Boarding I

[ballti]

26 marines was initial boad party, then whit M6 3 time aded few marinse on I (auto), 10 marines die, some in space and 1 JB in I cargo, good enought for me . What was your loses & tactics?

[UnknownObject]

"Second Wave" tactics. Cheap and replacable cannon fodder dies, elite marines survive.

[ballti]

Interseting, tx, 21 noobs marines on training for boarding Q

[Jimmy C]

The first thing about boarding Xenon ships in FL is, you will lose marines. Accept that. If you somehow succeed without a death, consider it a miracle. Even reloading won't help. One person posted his stats on boarding attempts, it took over 700 reloads to get a death-free capture.

With that out of the way, another thing to consider is, sending extra marines means you are accepting that that amount of marines are definitely going to die. If the first wave doesn't lose anyone, these new guys will eject instead and be killed by the ship's guns.

That said, the reinforcements do prevent more losses on the later decks. So, how many should you send? My experience is 3, 4 at the most. Any more and you're just wasting them to the target's guns.

The reasoning for this is, at the latest point where you can send an unrestricted number of marines- before the marines' status all become "fighting"- the reinforcements will be able to join the fight at deck 3. 3 deaths is about... acceptable on the first 2 decks. 3 reinforcements on deck 3 can likely prevent more than 2 additional deaths before the capture is complete.

If you wait until the first wave starts fighting, you can only send reinforcements up to the number of losses at that point in time. Which is 2 decks away from when the reinforcements will be able to join the fight. Which means additional losses you cannot replace.

[ballti]

Now i see, losing 10 marines was too much, JB in I cargo make me happy..
Seconfd wave tactis on Q works fine, not much reloading (prepering good window for second wave is important), 1 noob survive to the end, at deck 4-5 was alone then veterans come to help, 1 veteran was striped from hull, Q was bizy whit second M7M so somehow this marine survive . Now 26 noobs "hi" default combat marine alredy treining for K, J will be boarded old fasion, 7 veteran marines left like reserve (26 + 12 + 7).

[Sovereign01]

I currently have 23 max level marines, need to board a couple more ships to top off more before I go after an I. As it happens, there are a few Yaki ships I haven't boarded yet...

[Agimar]

I‘m trying to board RSF ships to get a beacon, but they allways manage to jump away or, when I get my marines on the hull, it ends in a desaster cause there are more M1/M2/M7M incoming, the target-ship shields toast my marines, some get in (too few) an get shooted…

So, does an Xenon I jump away, too? Or will I „just“ loose some marines?

[DanKara]

I‘m trying to board RSF ships to get a beacon, but they allways manage to jump away or...

You know, there's are simpler way to obtain jump beacons, right?

To restrict the targeted ship from jumping away you can steal its ECells or destroy its jump drive beforehand. Both is luck based …. (and not worth it imho). It is much easier to just follow them around. Put it on an unused monitor (either [Shift+1] or [Shift+2]) and you will see its new location in ship info. You can suspect a ship is jumping, if it lowers its speed to 0.

Boarding XENON ships will most definitely cost you some marines. The first XENON boarded by me in FL was an ‘I’, which cost me 2 out of 26 marines. Could never repeat such feat. In the end, I accepted losses of 12 out of 36 marines – just to bag that blueprint.
For the training of marines, I suggest to either build and upgrade your own barrack and/or do some station defence mission. These missions offers you 1 to 3 (M6/) M7 / M2’s (you can board) and often rewards you with an agent. For such I love my ‘MARU’.

And I had I's, K's and Q's jump away at times (while I still tried to reduce the shields) ... not sure, if I caused that or if their 'visiting time' had expired.

[Agimar]

I‘m trying to board RSF ships to get a beacon, but they allways manage to jump away or...

You know, there's are simpler way to obtain jump beacons, right?

To restrict the targeted ship from jumping away you can steal its ECells or destroy its jump drive beforehand. Both is luck based …. (and not worth it imho). It is much easier to just follow them around. Put it on an unused monitor (either [Shift+1] or [Shift+2]) and you will see its new location in ship info. You can suspect a ship is jumping, if it lowers its speed to 0.

Boarding XENON ships will most definitely cost you some marines. The first XENON boarded by me in FL was an ‘I’, which cost me 2 out of 26 marines. Could never repeat such feat. In the end, I accepted losses of 12 out of 36 marines – just to bag that blueprint.
For the training of marines, I suggest to either build and upgrade your own barrack and/or do some station defence mission. These missions offers you 1 to 3 (M6/) M7 / M2’s (you can board) and often rewards you with an agent. For such I love my ‘MARU’.

And I had I's, K's and Q's jump away at times (while I still tried to reduce the shields) ... not sure, if I caused that or if their 'visiting time' had expired.

Yes, I know it. But unfprtunately, it seems, I‘m not skilled and/or patient enough…

Common Boarding is no problem and I‘ve in my actuall game 45 5* Marines (for Karacke & Brigantine) with all avarage 97 points or more.
But building a barrack is a feature, I‘ve to use soon.

[Jimmy C]

I‘m trying to board RSF ships to get a beacon, but they allways manage to jump away

Unless they changed it from AP, the RRF's emergency jump capability is scripted. Even taking out its jumpdrive and ecells won't prevent it from jumping. So you have to take into account that the RRF ship will jump away during your boarding attempt. Smash the shields, damage the hull if you have to to give your marines extra time to get inside. RRF ships will jump to existing sectors, so they won't vanish your marines, so you should put the target on one of your monitors to keep track of it.

So, does an Xenon I jump away, too? Or will I „just“ loose some marines?

At least Xenon ships only might jump if they have a jumpdrive. But here's the thing, Xenon ships in Xenon sectors do not have jumpdrives. Xenon ships that attack outside their sectors may jump away if they take enough damage (shield loss included) but those in their sectors cannot escape. If you're hunting for beacons, they'll be on Xenon ships in their sectors. So you don't need to worry about them jumping away.

[fireanddream]

Too much of a control freak to lose anyone to anything other than Xenon capitals.

[Sovereign01]

So the moral of the story is that if you want to board Xenon ships, do it in Xenon sectors. In AP I always found that when it came to the P and PX I would always lose at least 2 marines no matter what I did. I found that while the number of losses are fixed when going in, however the individual marines that are killed are not. So I would include 2 greens with the veterans and would reload if anyone other than the greens bit the dust. I don't know if it's also the case in FL.

As an aside, it took its sweet time but finally one of my marines at my barracks finished his training so I transferred him to my Sirokos. Said barracks has dozens of marines in training. I would say far more than I could ever need, but only if they finish what they're doing!

[fireanddream]

So the moral of the story is that if you want to board Xenon ships, do it in Xenon sectors. In AP I always found that when it came to the P and PX I would always lose at least 2 marines no matter what I did. I found that while the number of losses are fixed when going in, however the individual marines that are killed are not. So I would include 2 greens with the veterans and would reload if anyone other than the greens bit the dust. I don't know if it's also the case in FL.

As an aside, it took its sweet time but finally one of my marines at my barracks finished his training so I transferred him to my Sirokos. Said barracks has dozens of marines in training. I would say far more than I could ever need, but only if they finish what they're doing!

P and PX actually are the two xenon capitals (well technically) that will not kill your marines a lot of time. With Q and above it's borderline impossible.

[Jimmy C]

In AP I always found that when it came to the P and PX I would always lose at least 2 marines no matter what I did.

In AP, I always found it possible to reload boarding P and PX until I got a casualty free success. Don't think it ever took more than 10 reloads.

[Sovereign01]

In AP I always found that when it came to the P and PX I would always lose at least 2 marines no matter what I did.

In AP, I always found it possible to reload boarding P and PX until I got a casualty free success. Don't think it ever took more than 10 reloads.

With the other ships I could get them loss-free after reloading, but no matter what I did the P and PX always cost me one marine each deck. I only ever boarded one of each just so I could RE them.

I just had a go at boarding an Akuma to train my marines. Upshot is that 11 is not enough to take the ship without losing any, gonna have to hold off until a couple more are ready and I can try again. For some reason the 160+ marines in training at my barracks which I put in the Xenon Hub (where my 23 fully-trained marines are stationed), don't show up in the personnel list (but do when idle), the 26 in training at the base in CEO's Sprite show up just fine. Something is amiss when I have 160 marines training at the barracks and so far only one has finished.

[Sovereign01]

Boarding the Xenon I just got a step closer- marine number 12 finished his training so it was time to have another go at boarding that Akuma. This time I was able to take it without losses, surprisingly however it was only enough to get one marine to 100 combat. So next up was the Yaki Ryu that was in the same sector which I had found the Akuma and had previously been cleared of Yaki fighters. 11 guys, no losses. This time I got another 3 up to 100, bringing my total to 27. With just 8 guys left to earn combat experience with they'll only be able to grab M6s until more finish training.

Time to find an I and see if 27 is enough. First step- clearing a Xenon sector without also killing the I in the process! I have a fully-loaded Aquilo for this very purpose...

UPDATE: I can tell you that it is, without messing about sending waves. From a save I made seconds before the 26 marines I sent breached the hull I reloaded a dozen times or so. Each time they were all wiped out before they even got to the core but on the last attempt, the team made it. Seven of them did not- I figure that for a Xenon I, that's as good as it's going to get!

I would try training more by boarding a Valhalla, only according to the All Seeing Eye, there aren't any!

[Jimmy C]

I would try training more by boarding a Valhalla, only according to the All Seeing Eye, there aren't any!

Look for a Tyr and capture or kill it. There's a 50% it'll be replaced by a Valhalla. If it gets replaced by another Tyr, repeat until you get a Valhalla.

[Sovereign01]

I would try training more by boarding a Valhalla, only according to the All Seeing Eye, there aren't any!

Look for a Tyr and capture or kill it. There's a 50% it'll be replaced by a Valhalla. If it gets replaced by another Tyr, repeat until you get a Valhalla.

I was afraid that would be the case, is there any way of triggering a Xenon invasion of a Terran sector? I would rather not ruin my Terran rep unless I absolutely have to.

[Jimmy C]

I was afraid that would be the case, is there any way of triggering a Xenon invasion of a Terran sector? I would rather not ruin my Terran rep unless I absolutely have to.

That would be too complicated. One way to mitigate the rank loss is to barrage the target and then jump the ship that fired the barrage out before the missiles hit. 30km from the target should be good enough. But frankly, if your reputation with them in already in the dumps, this no longer matters.

[Sovereign01]

I was afraid that would be the case, is there any way of triggering a Xenon invasion of a Terran sector? I would rather not ruin my Terran rep unless I absolutely have to.

That would be too complicated. One way to mitigate the rank loss is to barrage the target and then jump the ship that fired the barrage out before the missiles hit. 30km from the target should be good enough. But frankly, if your reputation with them in already in the dumps, this no longer matters.

Sounds like a good idea, gotta give my Aquilo something to do! I've gotten the blueprints for the Terran guns, still need to get the missiles

EDIT: Took me a little while but I realised that I'd misread what the all-seeing eye was telling me about where Tyrs were located, two of the locations weren't of the ships themselves but shipyards that sold said ships. So the Terrans only had one Tyr, flying around Pluto. Looks like I'll be needing to use jump beacons again!

EDIT 2: Tyr had made its way to Oort cloud, which was handy because there was a jump beacon about 40 km from the TOA, perfect range for a volley of Hammers, jumped away. Any idea how long it normally takes for a replacement to spawn?

EDIT 3: Turns out the replacement was neither a Tyr or a Valhalla but an Odin, spawned a minute ago. That complicates matters.

EDIT 4: Well a replacement did spawn, in the moon sector. Another Tyr.