New to piracy, best ship?

[Damian Swift]

As above, mostly traded/built stations for money but those Plunderer destroyers are starting to ****me off and read I can actually pirate them... Which is nice.
So, what would the need? Barbarossa good enough weapons/marine storage to disable one of these plunderers and take it over?

[jlehtone]

Depends on how you like to do it.

I fly Dragon Raider and use it to shoot the engines, shoot the turrets, and damage the hull to 79%.
I have two Cobras with 24 Marines in each. That is plenty for Behemoth/Phoenix.

[Alan Phipps]

I fly the Cobra myself and launch 20 tried and tested marines from that. Yes, it takes a while to train up a cadre of 20 (and a few casualty replacements) to be good enough on their own and the targets almost always need a bit of softening up first to reduce their evasion and their defensive capabilities, both external and internal. With the right 3 main weapons, the Cobra is fine for that job too.

When the target is mine and I get back my marines, I transfer in 4 service crew and a captain also from my Cobra that will be replaced in the crew later. (Yes, I know I could send those last 5 in from any ship I have anywhere, but I like to roleplay the ship as a self-contained boarding/recovery crew - for the first use in each localised boarding campaign at least.)

[S!rAssassin]

With the right 3 main weapons...

Thermal Disintegrators?

[Alan Phipps]

Nope, 2 M Terran Pulse Mk2 and an Argon M Ion Blaster Mk2 in the middle. I have successfully used a Split M Thermal Disintegrator Mk2 in the middle slot but I found it of less general utility outlined below.

That above loadout suitably grouped is great for boarding (ie for getting and keeping hull at the level you want, for keeping surface elements such as shields and engines inoperable without necessarily destroying them, and for whittling down defensive crew numbers), also great for getting M ships to bail, superb for mine clearance, and with the range and power to make the Cobra a fearsome combat craft in its own right.

It can even open booby-trapped lockboxes at a pinch although that is better left to the S fighter (Chimera) on the docking pad that I mainly use for plot and taxi missions and making S/M ships bail. My Cobra is faster than the Chimera for transit and exploration though.

[Imperial Good]

Falax might be good as it is the most agile of the frigates due to its very high drag. Cobra looks good but has issues turning, you are basically an out of control train when flying one of these which can make stripping surface elements very difficult.

[leoriq]

I have both Cobra and Falx dedicated for boarding and both work equally well. With 20-25 Elite marines, that is.

Barbarossa looks like a poor choice as it is difficult to disable enemy turrets while piloting a Destroyer - not enough maneuverability.
If you don't have good enough marines so you have to rely on numbers, use any good M6 to destroy turrets and bring in several Boas filled with marines - they are fast and it's safe to use TS when enemy turrets are destroyed.

[X4Starter]

I almost never use M ships for boarding. I find drive by boarding with a freighter, or if you don't care about reputation, regular boarding with a L class destroyer to be easier. As someone mentioned once you get the hang of it, it can really change the direction of your game as there are little consequences for a successful takeover. But if it is a feature as made by the developers I use it!

The Barbarossa is a surprisingly good Boarding ship as it has a fairly high crew capacity, is very fast, and is also very manoeuverable for a destroyer/freighter. And you can send it to do freighter missions to increase crew morale. The problem is it doesn't have main batteries, so you can't force a confrontation with it. You may be able to by using the attack your target command for your turrets or by 'considering them hostile'. But the SCA ships are VERY tolerant of attacks, I often have to destroy one component to get them to do something.

For an SCA boarding that is not yet hostile here is my approach.
Scan them to see how many crew they have. At this point get them hostile using some method. Have all your turrets to attack them and keep an eye on the crew as it drops. They should also attack components in range so you don't need a separate ship to do that. Once you get past their shields, and destroy enough of their hull so that their crew starts to bail, you can send over your marines (or you can do that first off as that is a guaranteed way of making them hostile). You can then turn off some of your turrets so you don't destroy them but continually plink at them until most of their crew bails. If all but 2 bail (pilot and one crew) you are golden send your marines. This is basically a guaranteed capture with little risk to your crew, but you still get all the experience from the boarding op.

Just be aware that when you identify them as SCA depending on the sector owner, you can trigger all the police force who will happily continue to destroy the ship with your marines on it.

The SCA ships are good training for your marines also if you want to go the traditional training route.

[oddible]

Used to fly a Dragon (not the Dragon Raider, it is made of tissue paper), but now I'm Katana, it is too OP, will probably go back to Nemesis Raider at some point. I disable with my Katana then bring in a Barbarossa to board. Every vet marine gets moved to one Barbarossa so I have a super crew on one of them.

[grapedog]

I use a cobra personally... and I have a Buffalo full of marines if more are needed.

[Damian Swift]

Used to fly a Dragon (not the Dragon Raider, it is made of tissue paper), but now I'm Katana, it is too OP, will probably go back to Nemesis Raider at some point. I disable with my Katana then bring in a Barbarossa to board. Every vet marine gets moved to one Barbarossa so I have a super crew on one of them.

So you get the Barbarossa to follow your katana, and if you tell it to board does the captain fly to the enemy ship and unleash the marines? Or do you have to manually tell the Barbarossa captain to fly to the enemy ship THEN tell it to board?

[BitByte]

At the begining I had multiple Odysseus VA spread around the galaxy where boarding was needed. But since transfer crew became more easy and I enabled Split DLC I started use rattlesnakes.
Now I use whatever L-size destroyer I have on site and which suits the best against the target.

[Cruis.In]

alligator

[Tamina]

The AI is actually really good to do the boarding for you:
- Get some S fighters to destroy the surface modules. Give them mortars (Paranid), shield-breaching lasers (Paranid) or something else with a punch.
- You also need some M ships to transport as much marines as possible, or any L ship if you have the money. They don't need to be able to fight, just transport troops.
- Put both in 2 different fleets, then order both to board your target
- Then set your fighters to destroy the surface elements, and your marine transporters to "keep distance". Your marine transporters will wait until your fighters have cleared the target and then engage to board.

Quick tip: Land on the target ship first, then watch the cinematic experience from first row

There is one downside though: The AI can't bord Teladi ships for some reason.

[jlehtone]

... if you tell it to board does the captain fly to the enemy ship and unleash the marines? Or do you have to manually tell the Barbarossa captain to fly to the enemy ship THEN tell it to board?

Yes.

The ships ordered to board do get somewhat close and then release the marines. Its quite a sight when an Asgard moves around in NPC command with intention to get to spot where it will launch the pods. (It might actually get further away from mark in the process.) Then again, some times they do launch the pods from far away. Once pods of one Cobra appeared tens of klicks from the mark ...

[jmrc]

Pair a Falx and a Cobra for L combat ships, with the Falx (more guns) as the main attacker and the Cobra (more turrets) in "attack my current target" mode. Get Teladi shields for max protection. Also get 1 Ion gun for the Falx.

For the large targets with 150+ crew, get a Shuyaku Vanguard (226 marines and 3K travel speed) the best assault ship in the game.
Or, have a pair of Barbarossas (2x 126 marines and 6K travel speed) or grow your pirating empire with "gangs" composed with Barbarossa+Falx+Cobra for max fun.

I sell most Barbarossa's to the ZYA at around 10M each. But the champion target is the Hokkaido (max 34 crew) which can be sold by around 4M.

I normally board the targets with no hull damage and only the minimum required turrets, then I let it go. Since the marines' experience has little purpose and are abundant, I don't mind losing entire ship loads of them to get an expensive target like a Shuyaku which is the best seller among the L traders, but has a large complement.

I just wished we didn't have to engage in legal trading activities to be able to advance the main plot and get the teleports and other stuff. If so, we could play exclusively as an illegal character. It would also be nice if the trade in illegal goods could be more dangerous (police would have sensors at the jump gates and rush to intercept) and far more profitable to compensate.

[X4Starter]

At the begining I had multiple Odysseus VA spread around the galaxy where boarding was needed. But since transfer crew became more easy and I enabled Split DLC I started use rattlesnakes.
Now I use whatever L-size destroyer I have on site and which suits the best against the target.

That is what did too, have a fleet of destroyers spread around the universe and give them the 'follow' command whenever one pops up. Then fix em up to keep or sell.

[oddible]

So you get the Barbarossa to follow your katana, and if you tell it to board does the captain fly to the enemy ship and unleash the marines? Or do you have to manually tell the Barbarossa captain to fly to the enemy ship THEN tell it to board?

Yep, I don't even have it in my squad. I just use the Katana to disable the target ship, shoot out its engines and turrets, get the hull down below 80%, then I give the Barbarossa the Board command. I change the settings when I set up the boarding operation - change the Barbarossa to "Keep Distance" otherwise it will start shooting the target. (Alternately disable its turrets).

[Doomsday2020]

At the beginning I used an L trader with a docked S fighter for boarding Destroyers. (Helios Vanguard was good for crew size and cost) If the fighter has Burst Rays you go through surface elements really fast then board with the L Trader. Other option that is fast is blast mortars. Ares/Chimera is good for that.
For efficiency I switched the Trader with an Atlas Vanguard, Engine and Hull mod for speed. Great amount of crew for marines and free repair after (saves time and money)

You disable it with the S Ship, board with the Resupply ship. As soon as Engines are online repair, move all crew back but captain, move to shipyard, sell all stuff, move pilot and sell ship.
Rinse and repeat.

[S!rAssassin]

Best boarding ship - Alas E.

1. Can hold some S and M for disabling targets.
2. Can hold many marines onboard for boarding.
3. Can repair all, saving owned ships and making sell price of target higher.