Do Spanish leaders have a backbone of balsawood??

[unmerged(1205)]

Even though I have the highest Naval technology in the game I reguarly get my ass kicked by pirates even when I've got 3:1 or better odds with warships. My admirals morale seems to crumble to dust as soon as they see a flying Skull & Crossbones.
I had a similar problem with the Dutch revolt, I had 2:1 odds with more canon & cavalry than the new Dutch army & my named leader ran even though both armies started with equal morale.
Is there no way to stop this happening? I've lost a number of battles that I expected to win because of morale issues even though I have the better technology.

 

[Dark Knight]

What is your stability level? A low stability adversely affects your armies' performance.

 

[unmerged(928)]

Or maybe your soldiers do not earn enough money...

 

[unmerged(490)]

You can't beat the Dutch. I think it is hardcoded in

 

[UnionBuster]

While lately my squadrons have been defeating Pirates, I've lost more than a few battles with them. Once I lost when I had 11 ships to their 3.

 

[unmerged(1255)]

Are you sure that you have the highest tech level in the entire game, or just that you have the highest among the majors (shown in the ledger)? One could suspect that the pirates start with a higher initial naval tech than all other countries, but don´t develop after that. Then you should be getting better and better at fighting pirates.

BTW, can the pirate tech level be found in the save-game file?

 

[unmerged(548)]

BTW, can the pirate tech level be found in the save-game file?

Yes, under the tag PIR.