Of course, don't send the Akkan in immediately, since bombardment radiation prevents immediate colonization.

If the Akkan has the level 6 ability, you could use it on the way out after colonizing to help protect the Akkan

That is awesome. You are a genius. You get [e digicons]k1[/e]  karma for that! And thepruplyone, I don't think you actually get control of the pirate forces. You just get the asteroid, and all of the pirate forces will stay there and attack anything that enters, just like they normally do. 

You bring up a good point about the supply cap, these ships will defend your new very lucrative asset for the rest of the game without adding anything to your supply cap.

Yes, you are correct, they do not have siege frigates at their own base, They never thought they needed them. HAHAHAHA.

interesting idea, but if I have 2 nova I dont think I've let the pirate base last that long.

AntiCommie-You may not know but colonizing the pirate base nets up to 3.5 credits a second (depending on alliegance), which is likely second only to your home world in credit production.  That's 210 a minute or a new Kol every 14 1/4 minutes.  

So destoying their base and not colonizing it is like burning down your hen house in order to kill the fox. 

Well, in large maps that sometimes have more than one Pirate Base, it can be a boon. Or even if there is one, it's probably near the center of the map around the star, so you can still have alot of fighting left. I think one Novalith could do the trick if you fired it two, or maybe three times.

I don't see why. When the strategy is so easy, what's the harm? On small maps, sure, you would almost have to stop progress to do it, but on large maps, it's nice. Since you usually have multiple pirate bases or one easily accessible one near the center, it'd be easy to get at least one with an hour or more of gametime left.

I prefer to give a nice XP boost to my caps with all the crap at the pirate base.

I thought the same thing, why not do it if it is so easy.  I don't want to speak for others but I am interpreting the point as you do not need to conquer the pirates to win the game.  To me they are another dangerous ai race and a loose end that should be tied up by the end of the game.  It would never dawn on me to quit the game before they are brought to justice, but it is a deep game and everyone enjoys it differently.

To me its like destroying the Antarans in Moo2, you don't need to inorder to win the game. but why wouldn't you?

It would with the exception of the tactical structures.  The pirate gauss cannons would fire on an attacker, or you if your ships entered the grav well but why would they?  If you did this to an enemy world (Computer ai) the ai's tactical structures would not fire on the same ai, but should fire on a non allied ai/player.

It would seem to me that once you have taken the planet there would be no more raids.  The pirates would be left without a planet to raid from, and have nothing to do but fly around in the ships they have left, venting their wrath on any foolish enough to reenter the grav well.  It seems to be a very plausible strategy, but I still prefer to let the pirates attack specific targets (Cap ships waiting for XP) that I have developed for just this purpose, like a training room.