Quote Originally Posted by Caledonian Rhyfelwyr View Post
Pirates should probably be represented by a reduction in trade income, similar to the way corruption or devastation work. I really don't want to fight off hundreds of one-ship pirate navies.
Ditto that. I would be perfectly happy with pirates being represented abstractly via decreased trade income. And if I need to keep a few 5th-raters and/or frigates to patrol my trade routes in order to prevent my trade income from dipping, that's fine -- just so long as they don't have to actually hunt down every buccaneer that shows up.