Hi all,

I'm imagining a world where we can attack an opponents trade lanes, kill their trade ships faster than they can be replaced, and cripple his trade economy.  Or ya know, hire the pirates to do so.

But this doesn't seem to be the world we live in.  Trade vessels move so fast, and are replaced so quickly it's virtually impossible to use them as a means to affect the enemy economy.  I just created an experminet in Galaxy Forge... I crated a trade nextwork on 13! planets, and arranged it so the pirates would attack a chokepoint planet, a planet that EVERY trade ship had to move through.

This seems like the ideal situation.  My plan was to let the pirates come, watch them slaghter my trade ships as they moved throught he grav well, and watch my trade income tank like Bear-Stearns.  I would occasionally build some disciples so that when all the trade ships were gone they would chase my ships rather than start blowing up buildlings and go home. 

What I saw was shocking.  They killed some trade ships alright, but they get replaced SOOOooo fast, i wound up letting the game run for over an hour, accumulating THREE good sized pirate raiding parties at my chokepoint planet... they were all targetting my trade ships... and my trade income never faltered.  It may have dipped from 20.0 to 19.9 once... but snapped right back.

So my question is what's the deal with trade ships?  It looks cool to see the little guys flying around, but do they have any impact on the game at all?