Do you ever start wars just to pillage?

[oPunchDrunko]

I’ve put 150+ hours into Civ 6 and I never really pillaged... I’ve pillaged maybe one time in all of those hours.

I don’t know why, but in my current game I decided to pillage the Civ I was at war with. Man, pillaging can really cripple your enemy. I sent a knight corps unit into Gandhi’s territory and I’ve pillaged dang near all of his improvements. Gandhi couldn’t kill my single knight because every now and then i would destroy a farm, which would bring the knight back to full health. It was actually kind of funny.

Just curious, do you guys ever start wars just to pillage?

 

[Karmah]

They have in fact been many threads on how overpowered pillaging is now. You could in fact base all your economy on it and end-up first earner in many domains. Altoughthat changed latest patch. Before mines used to give insane amount of science (with the right policy card) , now they give gold (which is still quite good in my opinion).

 

[Tech Osen]

I usually go to war to capture cities, having to repair everything when I capture a city is annoying. So apart from farms for health I rarely pillage.
Then again, I do like to harrash civs with privateers and submarines but that's usually when they declare on me and I just want them to agree to a peace treaty.

 

[oPunchDrunko]

I usually go to war to capture cities, having to repair everything when I capture a city is annoying. So apart from farms for health I rarely pillage.
Then again, I do like to harrash civs with privateers and submarines but that's usually when they declare on me and I just want them to agree to a peace treaty.

What I do is attack with my army on one side, then send a unit or two to the opposite side of their empire ( if that is possible ) to pillage.

If I make peace with the Civ, their empire will be very likely crippled. If I take all of their cities and most of their improvements are destroyed, I could just repair and rebuild... that’s not really a big deal.

 

[Victoria]

Oh my... one of my favourite pastimes has always been to goad, troll, tempt a civ to war then pillage them to bits and get a great peace deal off them. I do not want your cities, just your gold. I like the idea of taking a civs faith.
This is what I call peaceful play.

 

[comatosedragon]

The way pillaging works in this game, I think the designers want us to embrace the philosophy of "pillage more and murder less".

 

[Socrates99]

It's how I used to play Bluetooth in Civ V. I like how Hardada's design change encourages it even more.

Before it got nerfed. I went crazy pillaging with Matthias running the raid and total war cards. Had modern infantry levies rolling medieval civs on deity.

 

[Archon_Wing]

You should start wars anyways..

 

[Aristos]

Absolutely. I just finished an IMM game with Mansa, with a horrible start that had all the signs of a loss right from the start (although I had some desert around). To make things worse, the Korean Science girl was in game, unmolested by neighbors and across the pond from my Mali ports. Long story short, she was well into a SV while I was pushing a DV with strong opposition from a globalist Lautaro, so it really looked like the game was lost. Last resort: economic warfare against the Korean girl. She has no Aluminum, so no air defenses.

Enola gay, you should have stayed at home yesterday
Oho it can't describe the feeling and the way you lied
These games you play, they're gonna end it all in tears someday
Oho Enola gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way…

20 turns later, Korea is not a contender anymore even if the only step missing is the launch of the SS Keephoping...

40 turns later, I am off to the stars. An almost certain defeat turned into a victory by the virtue of economic warfare. It works.

 

[Bagfran]

I've only once started a war with that intention (I rarely start them at all). Korea was running away with the game in terms of science, although losing city after city to me (India/Gandhi) thanks to the loyalty mechanism (I had a very shiny, happy population indeed), and hence repeatedly denouncing me. She had already got my back up by wiping out Sumeria early on in the game (call me crazy, but Gilgamesh is one of my favourites to have around), and eventually she tried my patience just a little too much, so I decided to avenge my long-extinct neighbour, by declaring war and stomping all over Korea's shrinking territory, pillaging every last improvement and district I could reach. Lots of fun, and it crippled Korea very effectively, while making me very rich indeed! It did backfire on me though, as I was having too much fun to notice Nubia sneaking ahead of both of us. Ah well!

(I'm still quite new to Civ VI, so I don't always get my strategy right, especially the first time playing a civ, as this was - so don't judge me too harshly for not winning! )

 

[Medopu]

I'm used to pillaging, but usually only improvements like mines, fishing boats and such.

The city loses pop anyway, so while the city rebuilds, i send a worker or two to repair everything back to normal. Districts can take long to rebuild so i try to avoid destroying if i can.
I think it completely pays off to pillage. So much so that i think it would be fair gameplay-wise to accrue some sort of grievances as a penalty if your pillaging goes out of hand.

 

[Naeshar]

Yes, as I don't have GS it's less of an issue starting wars. I started more of them after the pillaging scaling, as it is preferable to taking cities and having the whole world proclaiming me warmonger. Just crippling your neighbors slows them enough and boosts my economy immensely. Peace deals are only the tip. However when I see Korea, it's full destruction mode.

 

[Hep Roc Heretic]

Just curious, do you guys ever start wars just to pillage?

Yes! Hulk smash!

 

[NukeAJS]

Do I want their cities? If yes then I rarely pillage. Pretty much if I really need a tech or civic. The exception to that is if I'm playing Rome. I pillage everything when I have legions and then a legion or two will stay behind and repair. However, this is kind of a difficult tactic to use know that legions and swords in general cost a boatload of iron. You basically must have minimum two iron mines or preferably 3 or more to get enough legions to both use them for repairing and use them for fighting.

If I don't want their cities, I pillage everything in sight. Two horsemen with the pillage upgrade can make basically pillage everything in two turns before they move on to the next city.

 

[iammaxhailme]

Given Norway's recent buff, I just played basically a whole game doing this. It was pretty great.

 

[RohirrimElf]

I used to wage wars not to gain from it (it is still profitable) but more so to cripple my neighbours. I have destroyed my opponents in the past by killing most of their units and pillage everything in sight. Before i waged a second war later and took what i Wanted.

I feel like it is worth it to lose some military units if necessary when you spot an opportunity to really hurt your neighbours. I’ll say go for it.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

500 gold generated when pillaging a Great Wall segment. I suppose it does slow down the invader as they will be too busy pillaging to take any cities.