost comolete surprise. There are good downsides, like needing to be able to have precise control over where you go in and out of real space. Also, knowing where your target is at any point in real space.

[@blackprince84]

Top 5 favourite Boarding actions please, you do these episodes so well.

[@IAmEvilTree]

The CIS, having a droid army, was pretty good at boarding actions; their metal bodies can survive an impactful boarding and they don't need oxygen, mitigating two of the biggest difficulties. I think the CW episode "Cloak of Darkness" showed this off pretty well.

[@Jo-Heike]

Space ships actually do disappear a lot of the time when they "reach zero hit points" when usually one of two things happen, either the reactor gets hit directly and overloads, or something else explody gets hit (munitions, power-conduit, etc). Which causes a change reaction that usually overloads the reactor. And in the case where a ship gets completely crippled, but the reactor doesn't get hit the crew scuttle the ship, sometimes before or after launching escape pods (depending on who they are fighting). Even if that doesn't happen you did list a lot of drawbacks and risks associated with boarding so the victorious force might just shoot the reactor to blow up the ship and avoid a dangerous boarding attempt.

[@davidhuxley4818]

Yes please, to your top 5 boarding actions!!

[@daverage4729]

One of the things I loved about Babylon 5 was the 'PPG' a special energy weapon created with the purpose of killing your enemy but having the energy disperse past a certain range.

[@anoninunen]

Is there any example of: Sending a swarm of unmanned torpedos that rapidly create airlocks, then locking to those? Sort of a 'Daisy Cutter' in space?