Effectiveness of pillaging?

[Sashie VII]

You're joking right?...You realize every worker you have is 1 gpt of unit support if you go over.

Because an effective war is only fought with a surplus of warriors available currently, and mroe coming in every moment, you need as much unit suport as possible.

This means every worker you have either takes away 1 gpt, or is worth as much as possible Swordsman or Knight that could be fighting in the war.

I'm not joking. The more you have, the faster they finish terrain improvements. That gives you better output from your cities faster. In time they pay for themselves. And when rails come, you'll wish you have more than the huge amount you already have.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

I never pillage anything but key resources because it costs me an attack while i prefer my units to be either attacking cities or be healing and it destroys the land that is soon gonna be mine.

 

[Unclescam777]

Hey Sashie I love the link from your earlier post. And I agree with you, I don't think I'll ever have enough workers. The more the better I say. Any amount of unit support is negated by building roads and railroads on every tile.

As for pillaging I think I've decided it's best used for knocking out key resources and luxuries...unless I'm bored. Then I want my neighbors living on the moon.

 

[drakdan]

There is a thing as too many workers, but there's no such thing as too many slaves. But honestly you will rarely ever have "too many" workers.

Also I find pillaging to be pretty useless. Yeah it hurts the AI, but why not just take the city for yourself? Unless that is completely out of the question, pillaging always is a waste of time.

 

[White Fox]

Building a large amount of workers is a great strategy, but on republic it might not be as good. I love picking an industrious civ and then going to fascism. That takes care of the unit cost of the workers and makes them incredibly more productive. Unit cost is virtually non-existent in fascism.

As for pillaging enemy improvements, I find it most useful in the modern age when your opponent is relying on railroads for transportation. Though its not technically pillaging, mass bombing from a couple of aircraft carriers can cut your opponents cities off from one another. His troops cannot get where they are needed soon enough and if they try to cross the destroyed area, you can bomb them instead!

 

[Exploit]

I'm currently winning my first Sid game and destroying enemy roads via bombardment has been key to that success. I'm playing the Byzantines and have a stack of 20 Dromons carrying around a group of about 20-30 units (mixed Ancient Calvary, Medieval Infantry, Musketmen).

I'm fighting the Egyptians who are on a very long thin island (map is Tiny). The Egyptians had at least 2 stacks of about 50 units each.

By destroying the road network, using the Dromons bombard ability, on a couple of choke points on their island:

I was able to land my units on the opposite side of the choke point, destroy a city and jump back on my ships before the stacks of doom could reach me. I would then disembark back on the opposite side and repeat the process.

My smaller force could never have survived the onslaught of the Egyptian stacks of doom however by strategic interdiction I will never have to fight those stacks and the Egyptians are rapidly running out of cities!

 

[White Fox]

Very clever strategy, I applaud you.

 

[Ringo Kid]

There is also a peaceful form of pillaging I use sometimes; where you have a right of passage with another civ and park a unit on top of a resource they have not roaded yet.

For example you might park a unit on Frances salt peter, then sell them some of yours. So they won't go to war with you, or they lose the salt peter, and meanwhile you earn some extra gold.

 

[thetrooper]

^ That's listed as an exploit for most (S)GOTMs and the like IIRC.

It's dubbed 'resource denial'.

PS! No effect on your playing style though. Noone can break into your home and tell you off for that.

 

[Ringo Kid]

I wonder who decides thats an exploit, but making 50 tiny cities in a corrupt area and turning all the pops into scientists is not.

But I guess as long as everyone goes along with the rules set up for a particular game it's all cool.

Personally, I love to smack the AI around as much as possible.

 

[Bismarkee]

At some point as I get closer to the OCN, I just start razing any cities that I capture, eventually ending up with entire continents that have been burned to the ground (except for the 3-4 cities that I kept as ports/airports/barracks).

Then I find it is best to just have one railroad connecting them (and one going to the front), and to pillage any and all roads (outside of your cities) that connect to that railroad. With the fog of war, stray enemy units, or even barbs, can be out of sight, and then within a turn travel on a road, to my railroad, and suddenly pop up next to a city of mine. That can be inconvienient.

 

[Bismarkee]

At some point as I get closer to the OCN, I just start razing any cities that I capture, eventually ending up with entire continents that have been burned to the ground (except for the 3-4 cities that I kept as ports/airports/barracks).

Then I find it is best to just have one railroad connecting them (and one going to the front), and to pillage any and all roads (outside of your cities) that connect to that railroad. With the fog of war, stray enemy units, or even barbs, can be out of sight, and then within a turn travel on a road, to my railroad, and suddenly pop up next to a city of mine. That can be inconvienient.