Tweet
I don't use it much, but as has been listed in this thread, there are definitely times when a pillage or two is a good idea, especially if you are working against a military or economic disadvantage.
However, I have used pillage another way, to prevent foregn development. An example: I was going for the Space Race. I had done a decent REX and a couple of small wars to gain a goodly amount of territory. I now have an empire big enough to reasonably work up the tech tree. However, I have several slightly smaller neighbors on the map and they are all trading techs and catching up to me. Hmmm. They are all democracies. They need a good war to slow them down. I set up a web of MPP's and start a world war against a goodly size opponent. Because I am prepared for the war, I have offensive squads ready to pour into enemy territory. My "allies" come flooding in as well. I work like crazy to get the cities while my "allies" tend to do skirmish work with wandering enemy troops. Everybody is, of course, looking to expand territory. Everybody but me. Those extra cities aren't really going to help my core and corruption levels. I don't really want them. But I don't want the other civs to get any use out of them, either. So I keep the new cities, for a while. The war ends with the death of the selected target civ. A couple of cities have fallen to my allies, but I have most of the area. I then take my invasion and garrison troops and have each of them lay waste to the tiles in that city radius and then in any unclaimed tiles not yet in cultural boundaries. (This is especially true for tiles that will fall into a city's 21 square working area when its first expansion happens.) I leave one roadway open all the way back to my established borders, abandon all those cities and then head home, pillaging the final road behind me. The land is available for setlers and all that, but it will take forever to develop into anything useful at all. Meanwhile, I have all my invasion troops reinforcing my borders and thinking evil thoughts about yet another neighbor.
It's an expansion of General Sherman's techniques in the US Civil War, a big expansion since he wasn't quite so thorough. There are two ways of looking at it: Either I have created a vast wasteland, or I have created a pristine nature preserve devoid of the taint of civilization. Either way, it is a pain for others to do anything with, and it becomes a breeding ground for barbarians and that can slow down
foreign development, too. Fun!
Some people pillage, then conquer. I conquer, then pillage. I am either backwards, or very strange, or both.
However, I have used pillage another way, to prevent foregn development. An example: I was going for the Space Race. I had done a decent REX and a couple of small wars to gain a goodly amount of territory. I now have an empire big enough to reasonably work up the tech tree. However, I have several slightly smaller neighbors on the map and they are all trading techs and catching up to me. Hmmm. They are all democracies. They need a good war to slow them down. I set up a web of MPP's and start a world war against a goodly size opponent. Because I am prepared for the war, I have offensive squads ready to pour into enemy territory. My "allies" come flooding in as well. I work like crazy to get the cities while my "allies" tend to do skirmish work with wandering enemy troops. Everybody is, of course, looking to expand territory. Everybody but me. Those extra cities aren't really going to help my core and corruption levels. I don't really want them. But I don't want the other civs to get any use out of them, either. So I keep the new cities, for a while. The war ends with the death of the selected target civ. A couple of cities have fallen to my allies, but I have most of the area. I then take my invasion and garrison troops and have each of them lay waste to the tiles in that city radius and then in any unclaimed tiles not yet in cultural boundaries. (This is especially true for tiles that will fall into a city's 21 square working area when its first expansion happens.) I leave one roadway open all the way back to my established borders, abandon all those cities and then head home, pillaging the final road behind me. The land is available for setlers and all that, but it will take forever to develop into anything useful at all. Meanwhile, I have all my invasion troops reinforcing my borders and thinking evil thoughts about yet another neighbor.
It's an expansion of General Sherman's techniques in the US Civil War, a big expansion since he wasn't quite so thorough. There are two ways of looking at it: Either I have created a vast wasteland, or I have created a pristine nature preserve devoid of the taint of civilization. Either way, it is a pain for others to do anything with, and it becomes a breeding ground for barbarians and that can slow down
foreign development, too. Fun!
Some people pillage, then conquer. I conquer, then pillage. I am either backwards, or very strange, or both.
) so i'll usually play monarch or emperor games.
I'm playing a rather relaxed game where I'm NOT conquering everything in sight at first opportunity. The persians are annoying me now, how about popping over to their continent, capturing their capital, disband it and then sue for peace?
Comment