Privateers

The Privateers tend to use very small ships. They have a few ship designs that they stole from the Fascists. Their favorite activity is stealing unescorted freighters. Privateers make very good use of mineral resources because of the small size of their ships, but in a toe to toe war they don't stand much of chance.

The Privateers are the only race that can build ships that have GRAVITONIC accelerators. The three ships that have the GRAVITONIC accelerators are the Meteor Class Blockade Runner, the BR4 Gun Boat and the BR5 Kaye Class Torpedo Boat. These three ships travel at a rate of twice that of a normal ship. At warp factor 9 these ships will travel 162 light years in one turn. These ships can also cloak. The major drawback of these ships is their very small size and cargo room. They are also unable to survive even a single impact with a space mine.

They can capture any enemy ship that is out of fuel just by locking a tow capture beam on the hapless vessel.

Privateers have the unique ability to fine tune their beam weapons to do 3X the normal damage to the enemy crew while still doing normal damage to the enemy's hull. This makes them very skilled at capturing enemy ships by killing off the crew.

The Privateers are also very skilled at robing fuel and minerals from enemy ships using the "Rob Ship" mission. Enemy ships won't find out about being robbed until it is too late.

Only ships with beam weapons can use the "Rob Ship" mission. The rob mission takes place before movement and combat.