How would you board a ship?

[Toolian]

not talking about rules, but in the world of leviathans, how would sailors board enemy ships?

Would they be like the rocketeer?

[Van Gogh]

Well, there are aerial torpedoes available, so we can totally do it Starcrash-style !

[blackbrunswicker]

I guess you'd do it the old boring way, with launches full of marines. Once a ship was heavily damaged enough you could send over the launch and just tie it somewhere alongside and have the marines clamber aboard.

[Pik]

I say "no" to boarding actions in Leviathans universe. It's elegant steam punk setting with preserved feeling of logical possibility.
Airmen can barely stand on the deck during the flight without special safe harnesses. How they can possibly board another ship in battle?

If someone wants boarding actions, why not to choose Dys. Wars? There are rocket marines, mechanical squids, flying robots, and mobile St. Peter's Basilica with tracks. And many more trashy dauby things.

[Van Gogh]

    Joking aside, I'd agree with Pik: Leviathan-to-Leviathan boarding action doesn't seem to fit within the aestethics of the game. Perhaps the description of trials (parachuting troops on Levs, instable etheroid boarding crafts), but not large-scale events (they would tend to be cancelled after a few small scall inconclusive or outright deadly attempts).
   Afterall, it took years of trials by very few daredevils to actually land a plane on a warship or a small surface (such as the rooftop of the Galleries Lafayette, in the earlies '20), so it would be difficult to gather enough people willing to throw themselves in the air or between close Levs to create a flying marine corps in the 1910s.

   Still, I can imagine the Italians trying to create a flying Maiale, even though the obvious advantage of the submarine counterpart (furtivity) is completely lost.

[Toolian]

I say "no" to boarding actions in Leviathans universe. It's elegant steam punk setting with preserved feeling of logical possibility.
Airmen can barely stand on the deck during the flight without special safe harnesses. How they can possibly board another ship in battle?

If someone wants boarding actions, why not to choose Dys. Wars? There are rocket marines, mechanical squids, flying robots, and mobile St. Peter's Basilica with tracks. And many more trashy dauby things.

I agree 100%, boarding actions in this time just seem odd. However, their are rules for them, I believe in the advanced rules.

[Pik]

Toolian, are you sure about that?

Randall only wrote about ramming rules in Commander's Manual.

[Xerus]

I do not know whether or not there are any rules for boarding (can't remember and too lazy to look it up), but I do recall something like that being mentioned before. In any case, I consider the following a method of boarding in an time-appropriate manner, whilst also taking into account the limitations of the crew's mobility on these unstable vessels:

1) Draw close to the target vessel - very close.
2) Fire heavy harpoons/powerful magnets, with strong cables attached to them. Said cables should lead to powerful winches with a generous amount of slack to prevent them from being pulled apart if the two vessels are not moving perfectly in unison (which will be unlikely, as the other side is presumably unwilling to be boarded) but also keeping them somewhat taut.
3) A bunch of marines clips their harnesses from their own vessel onto the cables. From this point onwards the defending crew would be trying to dispose of the cables.
4) Marines slide across, making sure not to splatter themselves against the target's hull.
5) If step 1 was reasonably accurate and the cables were not cut, marines attach themselves to the safety rigging of the target and commence fighting. Otherwise, they may be forced to use explosives to enter, or simply plummet to their doom instead.

Altogether I would not consider this to be a very 'wise' tactic, as it is unlikely to transfer a serious fighting force in the half-minute or so before the cables have to be released or break. But with a crew that is skilled enough, it just might catch a few unwary victims off-guard.

[Spence]

Well there is a lot of call for Air Pirates, which means boarding.  You can't really have one without the other.   

As for boarding not being within the aestethics of the game?  I don't see that.  The heroes or villains boarding the flying aerial ship has been part and parcel of almost every book I have read or animation I have watched that had aerial ships.   

But that is just opinion.  The big question to be asked is whether the thought of boarding actions fits with Catalysts vision for the game. 

[Pik]

Well there is a lot of call for Air Pirates, which means boarding.  You can't really have one without the other.   

Fortunately yes, you can. Worktroll well described how Sky Pirates operate in this setting.

As for boarding not being within the aestethics of the game?  I don't see that.  The heroes or villains boarding the flying aerial ship has been part and parcel of almost every book I have read or animation I have watched that had aerial ships.     

In this setting Rule of Awesome < Rule of Realism.

For all you Leviathan-to-Leviathan boarding fans I suggest reading official fiction Cadet Cruise #1. It shows how difficult is to board another Leviathan. Keep in mind that crews of both airships were collaborating with each other to make it happen and the only difficulty was bad weather condition.

We're talking about transporting a significant fighting force using ropes from one mobile platform to another mobile platform (the latter is very uncooperative in this task). Add cannon and machine gun fire, difference in elevation, weather conditions and great speed of the leviathans (speed 9 ships can travel about 80 km per hour - traveling with this speed creates a "wind" [I don't know official english term for this phenomenon] blowing in direction reverse to the flying direction - it effectively sabotage any attempt to launch a rope or ship-to-ship travel).

I do not know whether or not there are any rules for boarding (can't remember and too lazy to look it up), but I do recall something like that being mentioned before. In any case, I consider the following a method of boarding in an time-appropriate manner, whilst also taking into account the limitations of the crew's mobility on these unstable vessels:

1) Draw close to the target vessel - very close.
2) Fire heavy harpoons/powerful magnets, with strong cables attached to them. Said cables should lead to powerful winches with a generous amount of slack to prevent them from being pulled apart if the two vessels are not moving perfectly in unison (which will be unlikely, as the other side is presumably unwilling to be boarded) but also keeping them somewhat taut.
3) A bunch of marines clips their harnesses from their own vessel onto the cables. From this point onwards the defending crew would be trying to dispose of the cables.
4) Marines slide across, making sure not to splatter themselves against the target's hull.
5) If step 1 was reasonably accurate and the cables were not cut, marines attach themselves to the safety rigging of the target and commence fighting. Otherwise, they may be forced to use explosives to enter, or simply plummet to their doom instead.

Altogether I would not consider this to be a very 'wise' tactic, as it is unlikely to transfer a serious fighting force in the half-minute or so before the cables have to be released or break. But with a crew that is skilled enough, it just might catch a few unwary victims off-guard.

"Reverse wind" thing, enemy ship avoiding close quarter fight, differences in elevation and great speed – all of those are still an issue.
However your boarding scenario is quite reasonable and might occur if boarded ship’s engines are blowed up. But what if defending crew instead of trying to cut the ropes start shooting with machine guns?

[Alius]

Actually, the best time to board an enemy lev is if she has no way to move, save up or down. However, there's even a limit there as a defensive tactic. Too high, and you'll keel over from lack of oxygen. Too low, and you'll practically be grounding the ship, and making boarding far more easy.

So, if someone is keen on taking a Live Lev... well... alive, then the first thing to do would be to take out those motors. Then, when she's dead in the air, you move into position to hook up.

Not wise, but better than lassoing a bucking bronco.

Y'know, I can imagine some of the smaller countries working up a fleet of 'predator' ships to steal whatever they can from the more successful navies, and not necessarily as a pirate gimic.

[Weirdo]

I agree, Lev-to-Lev boarding will likely be extremely difficult to pull off. Either you have to shoot out the other ship's engines, or your ship has to be extremely fast and maneuverable so it can quickly cope with speed and heading changes. In either case, I think the best way to board a ship would be from above, with marines boarding  via ziplines.

[Alius]

Force her to go down. I like it.

[cray]

Highest probability of success: use a ticket. Or else.

Otherwise...how and why? Were there any successful (or attempted?) boarding actions of healthy capital warships in WW1 and WW2?

[Darrian Wolffe]

Say what you want about historical realism; I think it'd be cool to port most of the Crimson Skies boarding action fluff over to Levs...a bunch of crazy guys with grappling hooks jump off the deck of a Leviathan (or aircraft, once those come into play) that passes over the target, and have to hook on and board the ship or plummet (sometimes with a 'chute).  It's suicidal and idiotic...but it looks awesome.