Boarding Actions, performing and defending against.

So, I was wondering after watching a lot of Star Trek (all eras), what kind of problems you have figuring out what kind of personnel you need to take on a boarding action, and how you would prepare to defend the ship against expected boarding parties.
Like when defending, how do you deploy your security personnel, like around sensitive areas (engineering, aux con, bridge). Do you think some ships have natural choke points engineered into them? The "neck" of Klingon ships come to mind. What systems would be restricted? I think that turbolifts wouldn't allow just anyone go to the bridge during a red alert or intruder alert.
And when attacking, I suppose you would have the typical "commando" team make-up. A leader, demo, medic, engineer, and a couple of shooters would probably make the best team composition.

Apparently - at least according to Nemesis - it is common procedure to not help Senior Officers, especially not the XO, deal with intruders he is pursuing. Other than that we have little evidence of anti-boarding procedures... ;)

No, seriously. during intruder-alert all civilians are restricted to their quarters and I assume all doors are locked eletronically and can only be opened from the inside. Security guards are posted at deck entrances, like in First Contact, and I assume the turbo lifts are deactivated and only special codes activate them. On a second thought it would be even better if they were constantly moving, just not stopping, to hinder enemy personnel from using the tubes to get through the ship.

I assume sensitive areas are guarded especially well and are probably protected by force fields - these being the major target of intruders I assume as well.

I agree.

Its just a more complex red alert.

Obviously that never stoped anykind of alien to bear havoc inside ships. ^^

PS: Nemesis had many crap plots, and that was one of the worst. :rolleyes:

The thing that I've always wondered, is that with all the cool tech SF has, that you never see them used in a comprehensive way.

For example, your being boarded by some force, lets say Cardasians. First of all, couldn't you have the computer simply scan for Cardy life signs, then beam those guys, without weapons, to the brig?

I guess that perhaps the Cardys would have scramblers to keep their patterns from being scanned, but then couldn't any SF engineer or science officer worth his salt get around that (those tags used by the Sonna in Insurrection were actually a good idea, probably the only good thing in the whole movie...;) ).

There might be, especially in forces that do a lot of hand to hand fighting (Klingons, Dominion, and possibly pirates), specialized teams that train to take enemy ships. And, realisticly, you would assume SF would train their people on repelling boarders, although it looks like they don't, at least not well.

Ive boarded my PC's ships twice both times the intruders were dealt with savagely and repled fairly quickly. First thing if your sending a boarding party on a ship you want more than one team hitting many place at the same time. One team will get isolated and transported away, gassed or have the room have all the oxygen pumped out of it. You need to hit the big two which means Engineering and the Bridge at the same time. If the bridge and or engineering are taken then the ship is yours a skilled hacker can break the security protocals and just turn of life support in every other location cause panels to overload use the ships own security countermeasures on the crew disable gravity ect) Transporter stations are also a good place if the science officer is getting shot at he cant transport so well. Force field were used to cut of key places (and even suffocate a few boarders), ect. Remember though phasers can burn through bulkheads replacators can be turned into transporters if your a teck wiz. Boarding parties may be prepared with various shenanagins with antisensory devices ventron inducers to disable force fields eva suits that make knock out gases not such a problem and gravity boots to prevent them from floating in space. Either way boarding or being boarded is great fun its intense everything is at stake for the home team and they tend to get inventive and even a little crazy to get rid of the boarders. One of my PCs opened a shuttle bay door and dropped the field to jettison a part of a boarding party if it wasn't for a daring acrobatic stunt and a few courage points she would of been sucking space was well. One thing that bugs me is say the ships shields are down so you can board em or you found their shield frequency couldn't you just sweep the ships with transporters? Beam em into the brig or hell a locked cargo bay if rooms an issue? I know there anti sensor devices people don't wear em all the time. Just a thought. MY PCs have been beimg people and things all left and right. anotehr thing my pcs have been doing is if theire on an away team and an nasty creature attacks em they just beam the dam thing up and I have no reason to equip aniamals with anti transporter devices. But hell with transporters kidnapping has to be trey easy :)

One thing about boarding is that it is usually done while the crew is having other problems, like fending off an attack, with possibly a few systems not working so well or not getting all the energy they need (you might want to boost power to your shields or your SIF instead of having a fully functional transporter).

In which case, a boarding operation would need to be perfectly coordinated with the attack, so as to not be shooting the part of the ship you beamed your boarding party into (unless maybe if you are Klingons). And Dubwas said, targetting vital areas of the ship - bridge and engineering are favourite, as it seems everything can be controlled from either of theses places (like the Borg did in First Contact).

I handle boarding like this:

Once the engines are disabled, the attacking ship moves close.

At least one shield has to be down.

Boarding teams beam over to engine, bridge, security, and computer sections.

I run a combat with a template tile layout, based on the area, with more or less random beam in positions.

Defenders usually get first shot, so boarders wear armor.

It's typically pretty nasty.