Well, the issue with this is the fact that pirate raids are the same size as before the NU price-hike... so there are a great deal more ships in the raid than there were before the price hike relative to what you can build... that's why the time before the raid has been increased... so if I was you, I would make sure not to get hit by pirate raids, especially at the beginning of the game... because they WILL destroy your forces and leave you in quite the poor tactical situation... @Lavo, you think I should look at reducing the size of the raids? They are pretty overwhelming...