Piracy is a good life style

[Polipo]

Hi everyone, one of the things that i would like to add to this awesome game is the possibility to control part of the piracy. As you know the golden era of piracy was 1560 up until the mid-1720s and first of all was used by governments to sabotage enemy's trade routes. There were specific acts called Letter of marque which were given by the rulers to pirates for specific missions. if you want you can check the internet to find glorious pirates who made history like Blackbeard, Kidd, Francis Drake etc... What i'm thinking is a specific new action that you can unlock with maybe naval ideas, that allow ruler to support piracy in trade routes, so when a strong nation control a trade toute with light ships you can try to reduce his power sending pirates. Of course it will cost money and diplomatic power points. I was also thinking about some events like too powerful pirate captain that decide to break relationship with ruler or an event that unlock the quest for the hidden treasure... Of course it's just my vision and this thread is open to critics. Thank you.

 

[Aquilegia]

There is a decision 'Enlist Privateers' if you have enough dip tech, a good enough ruler, enough ships and naval ideas.

 

[Fawr]

Sending light ships to steer trade your way probably involves making those ships privateers.

 

[Polipo]

There is a decision 'Enlist Privateers' if you have enough dip tech, a good enough ruler, enough ships and naval ideas.

This decision is a modifier of trade income, trade power etc... am i right?
What i meant was a proper unit (quite like mercs) called privateer with skull and bones flag...

 

[Polipo]

Sending light ships to steer trade your way probably involves making those ships privateers.

Yes.. but they don't fight if you are at peace.. i was wondering if we can hire specific units that cause damages and steal ships also if your nation is at peace...

 

[Galaahd]

Sending light ships to steer trade your way probably involves making those ships privateers.

If it were the case, they'd be sinkable, but they aren't.

Regarding pirates and privateers, I made a proposal some time ago. Some nations (european nations which go for the "enlist privateers" decision and possibly other requisites, plus Berbery states) should be able to use pirateeing parties, using the Old Gods mechanics for raiding. You select a fleet, you switch the "pirateeing" mode on (like the raiding mode in ToG) and then you send them in a trade area, and they don't just steer the trade (much more effective than normal light ships, by the way, which should be greatly nerfed) but they also steal and collect directly part of the trade, and they become hostile (and thus, sinkable). The same could be done with special pirate / bucaneer armies. During the real peak of piracy (and thus during the age of french privateers from Tortuga, such as De Grammont and Lorencillo, plus Henry Morgan) they were able to plunder rich and big spanish cities such as Panama, Veracruz, Campeche and Cartagena.

Perhaps such expeditions could only be launched by ports which have given some kind of autonomy / independence to pirates and privateers, like Tortuga. The player would decide to give Tortuga such a special status to use it as a base for pirates expeditions, and perhaps (to limit it and to avoid exploits) you can have one pirate base max, with a max range (you can only raid in adiacent nodes). Then, having pirate bases also has downsides:

A) It can be raidable and potentially sieged and occupied by those you raid (thus, the province would lose its special status as pirate port and wouldn't be able to become one again for some time, let's say, 30 years?)
B) Special events in case the pirates become too bold and autonomous. They might become a threat to you as well, and they would declare independence and act like true pirates, not just privateers.

 

[Polipo]

Really Nice.

A) It can be raidable and potentially sieged and occupied by those you raid (thus, the province would lose its special status as pirate port and wouldn't be able to become one again for some time, let's say, 30 years?)
B) Special events in case the pirates become too bold and autonomous. They might become a threat to you as well, and they would declare independence and act like true pirates, not just privateers.

 

[mchaza]

AI ships suffer no attrition so they will just send there grand navy to kick your pirates arses with 100 ships and leave them there. So your cunning plan of economic warfare probably wouldn't work unless they changed how the fleet ai functions.

 

[TehJumpingJawa]

AI ships suffer no attrition so they will just send there grand navy to kick your pirates arses with 100 ships and leave them there. So your cunning plan of economic warfare probably wouldn't work unless they changed how the fleet ai functions.

Privateers operated in the colonies, not in mainland Europe.
Same would be true here.

Though I wonder if it'd introduce an undesirable level of micromanagement; raiding in ToG certainly felt that way to me.

 

[Polipo]

They made it! They made it! Paradox i love you so much! I can't wait for the nex expansion.