Yes, and you were close.
In the strategies menu, under firing, you need to change the Targeting Priority. It generally defaults to something like Strongest, nearest, most damaged, has weapons or some such nonsense.
You need to change the Ramming strategy (or is it named Kamakazi?) to be something closer to Nearest, has weapons, strongest, most damaged. Of coarse, you can tailor it to your needs, but if you want to have them attack the nearest ships, then make sure the first entry is Nearest.
Also, check the newbie FAQ sticky thread, I'm sure there is a section in there about the strategies screen. Heck, I probably need to check it to refresh on some things!
