Something needs to be done about this!!!

**hoom** · 07-07-2007, 12:56

Well, pirates are one of those things where quality > quantity.
I've had a single unit of Carthaginian Quinquremes destroy 300+ pirate ships (half stack) in a single battle & with minimal losses.
Take them on in weaker ships like Triremes & you can expect heavy casualties.

**The Internet** · 07-07-2007, 15:29

I have a dedicated fleet of a couple tri's that are highly experienced as "hunter killers" to keep them all at bay in my area and if i need to i'll bulster the ranks with more ships for a short time if a massive fleet shows up.

**Imperator** · 07-07-2007, 17:19

Well, it's true that pirates never congregated in huge fleets, but to diminish the frequency and size of pirate appearances would be to grossly understate the danger they posed in the Med at the time. Basically, the number is right, but the AI insists on merging the stacks, which is rather a-historical. Then again, there aren't nearly enough challenges to the player on the open sea anyway. I consider it a way of simulating storms (probably the no. 1 cause of fleet damage back then) or whatnot.

**Pharnakes** · 07-07-2007, 17:22

Are there not supposedly storms in rtw, anyway? I personaly have never knowingly come across one, in vannila or any mod. Are there plans to introduce them to eb?

**MarcusAureliusAntoninus** · 07-08-2007, 04:22

Originally Posted by Pharnakes

Are there not supposedly storms in rtw, anyway? I personaly have never knowingly come across one, in vannila or any mod. Are there plans to introduce them to eb?

I had one in vanilla.

There are very few disasters in EB at all right now. If you lower health bonuses or don't build health buildings, you may get a rare plague. And there is about one flood every hundred years. Teleklos has redone the disasters and expect some new stuff for the future of EB.

**I Am Herenow** · 07-08-2007, 09:05

Don't forget that CA has said it will include a new moddable Famine disaster in Kingdoms.

**Digby Tatham Warter** · 07-07-2007, 17:25

Originally Posted by hoom

Well, pirates are one of those things where quality > quantity.
I've had a single unit of Carthaginian Quinquremes destroy 300+ pirate ships (half stack) in a single battle & with minimal losses.
Take them on in weaker ships like Triremes & you can expect heavy casualties.

I quite agree with you good sir,

I can't be bothered to mess around at sea, if I am playing as one of the more advanced factions, I wait until my coffers can absorb the shock, then I build 2-3 of their best ships/fleets and these crush large groups of pirates easily, most of the time.

In fact I like to avoid a war across the Med somewhere, until I am reasonably assured I have naval dominance. I invest to much effort in an army+commander, just to see him go down to the briny depths. One doesn't like to gamble you see, a nasty habit!

**mAIOR** · 07-07-2007, 22:54

I don't agree with this model of piracy. Havong such great pirate navies is unrealistic. They posed a problem to trading not warfare in itself. Take the Macedonian harassing the ptolies routes to aid Greece. They avoided attacking fleets with military escort. I don't think anything above a Triere should have trouble dealing with pirates. They should have smaller fleets (5 units tops) and be more scattered. Like so many others said, this further cripples the AI making their navy useless...

Cheers...

**Ravenic** · 07-07-2007, 23:08

I do seem to recall in Vanilla that you'd see navies from just above any nation swimming around in the 'Med, with one or two pirate fleet's yelling "argh, shiver me timbers" before being sunk with all promptness.

Now, probably in no small part to EB's fleet costs and upkeep, the A.I. doesn't even seem to find it prudent to build navies in the first place. I can honestly recall only two times when i've even seen another nation's naval forces outside of their starting ships.

**Zaknafien** · 07-08-2007, 03:04

Nah. I get naval invasions all the time in my latest builds. I use BI exe of course, though.

**Ravenic** · 07-08-2007, 03:08

Aye?

Well I use R:TW 1.5. It's a problemo for me.

**Swordmaster** · 07-09-2007, 10:33

Originally Posted by hoom

Well, pirates are one of those things where quality > quantity.
I've had a single unit of Carthaginian Quinquremes destroy 300+ pirate ships (half stack) in a single battle & with minimal losses.
Take them on in weaker ships like Triremes & you can expect heavy casualties.

Sorry, must disagree. I also built a couple of Quinquereme fleets in Karthadast, each of which was sunk relatively soon by relatively small pirate fleets. I tried again with a host of Covered Liburnes and had a lot more success.

**Tellos Athenaios** · 07-09-2007, 11:21

I generally found that one / two heavy ships (being nearly always Greek, that's Pentere & Polireme for me) + a bunch of cheep and cheerful augmented by some Rhodians ... works like a charm.