Golden age?

I'm making a strategy game with miniatures with central theme the pirates. As I made a research about what kind of units to put into the game and what historical figures, I noticed that the captains of the so called golden age, viz e period of queen Anne's war until the mid 1720's, were the least successful pirates.

The captains from the pike and shot era were way too more successful. I mean pirates of 16th and 17th century sailed entire fleets, terrorised whole empires, captured treasure fleets, conquered cities, and most of them retired as the most rich men alive or died in heroically in battle.

Captains of the 'golden age' sailed sloops and schooners, didn't threat countries, captured merchants, conquered nothing but they were hiding, and were marooned, captured or killed as long as they were drunk.

Are we sure that the golden age of piracy wasn't the pike and shot era but the first decades of 18th century??

The most successful pirates of the golden age were Blackbeard and Black Bart. If we compare them with the previous period's pirates, we will see that they weren't so much. Especially if we take Calico Jack, Vane, or Horningold in comparison who are the next most famous names of golden age.

Henry Morgan, Jack Birdy, Peter Easton, Francis Drake, Aruj Barbarossa, Hayreddin Barbarossa, Occhiali, Dragut, Michiel de Ruyter, and others of the same era, were really successful, they marked and changed history and they were extremely wealthy. Of course there are more successful pirates in number of the previous age because I talk for an era of about two centuries and an era of just more than two decades but still, the fewer famous captains of the golden age who are more known than the the names I mentioned, were mostly just unsuccessful.

I think the real golden age was 1500-1700 AD, the pike and shot era.