Devastation and Raids

[Jagger]

So does anyone do raids simply to cause devastation?

I will choose an area for devastation by alt-right clicking on the map. Typically they are represented by fields on the map but not always. Then I move troops to the mid/high fertility area for two turns. If the enemy comes out to fight, I will either run or fight depending on the situation. But after two turns, the mid/high fertility area turns black and the enemy province loses income for quite awhile.

Although I don't know if I receive income from these raids.

Kind of fun to do along your static fronts.

[Zenicetus]

I haven't done that, but I do use armies parked on the major roads leading out of enemy provinces, in the "softening up" phase of a war. This blocks trade, and if you combine that with a port blockade, you can really cripple the enemy's economy. Just a single unit will do it. I usually use a cavalry unit, so it can quickly retreat if the enemy sends a big stack after it. So that's my form of "raiding." I'll have to try the devastation thing, although I suspect that blocking trade puts a bigger dent in the economy.

[Quillan]

Devastation is longer lasting, but not nearly as crippling. I have occasionally seen devastation effects in provinces in the 500-600 per turn range, but normally a bad case is between 100-200 per turn. You can't tell the exact effect unless you own the province, and it shows up in the settlement details screen. It's a negative on your income.

[Helvio]

Not sure if M2TW does this yet but in RTW the general would get negative attributes from being in enemy lands without attacking. Something like 'does not fear the gods', which had -1 or -2 morale. That stopped my devastation raiding

[dismal]

Seems pretty expensive to pay an army just to stand around. I tend to go for more productive uses like, say, taking a city.

I generally spend little time worrying about my enemy's economy. Take his cities and his economy is your economy.

But if I did, off hand I'd guess a more efficient way to get a bunch of assassins to sabotage to his trade and other buildings. Good for leveling them up anyway.

[Zenicetus]

Seems pretty expensive to pay an army just to stand around. I tend to go for more productive uses like, say, taking a city.

I generally spend little time worrying about my enemy's economy. Take his cities and his economy is your economy.

Well, I mainly did that when taking on factions with huge economies like Egypt in RTW. The lesser factions didn't need softening up like that. Since it only takes a single unit to block a road, it's not that expensive, and it's something you can do while you're also taking the enemy's cities, one by one.

But if I did, off hand I'd guess a more efficient way to get a bunch of assassins to sabotage to his trade and other buildings. Good for leveling them up anyway.

Oh sure, I did that too. Economic harassment on as many fronts as possible.

[Helvio]

I am a hopeless micromanager & I don't really want to conquer the world otherwise I'm taking 40 minutes to an hour to complete a turn lol. So I was hoping devastation & blockades would hurt their economy but my generals were getting negative traits from doing this. Perhaps if the horde sack option was available while not horded or the AI faction would accept the gifted city back then I would have done that. But the AI faction could not or would not accept a free city I also agree with Zenicetus's points.

On a side note in my last RTW campaign as the Franks I didn't want to expand anymore & was allied with the Sassanids. I had one half of the map & they the other half with the Goths, Lombards & Bergundians in between. I was thinking once our border touched then it would mean war with the Sassinids which I didn't want. So I was using devastation & assassins to keep the buffer factions between us weak but alive.

[FactionHeir]

Raids hurt yourself in the long term as the black areas do not disappear quickly at all. Something like 2 turns per 1 turn camped or so.

If you end up deciding to take the province, you will suffer from the devastation.

[Valdincan]

I generally dont do raids. I prefer to attack with really large armies, take out any armies around, then siege for a few turns then assault. Due to the extremely large size of my force, I only lose a few hundred men for the entire "objective".

[Jagger]

Today, I did a raid on French while under warning by the Pope to leave France alone. The Pope did nothing. Looks like a good way to economically attack a country without the Pope getting mad.

[SigniferOne]

If only raids caused you as much profit as they caused the other guy damage, more people would do them. Of course in history the profit was the most common reason to raid in the first place.

But I think we can easily make raiding profitable through scripts, or even adding some VnVs to the general.

[Kobal2fr]

In my Hungarian campaign I've been raiding the Byzantines extensively. My forces were bogged in a long back-and-forth war against Venice, and while the Byz had to worry about the Turks, they still were active around Sofia, and even had the cheek to bid me become their vassals !

So, I used the remnants of the forces that had sieged Sofia (7 Magyar Cav, 1 Hungarian Noble) to do a little pillaging. First I hid some in a forest to ambush units going from Constantinople to Duras and back, or forming up for an assault on Sofia. Destroyed two siege weapons, 4 horse archers, 3 militias and ... The Emperor himself, in a few turns. Not one single ambush though, I figure the Byz must have had spies, or spotted me hiding. The Byz didn't send armies after them so I got bold and parked them on roads, but then they sent horse archers of their own to take care of them. I retreated back to Sofia.

Next turn, I sent the last two intact HAs to siege Thessalonica, hoping to draw the defenders out, pepper them with arrows, flee and repeat next turns... And then I noticed my lone, forgotten spy had managed to open the gates ! I figured, what the heck, there's only a general and a bunch of spearmen in there, go for it. Brought in the rest of the battered remnants of my HAs, stormed the place. Lost almost all of them to the general alone, because skirmishing don't work too well in streets but I took the city eventually. Can't possibly hold it of course, I'm stretched enough as it is so... Sacked it, sold every single building, cranked taxes to max, retreated the HAs back to Sofia to refit them.

Now not only have I a 4-figured treasury for the first time in god knows how long (I play 1y/1t so halved all farming in every region... And boy, am I poor), but the Byz have lost their second biggest city to Rebels... and Duras is cut off from capital so it revolts as well (remember how I killed the militia going there to keep the peace ). Not bad for a bunch of leftover plinkers, don't you think ?