Whats the largest Pirate Fleet you've every fought.

[Didz]

I just ran into the largest pirate fleet I've seen so far.

Three seperate pirate fleets totally 14xGalleons, 8xFluyts, 1x4th Rate, 1xRace Built Galleon, 1x6th Rate, 1xBrig and 2xbomb ketches. 28 pirate ships in total.

[Prussian to the Iron]

cant think exact numbver ATM, but i believe i once faced a fleet of 10 galleons, 4 indiamen, and 4 brigs

[Mailman653]

How in the world did the get the money to afford that when no one even trades with them.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

How in the world did the get the money to afford that when no one even trades with them.

They steal it.

Raiding is a huge source of income. Their base income is 3000 + some gold from their two regions. It is possible that their base income is more then 3000 since they get an AI bonus. The rest is from raiding and possibly price money from captured ships. And they have nothing to build.

[Mailman653]

They steal it.

Raiding is a huge source of income. Their base income is 3000 + some gold from their two regions. It is possible that their base income is more then 3000 since they get an AI bonus. The rest is from raiding and possibly price money from captured ships. And they have nothing to build.

I didn't know it was that profitable. The times I raided enemy shipping lanes, it felt as if I wasn't even making a dent into their economy, much less mine.

[Forward Observer]

They steal it.

Raiding is a huge source of income. Their base income is 3000 + some gold from their two regions. It is possible that their base income is more then 3000 since they get an AI bonus. The rest is from raiding and possibly price money from captured ships. And they have nothing to build.

That's why if you are playing one of the powers who deal in the new world, your best bet is to capture their two island capitals early in the game. It doesn't take a cracker jack army either--since all you will facing are pirate mobs--generally not too much better than armed citizens.

I think as the English, I had both pirate strongholds well within the first 5 years (10 turns) , and never fought a single fleet action against them. Besides, once you have their islands their fleets magically disappear.

You don't get a lot of income from their taxes, their island ports are so close to the teleportation boxes in the Atlantic that they come in handy for launching Indiamen to try to get as many trade slots as one can early in the game.

Cheers

[Didz]

I'm playing Britain and I'm over 50 turns into the game and haven't really had much trouble with pirates up to now, so I've just left them alone and let the Spanish and Dutch deal with them. But it looks like like they failed miserably to keep them under control.

Just recently I started getting full sized pirate fleets wandering north and interfereing with my American trade lane, and then they really got bold and started blockading Jamaica. That was the point at which I decided to intervene.

So, I sent my local fleet to deal with them. 4x5th Rates and a few figates. It ran into a huge pirate fleet south of Jamaica and basically got pawned. Only one 5th rate and two sloops survived.

So, now I have 6 x 3rd rates at Jamaica on pirate duty, but last time they tried to chase down a pirate fleet they ran into the three full stacks I listed in the opening post. I think there are more ships in that pirate fleet than the Nelson had a Trafalgar.

Talking about where the money comes from, I have seen pirate fleets parked on Trade Posts. Whether they are actually getting any benefit for being there is less certain but they certainly seem to be trying.

[crpcarrot]

i have noticed at the end of AI sea battles most of the victorious fleet gains ships. looks like the AI likes to keep the ships it captures instead of selling them for cash. autocalc also seems to bring more captured ships and since the AI fights battles on autocalc (i beleive this is the case) that's probably how the pirates ended up with the huge fleets.

[Vlad Tzepes]

Yes, it looks like they very much fancy keeping the ships they capture.

If nobody eliminates the Pirates (and this happens often, the AI just provides them ships), by 1750 they can become quite a naval super-power. I had 2 full stacks after me in my last campaign - and there were several other smaller stacks or single ships roaming around. Managed to defeat one of those big stacks with my 6 3rd rates - it was 80% galleons, full firepower, the rest fluyts and one brig (the darn brig didn't explode, as I hoped). Jeez, those galleons are tough. Lost one of my warships.

[Didz]

Absolutely. In my most recent pirate battle, against Captain Kidd's fleet no less, I noticed a 6th Rate called Zebra that I had lost in the first battle when my local frigate fleet had been destroyed.

Its actually quite common to see ships that were obviously part of someones navy in a pirate fleet. The 4th Rate 'Rayo' in the first pirate battle was obviously an ex-Spanish vessel. What pirates aren't so good at is repairing their ships and most fleets I comes across are in a poor state of repair.

[Marquis of Roland]

My fleet: 10 ships, under Sir John Jervis
HMS Victory, 1 2nd rate, 8 3rd rate. All 4xp.

Pirate fleet 1: 19 ships
2 2nd rates, 6 galleons, 6 fluyts, 1 sixth rate, 4 brigs.

Pirate fleet 2: 18 ships
1 2nd rate, 7 galleons, 4 fluyts, 1 5th rate, 3 brigs, 2 sloops.

Pirate fleet 3: 12 ships
1 5th rate, 2 sixth rate, 4 brigs, 3 sloops, 2 bomb ketches.

2nd rates were captured from either Mexico or Spain.

I had to send 2 3rd rates away under heavy damage towards the end, one of them had to anchor (fortunately made it out of the immediate combat zone) due to hull damage. The rest of my fleet took moderate to heavy damage but all of my ships survived and with crews mostly intact.

If you guys want pirate fun, give them Cuba and Hispaniola, then give them 200,000 cash. The annoying part of this whole thing is keeping a sloop in every port in America to prevent naval CTD.

[Belgolas]

Most I faced was 2 full stakcs of about 40 pirate ships against my full stack of nothing but one admiral first rate and 19 heavey first rates. Ya I got tired of them.

[Prussian to the Iron]

I didn't know it was that profitable. The times I raided enemy shipping lanes, it felt as if I wasn't even making a dent into their economy, much less mine.

the longer you stay on the trade route, the more money you take and you make. also, if you have more than 1 enemy on the trade route, you take everyone's money.

also(for the 3rd time ) if you have 20 fleets of 1 ship each pirating a trade route, it is more profitable for you (and hurtful for the enemy) than if you had 1 fleet of 20 on it.

[Didz]

also(for the 3rd time ) if you have 20 fleets of 1 ship each pirating a trade route, it is more profitable for you (and hurtful for the enemy) than if you had 1 fleet of 20 on it.

I wondered if that was the case, so its better to put a string of sloops along a trade lane than one huge fleet of 3rd rates then.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

According to Thamis (CA) each ship in a fleet of twenty stops 5 percent of trade giving you more profit. I have had very expensive fleets making enough money from raiding to pay for it self. The problem is that this last usually not very long since others will join the raiding feast and your income will become less. The AI knows which trade lane is profitable to raid. But raiding trade lanes is a good way to weaken your enemy.

[Didz]

Thats slightly different to John117's view. My only data showed that a pirate fleet sitting on my trade route from the East Indies stole 20% of the spice being shipped on that route. But I neglected to note how many ships were in the pirate fleet so it might have been 4 ships each stealing 5% each.

If each ship steals 5% of the trade then a single 20 ship fleet would steal it all, whilst 20 x 1 ship fleets dotted along the trade route would only steal about 54% (5% of the residual trade passing along the route).

[Fisherking]

I don’t know about anyone else, but fleets in the game I play are limited to 10 ships.

If you put more ships in you can get a CTD or just missing ships in a shadow fleet.

I have fought multiple pirate fleets but nothing approaching these numbers. Maybe there has been some recent change that allows more or some people are remembering larger numbers than were actually there….

[jsberry]

The annoying part of this whole thing is keeping a sloop in every port in America to prevent naval CTD.

How exactly does this work? I was just having CTD problems with moving land forces in and out of a port recently taken from the pirates...

[AussieGiant]

In my previous Prussian Campaign the largest naval action I fought was against pirates. The trade area to the North East of the Cape of Good Hope of Madagascar.

Two full fleets of Galleons captured ships from France, England and the UP.

My first fleet got totally ruined. It was 7 x 3rd rates and 3 x single deck frigates.

Absolutely crushed.

I had to go back with my European Fleet. 4 x 2nd rates and the rest 3rd rates.

That taught them a lesson, but I had to go back to base for some huge repairs.

It was great actually.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

I don’t know about anyone else, but fleets in the game I play are limited to 10 ships.

If you put more ships in you can get a CTD or just missing ships in a shadow fleet.

I have fought multiple pirate fleets but nothing approaching these numbers. Maybe there has been some recent change that allows more or some people are remembering larger numbers than were actually there….

The amount of ships a fleet can have depends on your graphic settings. If you play on ultra you can have 20 ships. Normal units size, or small lowers the amount of ships you can put in a stack.

[Skott]

In my previous Prussian Campaign the largest naval action I fought was against pirates. The trade area to the North East of the Cape of Good Hope of Madagascar.

Two full fleets of Galleons captured ships from France, England and the UP.

My first fleet got totally ruined. It was 7 x 3rd rates and 3 x single deck frigates.

Absolutely crushed.

I had to go back with my European Fleet. 4 x 2nd rates and the rest 3rd rates.

That taught them a lesson, but I had to go back to base for some huge repairs.

It was great actually.

Those enemy galleons can be tough. I once sent six 4th rates against six galleons and they spanked my fleet good. Lost four of my ships and managed to get my other two to retreat home for repairs as they were badly damaged. The enemy only lost one galleon. I've learned to use 3rd rates or better instead and try for a 2-1 superiority against galleons. I still take losses but at least I can win the battle. Galleons can take and dish out some serious damage.

[Didz]

The thing thats annoying me at the minute is that the pirates have acquired a fetish for bomb ketches. These things irritate me anyway as they were never used in naval battles, like rocket ships they were used to attack ships and shore batteries in harbours, but nevertheless the way CA have implemented them makes them a damned nuisance and having a fleet with 10 of them supporting pirate galleons makes things really awkward.

If I can find a way of doing it easily I shall remove these units from the game.

[Prodigal]

Can't remeber all the ship types but the largest pirate fleet has been 4 full stacks. Had to send out 3 separate stacks of high end ships to finish them off, (lost the first two), and the last had to go for repairs once before finally wiping them out. The first two broke up their grouping, then could take them on in a reasonable manner.

Most fun I've had in naval battles, was certain I was going to wipe them all out no problem everytime so the loss of two stacks came as something of a shock.

[Prussian to the Iron]

the key to beating galleons is either:

A: use highly maneuvarable and small ships that can out-turn them and be missed by most of their guns

or

B: use 2nd rates or higher


when you see your 3 2nd rates destroy several galleons and sloops, you just are so proud of yourself.

[Relic]

I am able to answer that in one short word, BIG.