"How "realistic" are Pirate Armies?" Topic

Besides my smallish knowledge on notorious pirates and crew, I'm just wondering if "Pirate Armies" could ever actually occur within a reasonable setting? I mean yes if a Pirate Lord just so happens to find a power magical artifact that can bend people to his will or grant him some great power then it would be easy to amass a large army, but if there are no such artifacts then could a pirate captain feasibly gain a lot of followers that could be an army (not privateer, they could easily "get an army" since they are "working" for the army)?

I guess technically "pirate/ocean raiding" people like Barbary or Vikings count as Pirate Armies, but I'm more in line thinking about the classic images of pirates

Depending upon which accounts you read, Blackbeard had 200 – 300 crew, and/or 300 – 500 (I imagine the larger number is a bit of an exaggeration, but he did operate four vessels at one time together, IIRC, including the large Queen Anne's Revenge).

Also, there were a lot of pirates in New Providence during the pirate heyday there, but they really didn't operate as a unified force when Woodes Rogers showed up, despite the plotting by some to do so.

About the only one that seems to have operated in force is a group of Chinese pirates back in the day, which was run by a man, and then later his concubine/mistress, once he died. Reports are the forces run by them were very substantial, and wide ranging.

Can't recall the names though.

I would say yes. Henry Morgan was able to assemble 900 men for the attack on Cartegena in 1669, followed in 1670 by an army of 1400 men for the attack on Panama. The magic artifact used was greed :)

A 600 man pirate army sacked Maracaibo. Not sure if L'Olonnais was a privateer at the time but it doesn't seem so.

link

Henry Morgan was quite famous for his land raids in the Carribean.

The largest fleet ever amassed by a pirate captain (in the traditional, Western European sense) was 11 ships and their crews, led by Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts (incidentally the inspiration for "the Dread Pirate Roberts" in The Princess Bride). Roberts was for the most part very popular with his crew (despite his rules forbidding strong drink, gambling and sex on his vessels), to the extinct that they were willing to bury him, at sea, in the midst of battle,with the priceless diamond-studded cross on a gold chain that he habitually wore around his neck. Heck, even the British Royal Family keeps the dang crown for the next in line! So it's easy to imagine that he could indeed inspire a "pirate army."

(And don't forget Jean Lafitte, whose men and cannon took part in the Battle of New Orleans…)

Some were quite massive:

TMP link

Dan

Well, while not a Western European type Ching Shih (early 19th century, and yes she was Chinese) at one point commanded nearly 80,000 – a reasonably sized force!

I'd say yes, but it depends on what your definition of 'army' is.

Look at the Sea peoples of the late bronze age and early Viking raids. Both were prompted by migratory pressures.

In a fantasy setting I don't really see any reason why not – magical artifact or not, I don't think a pirate army would have to function significantly differently from a mercenary army. The "general" could be a beloved and charismatic captain, or just a rich paymaster. Warhammer Fantasy certainly has precedent for pirate armies, so you should be able to extrapolate something similar into whatever fantasy setting you're looking at if you wanted to.

Sir Francis Drake, or el Drago as the Spanish called him, had over 2000 "privateers" for the sacking of Saint Augustine in 1586. Robert Searles had nearly 1000 when he attacked in 1668. Pirates often gathered together into "fleets" of ships for such attacks.

Where riches were to be had (of imagined, as in the case of Saint Augustine), it would have been easy to gather bands for plunder, as plunder was what they lived for, it would seem.

Use the idea of Warlords(China-'30's). They can amass a lot of resources, they just have a short half-life in history.

If you can control a sea lane, easy enough to control a port along it. Then you have a pipeline of goods to resources to personnel. Until a governing body has had enough and tries to shut you down.

Pirates only engage in "sure thing" enterprises. Ok for a one sided bash and grab treasure hunt…not so much for a two sided participation event.

If you extend the question to the privateers (not technically pirates, but sometimes considered nearly as such by their opponents), they could sometimes gather very large forces, with some financial support of their king and sometimes also Marine soldiers to support the raid.

I would think pirates are mostly used in skirmish games, in which case a pirate army (well warband really) is fine. In a big battle game with units representing large bodies of men fighting a pitched battle, then it wouldn't make so much sense.

Well, as many as you could use properly on a tabletop, anyway; it took many men to operate a sailing ship, and even a 65' sloop could hold up to 100 pirates.