Boarding on Lanius B lets you guaranteed remove piloting by moving crew between rooms (forces AI shuffle). It's high tier because it has a great weapon and two useful systems immediately. I'd contend that stating boarding isn't immediately useful and staying so throughout the game is the actual armchair piloting 
. It's a janky means to lower evasion, shoot out weapons, and delay repairs but it's instantly available and free of cost. Situational crew kill is still more dosh too.
You can force MC'd enemy crew to fight with micro, both on own and enemy ships. Shield lock is an option but you can also force their crew to hit MC'd crew to tank for you, good vs early ships w/o medbay. I often get hacking as 3rd system for lanius B rather than cloaking. That sector 3 on lanius B was awful.
That slug A was a slaughter. I always seem to wind up with consistently high scores using that ship, despite that it doesn't seem anything better than average initially. The one exception where I had only hacking + MC and 8 projectiles still torched the flagship and finished in green health.
I do not agree with buying drones over hacking on a boarding ship (or in general). Hacking makes enemy medbays potentially beneficial but can also delay their weapons + door block that room for kills. There are quite a few encounters where DD1 does nothing, hacking can be useful in every fight w/o exception if you can clear super shields.
Crystals are pretty free wins, though A's weapons can be awkward pairings with some loadouts.
. It's a janky means to lower evasion, shoot out weapons, and delay repairs but it's instantly available and free of cost. Situational crew kill is still more dosh too.You can force MC'd enemy crew to fight with micro, both on own and enemy ships. Shield lock is an option but you can also force their crew to hit MC'd crew to tank for you, good vs early ships w/o medbay. I often get hacking as 3rd system for lanius B rather than cloaking. That sector 3 on lanius B was awful.
That slug A was a slaughter. I always seem to wind up with consistently high scores using that ship, despite that it doesn't seem anything better than average initially. The one exception where I had only hacking + MC and 8 projectiles still torched the flagship and finished in green health.
I do not agree with buying drones over hacking on a boarding ship (or in general). Hacking makes enemy medbays potentially beneficial but can also delay their weapons + door block that room for kills. There are quite a few encounters where DD1 does nothing, hacking can be useful in every fight w/o exception if you can clear super shields.
Crystals are pretty free wins, though A's weapons can be awkward pairings with some loadouts.