Boarding Laser

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[edit] Overview

The Boarding Laser helps you taking over an enemy ship. There are 200 Movement Phases and no combats occur until phase 50 so during the first quarter of movement you have time to fly past an enemy ship, transport over a boarding party, rip the enemy ship up with the boarding laser and get away back out to deep space.

BUT: There is still some kind of combatless boarding with a BL possible after movement phase 50. Setup up a script with a resting ship , fly with a Cube with low speed ( so the the arrival is after MP 50) to the offset point (-4,-5) with respect to the resting ship and beam over drones while having the Cube's BL activated.

[edit] Killing Personnel

If you transfer N personnel to the target ship with your Boarding Laser activated, it will kill the following

Mode	Total-to-kill	Max. % Crew	Max. % Colonists	Max. % Troops
Standard	N*5	10%	40%	10%

The Boarding Laser first hits the crew (red-shirt ensigns ;-) ), and then if the total-to-kill is not yet used up it kills colonists, then if total-to-kill still is not used up it kills troops. The Boarding Laser does not kill highguards.
Tip: Get Diplomat and use the excel spread sheet which is built in as an extra tool to get a clue what's really expecting you when doing hostile transfers. Do not trust on the displayed personnel of Enemy Ship Scan.

[edit] Inflicting Hull Damage

The Boarding Laser cuts holes in the enemy ship doing hull damage to the target depending on the size of the target ship.

Damage = 3000 / (Target Hull_Mass + 1) + Rnd * mod(i)

where mod(i) = 4.5 Normal, 5 Privateers Advanced or 6 Privateers Advanced with hull plan, depending on the value of i (boarding mode).

from GFM GToeroe in newsgroup (edited & summarised by Malcolm (reedited by Jochen))
more info here

[edit] Moment / Duration

Works at an Boarding attempt (not in a combat!).

[edit] Limitations

The boarding ship must have less than 50% system damage.
Alien Hulls cannot use boarding lasers.

[edit] Boarding Laser Ship Log

Each ships doing damage with a boarding laser, will have a detailed ship log, if you have multiple ships with boarding lasers targeting the same enemy ship, add the damage from each ship log.

Example:

Ship 1 did 40% to ship A
Ship 2 did 42% to ship A
Ship 3 did 45% to ship A

It does not equal 45% (total) but 127% damage total, ship A is now a wreck pod.

[edit] Special

Does not work against Fed ships with less then 50% shield, system or hull damage.
When a Boarding Laser is used against a Crystal, no damage will be done to the hull and no personnel will be killed by the boarding laser. However it will still enable the attacker to board the ship.
When a Boarding Laser is used against a IMT, damage will be done to the hull as usual, but no personnel will be killed by the boarding laser. However it will still enable the attacker to board the ship.

[edit] Privateer

The Privateers have an advanced version of the Boarding Laser that kills more people.
If the target ship is an Alien Hull design for the target's race or if the Privateer boarding ship holds the Hull plan of the ship being boarded, it kills even more people: