I have seen it mentioned in several Traveller sources that most Pirates do not have purpose built Corsairs or other military ships, they mostly have captured merchant ships converted/used for Piracy.
This is consistent with the history of Piracy here on Earth. Most pirates just used whatever ships they could get their hands on, which would be mostly merchant ships. This worked for them in previous centuries because most ship to ship combat (in the age of sail) was decided by boarding actions, so even a small schooner could be an effective pirate ship if the crew were willing/able to engage in aggressive boarding actions.
But how would this work in Traveller? While, say, a Far Trader could carry something like 20 armed brigands for boarding actions, it seems to me executing such boarding actions would be many orders of difficulty greater than was the case for wooden ship pirates 400 years ago. For one thing the weapons of the day (smooth bore cannon) had a very hard time stopping such an attacking ship before it could get close enough to board. However Traveller ship weaponry can almost guarantee that it can disable, if not destroy, a hostile ship before it gets close enough.
One possibility would be subterfuge, fooling the target into thinking your ship is friendly and allowing you to dock. This might work sometimes, but even when it does, the fact that the boarders are limited to only one entry point gives the defenders a substantial advantage.
Any ideas on how a Traveller crew, with a Far Trader or other small merchant ship, would go about being Pirates?
This is consistent with the history of Piracy here on Earth. Most pirates just used whatever ships they could get their hands on, which would be mostly merchant ships. This worked for them in previous centuries because most ship to ship combat (in the age of sail) was decided by boarding actions, so even a small schooner could be an effective pirate ship if the crew were willing/able to engage in aggressive boarding actions.
But how would this work in Traveller? While, say, a Far Trader could carry something like 20 armed brigands for boarding actions, it seems to me executing such boarding actions would be many orders of difficulty greater than was the case for wooden ship pirates 400 years ago. For one thing the weapons of the day (smooth bore cannon) had a very hard time stopping such an attacking ship before it could get close enough to board. However Traveller ship weaponry can almost guarantee that it can disable, if not destroy, a hostile ship before it gets close enough.
One possibility would be subterfuge, fooling the target into thinking your ship is friendly and allowing you to dock. This might work sometimes, but even when it does, the fact that the boarders are limited to only one entry point gives the defenders a substantial advantage.
Any ideas on how a Traveller crew, with a Far Trader or other small merchant ship, would go about being Pirates?