When to pillage?

[podraza]

I play and win regularly on Monarch, yet I've never really incorporated pillaging into my routine. If I fight a war, it is to take their lands, so I keep the lands improved.

I was reading the excellent guide on creating an effective city attack and pillage stacks. It got me excited about the prospect of creating a pillaging stack and incorporating this into my game.

But when and why?

Aren't units used for pillaging put to better use simply taking the city outright?

I understand why a conquest victory strategy would demand pillaging, but assume you aren't shooting for that particular victory. When and why would you want to declare war on the enemy just to pillage?

Perhaps as a response to a sneak attack by the AI? When else?

 

[WuphonsReach]

Personally, I prefer non-pillage over pillage. When I go to war, I'm generally not cash-strapped and my goal is expansion not eradication. I might pillage a strategic resource improvement to make the enemy's job more difficult, but that's about the limit of it.

So I guess it depends on what your goal is for a particular conflict. Eradication? Pillage, pillage, pillage. Conquest? Surgical strikes that capture 3-4 cities as fast as possible while doing the least possible damage.

 

[Dnomal]

You dont pillage because you want to take there lands? Usually i try to take every city in an empire, the whole improvement problem is off-put by the fact that the AI puts its workers into cities so when i take there citsie all there workers become mine, enabling me to rebuild the infastructure in the new territories.

About units being better used to attack cities i disagree, i often use units to piallge the land around enemy cities, while catapults/trebs/cannons can be brought into position.

Pillaging towns makes as much money as a minor city, so not pillaging them makes little sense to me. Especially since due to rebellions after conquering cities it takes time for all the citizens to work the tile around the city.

Thats my opinon anyways.

 

[paleman]

If you're not financially ready to swallow your enemy, pillaging all his improvements is a great way to ensure he's weak when you finally are prepared to absorb all his cities. And no matter the war, it's always wise to pillage military resources, even if they'll soon be in your hands - you never know but it might mean you face one less knight, one less spearman, etc.

Or let's say you're going for a space race victory, but don't particularly feel like taking the time to acquire, secure, and manage new territory. Yet, one of your opponents is teching like a monster and you feel he needs to be slowed down to ensure your success. Just pillage all his towns.

Also for tactical reasons, no matter what the goal of the war is, it's usually wise to have a few pillagers on hand. Pillaging roads can slow enemy reinforcements from arriving, pillaging a happiness resource can have an immediate and empire-wide effect on production capabilities or force him to up the culture slider. Either way it slows him down in some way, and things like roads and plantations are easy enough for you to replace once they're in your borders. The one thing you should never pillage is cottages near cities you might want to capture eventually, because the turns of growth invested in them can't be replaced by a few worker turns.

 

[drkodos]

I like having my enemy fund my war effort.

 

[podraza]

First of all, does anybody else agree with Dnomal that you want to pillage the towns of cities you are about to take? That seems wrong to me, but many things that are in fact right, initially seem wrong to me.

 

[automator]

Pillaging distracts the enemy. If you've got horse archers running around destroying mines, cottages, farms, etc., they're going to devote some of their units to chasing down and destroying your pillagers, rather than fighting back the SODs that are closing in on their cities.

 

[ShannonCT]

I would rarely use a unit to pillage if it is good enough to fight. It just slows down the conquest or domination victory. Usually, cities that have a lot of improvements are cities that I want to keep, and pillaging would be counterproductive. For worthless cities that I decide to destroy, I might pillage if I'm waiting for my seige units to bombard, but usually, I'll spend the extra turn(s) getting my non-seige units in better position to attack the next city.

If you're going for a space race victory and you want to slow down your competitors, a pillaging stack is a nice idea.

 

[swimrr]

Some wars take a little linger than others. In some instances I will sack a couple cities, make peace, sack a few more, etc. In these cases I will send a few units deep into their territory to pillage to make my job easier the next round. ALways good to sack a few towns to get the next war started that much faster.

 

[Dnomal]

This is going to sound weird but when you're doing what i call a domino invasion, taking one city then another and another untill you have taken every enemy city, what you usually need is production to build more units to keep up the advance, i find that the AI has an odd habit of spamming with cottages on loads of cities, which i usually cut down to half of that. I change to production based cities with farms not cottage spamming cities.

Also pillaging a town will give 90 gold (with any luck), that will cover the cost of running you new city for a while, anywhere from 10-20 turns. If you dont then you have to find the gold for runnnig your new city from your own pocket, which is never good.

I only pillage everything around a city if i know I can't take the city, as paleman said about pillagian resources is CRUCIAL. Pillaging the only Iron mine in an enemy empire means they will be forced to build non-iron units, so no swordsman,maceman,tanks etc. Pillaging other resources such as wine is good to make problems in enemy cities.

Again my opinon, if someone thinkg im wrong then please say.

 

[drkodos]

First of all, does anybody else agree with Dnomal that you want to pillage the towns of cities you are about to take? That seems wrong to me, but many things that are in fact right, initially seem wrong to me.

I agree with him, to an extent.

It usually takes a number of turns before I can work a significant number of tiles in those newly captured cities anyway. Often, I am whipping the enemy pop, but either way, those improved tiles do not get worked. I'd rather pillage about 8 to 12 of the 20 cross tiles and get instant cash from my newly installed ATM machine and keep the wheels of my war machine properly lubricated.

Then, I can go back and rebuild (like US in Europe) and create a city more intuned to modern needs. Obviously, some improvements are better kept, but sometimes a key move is to pillage to take aways resources from your opponent and then, like Dnormal stated previously, use the opponents own people for the rebuilding efforts.


I think it is a sound and time honored strategy that has definite applications and certainly there are many instances in which it works better than others.

 

[Murky]

I usually only resort to pillaging if my stack has no chance of taking a city. It seems much better to take a city and all it's improvements intact if possible.

 

[theimmortal1]

Only time I pillage is if its late in the game or if I can't take the city right then and I plan on waiting awhile.

I figure if I'm going tot ake the city in a turn why get rid of the improvements? I'll pillage if its something I obviously plan to switch (cottage to farm for example).

 

[shmily_dana]

I'll pillage if I know a third civ's border will expand into territory my opponent lost to me in a war.

 

[RobertTheBruce]

First of all, does anybody else agree with Dnomal that you want to pillage the towns of cities you are about to take? That seems wrong to me, but many things that are in fact right, initially seem wrong to me.

Pillaging towns often makes a lot of sense.

If you are trying for domination, you often want cities geared for production or whipped to almost nothingness to make units or cultural buildings. Pillaging a town for 80gold gives the equivalent of working it for 20 turns. With skyrocketing maintenance and a limited number of turns til the end, its wise to devote a few units to pillaging if possible. If you seriously ask, am I ever going to work this town? The answer is often no.

Conquest is an even easier decision since you won't have cities near the towns.

Other victories, its a matter of city specialization. The AI usually has a few towns in cities you want to devote to production. Grab some gold before workers build farms, watermills, or workshops.

 

[Wlauzon]

I seldom pillage when I am trying to take over their territory, but a couple of days ago I ran into an ideal situation for it.

I was able to attack him on both coasts, but one coast was a long run by transport, so I sent only mech armor there and set to auto for pillaging at random.

In the meantime I was building up modern armor on the opposite coast, and when it looked like he had sent a lot of his units to kill the pillagers, I attacked. Took 4 cities in 3 turns with very low losses, because they were all undermanned.

But in general, if I pillage at all, it is only things like resource mines or plantations, which are easy to rebuild. I never pillage cottages.

 

[Barney's_Soul]

If their defence is too powerful, pillage so that they will negosheate peace, because if you can't conqour cities, then you shoulden't be in war.

 

[podraza]

Pillaging towns often makes a lot of sense.

If you are trying for domination, you often want cities geared for production or whipped to almost nothingness to make units or cultural buildings. Pillaging a town for 80gold gives the equivalent of working it for 20 turns. With skyrocketing maintenance and a limited number of turns til the end, its wise to devote a few units to pillaging if possible. If you seriously ask, am I ever going to work this town? The answer is often no.

Conquest is an even easier decision since you won't have cities near the towns.

Other victories, its a matter of city specialization. The AI usually has a few towns in cities you want to devote to production. Grab some gold before workers build farms, watermills, or workshops.

Well, I do tend to whip newly taken cities down to nothing to build the courthouse/theatre combo, followed up by some other buildings, barracks or library. This is an important consideration, because it means I'm not even working the cottages anyway.

 

[drkodos]

If I am headed for a Space Race there are a lot of times in late middle game when I am making the switch from cottages to workshops nad watermills so in this time period I am usually pilaging like crazy to convert those cottage to cash before I take over the cities and have to change them anyway (and get no cash).

 

[OceansEleven]

If you're losing the war, just get some Horse Archers or Cavalry to go around and just pillage pillage pillage. Get the towns, farms, and most of all the resources.