Look, MC Dirty, Yota is smart and famous. Don't listen to Crassus and his entourage of construction workers.
Capturing an antaran vessel is way out of our league. Maybe if our troops were as tenacious as Bulrathi are, we could've hoped for that tactic to succeed. Otherwise, it'd require a huge investment into ground combat technologies - rifles, armour, personal shields, antigravity harness etc. This leaves consideration of such an endeavour for later times.
Also, assault shuttles are not your only option there - "tractor beam" works perfectly with Antarans. It not only allows boarding, it makes the target easy to hit. "Transporters" are passable too, but not necessary. And of course, "troop pods".
As for the missiles craze, I think that using them ignores our great military advantage of racial combat bonuses. Get a battle scanner and a nice gun(e.g.neutron blaster) and improve the shield tech("inertial stabilizer" is nice), and I'm sure you'll be able to show those interdimensional bastards.