Razing Buildings

[dopp]

Although there have been several posts on this subject, there seems to be some confusion over the intended question. What I would like to know is if there exists any way to destroy certain buildings on the campaign map, such as governor buildings, roads, walls, farms and mines. These five buildings share in common the attribute of actually appearing on the campaign map once built (except perhaps improved farms). At present, these buildings cannot be destroyed. You can burn them in battle/siege mode, but this only results in them being damaged rather than removed from map altogether. This is very frustrating for me and poses several problems.

Firstly, when I capture a huge city with an imperial/royal palace, it is essentially ungovernable because I cannot get rid of the 20% culture penalty. I can neither demolish the existing palace nor replace it with one of my own, because the indestructible building is already at maximum size. Every campaign I have to speed across the map to get to Egypt before its bugged food import modifier turns Alexandria into a huge city. This might at first seem like an excellent game mechanic to keep your mighty empire in check but in practice this just becomes frustrating, because there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Two centuries of Roman rule should have some effect, even if you cannot eradicate the original societies completely. Furthermore, it ignores the fact that most Roman legions were deployed in the West rather than the more established and stable societies of the East. A more developed society is actually better for the budding empire builder than a chaotic backwoods. This is not the case in the game, where the Western barbarians are easily assimilated and cause little trouble, while the seething East gets regular exterminations and pogroms in a desperate attempt to maintain Roman order.

Secondly, I cannot raze a city completely to the ground. These five buildings make it impossible. I would like to devastate enemy territories that I do not intend to occupy, but these indestructible buildings defy my strategy. If you cannot destroy government buildings, mines, roads or farms, the enemy's infrastructure and income remains intact and he can rebuild his population rapidly. If you cannot demolish walls, his defenses remain intact, ready to defy you again. Certain empires like Carthage demanded that their protectorates demolish their defenses, leaving them helpless against any Carthaginian reprisal if they tried to rebel. Carthage itself was wiped from the face of the earth by the Romans. Athens was forced to tear down its walls after it lost the Peloponnesian War to Sparta. Burning farmland, demolishing cities and tearing up roads are all valid military strategies, widely practiced in the ancient world. Julius Caesar virtually destroyed Gaul during his campaigns. Early Rome made a practice of deporting entire defeated populations to the capital after dismantling the enemy cities. Why not here? TOTAL WAR, right?

So, is there any way to raze these buildings to the ground? I just captured Alexandria and need a way to keep the Pharoh down, even if it means rebuilding the city from ground up.

[Sfwartir]

I second that. Should definately be a way to destroy all buildings in a settlement..would be convenient not only when you actually conquer a city, but it would make my hit-and-run landings in Italy more effective too

[Epistolary Richard]

There is one building that impacts the campaign map but can be destroyed and that's ports - so the whole thing is a mystery to me.

[professorspatula]

Seeing as the AI fails to demolish buildings on its own accord (as far as I'm aware), giving the player the option to completely raze a city to the ground would be a tad unfair.

[dopp]

That seems to be a shortcoming of the AI rather than the game interface. The AI actually cheats when it comes to public order to negate the foreign culture penalty, so I'd say that the unfairness factor is actually stacked in its favor at the moment. It seems fairly illogical that certain buildings are completely indestructible, especially buildings that have historically been targets for demolition by invaders. Everybody sacks the palace and burns the farms. so why this strange invulnerability? Besides, it's hardly a game breaking ability to be able to raze a governing building. A settlement without a government building still appears on the world map and you can start over again by building a governor's house. Even the computer knows how to do that. Anyway, my primary issue is being unable to get rid of the whopping 20% culture penalty from imperial/royal palaces.

[vastator]

Try taking 4 extra units of onagers and have them concentrate on pounding the governor's residence to rubble. I did that in a raid on Antioch - I don't know if it made a difference, but it DID make a lovely mess!