I find that if I have a planet maxed out in hanger defence structures, a repair bay, and a cannon or two. I can generally take any pirates without sending in ships. Generally 8 bomber squadrens can take out most pirate raids. Other than that I pick a computer and keep the bounty on them when the time comes. When the bounty get to big, then I just start ignoring it and let the pirates come.
What I find useful is to expand as fast as possible. Start by sending out scouts, you only need a few at first so you can map the system. Then start expanding as fast as you can. When you hit a junction point where two or more jump points meet hold it and build as many defenses as possible. And then make choke points between you and the computer. Find the routes that the computers will take to you so you know what plants to do heavy defenses on. The defenses will no hold back the computer but it
I use Hamachi when I play with my brother when he is at school. The biggest problem we have is that the school's internet keeps cutting the connection, even Hamachi cant stop it. We can play anywhere from 30 min to an hour and be fine but then someone drops off of TeamSpeak and we know that someone is about to get dropped from the game. The only thing we can do is save the game often and hope for the best. Unfortunately we ran across that nasty little de-sync bug, and we had to totally
