Boarding - Just a matter of reloading or is there more to it?

[navetta]

so here i am, after months spent training those damn marines i am doing my first boarding operation ever. I have those 20 marines 3-5 stars in fighting and 100 in all the rest, i am trying to board a carrack but every single time 2-3 marines die on deck one.

i swear boarding is the most screwed up aspect of the game, even more than building complexes, what the hell was egosoft thinking? millions and weeks to train the marines just to lose them every time trying to cap an M7?

[Cycrow]

does the ship have any defences ?

u shouldn't really be losing marines if your sending a full squad of marines.

althou, you did waste some time training them fully, as they dont need to be fully trained to get a carrack

[navetta]

thanks for the reply. I have read the guide to boarding so i made sure all the marines entered deck one at the same time. however i did not know pirate ships could spawn with marines/firewalls/sentry lasers which is why i picked a carrack as my first target.
i gave up on that one and went boarding some TL's but it doesnt feel very rewarding...

[Cycrow]

any ship can have defences, best to scan them before boarding to check

[Triaxx2]

I treat ISL ships as a no-go. It's best to wait for another one, or blow it to bits and wait for a respawn for race ships.

[David Howland]

navetta,
I am fight training marines in Dukes Domain, they are taking pirate Zeus off the Duke.
Like yours my troops were fully Trained except fighting and 1 to 3 stars in fight. The losses on the first three Zeus were; first=7, second=6, third=13, were appalling and getting worse. However the vets must have really improved because since then I have not lost a marine, I have taken 11 Zeus now.
I think you will find taking pirate carracks a doddle once the majority are five stars fighting.
By the way my first boarding was the PHQ. plot Orca, I found that really useful practice, before doing (real) boardings!

[Kirlack]

My first ever capped Carrack had a full complement of pirate mercs on board to try and repel my crew, all of which were 3 star trained 3-4 star fighters. I managed to take the Carrack with 0 losses amongst my own crew, without any realoads.

The Carrack had ISL installed before we began, but a 45 minute battle in my HCP (ION-Ds all round!) soon burned that off

[garv222]

Usually I don't start training marines until I have solid income. Either I'm doing lots of taxi/transport missions or I have factories. Usually both by the time I get into the full swing of training marines. I train over 20 marines at a time because I expect losses.

If you're non-terran ships, you don't need 5 star anything. Especially true if you have boarding pods. The only one i recommend getting is 100 in engineering since that's when marines successfully gain the important skill "Open Door"(very important) and stop blowing holes in walls to move through the ship. A few % off the hull of a m2 can still be pricey so I consider it a investment that pays itself off over time quickly.

Having decent hacking/mechanical helps but these don't really need to be top of the line.

[Triaxx2]

I really kind of HATE taking Zeus. I've yet to have one that didn't go badly one way or another. It's faster than my preferred boarding platform, the Gannet. Which means if I'm not far enough away to start, then it's firing before I can launch, which means marine roast.

And there's always at least one loss. I much prefer jacking Ody's. Slower, and easier to get ahead of, plus the marines seem to have nice wide corridors to work with.

[David Howland]

Yes Triaxx2,
Your point is good but I needed somewhere, fixed position, in civilized space (near my industrial supplies), enemy territory (pirate), with a steady supply of large enemy capitals to board, for my marine fight training centre. Dukes Domain was the only place that came to mind.
If however anyone knows of anywhere else fitting all those criteria, I can always move my training centre?
The Duke unfortunately is a bit of a skinflint, the Zeus respawn but I have only seen one Ody all the time I have been there. It would really be great if he could provide TLs for me to board as well but it does not seem to fit into his business plan!
However as I say my marines have done eight Zeus now without loss of a marine, so if you would like to send your crew to my Dukes Marine Fight Training Centre we can show them how to go on!

[heratik]

I have taken a fair few Zeus' in Duke's recently and had no problems. As long as I have enough missiles to take out all the M6 escorts (there are usually 3-6) plus fighters it is fairly straightforward.

My usual tactic is to jump in, the Zeus is usually 5-8km from the gate, so I turn and make a move sideways spamming Hammers/Flails at all the escorts as I go. The Zeus cant keep up with my kraken so I have plenty of time to take out all escorts, then depending on how much ground I have made on the Zeus by the time all the escorts are dealt with I either turn and face it for boarding (I much prefer to be facing my target) or if it is still too close I just match speed and continue to move away whilst I conduct the boarding.

@ David - Yaki space is usually good for a constant supply of M1/M2/TL, but I assume you are on friendly terms with them?


Answer to the OP - Yes at first, when you have marines with relatively low fight rank, you will take losses and you will need to reload to minimise these (Unless you are very prudent with your initial marine purchases, making sure to get those that come with decent fight rank, and then are equally prudent with your choice of ships to capture, making sure you scan them for any anti-boarding equip). But once your marines have a few successful operations under their belts and have a decent fight rank, excessive reloading should be a thing of the past until you start to go for Xenon ships...


...but don't expect to never have to reload again, even the most meticulously planned operation against the easiest of targets can go wrong, and losing even just 1 fully trained marine in a standard boarding operation is for me personally, not acceptable

[David Howland]

Yup Heratik,
I am still trying VERY HARD with the Yaki, I have two large complexes in Weavers T. and complexes in the three sectors north of it. However I have never managed to stop their ships in WT. attacking mine and six weeks ago had a set-back when one of the IBL forges turned red on me.
I am now following the policy that turned the WT. stations blue to me in the first place; COMPLETE NEGLECT!