How to remove sea pirates?

[Marcus Ulpius]

They are getting a major nuisance. I can't move any fleet without being attacked by pirates, sometimes the same fleet gets attacked twice of more. There's way too many of them. It is like having to fight a medium sized rebel army every time you need to move your army anywhere on the map.

I'm in the middle of the war with the Romans and they are throwing everything they have at me, but moving reinforcements from Quarthadasht is nigh impossible because my fleet is decimated by pirates. I don't have a very big fleet and I understand that from time to time I will lose ships, but being attacked every turn when my fleet is not in harbor and sometimes more than once during the same turn is way too much.

[Onehandstan]

try only moving your fleets from port to port or by having one really big fleet to clear out the pirates.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Or simply use "auto_win attacker" or "auto_win defender" when confronted with pirates. It is cheating but when pirates are left unchecked for a couple decades they become ahistoric and quite annoying.

[SwissBarbar]

Ahistoric? Weren't for example the Cilician pirates in the Mediterranean, just in that period EB is set in, extraordinarily strong.

If I may cite Wikipedia:

"The Cilician pirates dominated the Mediterranean Sea from the 2nd century BC up until their speedy suppression by Pompey (67-66 BC)"

The Seleucids were too weak to suppress them, and Diodotus Tryphon, king of the Seleucid Empire from 142-138 BC, actually supported them, in order to strengthen his position.

The Cilician pirates roamed across the entire Mediterranean, and began to attack the towns of Italy itself. In fact, even Ostia was plundered.


Strabo writes that Pompey destroyed 1300 pirate vessels of all sizes.


well, i know that wiki is not always the most authentic source, but anyway, quite impressive



it is a challenge you have to master in your campaign. manage the pirates with a great fleat and try to maintain a position against the romans until the sea is safe again to maintain supplies.

[desert]

Go to the descr_strat txt in EB Data and somewhere in there you can set rebel values higher and lower. If you set the number for pirates and other Eleutheroi, remember that the higher the number is, the less show up.

[Wausser]

The Cilician pirates roamed across the entire Mediterranean, and began to attack the towns of Italy itself. In fact, even Ostia was plundered.


Well, i know that wiki is not always the most authentic source, but anyway, quite impressive

I think it's right, I've read it in Robert Harris' novel Imperium which is pretty historical accurate(according to my Latin teacher)

[Starforge]

I've never changed the rebel settings and never have trouble with the pirates using a couple of general rules.

1. Keep a fleet (or more if you can afford it or have stretched out borders) of 4 of the smaller warships to clear out those annoying 1-4 ship fleets that pop up. They usually do the trick and usually don't lose more than 1 with even the worst result.

2. Always leave your ships in port unless you have no other option. The AI seems to disregard ships in port and rarely if ever blockades. They seem to wander to certain catch points (or just don't get cleared from those areas - I never run with FOW off.) Usually after I get below around 200BC I rarely if ever even see one spawn.

Personally, I'm convinced the AI will only allow so many rebel armies and navies on the map at any given time so once the Indian ocean is filled up with pirates, you don't tend to get spawns. I could be wrong but it's certainly my gut feeling from many games.

[desert]

Sorry, it was descr_rebel_factions.

[Tyrfingr]

Pirates are really annoying when you're playing, for example, the Sweboz and don't have access to any ships for a really long time.

[Gugus]

Mind that a change in descr_rebel_factions only works if you start a new campaign. It wont change the pirate spawn rate for an ongoing campaign.
G

[Marcus Ulpius]

Thanks for all the input, guys. I'll try to cope with pirates the legitimate way (hate to use console), but if they get out of hands I'll have to do it.

[We shall fwee...Wodewick]

You have to beware with Pirates. On my games they kept forming in the piece of sea between northern spain and the west coast of France, and I thought "ah who cares?!".

Well about 60 years later they all spontaneously decided to sail round Iberia and launch an enormous campaign against my very strong navy. I found that my Quinqremes and Quadremes wqere slaughtered while my Triremes and Liburnes could take out 3 or 4 fleets of pirate ships. In all I killed 25 pirate fleets(most half stacks) and lost approximately 12 Quinqremes/Quadremes and 2 Triremes/Liburnes(a fleet of Triremes and Liburnes killed 5 pirate fleets in one turn and then was destroyed by the 6th.) It was an insane couple of years.

[Ca Putt]

i had simmilar experiences with the pirates, which is why my fleet mainly consists of Trieres and Triemiolai. it seems they can deal with Pirates much more cost efficient than larger ships. they gathered in two full stack 50/50(psiloi/stolos) fleets behind the suez kanal but as soon as I , well ... broke both harbors there(did not have enouth troops in the area but could not resist sacking two Ptoly starting cities when off guard^^) they got killed in a heroic victory(i had huge luck :D ) with only trieres and pentekonters involved

[Senshi]

There's no need to change any descr_rebel file.

Just open Rome - Total War\EB\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign\descr_stat.txt, search for

pirate_spawn_value (should be on the first page)

and change the value itself to your liking.

I increased both pirate and brigand value (which is right next to it, controlling rebel spawn rates) to 400 and yeah, I still have rebels and stuff, but only very very few.

Topic was discussed just few days ago here:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=109379

[LordCurlyton]

Also, the more coastal provinces in eleutheroi hands, the more pirate spawns there will be. I'm currently in 160 BC and will almost never see a pirate again mainly because the only coastal eleutheroi left are the N. Baltic provinces, and I keep a Covered Liburnes on station at Darioritum to deal with the occasional half stack. Also, attacking rather than letting yourself get attacked makes a big difference. A quin will mow through full stacks when attacking but tends to lose after a stack or two when defending.

[cmacq]

Starforge and SwissBarbar are correct, and WSF...W is right about the location of a hot bed in EB. If I remember correctly as late as 68 BC pirates attacked and burned the port of Ostia, only a few miles from Rome. They captured two Roman ex-praetors, a significant number of prominent Roman citizens, and several barges full of Rome's winter grain supply. They also burned part of war fleet harbored there. This attack may have come from Crete, as a short time later in 68 we find the ex-consul Q. Caecilius Metellus campaigning against the pirates of Crete, which he subdued in 67 and thereafter the island was annexed as a Roman province.

As LordCurlyton says, the more coastal provinces in independent hands, the more pirate will be spawned. Rather than changing anything, you might simply build a fleet and deal with them.



CmacQ

[Wausser]

Q. Caecilius Metellus

Don't forget the cognomen Creticus

[cmacq]

Don't forget the cognomen Creticus

Right,

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus (given for the conquest of Crete).



CmacQ

[theoldbelgian]

was it common in that time to give the name of a province to the conquerer of it?
I recall this happening with Scipio who was named africanus after the conquest of Carthage
but I thought that this was because it was such a major feat

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

2. Always leave your ships in port unless you have no other option. The AI seems to disregard ships in port and rarely if ever blockades.

This is the key point.

Ancient world ships were completely dependent on the land for safety - it was rare to spend more than a few days at sea.

Ships should undertake short journeys, as short as possible, and end the turn in a friendly port whenever possible. When transporting armies a long distance, hop from friendly port to friendly port if you can. If you have no friendly port near enough, travel only a very short distance, leaving lots of movement points unused - so if you are attacked by stronger pirates, your surviving fleets will be able to retreat a very long way and outdistance the pirate pursuit.

Alternatively, hug the coastline as you travel, and land your army off your ships onto the nearest shore at the end of every turn, so that if your ships get attacked and sunk you won't lose your army along with your ships. You can always reembark the army and continue your journey at the start of the next turn.

Basically, unless you have a very powerful fleet strong enough to defeat almost any attacking pirates, don't behave like you own the ocean - you don't. Be cautious at sea if your fleet is weak.