Quote Originally Posted by A Very Super Market View Post
That isn't the problem. Of course you can capture their islands, as can you simply blitz every faction in the game. The problem is that the pirates aren't small-time raiders that harass your trade, they are fluyt-spawning supermen that take half the game before you can meet them on the field (Er, ocean)
Indeed. At the very MOST, pirate fleets should have a galleon or fluyt as a flagship. The rest of their fleet should be brigs and sloops, with galleys/light galleys for the Barbary faction. I should not encounter a full stack of pirate galleons when venturing into the straits of Madagascar.