7 Everything you need to know about Boarders. (Squishat's MAA Tips)

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Squish's MAA tips

THe first time I MAAed was sometime in mid '09 for Nargon. It was truly intimidating as something you've never done before and really do not want to screw up. It isn't like XOing, It actually requires a bit of know-how. But once you get into the rhythm of things, it isn’t all that difficult. Since then, I've probably MAAed about 300+ Atlantis/Cit/HS runs, majority of them being regular WF and CIt Atlantis runs.

Everything said in this guide is a condensation of personal experience and opinion, so heed at your own discretion.

~S

This guide is written in a Q&A format

What or who is a MAA?

The MAA, an acronym for Master at Arms or Man at Arms, is a designated pirate aboard a SMH responsible for starting frays to repel boarders off the ship, and keep it from sinking.

A good MAA takes care to pace the frays so that the boarders never build up too high.

I’m sorry, I understood none of that.

In all SMHs, you get boarders that get on your ship.  

They go by different names in their respective SMHs:

Atlantis - Dragoons (SF)

CI - Boarders (Rumble)

HS - Specters (SF)

For consistency’s sake, we’ll be using the word “Boarders” for all three types of SMHs.

So, what happens if there is no MAA?

As the number of boarders increase, they will start to hinder the performance of the ship.*

(* This does not mean that you puzzling at an incredible level will be degraded to an excellent, but that the effect of your incredible puzzling will only be translated to an excellent effect for the ship. I’d link you to the OM forum post, but I CBA looking for it.)

This is the most noticeable effect that get overlooked by a naver in Atlantis. While having high boarder numbers (1/3 of the ship’s number), they would nav as if they had no boarders. This is unadvisable.

Here’s why: because of the hindered performance to the stationers, if damage gets past the 40% mark even for just a turn or two, bilge will start to rise fairly quickly, and both will be MUCH more difficult to get down. This, coupled with less than ideal station numbers, obviously results in being unable to get moves, and then the ships going DITW and dying a slow and painful death. (Mostly in WFs)

I’ve seen many otherwise decent navers sink that way.

When the number of boarders match or exceed the number of pirates on the vessel, everyone on the ship gets thrown (read: forced) into a Shipwide fray. Loss of a shipwide fray is the same as sinking the ship.

As you can see, a good MAA is quite essential in prolonging and running a successful SMH trip.

How exactly do the boarders get on the ship?

Boarders can get on your ship in one of two ways.

The first way is “from the environment”. This applies only to Atlantis and HS, not CI. This means that you pick up a few boarders every few minutes that you are on the Atlantis/HS board.

The second is “from the monsters”. This is when enemy ships/monsters in the SMH move directly into the space adjacent, including diagonal,  (or “touch”) your ship anytime during a turn. In Atlantis and HS, you MAY get boarders when this occurs. Whereas in CI, you WILL get boarders when this occurs.

This is where the MAA should coordinate closely with the Naver in order not to get too many in too short a time.

Logic dictates that if Boarders only come on when something “touches” the ship, then Cit runs (that have a primary objective of getting from point A to point B asap) should not have that many boarders at all. Congrats, your job just got easier for no reason.

How many boarders come on each time something “touches” the ship? How do I know when I get boarders?

Luckily, for both Atlantis and HS, you do not get boarders every time an enemy touches the ship. Rather, you should get boarders once every 4-5 turns that they have contact with you.

There is a line of text that appears every time you get boarders, along with a sound notification (yay, makes my job easier) when you turn on “Alerts” in Sound options.

The number of boarders differ for each type of enemy in their respective SMHs. It also differs depending on your ship size and the depth of map. It always surprises me how few people know the exact numbers. Here is a handy chart. (Because I am that nice.)

Boarding frequency refers to the number of turns of contact with the monster.

SMH Type	Enemy type	Number of Boarders	Boarding frequency?	Displayed Message
Atlantis	From the sea	1-2	3~5 turns	Ye hear a splash, and the sound of foreign footsteps.
	From rocks and houses	1-2	3~5 turns	Same as above
	Triketos	1-2	First contact, 2-3 turns	Same as above
	Gorgonyx	3-5	First contact, ~3 turns	Dragoons from the monster took advantage of their proximity to board yer vessel!
	Archelon	6-10	First contact, 6 turns	Same as above
Haunted Seas	From the sea	1-2	Every 3-4 turns.	“A sudden chill creeps over the vessel.”
	Sloop	2	First contact,	All HS boardings
	War Brig	3-4		carry the
	War Frig			same message.
Cursed Isles	Raft	1 (mostly) -2	Every single contact.
	Sloop/Cutter	avoid anyway	No boarders

This table is important for both MAA and naver to know.

HS vessels prefer to drop when they are in the space diagonal to where your ship is during the turn, less when they are in the space right next to you.

Ok, how is that a MAA is not needed for CIs even though they get boarders as well?

If you notice, there is an extra token in CI, known as the thrall (or flower) token. The gold version not only has the ability to transform zombies to thralls, but can also drive Enlightened Ones (EOs) off the ship.

Essentially in Cis, the Naver is their own MAA, controlling when they’d like to kick off the boarders with the timely use of the flower token.

Besides that, CIs are also generally done on smaller vessels, which do not leave room for designated Boarder fighters (Perms)..

Sorry, “perms”?

My hair looks fabulous! Yes, yes it does, but that isn’t the point.

“Perm” is short for “Permanent Frayer/Swordfighter”. It is generally a good idea to keep a few (read: 2-3 max.) regular swordfighters that you can depend on (read: not go afk, build quick strikes) to include them for every single fray.

Generally “Perms” only apply to Atlantis, as Dragoons are much harder to fight off than Specters.

DO NOT take on too many “Perms”. That way you just end up with too many lazers and not enough stationers. Especially in Cit runs where the boarders are rather few and far between to begin with.

Do remember that “defending” should always be considered the “resting” station. Which means that everyone who isn’t on a station, should be defending. Otherwise, they’d just be dead weight on a ship. Do not hesitate to make an example of these pirates if need be.

I assume that as MAA I can immediately SF every boarder that comes on so I can repel them right away?

Actually, nope. Every single boarder that comes onto the ship first challenges a random person aboard to a 1v1 fray. I’m sure you’ve seen this before.

You will only be able to pull frays when the ... You know what? Let me just show you this handy flowchart I made.

Basically this cycle continues on as long as the ship is in the SMH.

I know I used Atlantis terminology in this flowchart, but it is essentially the same rinse and repeat for all three types of SMH.

Now that you understand how Boarders actually work, these two messages suddenly make a lot more sense:

Pirate loses 1v1: Allectus has bested Piratename, and turns to the rest of the ship. (Allectus goes into “Battle Ready”)

Pirate wins 1v1: Piratename has driven Kybernete from the ship!

(Kybernete leaves the ship)

Sorry, must’ve missed this somewhere in the flowchart. But exactly how do I start frays and how many people do I put in the frays?

That depends on the number of boarders. As a general rule, you want the ratio of humans to boarders at 2:1. At the start of the run anyway. This rule is especially important for WFs.

This is because you always want to have a little bit of buffer, as you can never be sure whether there will be people absent from the fray (DCers. leave fray to THers, or AFKers).

The goal is to win all frays you start, after all.

May I direct your attention to the MAA interface, as seen below on the ahoy tab.

Upon entering the SMH, you will not see this tab yet. That is because there are no boarders on the ship yet. The tab will only appear once the first goons start coming in.

You may have seen it as a jobber, but do note the differences.

For one thing, you may choose who gets put into the frays. In this screenshot here, I have unticked the stationers.

After you've selected the number of people you'd like to put in the next fray, click "start" (durr) to start the fray when you want to.

You can start frays at any time, even during breaks!

The general rules are

- Do not take stationers who are volunteered unless absolutely necessary.

- Always communicate with your Nav if you feel like you are getting more goons than you can handle.

The four important numbers you should know when MAAing:

Total: the total no. of people who have clicked "volunteer to defend"

• After the first Boarders hit the ship, you want to remind people to tick the defend button. Since there is no whistle, you have to constantly remind people if you are running low later. So it is a good idea to ask a lot of people to defend right off the bat.
• Do note that you should ask all lazers to volunteer, and that they should be your main force when fraying.
• Do note that on smaller ships it is recommended that the bnav volunteer too, but you should always communicate with him/her before pulling them for frays when absolutely necessary.
• Table for number of recommended total defenders at all times:

Ship Size	Junk	WB	Xebec	WF
No. of Total	~5	~10	~18	~35-40

• Special note: If someone accepts a 1v1, they automatically “untick” themselves from “Total”. This is why it is important to remind people to revolunteer during fray breaks.
  When a fray is ongoing, people can not volunteer. So the only time after the initial volunteer period is during the fray breaks.
• Expect this number to go down more the longer you are in the SMH. As people leave the ship etc.
  
  

Selected: the no. of people you have selected to be in the next fray

• The following is a table for how many defenders you should be using regularly. As the 2:1 rule dictates, your regular frays should be half the number of your selected.

Ship Size	Junk	WB	Xebec	WF
No. of Selected	3 (MAA + Perm + gunner)	7 (MAA + all lazers)	12 -14 (MAA + all lazers)	~20

• As your voyage goes on, you can decrease the ratio to 1.5: 1 if you think they can win.  
  Always select THers before stationers.
  
  
• Note: the MAA Bug

• refers to the bug when the number of people you have ticked is different from the “selected” number, or when the ticked people are not accurate when people swap stations.
• As a rule: Do NOT trust your ticked list or selected list if you see discrepancies.
  It is generally a good idea to fix your bug periodically every 2-3 segments.
• To fix this bug: either 1) Reclient 2) Tick everyone, untick everyone, then tick only the ones you need.
  
  

Battle-ready: the no. of boarders that will be in the next fray

• The most important number for a MAA.
• Note: this number does not update when you are doing a fray. This does not mean the Boarders stop coming in, It just means that the number only updates after a fray.
• As a MAA, you should always have an idea of approx. how many “battle ready” there will be after the current fray. This is really important for WFs.
  
  

Challenging: the no. of boarders currently doing 1v1, or not dismissed by pirates yet.

• This is an addendum to the flowchart. If the pirate doesn’t dismiss right away, the challenge stays in the pirate’s tab for 2 minutes. During these 2 minutes, the Boarder will show as “Challenging”, but when the 2 minutes are up, they may “jump” towards "Battle Ready".

• You can refer to the vessel tab see how many Boarders are currently in fights under the fraying icon. and then you can do some math to determine how many are going to jump.
• Logic dictates that if you have a lot of Boarders boarding at once (e.g. an Arch drop), and you see about 4 of them jump, you should start the fray asap so the current challengers don't have a chance to jump to "battle ready", and don't get pulled into this fray. Instead, these "challenging" are forced to become "battle ready" for the fray after the current one instead.
  
  

So let’s go back to that 2:1 ratio thing. Can I do like a 5v1 fray?

If you’ve read this far, you should know that the answer is a resounding nope. Not only will your boarders back up like a clogged toilet, but your defenders will be very annoyed at you and deem you incompetent. Not even in the case of super difficult boarders.

Varying difficulty of boarders, you say?

Indeed! In all SMHs, the boarders come in different degrees of difficulty.

This can help you determine which ones to kill off first (the harder ones), or what your odds are of winning that 1v1.

Atlantis

Easiest --> Hardest

Bellator, Kybernete, Lokharchos, Eparchos, Allectus, Nauarchos, Athanatoi

It isn’t done a lot (if ever) now, but in ye olde Atlantis days, shouting “team on non-Bellators first!” was part of my repertoire.

HS

Easiest --> Hardest

Phantasms, Frights, Specter

In Graveyards,

Ghosts, Phantasms, Frights, Specter, Barnabus the Pale

CI

Easiest --> Hardest

Zombie, Enlightened One

On the Island,

Zombie. Enlightened One, Vargas the Mad

Special note about Homunculus: their attack patterns are only in one color, but they also hit very hard. (Thereby killing Thralls much faster) Best to either kill them off quickly, or leave them alone till last.

Okay, I think I’ve got it... but anything else that I really need to know about?

Winning a Citadel/GY clears all the boarders aboard the ship. Back down to 0/0.

Losing a Cit/GY does nothing for the boarder numbers. You'd exit with the same number you entered with.

After exiting a GY; You have to ask everyone to revolunteer. As everyone gets unvolunteered after a GY. This does not happen for Citadels.

You and your Naver are a TEAM

Which means that you should be communicating at all times. Don’t be afraid to say

• “hey, try not to get an Arch drop for the next few turns”, or  
• “we might have 30 goons after this one because we’re about to lose, shall we start a large fray or start heading out?” or
• “I’m gonna have to start a large fray, pulling 2 bilgers and 2 carpers” or
• “Hey, gonna pull you for this next fray” or
• “Gonna go AFK for 4 mins, gonns are at 3/2” (But try to start a fray right before going afk. Without you in it, of course) or
• “Could you do a whistle or two, I need more defenders asap!” (Use VERY sparingly!)
• “We are entering the Cit with 8/1 goons. It might be a tough exit if we lose” or
• “This dude keeps straightlining in frays, even after I gave him a warning. Please plank him” or
• Whatever else you think that you as a naver would like to know if it were the other way around.

Respect others (No one likes or wants to listen to a bossy MAA)

Respect that people have to go AFK from time to time and deal with their lives, but do note to separate these from the Chronic lazers (AKA freeloaders who don’t want to do anything. Which I admit, can be me somedays.:P)  In time you will learn who those are, young grasshopper.

Ask people nicely to inform you in a tell when they might have to brb, so it doesn’t interfere with your frays.

If you need more defenders, ask NICELY. If you see someone who isn’t defending, send them a tell first, before going all “Omfgz, wai u no defend?!!” in vessel chat.

Remember, your jobbers are people too, playing and trying to have fun just like you are. So treat them as such.

When to pull what type of stations:

This is what seperates a really bad/okay MAA from a good MAA.

it’s mostly just taking into account, in no particular order:

• # of goons?
• # of defenders?
• damage/bilge of ship?
• # of people aboard?
• Can the ship survive for 5 minutes if you pull the people you want for the fray?

Example, if you’ve got over 50% damage, and are in a bit of a pickle, common sense dictates that you do not pull carpers or bilgers.

About to enter a Cit in a turn or two? Don’t start a fray.. that’s just a waste of time because you won’t be able to finish in time before the cit.

Have a Gorg around? DON’T pull carpers.

Have an Arch around? DON’T pull sailors.

If you're new to pulling stationers, always confirm with your Nav on which and how many stationers you're pulling.

Keep in mind that if you need to start a fray but need stationers, try to start the fray after the break. This is due to scores resetting, and this way you can get more output from your stationers.

I have 20 goons, and only 18 defenders! Do I start a fray?

NO. Because you are not going to win. Why waste the time when you are going to keep getting Boarders? You should try reminding more people to defend.

When you lose a fray:

If it seems like you are not going to win a certain fray, give up early and try again. It’s not the end of the world when you lose, but it will be the end of the ship if you waste time and don’t try to fend them off early and let them build up.

At some point, you will have to stop frays.

Because the cycle in the flowchart is endless, at some point there will be too many leavers for you to do as large of the frays as when you first started. Logic dictates that you should either do more frays with less Boarders each, or inform the Naver that you are not able to do more frays and that it is time to head out.

Usually, people will stop stationing long before you don’t get enough defenders. But keep this in mind all the same.

Special note on “Stall Frays”:

Once upon a time, these used to work. Which means that, regrettably, they DO NOT work anymore! Only an incompetent MAA will have to resort to a stall fray (which doesn’t even work anymore) or one that does not communicate with his/her naver.

Etiquette

Usually MAAs stay for the entire run. If not for the entire run, then at least for the entire entry, and give your naver plenty of warning if you can’t stay for the entire run.

Regarding Pay:

I know the Yppedia article on MAA says that most of the MAAing is done “pro bono”. I call that “pish posh”. I personally have always been paid 25 to 33 percent of what is left in the hold before restock when porting. But in cases of sinking, I don’t get paid.

Nowadays, many navers have their designated MAAs (in many cases, they won’t even start jobbing without their MAA also being online). This does not mean that you’re never gonna get a chance :) This is where what I call the “social puzzle” coming into play big time. You should start off by MAAing for a friend (I suggest a cit run or a HS, that way you can start off with less pressure and not having the threat of Arches or Gorgs).

I must admit I made quite a few mistakes my first time on a regular Briglantis.

But I hope that with the help of this guide, you’ll be a lot better off than I was when I started, and become a  guru in no time :)

Thinking she spent way too much time typing this,

Squishat