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I am playing a single star system and the pirates home world blocks me of from the other half of the galaxy and the sun I researched wormholes but can see no way through to the other half what am I meant to do?
It's actually not too hard to assault a pirate base if you've got the right fleet composition. A couple of Dunovs with Shield Restore and a couple of Kols will make short work of them. Even if you're not TEC, the point still stands; Progenitors and Radiances or Skirantras and Kortuls.
Hell, a level 6 Kol alone stands a good chance at winning by itself. Those ships are beasts.
Jump your Fleet in and hold them back out of the Defense Platforms canopy. Destroy all of the ships, hopefully you havent fed the Pirates alot of money because the more money they have the bigger their Defense Navy is. Allow the SC to target the Defense Platforms. While your Units handle the Pirate ships. Once lost an entire Fleet including a number of Capitals because I underestimated the Pirates ability to swarm you. Had to jump another fleet in and still took heavy loses. I havent had this issue since because I refuse to feed the Pirates but this was my experience in vanilla.
this is all you gotta do really bring in a fleet that is heavy on the bombers and just park it on the outside of the well (gives you easy jump to escape if you can't take out the pirate ships) after the ships are gone just wait a bit for the bombers to take out the platforms
Late game it's a great way to feed your caps with experience. I usually wipe it out late game, at just the time that I'm sick of dealing with pirate bounty wars. An Advent battleball, a Sikantra Vasari fleet, or a TEC fleet with plenty of Hoshikos can take the entire base out with little (and most often NO) losses.
Plus the tax bonus from owning the pirate homeworld is nice.
It happens occasionally on random maps. You have two options: kill the pirates, or bypass them. The easiest solution is just to bypass them. You can literally run through the pirate base with your fleet and come out intact on the other side. If you do it right, you won't lose any units either. Of course, a haphazard retreat then becomes exceedingly dangerous.
In order to bypass the pirate base, first warp in a scout. This is your "wild goose". All the pirates will chase after the scout. Have it run to the far side of the gravity well to make all the pirates fall out of their position. Now, while the pirates are still distracted, warp in your fleet and start running through the pirate base. You should be out of there before your scout dies (in fact, you can probably get the scout out of there too!).
To defeat a pirate base, your best course of action are lots of bombers. The pirate base does not deploy any fighters or light frigates, so they'll have a very hard time killing carriers or bombers. On the other hand, most of their damage output comes from heavy cruisers, which are weak to bombers. Use a tough capital ship like Kol or Kortul to absorb the damage and you're good to go. Other ways to clear the pirate base involve building a starbase while distracting them with units, or to set up a minefield while distracting them with units.
If you're Advent, those 'Starfish' (forget what they're called) anti-building ships murder the pirate's turret farm since they fire at like 5 at once.
The turret farm is irrelevent; once you kill the cruisers you're free to pass through. The turrets don't cover the entire gravity well.
One other thing to note is that if you kill the pirate base while there are still turrets floating around, the turrets will no longer attack. This is useful if you plan on taking the base as part of an artifact hunt/fortification strategy, as mop-up operations will require significantly less ships.
If Tec 1 level 6 marza missle barrage will kill all ships even the crusiers, just wait for them all to gather around the cap before using.
Like the other poster said, stay out of the defense turrent range while doing this.
Its not as though they make reinforcements to replace the defending pirate ships you have destroyed. So really a single low rank capital ship should have little trouble wiping out the entire pirate fleet by simply phasing in and destroying as many as you can and then retreating to heal up and repeat till they are all gone. No doubt you could take a ship or two out before they have even all ganged up on you since they are evenly spread through out the gravity well when you first enter.
killing just their defense fleet is not the answer..........they will still produce a strike fleet that will still attack. by eliminating the Pirates you eliminate a speed bump as the bigger your fleet gets the bigger the Pirate fleet gets. With the Pirates out of the picture you can youll be able to focus 100% of your resources on the enemy.
Who cares, after the second or third raid their strike fleet maxes out in power and can be killed by a choke point with sufficient repair bays. Use mines or a starbase if you're having problems, but really I want to be attacked by pirates at this point in the game since it's a great way to level up capital ships, and the raids aren't really dangerous anymore, just mildly annoying.
i care............id rather concentrate on the enemy instead of constantly checking back on owned GW's to make sure theres mines or that something hasnt been destroyed by an assualt by pirates (that way I have standing defenses for when the Enemy tries to take that GW). why bipass a problem that can be solved quick and easily. A Pirate base is nothing compared to a fully upgraded SB with maxed out SC.
It's once every fifteen minutes, it's not like it's happening sporadically. You know when the pirates deploy and you probably don't need to take a second look if you have repair bays there.
Because bombing a 6000 hp world isn't quick. It's actually extraordinarily slow and time consuming.
@ Allegiance86 and @ Darvin3
hey guys are we going to argue about which better apple or oranges next?
In all seriousness both strategies are valid and have their strong points, personally I favor Darvin3, love lvl 10 caps, but that is like me saying I like apples.
@ ringworm24 -both of these gentlemens ideas and theories are valid, but judging from what you have written unfortunately Pbhead hit it on the head, if you want to progress you have to go through them, flipside is that you can wait unitl all 16 caps are at lvl 10 if you so desire (it will take a while so be prepared for that strategy).
Well, clearly it's oranges 
Anyways, it's just coincidence we seem to be at each other today. It's nothing personal, it's just we're on opposite sides of the fence on these issues.
Pirates are a distraction. Tactically you take the distraction out of the equation and you are capable of fully dealing with the real problem.
Really? cause bombing a 6k hp world only takes me three to four minutes.........maybe you should stop using one seige frigate to do your dirty work.
agreed. most of the time darvin says it better then i do.............just right now. were disagreeing.........heavily.
But that implies you're getting nothing out of it; you will get a substantial amount of experience out of a late-game pirate raid, enough to take a level 1 capital ship to level 5. That's nothing to scoff at; it's massive advantage and well worth the "distraction".
Distraction isn't even the right word, since the pirate fleets lack support cruisers, carriers, and capital ships. If you have enough repair bays to tank their heavy cruisers, there's not all that much they can do against you. Just set your capital ship to local area targeting near repair bays, maybe put up a few turrets or mines if you're worried, and forget about it. If you have a starbase, you don't even need to look, it's a forgone conclusion that the pirates will die.
Short-term, yes, you do have to invest a bit in terms of defenses and of course that capital ship, but long-term you arrive in the next battle with an high level capital ship. Just the other day after absorbing two pirate raids I had two level 5 capital ships to my enemy's one level 3 capital ship. I easily repulsed the incursion he made while I was "distracted" due to this advantage. As I said, the first two or three raids are the dangerous ones, but after that you should be stable enough that you can invest in a proper defense to absorb the pirate attacks with ease.
So in one breath you say it's too much investment to leave a capital ship behind to fight off pirates, and in the next you suggest that I leave essentially a capital ship's value in weak siege frigates (which require a rearguard to protect them) to quickly bombard the planet?
The whole point of bypassing the pirate base is to allow your fleet to launch a quick attack without wasting time. If you want to clear the pirate units, that can be done quickly with the right technique and will give you a lot of experience (plus it then leaves an open route for retreat), but leaving your capital ships behind to bombard the planet is unnacceptably slow. Even four minutes is a ridiculously long time to twiddle your thumbs, especially if the enemy notices your fleet isn't at its normal defensive post.
late game youd have to have your Cap sitting near the GW that would be the target.........which it should be out with the fleet handling the enemy considering the enemy isnt going to sit back and wait for you to come get it. maybe you didnt know but you can also sit your lvl 1 Cap at a Pirate base thats come under your control and let your enemy suicide attack the GW......and still lvl up. with all the right defenses of course.
Where did I say its too much of an investment to leave a capital ship in the Pirate GW? I dont know where you got that but thats not at all what Ive said so far.
five minutes is not wasting time. if you want to talk about wasting time, skirting the Pirate base GW is wasting time over and over again when your moving your fleet back and forth especially when your routing and in need of reaching safety to regroup.(it be nice if you only had to reach the Pirate base where a SB stood and held the enemy back) but essentially by taking the pirate base for your own your bringing a vital chokepoint under your control and essentially wiping out one small issue but still an issue none the less and keeping your enemy contained to their side of the system. negating their ability to freely travel GW to GW. if you were playing against me and did me the favor of destroying the Pirate bases defense force. Id gladly jump in and neutralize the Pirates entirely and bring that chokepoint under my control and instead of bipassing them everytime. youd be dealing with my maxed out SB/hanger bays and repair bays. as well as one of my fleets sitting there waiting for you. another thing is. i didnt say the pirates were anything more then a distraction. they arent a concern to me past the third raid. but id rather have them out the picture then have to keep checking back here and there to replace what they have destoyed. while human players have technics that negate mines.......AI doesnt and with the pirates attacking periodicly i lose mines leaving huge gaps in sections of the GW that seem to always be the same point they jump in at id prefer a portion of the pirates die running over mines instead of my repair bays having to do all the work of keeping my defense platforms alive. maybe im being paranoid or maybe i like being prepared. but i prefer every GW that seems to get attacked by either pirate or enemy or just simply leads back to my HW to be prepared for a possible attack at all times.
Also I dont twiddle my thumbs (dont know where your getting your assumptions from but i dont stop just because i jump a fleet into a GW). I dont have UBER fleets. I use two twin fleets of equal size to leap frog. Which speeds up my ability to conquer my enemy. 8 capitals per fleet is enough. And they will knock a Pirate base out of operation in 7-8 minutes after jumping into the gravity well. You can assume all you want to that my technics are flawed but there tested and proved. (also the jab about the siege frigate was at how overly slow you make it seem for someone to kill a planets HP...seriously a half hour? maybe if you have one lonely cap.......but if this is mid to late game im hoping you have something better to throw at the enemy)
Oh, so you're talking exclusively about vs computer. Well, we may as well just pack in the discussion then because if you're strong enough to clear a pirate base (presuming you know what you're doing) the AI has already lost and your victory is just a matter of time. You can do pretty much whatever you like and you won't lose.
A player, on the other hand, won't suicide his fleet like that. Quite the contrary, he'll attack ruthlessly and have no problems knocking down starbases without taking many losses. Any experience you get is either earned by attacking an intelligent and dangerous opponent, or else fighting pirates/militia. The latter is basically a freebee by comparison.
No, that's not my point. My point is that you say it's too much of a sacrifice to leave one capital ship behind to defend against pirates, but it's not too much of a sacrifice to leave one capital ship (or an equal value in siege frigates) behind to bombard the pirate base.
Five minutes isn't much time in terms of building an empire or fleet, but in terms of fighting and moving with a fleet it's a big deal. Five minutes is enough time for a major fleet battle to finish. It's enough time for an enemy to relocate his forces and get in position for a major offensive of his own. Pressure is exceedingly important; when I say a fleet is your best defense, it's not just because the fleet can move to any planet that's under attack, it's because the fleet can counter-attack. This means that the enemy cannot move his own fleet far away from his front lines, for fear of exposing them. If your fleet is busy for five or six minutes, it's a huge opportunity to an observant foe.
That totally depends on the situation. I believe I already said that if you want to clear a retreat path that clearing the frigates is necessary. However, if launching an immediate attack was important (for instance, to take pressure off an ally) then this is a necessary evil. If you've already cleared the frigates, however, moving around the turrets isn't difficult.
Contradiction in terms much? Eight capitals is definitely an uber fleet, and frankly if you're talking about a fighting force that strong I really have to question why you didn't kill the pirate base sooner.
Bypassing the pirates is something you do when you need to attack now and don't have time to clear out the pirate base, or else when you're too weak to do so (or to do so easily). If you have the time and opportunity, sure you can kill it. There are lots of great techniques to do so, but you won't always have that luxury. I've already stated that I do not regard the pirates as a serious threat by this point in the game (if you're strong enough to kill their base, their raids aren't going to be more than gift-wrapped experience for your capital ships).
A perfect example of when to bypass in the situation where the pirate base is a choke point is if your side of the solar system got the shaft in terms of number of planets. Getting a colony capital ship to the other side (along with some units) to establish a forward base is important to ensure your enemy doesn't procure a long-term economic edge. You can continue to expand on your side with impunity while keeping the enemy pinned down on the other side.
Like the guy originally posted......the pirate base completely cuts him off from accessing the rest of the system.. Making it a chokepoint........how is it not obvious the best measure is to take the Pirate base for your own. Also I like how you totally ignored my bit about LEAPFROGGING. By attacking the Pirates with ONE Fleet I CAN STILL move my SECOND fleet into fight off the enemy.
Didn't I already respond to that? If your fleet is that big then this is a moot discussion. Crushing the pirate base is child's play and could have been done a long time ago anyways.
Capturing the pirate base is obviously the right choice if you have the time to do it. If there is a time-sensative goal you must achieve (and setting up a fleet that is large enough to leap-frog is just off the charts in terms of time requirements) then bypassing is a great course of action.
its not off the charts when your turtling and slowly branching out. I never said I didnt utilize my first fleet while building up my second. Only that when going fully offensive I prefer to have a second fleet to flank and even back up with.
And no you didnt respond to my post on leapfrogging you ignored it. And its not about time. Obviously the guy has his half of the system to his self,only cut off by the pirates to the other side. Capturing that chokepoint is the key to holding his enemy to their side of the system and gaining the upper hand. By simply killing the defense force your creating a revolving door not only you can run back and forth through it so can your opponent.
Id rather waste 5 minutes or even 30 taking out that Pirate base then giving the opponent whos held back aswell thanks to the pirates a free gateway to come and go.
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