Editing VB-Ground Combat (section)

==Boarding and capturing ships==
Ships designed with [[Combat Drop Module]]s can attempt to board and capture other ships or stations. If successfully boarded, the defending ship crew and any ground troop detachment on board will attempt to repel the boarding party. 

===Boarding===
Boarding is a complex and risky operation, usually attempted only against disabled or slow-moving ships. 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. Once the boarding units have gained access to the hostile ship interior, combat takes place between the boarders and the crew of the hostile ship plus any hostile ground units on board.

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, 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.

===Capturing===
Once the boarding units have gained access to the hostile ship interior, combat takes place between the boarders and the crew of the hostile ship plus any hostile 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.

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: 

# 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.
# Low readiness units on both sides cannot avoid combat
# The boarders cannot retreat so they must keep attacking until they capture the ship, die trying or surrender.
# 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.
# If all the defending units and crew are eliminated, the ship is captured.

===How To Use===
# First you need a much faster ship than the ship you plan to try to take over. This is achieved via the small Drop Module and a fighter with an engine and a little bit of fuel and a tiny engineering section.
# Load Ground Force Unit into Drop Modules within fleet (if fighter is in a fleet). Then select an enemy ship and issue a boarding order.
# The Troop Shuttle will carry the troops from the fleet over to the enemy vessel and barring any accidents like the enemy blowing a 80cm hole in the troop ship you are all set for the shuttle to launch its troops at the enemy vessel and begin boarding actions.
# The faster your Troop Shuttle is, the better the chance that more Marines will land on the enemy ship and giving you a better chance to take it over successfully.