Matrix Games Forums

As a fairly new player, I started a prewarp game with pirates on normal and few as well as about 10 other empires.
At first everything looked good, but now i am stuck somewhat.
It took me 15 years to get out of my system, by which time i already payed a bunch of pirates for peace, as I lacked the techs to create any meaningfull warships. Now, my first colonie has a pirate base level 3 on it, I lack troop transports and attacking it with 10 infantery doesnt give them a headache at all. And thought I win the initialy space battle with my new frigates, against the whooping 30 pirate ships in orbit, they retaliate with fleets just as big against single mining stations. I dont think I can put large fleets on guard duties on every single station, despite the fact that I dont have many so far.
That faction has about 280 ships in total, and there are multiple pirates which have already become empires.
So, what amount of troops do I need, to rid my colonie of these buggers?
Is it normal for pirates to get that big as fast as this? About 17 years in the game only.
How do I handle pirates other than paying them forever, when they have bases on a number of different factions planets? I cant possible declare war against them all at once.
Despite having 10 explorers scutling around I havent found any factions despite pirates, maybe I am just lucky?

So you own a colony with the level 3 pirate structure? It is easier to take them out early.

10 troops is a loose measure, as different races have difference "starting strength". In my experience, 4-5 troops take out bases, but they are not that mature. Build some troop transports, and bring more troops.

Your description does sound a bit excessive, but I guess they have time to grab a colony that early. Think of those pirate colonies as "soon to be mine".

My main (not very hardcore) way of dealing with pirates is:

- Do not be too eager with early colonization. You have to defend them.

- Don't feed pirates easy money.

- Bust their bases. If they have no nearby base, they won't harass you. As you expand you will of course get into range of other pirate bases.

You are not saying much about your settings. With default (non modded) AI designs, I would try bring some 40 ships or more on a pirate base busting mission. That is in a tech level where frigates and destroyers make up the fleet. It is almost impossible to stop a 10 ship pirate fleet from killing a mine or dropping raiders on a colony, so it is better to bust their base.

If the base is camped by lots of defenders it will be very hard to kill. Try make a smaller fleet (maybe 10 ships) that jump at the star and starts slightly ahead of the main fleet with attack order on the base itself. The defenders should jump at the first fleet (at the star) as they arrive, meaning they won't be at the base and it gives the main attack fleet some time to fight the base more or less alone.

Also, you don't declare war on pirates, you just kill them and gain reputation for doing so.

At the launch of the Universe edition, I did an AAR with lots of automation that ended up with a massive pirate fight. You may see how I solved a rather pirate infested situation.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3620058

The first pirate base bust should be in post 20 or thereabouts. Lots of pirates, nearby, with automation and a slow breeding race was not a good idea if the goal was an easy start. I also bribed no pirates in that game, and did two stupid, early colonizations of not very good independents.

You should build a fleet of supply ships.

They are at least going to be up to non-planetary starbase size cap, which IIRC is at least >2x the ship size cap (and in late game it is 4500 to 1500, LOL). That means if you ever need real battleships, well... hope you don't mind having 20% cargo/associated stuff to cheese the much, much bigger size cap.

As a general tip, make sure that you have a dedicated "Fleet Command" type ship at the front of every fleet. This ship should be noted for

1) Maximum shields & armor, even at the expense of firepower. A Carrier using Standoff orders works best.
2) Equipped with the Fleet Targeting and Fleet Countermeasures items.
3) Slightly larger than average fuel bays (carriers use more fuel than other ships, not sure why - might be the fighters?)
4) A Long Range Scanner.

In a similar vein, as soon as your ships are large enough put Long Range Scanners on your Explorers as well. And as always you'll want them as a standard feature on all of your Spaceports and Mining Bases.

The end goal of all this is to sniff out their Spaceports quickly. They never have enough defenses and a reasonably sized fleet can easily wipe them out.

Or, failing that, do this:

1) Find a character with Inspiring Presence.
2) Find an Intelligence Agent with Concealment.
3) Put them together until your Concealment is over 50%
4) Deep Cover into a Pirate group of your choice. This will reveal all of their ships, colonies and spaceports in real-time. There will be literally nowhere for them to hide.