blockading pirates

[grävling]

The pirate captain starts out with this trait:

Terrifying: Scary in the worst way, confiscates 25% more Credits whenever successfully Blockading

and has some talents that relate to blockading.

I always imagined that blockading was something that was generally done by military officers, because, though boring as anything, one does one's duty. The whole point of a successful blockade is that no ships get into or out of the port, after all, which seems to limit one's opportunities for looting. I always imagined ST pirates to be more 'masters of the high seas' (the hyperwarp
network?)

Looks like my mental model is wrong. How do blockades work, then, and is this work mostly done by pirates?

[Brutus Aurelius]

Mar 18, 2017 7:18:04 GMT -5 grävling said:

The pirate captain starts out with this trait:

Terrifying: Scary in the worst way, confiscates 25% more Credits whenever successfully Blockading

and has some talents that relate to blockading.

I always imagined that blockading was something that was generally done by military officers, because, though boring as anything, one does one's duty. The whole point of a successful blockade is that no ships get into or out of the port, after all, which seems to limit one's opportunities for looting. I always imagined ST pirates to be more 'masters of the high seas' (the hyperwarp
network?)

Looks like my mental model is wrong. How do blockades work, then, and is this work mostly done by pirates?

From my experience, Blockades give you positive cards where you encounter merchants or Explorers, or collect "taxes". The negative cards are encountering hostile military ships, rival pirates, or orbital dangers.

[grävling]

Mar 18, 2017 8:13:53 GMT -5 Brutus Aurelius said:

Mar 18, 2017 7:18:04 GMT -5 grävling said:

The pirate captain starts out with this trait:

Terrifying: Scary in the worst way, confiscates 25% more Credits whenever successfully Blockading

and has some talents that relate to blockading.

I always imagined that blockading was something that was generally done by military officers, because, though boring as anything, one does one's duty. The whole point of a successful blockade is that no ships get into or out of the port, after all, which seems to limit one's opportunities for looting. I always imagined ST pirates to be more 'masters of the high seas' (the hyperwarp
network?)

Looks like my mental model is wrong. How do blockades work, then, and is this work mostly done by pirates?

From my experience, Blockades give you positive cards where you encounter merchants or Explorers, or collect "taxes". The negative cards are encountering hostile military ships, rival pirates, or orbital dangers.

I was more interested in what the mental model of a blockade is. Napoleonic Age Naval Warfare is clearly the wrong place to be going looking for archtypes. Where is the correct one?

[ChocoCrowbar]

Something akin to a toll to enter or exit a planet.

[fallen]

A system is far too large for one ship to completely stop traffic from coming and going. You are establishing a piecemeal blockade -- you are stopping weaker ships and demanding tribute and if you're lucky, catching merchants unaware and looting their cargo. See the Pirate Talent that changes a Blockade card into a Merchant. You are also using the atmosphere and other techniques to try to stay out of the eye of other ships that are patrolling the system. You are Blockading - picking and choosing your targets. This is the same idea as ST RPG.

[bobc]

So planets that are good to patrol (high economy / low military) are also good to blockade?

[fallen]

bobc - there is some overlap. Its a matter of rewards and risk.

The best reward Blockading worlds have high Econ and high Starports.

The higher risk Blockading worlds have high Military and high Government

The higher reward Patrol worlds have high Population, high Law (appreciate your help), and high Econ.

The higher risk Patrol worlds are larger in size (hard to canvas) and have higher Starport ratings (lots of traffic).

Planet atmosphere and danger plays a big role in each operation type as well.

[xdesperado]

grävling while blockades were generally established by large naval forces, most pirate activity actually occurred fairly close to ports as well.
Spotting and bringing another ship under fire in the open sea was extremely challenging and not that common.
Also many of the most successful pirates/privateers operated with essentially a small fleet of ships which did enable them to not only blockade ports but also attack the smaller port towns and cities.

[grävling]

Thank you!