How do you use boarding effectively?

[meiam]

I just tried to do a boarding focused playtrought, I used the kestrel layout B.

Early game was pretty tough since I had to save scrap so I could buy the teleporter, but sector 2-5 was pretty easy since boarding gave me more scrap, but after that it became near impossible, first any automatic scout was pretty much death sentence (they really shouldn't automatically restore system) being forced to run in these situation mean that on average I was making less scrap than what I would have gotten with a more traditional build.

And the normal ships all seems to have level 2-3 med bay, so porting in it mean I wouldn't have enough time to break them and would always lose fight even with 2 mantis with yellow fight skill. I could port somewhere else, but then they'd just run away and come back full health almost immediately.

[antisyzygy]

I am not sure a purely boarding strategy would work without using some form of secondary weaponry be it drones or something else like Ion weapons. I haven't tried it myself, but I have seen a healing torpedo in the game where you can target the enemy ship and heal your units by using up a missile.

I did have some good success using the boarding drone against AI ships and using a boarding crew for other situations. I would just teleport the team back to my ship if they needed to heal. I also had two Ion weapons though so I would also target their shields and weapons at the same time. I used the Engi Cruiser type A for this strategy.

I haven't yet been able to beat the final boss in the second stage though, mostly because I always end up having too much hull damage. I suspect any boarding strategy would also need to have the ship turtled-up so it can withstand the longer periods of bombardment. I am going to try it again tonight with more investment in shields / engines and hopefully (If I get lucky) some defense or hull repair drones. I usually have 3 shields by this time but I am going to shoot for 4 shields and more engine upgrades.

I have seen a video of someone beating the game using my more typical strategy with the Kestrel using 3 shields, no engine upgrades, and a mix between boarding, drones and firepower. It seems like the more cleverly you manage your power consumption to adapt to new situations the better off you are.

[Xraal]

They key is to disable the Medbay and then occupy it.

You blast up the medbay first, typically with a missile. Then you focus on locking down his guns with yours, but once the medbay is down you send in your boarders.

If you rupture the hull in the medbay, then let him fix that before you port in. - Although if it is on fire or completely empty of air, just port in somewhere else and enjoy looking at him taking damage.

If it is a 4 square medbay, then do not send in your guys until you outnumber him, instead attack the bridge as it will always get him to come to you. - NOTE: If they have upgraded doors, then taking control of the door system is important!

Make sure you don't blow up their ship while your men are on it. :-p

Fire is awesome for dividing the enemy forces. They will almost always prioritize fighting fire over coming to you, so kill the stragglers, then kill wounded the firemen when they finally come.

[theBraindonor]

If you plan on focusing on the transporter, you need to think of the boarding party as your primary weapon. You're not going to disable their ship, you're going to start sending your boarders over before a shot is fire...then sit back and turtle up. On so many vessels that don't have a med bay, you can just send over two mantis, return them to heal, then send them back. You can rip through so many ships with hardly firing a shot that way. With the scrap bonuses to taking over ships, this is my favorite way to run through.

I highly recommend that you have a least a level 2 transporter and mantis if you really want to do it for your main source of income. I've seen 2 mantis rip through a crew of four with just one trip. No guns even fired...just sent them over. As soon as you hear the health warning beep, pause the game and start transporting them back. Level 2 means you will be able to live long enough to transport back even against other mantis. Do NOT forget to leave your guns off automatic, or you'll have to learn the hard way by losing boarding parties when you blow the ship up.

As for the turtling, I prefer just using shields and defense drones. The defense drones are a must when you see they have missiles--until you get the cloak and then can save the drone cost. Learn how to stack your guns to punch through the shields when you need to do enough damage that you can just sit back and take the ship. That way you can punch through and damage their weapons, medbay, engines, drone control, etc. I prefer to not disable the shields any more than I have to.

[Maya]

I highly recommend that you have a least a level 2 transporter and mantis if you really want to do it for your main source of income. I've seen 2 mantis rip through a crew of four with just one trip. No guns even fired...just sent them over. As soon as you hear the health warning beep, pause the game and start transporting them back. Level 2 means you will be able to live long enough to transport back even against other mantis. Do NOT forget to leave your guns off automatic, or you'll have to learn the hard way by losing boarding parties when you blow the ship up.

If the enemy just got Lv1 Doors or you destroyed it, then you can just run randomly around in their ship to prevent the enemy from attacking you to often, while your Teleporter gets up. Its not that important with Lv2 or 3 TP, but you can put the scrap in other thing an build up the Teleporter later to get the more usefull things earlier, till you need it for Blast doors.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I prefer to use combat as a tactical complement, rather than commit wholesale slaughter with combat alone.

The first thing I look for is an enemy teleporter. If they have one, they are going to send some guys over, & if they survive long enough, they are going to try and bring them back.

I have a bit of a rule: If an enemy is stupid enough to raid MY ship, they aren't leaving it alive. That enemy teleporter is going down, & staying down. That's just a few less guys you have to take care of later. Might as well kill them on my ship when I have the power to vent atmosphere on them, control their movement with blastdoors, & flee to the medibay.

Don't forget to micromanage either. Blaster shots can miss you if you flee through a door just in time. One of my favorite suicidal pasttimes is harrassing someone trying to repair the oxygen supply by running in and out of the room, or running a couple of guys with barely any hitpoints left in and out of rooms until a second wave can arrive and get into melee range, while my battleworn shock troopers get to sit on the sidelines shooting into the melee with their blasters. Is it just me, or do blasters do more damage than melee?

Also, every second they run around trying to catch your little harrassment team, whether the team is just distracting long term, or actively killing the enemy, is a second they could have been doing something more useful, like repairing their shield array, or fixing life support.

Some enemy layouts are just asking to be sucker-punched by a cheap-shot as well. For example, the little "economy class" scouts whose life support systems & engines are isolated from the manned portions of the ship. Easy battle experiences for each module bar killed, & the enemy can't flee, dodge, or breath by the time your done. And depending on your luck, & who you're fighting, you just may end up racking up quite a few freed crew members this way. I kept winning battle after battle with slaver ships, getting my pick of a mantis, rock-man, or engie every time I killed the crew, or a random crew-member whenever I accepted tribute on the times I couldn't beat them. Seriously, harrass the hell out of your local slavers, and you'll get a gigantic crew pretty fast. Where do slavers hang out, pirate controlled sectors? Ahh well, I eventually lost my pillaging squad to a ship with those hardened shields that block everything for the first portion of the battle. I was out of fuel, & my fire beam didn't damage shields, & I couldn't teleport in there without knocking out the hardened shield first.

[Targetstar]

lol, i did a Bording only thing once, but i use Mantis Type B, cause of 4 tele and start with 2 mantis.

sector 1-3 easy as heck, and i had 4 Mantis borders early fast, (luck), i never blew up anyone that isn't a auto ship (except for the final boss), the Medic Bay is annoying, i use the Ion blasters to take care of that, while my bording crew take care of the Shields,/weapons (which one i deam more important) with 4 Mantis (that level pretty fast) i out damage there medic bay so there was a line for the medic bay, allowing me to kill them, when they have Type 2, i cna't out kill, but i damage ter shield enuff to diable there shields, and let my ion threw to kill the medic bay, Type 3... hard, but its a crawl >< twords the damage. sometiems i use the Anti-Ship drones for help.

Boss was easy, but level 2 was hard cause Type 3 Medica Bay, and 2 battles going on, 1 in my place (bording drone), and 1 to disable there Drone Controler, so harder ><

Worse thing i foudn was the Auto ships, but useing a laser that dose 2-3 damage, can pirce there shields, and do enuff damage to worsen ther shields,

Final setup for Final Boss
Weapon:
Halberd Beam, Ion Beam I, and Burst Laser I
Drones
Defence Drone I, Anti-Ship Drone II
Crew:
4 Mantis (fingting 2 stars), 1 Engi, 2 Zoltons, 1 Crystal (rock dude works aswell prob better during the 2nd fight)

[liq3]

Level 3 teleporter is actually quite useful against automated ships, since it lets you disable 2 bars before you have to teleport them back. You still need a laser/anti-ship drone to kill the hull, but eh. It helps to disable their weapons/shields (or drones. Fucking drones).

4 room teleporter is very fun (Mantis B ship). Get 2 more mantis, and some other crew (or hey don't, because MANTIS BOARDERS FTW) and it's like a free win against most ships. Biggest problem is automated drones, and them pesky Zoltan ships before you get a good laser/beam/anti-ship drone.

[Tajin]

What I found very effective for boarding, are rockmen. Especially in combination with a fire-laser.

Set a room on fire, teleport your rockmen in and keep supporting them with more fire.
You'll roast/smash the enemy crew in no time.

[mredge73]

Ran my best game yesterday with boarders.
Got the teleporter in the first sector so I had time to level up my team throughout the game.
The only ships that I killed were the automated ones, all others were boarded.
Finished the game with a fully upgraded ship and 300 surplus scrap. (easy)
Hit the red sectors early for slavers to gain crew, slugs who rarely have a medbay, and pirates that usually only have 2-3 crew.

Rebel ships were the toughest because they could have up to 6 crew and a medbay.
Used ion/laser combination to take down the medbays and sent crew to the medbay.
Used defense drone, fully upgraded engines, and shields to avoid damage.
Divide crew (and injure them) by disabling areas with lasers occupied by other crew members.
Takes a while since I wasn't lucky enough to get a fire beam.

Makes the final fight very easy once you kill all but 1 or 2 of the crew in the first battle.