Boarding

Boarding is the act of capturing an enemy ship by directly invading it with your own sailors and marines. It's the more practical alternative to decrewing ships through brute force in open waters.

Overview

General

• Ships are captured if their entire crew is dead (obviously) or if the opposing crew's morale is reduced to zero, while the attacker's crew Attacks.
• In order to board the enemy, switch the boarding mode on and match speed to the enemy ship. Once you're close enough, a prompt will appear informing you that it's possible to board the enemy ship. Hit G to board. Due to the major decreases to effectiveness, only switch to boarding once you have enough wiggle room to close distance and attack.
  • As the boarding mode is active, your ship gains Preparation points. These are essentially resources available for boarding the enemy ship and performing different actions. A good supply helps gains an advantage over the enemy from the first phases of combat.

Combat

• Boarding is resolved through a hybrid turn-based/real-time system that abstracts combat. The two crews face off in combat, minus any losses sustained in the initial ship to ship combat. The crew's morale in combat depends on losses sustained.
• Every turn lasts 15 seconds during which you and your opponent select the command to use against your opponent. Note that changing a command has a 5 second cooldown and costs between 40% and 200% of a command's preparation (needs verificatio).
• Preparing a command for use takes 7 seconds. Each costs a certain amount of preparation. You automatically regain 10 Preparation at the beginning of each turn, allowing you to change commands or stockpile Preparation for more advanced ones. In addition, once a command has been executed, it's put on cooldown (only Brace and Attack can be used every turn).
• Each turn shows the expected crew losses on both sides, depending on which actions/commands were chosen. The game operates on what's essentially a stone, paper, and scissors system, with every command having advantages and weaknesses.

Bonuses

• Although the crew performs in boarding reasonably well, it's recommended to upgrade to at least basic marines. They make up 15% of your crew and have 50% better melee damage and 10% better firepower.
• Additional equipment also improves performance in combat, including: .

Actions

Raw data

Action	Firepower Bonus	Melee Bonus	Cannons Bonus	Preparation Cost	Melee Defense Filter	Firepower Defense Filter	Max Damage Factor	Switch Time Seconds	Duration Rounds
Brace	-0.8	0	-1	0	0.41	0.2	0.1	7	1
Defend	-0.75	0	-1	10	0.2	0.75	0.28	7	1
Attack	-1	0	-1	20	0.4	1.125	0.27	7	1
Musket Volley	0	-1	-1	10	0.37	0.5	0.1785	7	1
Fire Deck Guns	-1	-1	1	10	0.4	0.5	0.2835	7	1
Fire Grenades	0	-1	-1	10	0.37	0.5	0.15	7	1