I'm far from an expert on the subject of boiling... but I'll take a stab at it. What boiling does, is to break down the finished surface of a base. By removing this "hard" outer coating it will tend to soften up the base. By varying length of time boiled plus the amount of baby/mineral oil, it willl produce different results. From fast to strong to stronger. People that boil bases all have their own recipes.

You can usually tell a boiled base pretty easily as the base has no shine and has a powdery texture. You can also identify a boiled base if it has been boiled for a long time. As the shape of the the base will change and become somewhat larger than normal.

Does it make the base faster? Well that is not always the case... but it will usually make the base more consistant and usually stronger.

My solitaire league is comprised of about 80% boiled bases. Why did I do it this way? Because for me it is easier to boil than to tweek an entire league. Which for me is 32 teams and 45 players per team.

I hope this helps?