Piracy Campaign

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

They aren't really separate types. Whether a marauder will attack cities or ships en route depends on the defenses of the city and how easy it to intercept commerce. The Vikings mostly attacked shorelines because there wasn't much commerce or standing military force on the shore. The Golden Age pirates and privateers mostly raided ships because there were a lot of them, and they carried more lootable cargo than any place on the shore that wasn't protected by troops and shore artillery. Somali pirates attack ships because they're almost undefended and there's no shore location worth looting within their operational range. Piper's Space Vikings and Norton's Jacks, tended to attack colonies because their method of FTL precluded intercepting ships before they hit orbit.

Shore-raiding calls for somewhat different assets than sea-raiding, but there's a great deal of overlap. Space raiding calls for radically different assets than planet-raiding, at least with any sort of realistic tech assumptions.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Shore-raiding calls for somewhat different assets than sea-raiding, but there's a great deal of overlap. Space raiding calls for radically different assets than planet-raiding, at least with any sort of realistic tech assumptions.

Well it is true that if the planet is unprotected then all you need is a freighter and some armed men while if you want to pirate ships you need an armed ship.

[Ludek]

Originally Posted by Jasonft

A potential big problem for the pirate side of things is that the targeted ship(s) can get off messages to any law enforcement in the area giving critical information for identifying which specific ships were involved in the attack. Once the authorities know exactly which ships were involved, they know exactly who to send the hitmen after.

Carefull, what does prevent me to fabricate such messaage to cause trouble
to my competitors/rivals? Any such meesage should be treated with suspicion
especially in lawless area, I won't say that rescure wouldn't be dispatched but
I don't thin it will be good evindence against anybody.

[Jasonft]

Originally Posted by Ludek

Carefull, what does prevent me to fabricate such messaage to cause trouble
to my competitors/rivals? Any such meesage should be treated with suspicion
especially in lawless area, I won't say that rescure wouldn't be dispatched but
I don't thin it will be good evindence against anybody.

A point, it's true. Disinformation would be the Pirate's friend.

But you still have the problem that any ship with Line of Sight in-system to a Navy base or unit can get off video feeds and data dumps via laser. There will certainly be false alarms and people trying to frame other people, but every little piece of data gives Da Law a better shot at catching the real culprits.

Even the fake feeds. Sometimes you can learn more from what people are lying about than what they aren't.