conquest mechanics

[joeclark77 (OP)]

I've just conquered my first peaceful alien enemy homeworld.  The treasure trove of installations, minerals, and technology is unbelievable.  What I'm wondering is, is there any way to get the enemy to surrender his civilian ships?  Or will I simply have to hunt down and destroy them?  Or will they simply vanish if I conquer his other remaining colonies?  Does Aurora give you a message like you might see in other 4x games, saying "so and so has been completely vanquished", or will you always be left wondering if he's got something left somewhere?

[Arwyn]

Generally, once you have reduced the other colonies, the NPR will surrender, and the remaining ships will surrender as well. You will get the remaining ships, and the knowledge of the ships systems. Even after the surrender, there may still be some hold out locations though.

[Thiosk]

I must say, I rather enjoy using my search&destroy task groups to hunt enemy civilian ships, ESPECIALLY the gate builders.  Its a very fast primary sensor ship supported by beam corvettes.  Slicing and dicing, baby. This process begins while the military lands.

[ollobrains]

with the boarding parties now is it possible to capture them with boarding actions