mohauk
Artisan
Bringer of Fish
Posts: 75
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Post by mohauk on Feb 4, 2007 20:54:25 GMT
I don't realy see why the pirates couldn't raid Hive Bergs. Pirates raid shore settlements, the bergs are basically slowly moving version of that. Its in, drain the tanks, nick some documents, dosh etc, then get out, and sell it all in the dodgier parts fo the Cove.
Now they can't have bases on the continent, because the AdMech would send teams (possibly with skitarii) to hunt them out. bu its very easy to be lost at sea, and keep hidden. Good set of jamming systems, and every time a berg nears you, you fire engines and get out of sight. their sensors are jammed, so its all good.
I'm not saying its foolproof or anything less than near-suicidally dangerous - that pirating.
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 4, 2007 22:51:28 GMT
the Bergs would be rather better defended though - usually with both arbites and PDF on board.
Though perhaps the much smaller bergs with populations closer to a couple thousand, which are owned by guilds, would be suitable targets - though these bergs would know of the pirate threat and thus have their own 'millitia' ready to defend the berg, which is afterall their home.
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Post by inquisitorarantel on Feb 5, 2007 16:29:13 GMT
Pirates would probably go something like this.
Annoyed worker (freeish sort) buys a gun and steals a ship with a gang of similarly disgruntled workmates. V They rove the seas picking on small traders and stealing their cargoes V Eventually they can afford bigger guns and steal bigger ships V Very successful pirates begin to form a small fleet of ships, with cronies with good weapons and cheapish heavy weapons mounted on the ship. V They get really successful and can afford the equipment they'd need to go back to the Hive-Bergs and raid them.
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Post by Doug on Feb 5, 2007 17:03:32 GMT
Very basically, perhaps...I suspect even the causes for them getting into piracy are hideously more complicated than that though...
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 5, 2007 18:16:08 GMT
with the manor of the planets PDF though - with the posibility of sea-bases and fleets of warships, despite the size of the planet, most pirates probably wouldn't last particularily long.
Though ex-PDF members - with sea experience, but unable to find jobs as bodyguards or as secruity teams on board the trader fleets - could be easily turned to the mercenary/pirate trade and what with their experience and intimate knowlege of how the PDF hunt pirates, they would probably be a much saught-after crew member (could well make for an interesting archtype)
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Post by Doug on Feb 5, 2007 18:17:03 GMT
It would indeed...nice idea!
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 5, 2007 18:18:28 GMT
why is it that i keep coming up with things to support ideas i'm not fond of?
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Post by thenephew on Feb 6, 2007 17:18:33 GMT
While I like the idea, pirates really don't seem to be a very sensible option, given the scale of their targets. No matter how good the jammers are, the second you accidentally hit an Adeptus Mechanicus supply ship, you are destined for a world of plasmy pain. +Dude, some foo' stole my new torque wrench while it was getting shipped here+ =Harsh... I wonder whether pirates work as reactor coolant?= At a very low-scale threat level, they would be acceptable, with the occasional raid on small, independent, unlikely-to-have-really-big-plasma-deathy-friends, traders and supply ships.
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Post by Doug on Feb 6, 2007 17:22:58 GMT
I'd not imagined them to be attacking the Mechanicus at all - as I've said, I'd thought they'd basically focus on traders and the like...
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 6, 2007 17:37:51 GMT
the smaller traders at that
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Post by Doug on Feb 6, 2007 17:48:33 GMT
Well, it depends on how you mean - certainly, I'd say any ship shuttling goods in between the hive bergs and the continent was under threat....the trawlers less so, but I'm sure there are some....less cautious pirtes around...
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Post by thenephew on Feb 6, 2007 20:23:34 GMT
Who's to say that the Mechanicus don't occasionally use independent traders? Or that a Hive's spare parts for their rapidly destabilising reactor core control get taken from a sprint trader, the only captain who would take anything less than what his boat was worth to brave the coming star-flares, on a rough sea, with the affected Hive's rumoured plague, and take the spare part? As soon as, by sheer coincidence, they do something that affects either a massive number of people, like the hiveful of radiation sick workers, or someone sufficiently important, like the superior Mechanicus representative of St Petersberg, the pirate industry as a whole will be in trouble.
Edit: Unless the star-flares make the cut, as they would be perfect cover to attack from.
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 6, 2007 21:02:55 GMT
The PDF will obviously be constantly hunting for the pirates anyway, not like they've anything better to do with their time. So it means that only the smartest and most cunning pirates last any time... although, there is always bribery...
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Post by kessedor on Mar 7, 2007 22:48:45 GMT
Pirates are a great idea, and not unrealistic at all... attacking a hiveberg with a single ship, isn't a grand idea (especially in broad daylight!) but with a fleet of pirate ships, the element of surprise... it can be done (against smaller bergs.... not multi-million people behethoms)
Other than that... if you isolated a hiveberg, and preyed on its supply ships that run to and fro... you could cut it off and effectively starve the hiveberg (assuming lots of shiny white heads don't come in with big boats as well...)
Hivebergs would effictevely police themselves, with their own privateer (Thiers an interesting story for an RP: A young and dashing privateer captain clashing against a notorious pirate!) fleets. If that is so, then the white heads should be toned down a bit with their navy...
But ultimately pirates are indeed a great idea, and completely realistic.. the ocean is a damn big place my friend... you can hide anywhere!
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Post by thenephew on Mar 8, 2007 9:29:40 GMT
I like that idea - the ocean is less policed than common sense would suggest, because many (not all by any means) 'bergs have their own defence fleet. The problem is, the pirates would need somewhere to resupply, and land-agents of the guilds/Hives would be pretty damn vigilant, in the hope of catching the sinker of St. Petersberg, or something.
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