New player. Great game.

Best defence against pirates is to turn them off before the game starts.  All competitive games play with pirates off, so dont feel bad about it.

And dont worry about losing, the AI is much harder than it was in vanilla. but heres a hint:  Starbases and repair bays hard counter AI players.

Well you can turn them off...I'd recommend doing that the first several games you play...it is an option you can see when you click "Game Options" on the game setup screen (the one where you pick your faction)...

You can kill the pirates by wiping out the pirate base (it's a planet close to the sun), but that isn't an easy task, especially if you are being pushed all the way to your HW...

If you are TEC, a few novalith shots will wipe out the pirate base...otherwise, you will have to use a fleet to kill enough pirate stuff to get to the planet, and the siege it until it dies...don't go there unless you have overwhelming force....

Thanks guys! I didn't realize I can turn pirates off. Hehe. I think I will try that next time.

Once again appreciate the replies.

 

That usually happens to new players myself included, but as the others have said turning off pirates for the first few games is ideal, so you can get a better aspect of which techs to get and form a gen strat with being overwhelmed by pirates

Starbases, Repair and Defence Hangars are far more improtant than they were in the Vanilla version, so alreay my basic strategy has altered with this in mind. I have "Entrenchment" but never really played it so am unfamiiar with Starbases.

Therefore for new, and some older returning players I'd recommend the Tutorials again. I last did them in 2008 and they're well worth doing all over. For the new player - a must.

Yes, the tutorials are much better in this game. Also, if you want to play with the pirates on, they always have a base of operations you can capture or destroy.

Yes I found the tutorials very helpful.

I think I am finished in my current game, but I will fight till the end. I can't research anymore because I can't build anymore labs in my one zone. Perhaps I should scuttle all the civic labs and build military ones so i can do more military research?

 

I'm going to add that if you want to neutralize a pirate base, you don't have to send a fleet in to clear them out. If you are playing as the TEC, you can just fire two Novalith cannon shots to destroy the pirate base and neutralize pirate raids in that system. The pirates will still be in the gravity well, but they won't leave it.

Actually, the resources would probably be better spent in a pinch like this on more frigates (unless you don't have the labs to unlock major combat frigates/cruisers, particularly the long-range frigate).

Also, it's worth mentioning that once you start getting the hang of things, pirate raids are essentially free capital ship/titan experience.