Random fleet of 4 ISD 2s and support ships always attacking Eriadu?

[ketamarine]

Hi All,
Anyone know what is up with the purple fleets that randomly show up when you are attacking as Eriadu in the 11 ABY GC.

Basically ruined my playthrough as i hadn't saved in a while and got smacked by one in a close fight with the new republic. I saw them show up like 5 fights in a row, and the last one was 4 isd2s and maybe 6 other ships.

Based on how hard eriadu already is, these attacks are not fun or interesting in any way. Doesn't say anywhere in game what they are or how to stop them.

Any info would be helpful.

[Slornie]

These are raid fleets which have a random chance to appear in any battle where the defender has a shipyard.  Essentially they are a third faction in the battle that is not affiliated with either combatant.  When a raid fleet has been triggered you will receive a warning message about unknown forces incoming (advisor tooltip bottom left) which provides at least a minutes warning before the units enter the battle.

The composition and origin (faction basis) of the raid fleet varies but will not be the same faction as either attacker or defender.  The units are not drawn from the state of the galactic map (in current versions at least) and will tend to move in the general direction of the shipyard, engaging any units that are within range. 

There is no way to prevent or disable raids in-game (aside from there being no shipyard present) but to get raids five times in a row is pretty unlucky as the odds of it happening in any particular battle are about 3/20.  With the advance warning you can even use the appearance of a raid fleet to your advantage and alter your tactics and unit disposition to account for their presence.