Was it on normal when the Yor had 130,000? If so that is spooky, I have never seen an AI with more than a couple of thousand 50 turns in.

I two games I have started, I did well in a game with no pirates and I was struggling in a game with rare pirates. I just have a hard time playing my game and tending to business when I have to deal with the pirate menace. Thank god I can turn them off if I can't figure them out soon.

I have tried wiping them out early and it completely breaks up my game. I have tried ignoring them and avoiding them early on but they grow like Topsy and become a real problem.

They are not hard to beat if that were the game, but they are not the game they are just game breakers. for me. The ways that I have been dealing with them is anything but fun

Yes, it was. I was also quite shocked! The only other race I've encountered so far has over 5,000bc and keeps rushing his shipyards, after colonizing a planet within my territory, right away and hasn't slowed up. I see 4 more colony ships coming my way, too...

I didn't mind them so much before and liked the way it changed up my beginning game, until this game when I then met the AI. The AI tend to ignore them most of the time and I haven't seen them once attack their bases.

Until this game, I liked them and at the default setting. It's just how the AI seems to leave me in the dust that makes me shake my head. I cruise along thinking I'm doing well after my initial colony rush where I get about 7-8 colonies and then I run into the AI who typically has double that amount, triple the amount of techs that I have and more than double the money (at least!) than I have. It's been a very humbling experience and not the most enjoyable one either. lol

Understood, but I'm talking about a normal AI game here.

No asking for cheats, just strategy tips. Because of the silliness with that last game I decided to start a new one. It has taken over 220 turns before I met my first major race! I also had only met 2 minor ones by this time. I'm playing with the same settings, Excessive map, all majors and minors, all settings at default except I put Pirates at uncommon this time around. AI are all at normal again. Very different game! I also had read of Seilore's tip in the past about using constructors to upgrade to colony ships at the beginning stages of a game and never tried it. I have this time around and colony rush my a$$ off! At turn 233 I have over 30 colonies and am #1 over the Terrans and Thalens right now. My approval is in the toilet for the first time ever because of how quickly I've expanded, but it doesn't seem to have impacted me too negatively. So far, it seems that my colony rush had just been too slow compared to my earlier game and thus the AI were able to get far ahead of me. Still scratching my head on how the Yor had over 130,000bc when I first met them though...