Occupy? Loot? Raze?

**Skott** · 12-27-2013, 09:06

Hey guys. I'm wondering what is considered the best thing to do after conquering a city. I been occupying because I'm worried I'll do something bad and not be able to get the city's public order under control. Am I being too skittish? What are other people doing.

Also what is everyone doing with their captives after a battle? Sometimes I kill but most of the time I just free them. Seems that if you enslave them it just comes back and bites you in the butt later on with slave rebellions. Any insight here would be appreciated too.

**Merak** · 12-27-2013, 09:22

i Always occupy as i never need slaves to get more Money (razing will get you more Money per turn for a time as well, as all Citizens in that settlement will be slaves as well as getting Money) looting i have not done)

Ihmo (and i am not what you would call good at this game ;) ) it depends on do you need some Money short term and are willing to pay the "price" of loosing stabilitys in all your countrys settlements in the long term (if you for example raze a fully upgraded athens it would be bad not so much in a smaller settlement iirc 2-3 slave Points in a smaler settlement).

killing will upset there ally and the country you defeated, but i Always do that in this playthrough (why helping them getting back that 20 stack army you just defeated and i am at war with the rest of them as well so.. )

if i am incorrect i am sure someone will correct me (i checked youtube for the razing thing when i were at home cant send you the source at the moment as i am at work)

**Myth** · 12-27-2013, 09:33

Razing gives you a popularity boost with that faction's enemies. Something to think about with the Seleucids for example. I normally occupy and execute prisoners though. Can't be bothered with the severe PO hit for my settlements, and I never build the slave market chain anyway.

**Sociopsychoactive** · 12-27-2013, 10:04

I go for raze all the time with barbarian factions. With 'Civilised' factions I tend to occupy.
Occupy is ok, the -25 PO hit is not a big deal, but the -10 (sometimes -8 depending on faction) that decreases gradualy is actually quite a lot of PO, 10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1= 55 so I tend to raze more often than anything else. If it's a different cultures buildings you'll have to demolish or convert them anyway, and if it's high level, it still retains the old properties untill the conversion is complete, meaning temples that give opposite culture don't stop giving it untill you finish converting, and high level buildings with -PO or -food will still kick out the negative untill it's finished too. All this adds up to it being far more of a headache to make that high level city usefull, and converting is expensive, nearly as much as building it yourself when you take into account the - construction cost benefits you can get by parking the right general there or building certain things first.
Razing knocks everything that can't be destroyed (city buildings and ports) down to level 1 and destroys everything else. Even against other barbarian factions that is usually a better option as it gives you a clean slate to work with and no penalties from buildings getting in the way. The -50 can seem like a big deal but actually it's less in total than occupying. Occupy gives you -50 instantly (quite a bit of which is countered by your army that just took the town being parked there and not being able to move) and then -5 diminishing at one per turn, 5+4+3+2+1= 15. Total PO hit 65, compared to 25 + 54 = 79 for occupy, just spread over a longer time. Also multiply razings one turn appart work very well for 2 or 3 settlement provinces, as the -5 doesn't stack (but the -50 does if it's the same turn) it just gets re-set to five each time, which is a lot better than the occupy hit, which re-set to ten (or sometimes 8). The flaw to razing is that if you don't have any cash flow the empty slots can become slums after a couple of turns, and that will deal massive hits to PO and food.
Sack/loot is a terrible option almost all the time for me. Loot (civilised factions choice, captures settlement) gives you -50 AND -15 diminishing, which is almost always enough to make even one province rebel without a babysitting army, all the buildings are badly damadged, taking upwards of 5 turns to self-repair compared to about three for raze, and don't forget repairing a high level building is expensive, a low level one is relatively cheap. The initial cash benefit almost always gets eaten up just repairing the settleent, not even converting the buildings over which adds at least another turn to them kicking out negative effects.
Sack (barbarian factions choice, damage eveything do not capture settlement)is better and has it's uses to weaken an enemy but that -15 is still bad as most of the time you will want to come back and take the settlement for yourself within the next 5 turns or so, and that penalty is still slowly ticking down for you. I tend to use this when at war with someone I want to hurt but the settlement is strategically weak or in a province I don't want to touch.
And then slaves, from looting and sacking you get a ton of slaves and the PO hit that comes with them. Razing doesn't take slaves, it just kills them all. Much more efficient. I tend to get far less rebellions when razing than I do when occupying.