Destroyed and Damaged buildings

[Quokka]

When you take a province the pillage pop-up gives a total of buildings destroyed, damaged and florins recieved.
What does a damaged building mean? Does that mean the building is lowered a tech level? Destroyed I take it means completely gone?

On another note. I wish there was an option for your armies to not pillage the buildings in a province, especially if all your units are elite. If they aren't going to break when the general or King dies then surely they can understand a 'Don't destroy anything' order before battle. It's sad to see my armies burn buildings that would take 50 years to replace late in the game for a few florins, when I could use the buidlings straight away. What good is an extra 3000 Florins when I have 300,000 already, preserve the Castle and Palaces instead.

[Revenant69]

It took me awhile to figure this out, but eventually it came through my thick skull http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Say a province has Port and Armor Workshop. And after you capture it you get the message that 1 building was destroyed and 1 was damaged. Well that means port was destroyed and Armor Workshop wasnt However Armor workshop was downgraded to a simple Armorer.

So yes damaged building are downgraded

[mosborne]

It also seems that pillage and destruction is tied, to some degree, to the strength of the defenses. One of my great frustrations is besieging an island province and after capturing it, being stranded for 4 years until the port is rebuilt. Or capturing a high-trade province (i.e. Constantinople) and then losing 4 years of trade income while you rebuild the port. Anyway, I've noticed that ports seem to be destroyed when successfully seiging a fort or keep, for instance, but when a citadel of fortress falls, the port remains intact. Do others find that the type or level of destruction/damage when tied to more formidable defenses?

[Oaty]

Well even though I don't like buildings being destroyed it seems to balance out the game very well plus would'nt you hate it when your in a bad position losing ground and the enemy is turning those high tech provinces against you. But since its the human that usually does this I can only guess you would laugh at the game as could turn over provinces in your hand and unleash them aginst the comp so easily.

And on a historical note some generals were very much against pillaging raping after conquering a territory but to keep the soldiers in line about a 3 day liberty was given to them to sack there spoils of war. So I think it is not something you should control. The only thing I don't like is when you conquer a province from a faction that was the same religion as you, your soldiers sometimes burn down the religous buildings wich I can only believe that was almost unthinkable today as it was in medieval times.

[Quokka]

Good point on the religious buildings. Why are they destroyed if you are the same religion? You'd think the Pope might get upset if you burnt down Cathedrals, he excommunicates you for nothing at other times.