Third age 4.5 ridiculous pirate spawn

[Bud_Viking]

I have recently fired up my eternal old fave M2TW and installed Third Age 4.5. I am playing High Elves, at turn 96 and I am getting butt kicked by pirates all over the gulf leading to the Grey Havens. They started showing up early and blockading my ports, blocking trade and messing with my economy. I created a small 4 ship navy, cleared them out and parked in the narrows leading into the gulf.

I went on to take all the rebel provinces down the coast until I ran into Isengard territory. Then a few turns back literally 4 stacks of 4 pirate ships showed up and attacked my 4 ship fleet. It won't allow me to retreat/disengage, and when I autoresolve and lose, my surviving ships don't retreat back to friendly territory but through the enemy and out to open sea. Now pirates hold the narrows, blockade all my ports and my ships are being chased around the ocean with no way to reinforce.

I have edited the pirate spawn rate but am not sure if it will help this campaign or if I need to start a new one for the edit to take effect. And what the heck is with this pirate spawn rate? It is really breaking lore and immersion for me. Aside from the Corsairs of Umbar, I don't recall pirates being a big factor in Middle Earth, certainly not near the Grey Havens, and I have read LOTR probably a dozen times in the last 40 years. I would have thought that clearing all the coastal rebels would have eliminated them. Are they literally spawning out of thin air?

[Louis Lux]

Why post here? Post it their moddb page.

Last official release of Third Age is the 3.2 version. 4.0 and subsequent updates are unofficial versions made by Leo.