The Privateer Bands believe that piracy is superior to commerce and war. Often feared and misunderstood by others, the Privateers are not a chaotic group but a semi-religious association that is open to any individual willing to join. Privateers tend to solve their conflicts by stealing enemy starships; they do this by using special robbing, cloaking, and superspeed technologies specially developed for the purpose.

RACE ADVANTAGES:

• Rob and tow-capture of enemy ships
• 3X crew kill when using beam weapons
• Cloaking ships
• Lady Royale gambling ship (produces money)
• Gravitonic Accelerator ships (can travel double distance)
• Cannot clone

THE PRIVATEER FLEET:

The Privateers prefer light and fast ships with a long range, since their main goal is to rob and steal other races’ ships instead of fighting them directly. They can do that by using their unique ship mission ‘Rob Ship’ that takes fuel and cargo from enemy ships that are at the same spot as the robbing vessel. Once a ship is ‘robbed dry’ (no fuel on board anymore) this ship can be towed away by the Privateers and be automatically taken over during that process. Since robbing is cumulative, the Privateers prefer using so-called ‘Wolfpacks’ of ships that simultaneously rob and set a tow-lock to steal the entire ship or fleet. The most used ship for this special attack are the Meteor Class Blockade Runner and the BR4 and BR5 Class Boats which can not only cloak, but travel double the normal distance per turn by using the ships’ unique ‘Gravitronic Acceleration’ technologies. The other ships in the Privateers’ shiplist excel with long ranges, large fuel tanks, some of them can cloak and have a light mass in average, which makes them specifically vulnerable for Deep Space Mines. For direct ship-to-ship battles the Privateers often tend to capture enemy ships in order to use them against their opponents, what makes their fleet composition unpredictable and versatile in the late game. Privateer owned cloakers can be detected by the Loki Class Destroyer and Glory Device Ships, all their ships’ beam weapons have 3x the Crew Kill Rate of other races in order to capture small ships via a direct attack. To boost their economy they have the Lady Royale Class Gambling Ship at hand to produce extra money.

In campaign games the Privateer Bands can choose between upgrades of their regular ships or more economic downgrades like the Little Pest Light Escort. Especially the Drwarfstar II and Medium Transports get better in their cargo sizes, while the Skyfire Class Heavy Cruiser transforms from a pure minelayer to a strong all-purpose ship in the middle range. The often underestimated D3 Thorn Class Destroyer receives several enhancements with its sibling, the Cruiser, making it a very respectable mid-size ship and Loki Class hunter. With the Red Wind Storm-Carrier the Privateers receive the ability to enhance the firepower of stolen carriers and might be tempted to use their home-made Bloodfang Class in the future.

We’re still putting together a master comprehensive directory to our Privateer raceguides, but someone seems to have made off with the first draft. Until we’ve managed to reproduce it — hey; where’d my keyboard go?!

And, since every Privateer needs to know how to out-think his enemies, here’s an article on the subject of breaking a tow.