However, as Warhammer 40,000 is gearing up to what seems like a new edition of the game through a series of Arks of Omen campaign books, Games Workshop has launched a new way to play Warhammer 40,000 that sits between the big battles of Warhammer 40,000 and the small skirmishes of Kill Team. It’s called 40k Boarding Actions, and it lets you play small scale encounters where a handful of units fight another handful of units like a mini version of Warhammer 40,000, but it’s all taking place inside huge space hulks in narrow corridors.

Personally, I still prefer my Genestealers in blue and pink, but I’m Old School Old. Boarding Patrol: Tyranids – Value Chaos Space Marines are right at home on the claustrophobic corridors of a space hulk, and we’re not even convinced the Thousand Sons register much of the weirdness going on given the forces they tamper with. This Boarding Patrol pairs two Chaos Spawn with 20 Rubric Marines, bringing an impressive number of bodies and a pair of pskyers onto the board while the Spawn make a right mess of anything they encounter. In the Reinforcements step of a player’s Movement phase (starting from the first battle round onwards), that player can select one of their Strategic Reserves units for each of their Entry Zones that has no models within it and set those units up within those Entry Zones.Global prices have been estimated from similar-priced products. Boarding Patrol: Adepta Sororitas – Price, Value & Savings Summary

Sign up for the Warhammer Community newsletter to find out when these boxed sets are heading to release, and get ready to battle for the galaxy’s fate in the latest season of Matched Play. Loremasters meanwhile investigates the most degenerate of the Traitor Legions – the Emperor’s Children. 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.**

Whilst there are a ton of customisation options on these Genestealers, this set must be almost two decades old by now. I hope 10th ed comes with new Nids, because the mould for this set must surely have earned its rest. Boarding Patrol: Tyranids – Points The Brutalis Dreadnought is a powerful melee cousin of the Redemptor that can rip vehicles apart with shredding talons, or lay into foes with a pair of fists fitted with twin bolt rifles. The Desolation Squad can meanwhile arm themselves either with superfrag missiles for blasting infantry or superkrak missiles for busting tanks – with indirect-fire castellan launchers on the side. The contents of this box comes to a respectable 414 points, leaving you the option of either adding another cheap squad or unit to your boarding force to make the 500 point threshold or absolutely ramming what you’ve got with wargear upgrades. Both options are very viable and will leave you with a strong list to take to the battlefield. This is hard-hitting force includes three Crisis Battlesuits and a squad of 10 Fire Warriors, who are perfectly suited for close-quarters combat when assembled as a Breacher Team. The battlesuits have numerous short-ranged weapon options, which offer great utility against many different enemy types in tight spaces.

It should also be noted that one Warrior can be used as a Tyranid Prime – worth 85pts and gets a HQ slot/ character keyword. The Tyranid Prime is basically what a Primaris Lieutenant is to a regular joe-schmoe Assault Intercessor, except he gets some bells and whistles your regular Warrior doesn’t, like one useful command ability where any friendly Core unit within Synaptic range (12″ if I recall correctly) gets to re-roll wound rolls of 1. That’s a big boon to have on your side, and an even bigger oof for the opposing player. First, the fact that it still runs on modified Warhammer 40,000 rules, so you have to get a couple of 40K rulebooks just to know how it plays and what your army can do, and second, the fact that the game’s missions are very much dependent on you owning the specific (and very expensive) scenery for playing inside Arks of Omen released by Games Workshop. What makes Kommandos an inspired choice for a Boarding Patrol is their Kunnin’ Infiltratorsability, allowing them to deploy anywhere on the board, as long as it is more than 9″ away from enemy models and deployment zone. This will give you the advantage right away – you can plop your Kommandos on unclaimed objectives out of both your and your opponent’s reach. Either that, or surprise them with the gift of Throat Slittas – meaning if you are within an inch of a terrain feature (so hug those walls tightly), add 1 to wound rolls. If you prefer to stand in the middle of a crowded corridor, you can have your Distraction Grot come out for once per battle and the Kommandos are treated as if they are within an inch of terrain, allowing you to capitalise on their unique abilities no matter where they are placed on the board. My first impression upon seeing this Boarding Patrol box is how well endowed it is with models. It’s a great selection for a Boarding Actions list for beginners and veterans alike – it has an eclectic mix of shooting and melee fighters that would work tremendously in the close quarters game mode. As the box is highly infantry based, it’s definitely going for a bit of a horde list there. Boarding Patrol: Adepta Sororitas – Value Boarding Actions are an excellent way to build small, thematic armies that can’t fill the full-sized battlefields of Warhammer 40,000, such as these Aeldari Corsairs . Prince Yriel of Iyanden leads his Eldritch Raiders into the bowels of a great Ark, filling all three Corsair squads with mid-range troops that can load an ungodly number of power swords into a cool 499 points.If you want to, you can use Boarding Actions missions as part of a Crusade campaign – there are just some elements of it, such as some Agendas, that won’t work with Boarding Actions. This makes Boarding Actions especially suited for players in a gaming club (where someone else has already bought all the expensive scenery) starting their first foray into 40K, since you can slowly build up your force and enjoy watching it gain experience through the Crusade rules, while also playing with your smaller army in a setting that matches that smaller scale. Movement and Distance With the keywords Agent of the Imperium, these units can be added as auxiliaries in other Imperial armies, like Astra Militarum, Adepta Sororitas or Space Marines. However, being all the units (bar the assassin) were built for Kill Team, they may not do much for you when those armies already have units with similar functions. This is a very specialised box made thematically for Boarding Actions, and I can see this appealing more to Kill Team players who want to get their hands on some rarer units. So if you’re looking to start Custodes without any gaming context – be aware that 9 models will be make over 500 points, which we’ll discuss below in the points section. Boarding Patrol: Adeptus Custodes – Value Alongside these, the Space Marine Boarding Patrol that’s out now, and the three further sets recently announced for the Necrons, Tyranids, and Grey Knights, there are even more boxes to come for other factions in the 41st Millennium. My personal conclusion on this Boarding Patrol list is that, it’s actually pretty solid. The Breachers are your rank and file soldiers who will spam the corridors and objectives, the Starstriders provide supporting fire and the Assassin causes havoc all over the board in the confusion. If you’re looking for an unconventional army you might not play in bigger scale 40k games, then this may be the one for you.