[Suicide Junkie]

The "damage" of the subverter is the chance in %, that a HIT will subvert the crew. Misses do nothing at all.

If you can get an LC, a largemount will give you a guaranteed capture from pointblank, (if you hit).

RE: light cruiser
Most situations an analyse would be called for.
If you have only frigate hulls, analyse it.
Build escorts with Subverters and Attack Destroyers to protect the escorts and finish off enemy fleets. You will get the occasional capture, analyse it ASAP.

If you have destroyer tech or are a few turns from researching destroyer tech:
Save that LC! Bring it home, and the instant you can build destroyers, analyse the ship for LC tech. Then see below

If/when you have LC hulls:
Retrofit that LC to a heavily Armored/Shielded assault craft with Large-mount subverters as its only weapons. If you analysed the LC to get here, then design and build one or two.

Send huge fleets of your normal-weapon defense frigates (or larger hulls) to protect the capture LC at all costs.
When the enemy numbers are low, move the LC in and capture the Last one or two ships with the subverter.
You will lose a few frigates, but will be capturing LCs and other technology as fast as you can analyse.