Over the last 3 years of real-life and 14.7 ears by Traveller Time, my group has been building up, in The Pirates Of Drinax Campaign, The Kingdom Of Drinax consists of 2,177 ships and 62 planets and it has a further 896 ships and 63 planets that are allied to it, but are not part of the kingdom
The characters directly command 2 200-ton Drinax Harriers, a 299-ton Far Trader, a 300-ton Human Scout, a 300-ton Aslan Scout, a 400-ton Fiery Class Gunned Escort, a 600-ton Escort Frigate, a 400-ton Type R Fat Trader and indirectly command 4 Gazelle Escorts, 3 200-ton Far Traders, 2-400 ton R Type R Fat Trader, 1 200-ton Drinax Harrier, 1 400-ton Fiery Class Gunned Escort, 1 600-ton Pirate Criuser, 1 armed, armoured and converted 400-ton touring ship and 1 1,600-ton Treasure Ship
The problem is that the GM was way too soft on them.
For example, after Treasure Ship he let the characters buy slaves from The Glorious Empire and in return for treating them as equals and giving them their freedom and land of their own when this is over, serve them with a near fanatical devotion.
Another example is that he let them lead a fleet of 1,000 ships and 13,300 men to conquer The Glorious Empire, it worked, they conquered it all and they added 282 ships and 16 planets to The Kingdom Of Drinax
Another example is that he let them gain The Selis Feodrate, gain quite a few planets easily, capture ships for The Kingdom easily and let them add the fleets of Irontooth and Vayrs as allies and let them add Admiral Darokyn, add independent pirate fleets and planets easily, add The Strands Cluster and The Floranni League as allies and has allowed the fleets and planets in both The Kingdom and their allies to add ships totaling more then 1,200 to their forces and has justified it by a mixture of blackmail, capturing pirates, terrorists and deserters, buying them, exchanging goods for ships, piracy and stealing them.
I can not see a way to weaken them without risking a player rebellion and want advice on how to discretely weaken them enough to make, when they come out, parts 8, 9 and 10 very challenging but not impossible.