How to use privateers

[PeterCorless]

I still utterly loathe privateers and refuse to use them in present form. Privateers should have "Letters of Marque," which should work similar or identical to the list of nations you are boycotting and/or are at war with.

In other words, historically privateers did not by default attack all mercantile traffic in an area -- or they would be rightly accused of piracy and be considered outlaw by all nations -- attackable even without a CB.

While I suppose you could assign some of your ships to outright piracy, one should expect that any nation should be able to attack such ships -- without an actual declaration of war.

Privateers should only be affecting nations you are boycotting and/or at war with, or against a specific "blacklist" of nations you add to a list of "Letters of Marque." Those nations, and those nations only, should have their trade disrupted by privateers.

And even then, I recommend the sysstem allow them to be attackable by those nations whose trade they are disrupting without an actual DOW.

It would also be good for privateers unlock some sort of "mercenary of the sea" ships -- so you could temporarily hire a lot of privateer vessels, and then discharge them when the war was over. These were truly "privateers": private ships hired to work on behalf of the government. You wouldn't just assign your regular naval vessels to "privateering."

The current system, as implemented, is so cringe-worthy to my mind it makes me actually yearn to see the return of the "good old days" of pirates popping up around the map.

My pardons to those who have read my opinions before; I know I've harped on this repeatedly. But it is one of the most egregiously non-historical mechanics in EUIV. Expect me to keep throwing up flak whenever the issue comes up.

 

[canuckinmontrea]

I totally agree.

Privateers shouldn't decimate a node, they should add a negative modifier to the trade power of your target nations (Rivals in my opinion, but a second list of nations could work as well)

Privateers should also be attackable by those they are pirating, however, they should have a slightly different combat metric.

Pirates should not automatically be forced to fight if a Naval Force enters the water they operate in.

However, if a Navy larger than the pirate fleet is in the same node, the pirate's effect should be elminated.

Then, the chance of an engagement should be a roll of the dice. If successful, the Navy engages the fleet, and in all likelyhood destroys it. If the roll fails, the pirates move on and try to find a sea zone with no hostile navy, and their modifier starts back up.

This would require a "hunt pirates" button, much like the "hunt rebels" button for armies so your fleet could chase the pirates all around, hoping to get a successful roll to start the engagement.

The roll would occur each time the fleet entered the same zone as the pirates and then each monthly tick if they remained in the same zone.

 

[PeterCorless]

Naval interception is an entirely other mechanic that is lacking from the game. Many decisive battles never occurred, simply because the enemy slipped the noose. It would be nice if the general modifier was based upon issues such as a negative to intercept in the open ocean (kind of hard to spot folks given a thousand+ square miles of patrol area), and a positive to intercept moving through straights (kind of hard to miss an enemy moving through the Bosphorus, for example).

 

[canuckinmontrea]

Naval interception is an entirely other mechanic that is lacking from the game. Many decisive battles never occurred, simply because the enemy slipped the noose. It would be nice if the general modifier was based upon issues such as a negative to intercept in the open ocean (kind of hard to spot folks given a thousand+ square miles of patrol area), and a positive to intercept moving through straights (kind of hard to miss an enemy moving through the Bosphorus, for example).

Additional modifiers based on fleet size and composition. 5 light ships are hard to track down, but 25 heavy ships are impossible to miss.

Also ideas and tech can improve avoidance and or detection for each nation.

Put a toggle on the fleet (next to "Go home at war") to go between "look for engagements" and "avoid any engagements"

 

[PeterCorless]

While I agree with you, the entire issue of interception might be best moved to its own thread, as land interception could also be introduced. The reason it should be introduced would be for rebels. Rebels hardly ever numbered in the tens of thousands, as they do now. Instead, there would be some cadre of a few thousands who would go into the mountains, forests, or deserts, and were hard as heck to root out with conventional forces.

It could also be used by small nations looking to preserve their armies until a massive stack of enemies passed through, or until they surrendered.

What I'd prefer to see is a tenth the number of rebels who could rely more on evasion than brute force. It would require far more instances of positioning a stack of garrison troops to keep them from popping up active and sieging a province. You'd have to spend time hunting them down, rather than entering a province and "boom-crash!" -- battle's done.

Without both naval and land interception mechanics, however, the game designers are relying on the brute force systems of "enter a land/sea zone, and engagement occurs immediately."

Hence the reason why Serbia is crushed so quickly, and more generally, why asymmetric warfare (small armies or rebels vs. large army) is such a tedious and outlandish grind.

For now, my final word on privateers as currently implemented: Ugh!

 

[Calad]

I still utterly loathe privateers and refuse to use them in present form. Privateers should have "Letters of Marque," which should work similar or identical to the list of nations you are boycotting and/or are at war with.

In other words, historically privateers did not by default attack all mercantile traffic in an area -- or they would be rightly accused of piracy and be considered outlaw by all nations -- attackable even without a CB.

While I suppose you could assign some of your ships to outright piracy, one should expect that any nation should be able to attack such ships -- without an actual declaration of war.

Privateers should only be affecting nations you are boycotting and/or at war with, or against a specific "blacklist" of nations you add to a list of "Letters of Marque." Those nations, and those nations only, should have their trade disrupted by privateers.

And even then, I recommend the sysstem allow them to be attackable by those nations whose trade they are disrupting without an actual DOW.

It would also be good for privateers unlock some sort of "mercenary of the sea" ships -- so you could temporarily hire a lot of privateer vessels, and then discharge them when the war was over. These were truly "privateers": private ships hired to work on behalf of the government. You wouldn't just assign your regular naval vessels to "privateering."

The current system, as implemented, is so cringe-worthy to my mind it makes me actually yearn to see the return of the "good old days" of pirates popping up around the map.

My pardons to those who have read my opinions before; I know I've harped on this repeatedly. But it is one of the most egregiously non-historical mechanics in EUIV. Expect me to keep throwing up flak whenever the issue comes up.

I asked this because we have +12 players eu4 MP game going on and I did not have that DLC before. Our opinion of eu4 is that game is a bit retarded. There is really nothing historical happening and whole game really is painting your religion/colonies/culture and raiping ai and other players. I find it really game breaking that you gain 20 PP of simply pirating other rivals node, this means you will always have 50 PP if you have three rivals. Somehow I feel that eu4 is badly planned and paradox is simply adding new features without much thinking whole consept.

 

[kitemasaki]

I asked this because we have +12 players eu4 MP game going on and I did not have that DLC before. Our opinion of eu4 is that game is a bit retarded. There is really nothing historical happening and whole game really is painting your religion/colonies/culture and raiping ai and other players. I find it really game breaking that you gain 20 PP of simply pirating other rivals node, this means you will always have 50 PP if you have three rivals. Somehow I feel that eu4 is badly planned and paradox is simply adding new features without much thinking whole consept.

I agree. The PP associated with privateering is given too much power. It seems like it was given just because it was part of a purchasable DLC. The other ways to earn PP are nowhere near as easy (or efficient) to gain those points. I do like the privateering featureas a whole, but the PP associated with it should be drastically reduced.

 

[PeterCorless]

Yeah. It definitely gives naval powers the easiest path to maintain 50+ PP. Imagine yourself as a land-locked nation in comparison. Urgh.