In this week’s blog, we are taking a look at the Alliance Boarding Trooper, a specialist unit which is tasked with boarding an enemy space craft and disabling it from within.

Alliance Boarding Trooper

Space battles are normally not won by each ship bombarding one another until one side is destroyed; most space battles are won by one side boarding the other side’s ship and disabling its critical systems. The Alliance Boarding Troopers are specialists at fighting their way through the tight corridors of enemy ships to destroy things like engines, life support, weapon controls, or even the bridge.

Breach and Clear!

The standard operating procedure for breaching an enemy ship is for a squad of boarding troopers to travel to the enemy vessel in a special craft. This craft has a type of ram on the front which can puncture through the hull of an enemy vessel, before opening to allow the boarding troopers to disembark. Once within, boarding troopers use short ranged weaponry such as shotguns and flamethrowers to clear the corridors and advance on the ship’s critical systems.

 Divide and Conquer

Where possible, the boarding troopers will work in tandem with drop troops. Boarding troops will puncture the hull in their boarding ships, and aggressively fight their way to their target. While their “loud” approach draws the attention of the enemy, a squad of drop troopers will use their jetpacks to cross the vacuum of space without a ship, and infiltrate the ship unnoticed. Drop troopers will then place explosives throughout key locations within the ship, before working their way to the enemy hangers, to secure a landing platform for an extraction ship.

The mortality rate for boarding troopers is high. Each time they enter an enemy ship, there is a good chance they will not survive. Because of this, the role attracts a certain type of regressive, almost reckless individual. It is common for boarding troopers to paint their armour with skulls and images of death; both as a way to intimidate their enemy, and as a way to recognize they are basically dead men walking.

If you’d like to learn more about the Alliance Boarding Trooper, and how it performs in game, you can check out this week’s blog post.

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Until Next time.

Happy Wargaming!