Fast forward to sector 8 I only had my starting weapons and a Glaive beam
Facing the flagship I had about 12 bombs, 3 rockmen + 1 human on the man-ables , 2 rockmen + 1 mantis on boarding duty (maxed fighting), and a spare slug.
Stage 1
after dealing with the weapons the best way I know, by boarding, I used half my bombs trying to find the ideal way to handle their shields, and then it hit me

Stage 2
Sent a solo mantis to kill the weapons so my rocks could fight + fix breaches. after all the commotion I had no choice but to send my pilot, the rockman, by itself while the fires were raging in their shield room. I eventually won, but they killed him


Stage 3
I basically just auto-fired my laser and stood back as a few missiles hit me. At this point I only had 2 bombs, and because I needed all my crew, I decided to burn the missile launcher rather than board it, the only problem was I forgot to cancel auto-fire and there went my last bomb. things were looking grim but I had to carry on for my lost pilot.
With nothing to lose, I sent 4 guys over to the shields and tore... them... to pieces.

And that is the story of how I won with Heavy pierce, Glaive beam, and Fire bomb with no missiles... and it was epic.