Spoils of War

**Tony Furze** · 07-24-2006, 05:06

What determines the amount of florins you get from pillaging after invading a province and defeating the enemy?

I ve just defeated the French king in Toulouse but the amount of florins was just 90.

**Ironside** · 07-24-2006, 08:49

Originally Posted by Tony Furze

What determines the amount of florins you get from pillaging after invading a province and defeating the enemy?

I ve just defeated the French king in Toulouse but the amount of florins was just 90.

The pillaged value is 50% of the buildings destroyed or damaged (aka guild --> workshop).

**Ciaran** · 07-24-2006, 12:03

That´s right, the more damage done, the bigger the instant cash flow. The downside, of course, is that you get only half the money the building costs to construct, so if you want to take a province because of its building abilities, less damage is preferable. I´m not sure, though, what precisely causes damage, from my experience, castle assaults lead to less overall damage than starving the garrison, but that might be a subjective observation.

**macsen rufus** · 07-24-2006, 12:59

Mostly determined by Murphy's Law: the more you want a province for its infrastructure, the more likely it is to be trashed in the battle

Also cultural differences - if as a Muslim faction you take a catholic province, all the buildings you can't have will get wiped (churches etc) which would probably have survived a catholic attack.

**Vladimir** · 07-24-2006, 13:01

That's why it's nice to bring a high valor emissary when you siegeing a valuable area.

**Deus ret.** · 07-24-2006, 17:47

Or a high valour spy for the same purpose and less cost.

Although in the meantime I'm relying more heavily on the emissaries again since it takes ages to properly level up those spies. When they finally reach the appropriate valour I've already become filthy stinkin' rich most of the times, making it a better option to get rid of a good amount of cash (I hate those corruption vices on generals) than to try your spy's luck....and witness that nice 6-star agent fail!

**Ironside** · 07-25-2006, 08:51

Originally Posted by Deus ret.

Or a high valour spy for the same purpose and less cost.

Although in the meantime I'm relying more heavily on the emissaries again since it takes ages to properly level up those spies. When they finally reach the appropriate valour I've already become filthy stinkin' rich most of the times, making it a better option to get rid of a good amount of cash (I hate those corruption vices on generals) than to try your spy's luck....and witness that nice 6-star agent fail!

Huh, can spies take a castle without any damage at all? I know that they can open the gates on a sieged castle.

You can bribe the garrision stack and if there's another stack you'll own the castle but will be sieged. Won't destroy any buildings except the religious ones, if you fix that sieging condition soon enough

.

**r johnson** · 07-25-2006, 09:20

Originally Posted by Ironside

Huh, can spies take a castle without any damage at all? I know that they can open the gates on a sieged castle.

Yea by opening the gates, but in my experiance it hardly ever works. I've tried it on may occasions it's only worked once

**macsen rufus** · 07-25-2006, 09:40

I've had quite a bit of success with using spies to open castles. It seems to help if they've been in the province a long while before trying - maybe it helps them case the joint? I once had a spy who I trained up from 0 star to 5 star doing nothing but siege breaks. There was nothing he couldn't break into, possibly including the Queen of France's chastity belt

**Ironside** · 07-26-2006, 08:47

Originally Posted by r johnson

Yea by opening the gates, but in my experiance it hardly ever works. I've tried it on may occasions it's only worked once

Keeps forgetting bringing them in those cases that they're really useful (long sieges of 2 men guarding a fortress).

**macsen rufus** · 07-26-2006, 08:56

If there's only 1 or 2 men in a castle, then an assassin can be just as useful

**Geezer57** · 07-26-2006, 15:23

Spies are more sucessful opening castle gates when they're at high valor, when the fortification level is lower, and on the last few turns of a siege. Wait until you get the "the castle is about to fall" message, then use your spy - he'll thank you for it!