A plague of pirates

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Well, its a big bother for the non-celtic barbarian factions as they cant get decent ships. It takes a massive investment to get a fleet capable of taking the pirates out. And its such a large investment that it isnt worth doing IMO.

Well, I don't really see the Sauromatae or Saka as great seafaring peoples, so I don't care if they can't cope with pirates. Horse archers may 'rule' on land, but Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans rule on the seas.

[QuintusSertorius]

Some of the stacks had six and seven ships in them when I started the clearance, no wonder everyone had retreated from the Med.

[Ca Putt]

imo pirates are most annoying for the Sweboz as they actually "need"(you can always ignore the VC and Britain and go for the steppes ;) ) at least some navy face the largest Leisteron popultion with one of the worst navies and one of the worst economies. the Sauromate mainly need ships to travel the pontos euxenies(i prbably misspelled that) which is almost pirate free and can be bypassed easily, the Pahlava could run into problems when getting blokaded on the coasts of persian homeland and could get some problems when endevoring to conquer Kypros(and will most likely not be able to mount an anphibious pillage operation in Asia mirnor and egypt) two regions with just mediocre pirate infestion, and the Saka well, ... they actually don't need warships at all.
Getai get 50ers don't they. they may not be as good as 3,5ers but still better than the Sweboz' Xorixeulōm, I mean, even Lemboi are better than those.

I'd really like to have a bit less pirates in the baltic afterall they are few merchant vessels to loot anyway, as it is navy management for the Sweboz relies mostly on hiding your fleet in a harbor at the end of each turn^^

[QuintusSertorius]

Isn't the Baltic pirate menace expressly to prevent AI Sweboz becoming an ahistorical seafaring power?

[Ca Putt]

well the AI will most likely not become a naval power as the Seboz^^ the player can become a naval power with enough efford no matter how many pirates there are.

sometimes I have the feeling the pirates actually represent the ruff sea up there.

[Ludens]

Isn't the Baltic pirate menace expressly to prevent AI Sweboz becoming an ahistorical seafaring power?

I doubt it, since it seems to be a completely unplanned and uncontrolled event. Can you set localized pirate-spawn values in R:TW?

I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that Gotland is the vanilla Latium province. In vanilla, Latium was the default target of every faction, and it may attact pirates as well.

[Fluvius Camillus]

If your cruise only is a minor boat trip to an island, you can always ferry from port to port. The port will protect your fleet from attacks and if you unload your troops it usually does not matter afterwards if they are sunk.

But really I remember in my Baktria campaign I had a spectacular ending. I had some fleets outside the ports in the Aegean, this attracted the Baltic fullstack pirates all the way to the Aegean. My Baktrian empire already encompassed the world when they passed Sicily. In the meantime I was making Penteres, Tetreres and some Trieres ready in Rhodos, Athenai, Pella and Ambrakia. I combined the fleets as good as I could and placed my massive fleet together.

The Baltic fullstack pirates came in three waves, I won m all and my goals were 100% complete!

~Fluvius

[Arjos]

If that's such a big issue, move them to the Caspian Sea :)

[Cambyses]

Well, I don't really see the Sauromatae or Saka as great seafaring peoples, so I don't care if they can't cope with pirates. Horse archers may 'rule' on land, but Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans rule on the seas.

Fair enough, but what about the sweboz and lusos? Those are the two factions that get hurt the most by having rubbish ships as their victory conditions require them to conquer islands. In M2TW you can get mercenary ships, maybe that would be a solution for this problem in EB2?

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Those are the two factions that get hurt the most by having rubbish ships as their victory conditions require them to conquer islands.

Good point. Sweboz and Lusitanians should not (under AI control) be required to take islands. Gotland and Balerics should be removed from their objectives.

[Ca Putt]

Gotland is ok, it's more like a puzzle how to conquer it than an anctual naval mission. Albion(while not in the VC) however is a valid target for larger raids and it'd be nice to be able to preform some coastal raids, which is not quite as possible with Leisteron fullstacks of which every friggin ship is stronger than your socalled warships.