Marauders

Version

This article has been verified for the current PC version (3.10) of the game.

Spaceborne aliens

Spaceborne aliens

Enclaves

Guardians

**Marauders**

Caravaneers

**Marauders** are nomadic and militaristic FTL societies that have eschewed planetary dwelling in favor of living on ships and stations, subsisting largely on raiding each other and extorting tribute from settled empires. Marauders are always hostile, but will generally not attack empires unless they enter their systems, or they are in the process of raiding them. A Marauder empire can be eradicated by destroying all stations and void dwellings in their home systems, but these are well defended and will take a powerful mid to late-game navy to deal with them. In addition to that, destroying a Marauder Empire has a chance to trigger the rise of the Horde (see below). Each Marauder empire holds 3 systems (a home system and two additional systems), with the home system having very large deposits of  Energy or  Minerals. The Marauder systems are populated by Void Dwellings, defense platforms, and the Marauders' fleet(s).

## Interactions

Marauders will occasionally set out to raid settled empires they have established contact with. Before raiding, they will offer said empire a chance to pay them off with a hefty tribute. Targeted empires can choose to pay  Minerals,  Energy or  Food, the value depending on their monthly income

 251+ | 2500

If the Marauders are not paid, the pillaging will begin. While in the process of raiding, they can still be bought off with tribute, but the price is doubled. Once Marauder raiders reach an undefended planet, they will bombard it until it reaches **15**  Devastation, at which point the Marauders will steal either resources or up to 4 biological Pops.

Settled empires can also pay the Marauders to conduct a raid on one of their Rivals for **3000**  energy credits, both diverting their attention and potentially weakening that rival's military and economy. While raiding on behalf of an empire, Marauders are treated as allied and their systems can be travelled through. This form of raid cannot be bought off and while they will always reveal they were paid to raid, they will never tell by which empire. Marauders can only raid one empire at a time, but multiple Marauder empires can raid the same target. Marauders will never raid Fallen Empires and will always refuse to do so if asked.

Both forms of raiding involve the Marauders sending a fleet to that empire's territory. The Fleet will attack the nearest colonised Planet, destroying all outposts and mining stations along their path. It can and will travel through wormholes if the route is faster. A fleet on Marauding will go into the orbit of the target planet and either steal some resources depending on the amount of tribute demanded or killing up to 4 biological Pops. They will still be hostile on their way back. Fleet strength depends on the number of years passed, and thus facing them can result in a considerable challenge.

Empires can also permanently hire a Marauder  Commander for **2000**  Energy. Hired leaders are replaced if they die, start at level 3 and have the [File:Leader trait mercenary warrior.png|24px]] Mercenary Warrior trait.

Once the mid-game year has been reached, the option to hire mercenary fleets of varying sizes will be unlocked. All players will be informed of this change. The chance for one Marauder empire to have mercenaries is rolled yearly, and 30 for each Empire/80 for nothing. Mercenary fleets cost a large  Energy up-front payment, and consist of a fixed-size fleet that cannot be split, merged or disbanded, with a leader that cannot be reassigned. The fleet does not count towards  Naval Capacity, but will only serve for a period of 5 years, after which the empire will have to renew their contract by paying the full cost again.

* 4 destroyers
 40-60
* 6 destroyers
 60-80
* 10 destroyers
 80+
* 14 destroyers
* 4 cruisers

* Armada of the Voidborn
* Her Chosen Champions
* 8 destroyers
* 16 corvettes
* Star Rider Flotilla
* Order of Eternal Night
* 6 destroyers
* 12 corvettes
* First Storm Wing
* Twilight Congregation
* 4 Destroyers
* 8 corvettes

If a mercenary fleet is destroyed, it will be rebuilt and available for hire again within a year. If a Marauder Empire is destroyed while an empire is hiring their fleet, all mercenary fleets will cancel their contracts and join together to attack the vanquisher empire within 5 months. Marauder Refugees will also settle on the planets of the closest empire that has the Refugees Welcome policy.

Marauder Empires refuse to interact with  genocidal empires, meaning they cannot make use of their mercenary or raiding services.

## The Horde

After the Mid-Game year starts, one of the Marauder empires might unify under a Great Khan, an expansionist but ultimately benevolent leader. If the game manages to reach the end game year without the event triggering, it can no longer occur after that. It can happen on its own at any point, but there's also a 2% chance for the event to be triggered each time a Void Dwelling is destroyed. Once this happens, the Marauder empire becomes a Horde (labelled as a "Marauder Khanate") and will begin expanding in all directions, invading the systems of any empire that will not submit to the Khan, including other Marauder empires but excluding Fallen Empires.

At any time, it is possible for an empire to submit to the Khan and become a  Satrapy. Becoming one will add a Void Dwelling to the capital system. AI empires that lose more than two planets to the Horde have a yearly chance to submit, with the chance increasing the more planets are lost.

When the Horde forms, all mercenary fleets and leaders hired from that Marauder empire will cancel their contracts and return home to join it.

The main Horde fleet, called "Chosen of the Great Khan", is led by the Great Khan personally. They start as a level 10 commander with the  The Great Khan, [File:Leader trait master gunner.png|24px]] Master Gunner,  Artillerist III,  Demolisher III,  Gunship Focus III,  Wrecker III and  Reckless II traits. When the Great Khan's fleet is destroyed for the first time, they will escape the battle and within a year the Khan will return with a second fleet inside of a system they own. If the fleet is destroyed again, the Khan will die. If the horde has been completely destroyed before the Khan makes their return, they are presumed dead after some time and will never return.

If the Great Khan is not killed in battle, then after 20 years have passed since the rise of the Horde, The Khan may also die by disease or assassination. If neither of these happens, then the Khan will die a natural death between 15 and 45 years after the Horde was created.

Once the Great Khan dies, the Horde will become unreachable, leaving an automatic message if diplomatic contact is attempted. All of its fleets will retreat back to within the borders of the Horde's territory and stay there. Within a year, the Horde will change into one of the following:

* If the Horde owns no planets, it will turn back into a Marauder Empire.
* If the Horde owns between 1 and 5 planets, it will turn into a strong regular empire and keep all existing Horde fleets while all its subjects. The empire will also have a unique civic granting **+10%**  Fire Rate.
* If the Horde owns between 6 and 9 planets, it will split into two regular empires with claims on each other's systems. The empires will also have a unique civic granting **+15%**  Naval Capacity.
* If the Horde owns at least 10 planets, it will shatter into four regular empires with claims on each other's systems. The empires will also have a unique civic granting **+15%**  Naval Capacity.
	+ Regular empires created from the Horde are  Fanatic Militarist and  Xenophobe Hegemonic Imperialists that have the  Orbital Habitats technology.
* If the Horde owns at least one planet and has at least two Satrapies, then there is a 10% chance it will instead turn into a  Fanatic Egalitarian and  Xenophile Federation Builders regular empire. The Horde Successor State will then form a Federation with every former Satrapy, with the Horde Successor State becoming its first president.

The number of ships the Horde initially has depends on the game difficulty setting. The Horde will also create a new fleet every few years, the size of the fleet depending on the  Naval Capacity provided by Satrapies.

If an empire recaptures a colonised system that belonged to another empire, it will get the option to return the system to its original empire for **+40**  Opinion or keep control of it for **−20**  Opinion.

As with Marauder Empires, the Great Khan has no intention of coexisting with  genocidal empires and will not offer them to become a Satrapy.

Every 2 years, the Horde will rent all available fleets offered by mercenary enclaves. Each patron of a mercenary enclave will be warned about it and be given 60 days to rent its fleets so that the Horde cannot rent them. If the Great Khan dies all mercenary fleets will end their contracts.

## Tactical

Marauder designs may look similar to Pirate ships, but they have better technology.

Stations have around 4k Fleet Power, the primary Fleets around 11k with 8k Galleons. Raiding fleets vary in size based on game year.

If the Horde formed nearby and an empire has resources and naval capacity to spare but not enough to fight the Horde then becoming a Satrapy is recommended, as it's only temporary until the Great Khan dies 15 to 45 years later, assuming that they are not killed by another empire.

Submitting as a satrapy, however, can be highly dangerous for your independence in the long run, as once the Great Khan dies, the Horde may turn into a regular empire, which will cause all of its satrapies to turn into vassals and allow the former Horde to integrate them. This will necessitate you to declare war on the Successor Khanate to win back your independence to avoid being annexed and given that the Successor Khanate will still retain a large chunk of its (very powerful) Khan-era fleet, this may make it impossible to become independent again.

Post-khan empires can be vassalised and integrated just like any normal empire. Integrating those empires is the only way for a player to acquire galleon-class warships in unmodded gameplay.

**Game concepts**