Capping Xenon

[mimeo]

Anybody has any (good) tips for capping Xenon ships?
I am enthusiast and spent a lot of time capping M1`s,M2`s and M7`s for collection and fun.
Trained marines to all 4 skills to 5 stars - all maxed and none of has 1 star missing.
I read somewhere Terran ships were hard - indeed they are untill I trained marines to 5 stars, in which case now I can cap Terrans at will (+after update 2.0 in AP race hardly ever fires back to you).
However, I tried capping Q today and by the 3rd deck my marines were evaporated.
Here is brief description of what I do. Well what I did so far.

- My capper - Cobra, armed with flails, hammers and boarding pods. Capped everything else with it (No TP,or other ship included)
- Marines: I always sent 20 marines with 5 stars in all categories (fighting as well)

Once I managed to get to deck 4 but than it`s game over for marines.
I also tried capping PX today - thought he "should" be easier, but untill capped he managed to take down 12 marines, so I was left with 8 (unacceptable loss. Even 1 is unacceptable as I spent weeks training them!)
I read somewhere (and watched on youtube that to cap them you need 21 and I could not find ships that could fit them like Cobra, but again I do not wish to tow half a shipyard with me to cap.
I usually go capping them in thier home sectors, altough I tried also in Grand Exchange, but nevertheless they keep resisting.
Any general tips on quantity needed to cap them without loosing any single life?
Man I really think their Qs and Ks and Js would look nice in my museum...

[mimeo]

Also I read about Skiron from OTAS but again I do not wish to tow a ship (AI is retarded), and Skiron does not have needed missiles (as much as i could see).

[brucewarren]

Did you mean the OTAS Sirokos which can hold 30 marines?
The Skiron is an M6.

If you're after big Xenon ships 20 guys won't be enough. Death of the guys as they
go through the ship is pretty much inevitible unless you want constant reloads
and even then there's no guarantee.

You're supposed reinforce as they guys die off, so that there are still 17
or so left on the last deck or they all die anyway.

I actually took an I recently with 60 guys and 500 mkII fighter drones
on two Sirokos ready to go, but that may have been overkill.

Sadly the I didn't make it out of Xenon Core 023 but that's my own fault.

[mimeo]

Did you mean the OTAS Sirokos which can hold 30 marines?
The Skiron is an M6.

If you're after big Xenon ships 20 guys won't be enough. Death of the guys as they
go through the ship is pretty much inevitible unless you want constant reloads
and even then there's no guarantee.

You're supposed reinforce as they guys die off, so that there are still 17
or so left on the last deck or they all die anyway.

I actually took an I recently with 60 guys and 500 mkII fighter drones
on two Sirokos ready to go, but that may have been overkill.

Sadly the I didn't make it out of Xenon Core 023 but that's my own fault.

You`re right, I was mistaken for OTAS Sirokos.
Basically, to cap ANY Xenon ship I need to travel with 2 of my ships to cap it?
And also you mention I should reinforce them during cap. That would mean I need to keep his shields all the way <5% untill whole Cap is through?

[martimus]

So far I have boarded two Xenon I's, and each time I launched 4 pods (20 marines) and then transfered over 8 more from my Hyperion that was following me. Once my first set of pods landed, I would launch the next 8 Marines. They would usually meet up around deck 3 or 4. If you have at least 16 marines alive after they clear the 5th deck, and have good enough hacking, the ship is yours. If you have less than 16 after all 5 decks are cleared, all of your marines will die.

I lost 9 five-star marines the first boarding and 11 five-star marines on the second boarding. I need to train up more before I try a third, but two I's is enough for now.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/ ... n00016.jpg



{Oversize image changed to link - Terre}

[Terrachova]

I have to say dude, the lighting in that picture is awesome.

[lubnius]

In TC I had never used more than 20 *5 marines, no matter what the target was(one exception was deca). Question about Xenon I, to cap it does it really require around 30 becouse it is impossible to get it otherwise, few hours of reloads wont help?

[kurush]

In TC I had never used more than 20 *5 marines, no matter what the target was(one exception was deca). Question about Xenon I, to cap it does it really require around 30 becouse it is impossible to get it otherwise, few hours of reloads wont help?

In AP reload only works before your marines penetrate the hull. Their desk by desk progress is determined at that point and reloading between desks doesn't change it. You can probably reload your way to glory from before desk1 though. Second point is when hacking has started - you can save there and reload for better equipment or for failed hacking attempts.