Has anybody worked out why the AI chooses to raze settlements yet?

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I really don't get it - razing a settlement should be the least attractive option (unless you are the Huns) but I regularly see the AI do it for no apparent reason. For example, the Franks declared war on my WRE and proceeded to fight a bloody battle for Camulodenum, then razed it.

What is the AI thinking here? If they don't intend to hold it surely it's better to sack the settlement than to raze it, as then it's basically spent - they can't easily re-found it and they can't sack it again.

The Huns are obviously a special case as CR has coded them to be a game mechanic rather than a faction that should have rational goals.

[Hooahguy]

The recent patch was supposed to address that issue, but I guess it hasnt made much of a dent. Some mods out there resolved the issue by limiting the razing option to just the Huns and other nomads so the aesthetic of death and destruction is still there, just its not rampant everywhere like it is now. Maybe patch 10 or something will finally solve the issue.

[Slaists]

I don't see the AI razing that much since I restarted a campaign with 1.2. Occasionally they raze a place, but it's mostly me doing the razing (playing as Huns). Mostly I see the AI sacking and raiding (and conquering).

I also see the AI colonizing right behind my back (as I leave a trail of devastation wherever I go); sometimes, even major factions colonize.

[Bramborough]

I'm seeing the same thing as Slaists in an ERE campaign I started a couple of days ago. Between me and WRE ally, I can see most of the map; 30+ turns in, I only see 4 desolated regions across all of Europe (5, counting one that I resettled early). A couple of those regions, moreover, I suspect are abandoned settlements by factions who decided to pick up and migrate, rather than razed by an attacking faction.

In my 3 previous campaigns, I would've expected to see half of Europe burned up by now. WRE appears to be holding itself together a lot better (on the strategic map, anyway), but I think that's because they're still retaining nominal "control" over a bunch of sacked settlements that would've been razed pre-patch.

[Patricius]

I think the WRE are genuinely stronger this patch. The have lost some territory in my game to razing and enemy occupation, but not too much by turn 50.

[Bramborough]

They may very well be. I'm seeing quite a few full-size WRE armies tromping around the landscape. And they've got a good enough economy to offer me some pretty large bribes for joining their wars. WRE has been getting its butt kicked in Britain, but they still hold almost all of their territory on the continent and in Africa. Of course, it's still early...but better than what I'd seen before.

[Slaists]

LOL, legendary WRE AI is holding up very well (as long as the player leaves them alone). I tried to replay Ostrogoths the other night and got jumped on by 7 full WRE stacks on turn 11. 5 ERE stacks were converging on me from the other side; between a rock and a hard place with nowhere to run with my incomplete starting stacks. Game over! :)

ERE though still succumbs to Sassanids no matter what.