I find it silly that if I want to initiate boarding ship to ship combat that I need to let the other ship pummel mine to pieces first. Honestly, if there were a self-destruct button that allowed me to rig my own ship with explosives so that it can instantly go into full blaze I'd push it just to avoid the time taken to get the other ship to damage my ship enough that I can press X to board.

Plus you also set up traps on their ship while you are getting them to yellow but same goes for you.

seasnake on Oct 14, 2012 wrote:

I find it silly that if I want to initiate boarding ship to ship combat that I need to let the other ship pummel mine to pieces first. Honestly, if there were a self-destruct button that allowed me to rig my own ship with explosives so that it can instantly go into full blaze I'd push it just to avoid the time taken to get the other ship to damage my ship enough that I can press X to board.

The only time you can force the boarding of a damaged ship (one that you were the first Pirate to attack) is when that ship has enough damage to turn its health yellow and you are close enough to board it. If your ship is damaged enough to turn its health yellow and you are close enough to be boarded, the enemy initiates the boarding automatically. Pressing 'x' only works in the first case.

It sounds like you don't know how to attack an enemy ship. I agree that the player's guide is not very good at explaining how to do this. I use the keyboard but, the icons in the lower right can be used. All of the following must be equipped with the best one that will work and you can afford for this to work: a cannon, a masthead, a wheel for repairs, sails, and some sort of attack (Lightning Bats, Flame Bolt, Ice Bolt, etc. First, when you are a distance from the ship you are interested in, click your cursor on it and it will produce an aiming point (you can use the "[" and "]" to do the same). The color of the aiming point is important: grey - out of range, yellow (I think) - long range and red/orange - close range. Only when it is yellow or red/orange are you in range to attack. The number 1 key fires your cannons. The number 2 key uses the masthead or Bolts. The number 3 key uses the wheel to repair your ship. The number 4 key use the sails. There is a timed effect which means that once used they have to cool down to be used again. The arrow keys control movement of your ship - forward, to either side, and backwards. You control when they are used.

With the above features, my raft has beaten Galleons. All it takes is practice. The tactic that you are using does work but it takes longer because you need to keep repairing your ship more than I do.