Pillaging the Enemy

[LordoftheHouse2]

Currently I am at war with two empires. One of them is rather weak and is only in this battle for a defensive pact I was unaware, but I've been able to repel them. The second empire is rather large and has a great number forces, I'm worried they may sack a couple cities. So far I was able to burn about 3 of their cities and my new strategy is to play defense, while having my infantry march through their land and just destroy everything (iron, copper, farms, towns, etc). Will this bring the empire to their knees, by attacking their economy? Any have luck doing this before?

 

[TyranusBonehead]

This will definitely impede their ability to produce units which require copper or iron. Pillaging roads will slow them down, pillaging farms will reduce a city's capacity to produce food, etc. Basically, pillaging is a good thing.

 

[Winston Hughes]

Try to focus your pillaging on key cities or certain types of resources. If you take out a farm from each city, you won't cause any real trouble; pillage all the farms (and other food sources) from a city, and you can starve it into uselessness. Similarly, with resource pillaging, the best approach is to take out every single happiness or health resource, rather than a couple of each.

Edit: Coastal cities are particularly vulnerable; park a couple of ships in the right spots (they 'blockade' a nine-tile square centred on their position, iirc), and you can cut off all of the coast and sea tiles. Pillage any land-based food as well, and their populations will starve in no time.

 

[Bacon II]

If you are on a pillage-march in enemy land, you shouldn´t bring only infantry. Inf walks one step, and then pillage the next turn, while a 2-step moving unit can walk and pillage on the same turn. Those are usually weak tho, so mixing them can make your army walk and pillage each turn (the infanrty just walks/defends)

 

[cabert]

pillaging is only good if you don't intend to take those cities!
But then again it can also provide a good deal of money to fund your army/maintenance

 

[br_casino]

I would concentrate on pillaging the towns/villages/hamlets and the strategic resources (iron, copper, horses, stone, marble). Don't bother with the farms till last. Its not the population you have to worry about, its the military units. Without the funds provided by the cottages, they can't support the military, and with out the strategic resources, they can't rebuild them.

 

[Buntaro]

A few pillaging ministacks work well. ONe mounted, and teh rest mixed for optimum defense. You move and pillage on the same turn for things like mines, or sit and pillage an extra turn on towns. Early, this would be an axe-spear-chariot combo. Later, a cav-rifle-other combo works well, where the other is a grenadier or cannon. The grenadier and cannon don't do much for defense, but they do make it easy to switch from pillaging to city-taking if the AI decides to weaken his city garrissons in response to your pillaging.

I suppose a machinegun-cavalry combo would pillage well, but it would be odd to have a lot of machineguns at the front.