Boarding Action

4-16 players

Boarding Action is a multiplayer map in Halo: Combat Evolved.

Layout
There are two parallel human battleships, possibly UNSC Prowlers. In addition, there are 4 teleporters on both ships, two on the first level, and two on the fifth level, which are the only means of transportation between the two ships. This map is usually picked by hosts for its extremely exciting sniper battles. Other hosts may turn off sniping to force players to board the other ship. This usually results in a frenzy of explosions near each teleporter as each team frantically tries to stop the other team on their ship. The ships are not in fact that far apart - it is simple to throw a grenade to the other ship.

Combat
An interesting way to simulate ship-to-ship combat is to do a 4-Xbox system link, and have 16 players, eight to a team, loaded with all Rocket Launchers. Volleys of rockets across the two ships greatly resemble hot exchanges of cannon fire between two eighteenth-century ships-of-the-line. It is not at all uncommon in any game type to find yourself standing directly above or below an enemy as the ships have several floors, with each floor number marked on the wall. Often times one player will come through a teleporter right in to another player without much warning. Should you fall into the space between the two ships, obviously you will die, but after falling a certain distance, you hit an invisible floor, for lack of a better term. The map is very popular for rocket battles.

Theories

 * Bungie has, in the past, stated that the Multiplayer levels in Halo: Combat Evolved are canon to the story. This means that Boarding Action could come from Halo Canon.


 * It's natural for one to assume that these two smaller ships are UNSC Prowlers, ONI Stealth ships.


 * Due to the fact that teleporters only existed in the Human world at training facilities (such as Chiron TL-34), it is possible Boarding Action is a training ground for SPARTANS for Zero-Gee situations, except gravity was applied to the map for the multiplayer due to the difficulty it could have on players and also Bungie did not want to create programming for something as complicated as Zero-Gee.