not sure it is worth the hassle to avoid it, or if some people consider that rare circumstance a welcome "special challenge" or something like that 
but as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather not have to play on a map where the pirates sit on the single choke point connecting some enclave to the remainder of the map -- i.e. the player (me, in that case) inside that enclave literally couldn't reach/harm any other player without crossing/eradicating the pirate base first.
what's your take on that ?
Am I wrong assuming at least in the early game killing off those pirates is way harder than eradicating another player and the losses one is taking crossing their base on the way to another player isn't really worth it, either ?
