Posted by: Pali
« on: February 14, 2016, 11:34:54 PM »
The trick to boarding is two-fold. First, the ship has to "die" while still under the effect of the ability, so you need to time the ability to cast when the ship is close to death. Second, any weapons fire that is already on its way to the target when it is captured will still hit the ship and do damage, and the boarding party ability doesn't heal the ship that much when captured (especially at low levels), so you need to ALSO try and time ordering your ships to do other things so the ship isn't blown up after being captured by your own fire.
The larger the enemy ship, the harder timing the first is, the easier the second. As a rule, only larger ships are really worth capturing anyways, and as boarding party heals a percentage rather than a fixed amount they are less likely to be destroyed by still-incoming friendly fire... but they are a bit trickier to have a handful of ships be certain to "destroy" them while the BP ability is still affecting them. You'll have to learn to feel out the timing, but once you do, rushing boarding party is already a viable way for the NR to build up its fleet early on. Having a dozen free Vics and Dreads captured from garrisons in your fleet early on can be a significant advantage.
Also, in truth, the MC80 is already filling that support ship role. In a 1-1 it is no match for any other capital ship in the game, and most of its usefulness comes from its abilities.