newby's guide to ship and fleet strategy

[Suicide Junkie]

Do any of you guys know how I can get a capture ship to ATTACK a target until the shields are down, then capture?

I just had a fleet of capture ships run to a corner (shot at the enemy as they went by), then, when the warships fought, the capture ships jumped back and forth:
"Hey, theres one without shields to capture"
"Oh, wait, they regenerated 5 points, nevermind"

Obviously the secondary strat of "Optimal weapons range" isn't being used when there are no shieldless ships for the primary strat "board ships".