Liberate / Peacefully Occupy / Loot.

Do you ever liberate? I do for a sort of buffer zone, and the fact that I can have armies basically working for me for free, and it's free money. If I don't liberate, I will peacefully occupy UNLESS it's a city like Vienna, I got 40,000 gold from it and they were still happy. I won't loot if it puts the lower class at -20 though =-p

Yes, for the very reasons you mentioned, buffer zone, etc. I rarely loot.

Loot if im in a bind and I know the attacking army needs some RnR time lol.

I was recently thinking about how awesome MTWII's trait system was with regard to this. When you looted with a specific general more than you 'occupied' or something, you got dread points (or chivalry if you let enemy's go and all)...why couldn't they have this with Napoleon?

Historically, Napoleon was viewed as a 'liberator' for many German states. However, his despotic conduct of later operations and his revival of the monarchic structure (no kings,but 'emperors'), made him no longer a liberator but a hegemonic monster...

Hence, it would have been logical to create this system for this game. Start Napoleon and the French with high favorability and, as the game progresses and war starts to take its toll on both the French and its allies, have Napoleon and the French be resented. Of course you could have still made sure that this never happened by never looting or something. It would have added a great 'late game' value!

What do you all think? Is this something that can be done with mods (like make 'looting' a trait reducer or something?)

Wouldn't looting and then freely giving away to your allies (Or back to your enemies to continuously raid them) be the ideal thing for earning money? Though, Napoleon might be a tad short for that.

"What did you zay? Zhe pesky British are giving Paris back to uz for zhe zhird time zhis year? Oh, zhose dastardly rogues!"

Is there some sort of restriction that stops you giving away provinces with very low loyalty?

I looted Innsbruck and immediately tried to give it away for free to one of my four adjacent allies (Bavaria, Baden, Swiss, Italy) to create a buffer against Austria - not one would accept it and next turn I found myself facing a full stack veteran rebel army (where did those peasants find all those 12 pounder cannon up there in the Alps - do they hide them in caves or something?).

Consequently looting can be counter-productive unless you can afford to keep a full stack army there for a long while - although I am thinking of making it a house rule of looting all foreign settlements that refuse to surrender and have to be stormed or starved as this was considered reasonable historically.

Liberating is also problematic for France given the rank disloyalty of all its allies (at least at VH/VH) - soon as I made peace with Austria I was attacked not only by Prussia (which I know is scripted) but also by Spain, Italy, the Batavians, Bavaria and the Swiss - within frighteningly few turns I went from Lord of half of Europe to be under siege in Paris and it was all over.

So the 64,000 franc question is whether protectorates stay loyal while ordinary allies stab you in the back?

Is it possible as the game is at the moment to even give away provinces at all, regardless of loyalty?

I've offered freshly conquered provinces, pro gratis, before, to allies, adjoining neighbours, enemies, the lot, with sweeteners attached - even to the freshly bereaved owner - and each time have been turned down.

Originally Posted by Aklis

Wouldn't looting and then freely giving away to your allies (Or back to your enemies to continuously raid them) be the ideal thing for earning money? Though, Napoleon might be a tad short for that.

"What did you zay? Zhe pesky British are giving Paris back to uz for zhe zhird time zhis year? Oh, zhose dastardly rogues!"

They won't accept regions with negative public order and damaged buildings.

And Napoleon wasn't short...

Since I dont like to hold on to territorial claims, I often liberate as many minor nations as possible. For countries which are super powers, like France, I will loot the city, wait for my troops to replenish, and then level the city to the ground before leaving it to the rebels. If I don't feel like burning the city down, I will level all its buildings and hand it over to an ally, usually one of the minor factions. That way they get no advantage from the territory but are able to exist with more territory.

Currently Im fighting a war with Austria, this is one of the few times I've actually decided to hold onto the territory. Once I take all of Austria's land, I need to deal with a few minor annoyances in the west.

I always use peaceful occupy and liberate. In my campaign as GB I have 25 regions, but only a handful are directly controlled by me. I prefer to see Europe filled up with tonnes of minor factions. An exeption to the rule is with factions, who will still be hostile toward me after I liberate them.

Originally Posted by TheBlobThing

And Napoleon wasn't short...

IIRC he was about 5'7", which was the average at the time.

Originally Posted by bkhl

IIRC he was about 5'7", which was the average at the time.

Yes. He was called "the little general" because he was so young when he took the post.

I read somewhere that he was not actually short, but at the time, the French foot was longer than the English foot, so the British always thought he was short because of the difference in measurement? Can anyone verify or is it just a story?

Originally Posted by TheBlobThing

They won't accept regions with negative public order and damaged buildings.

Yes they will for about 3000 bucks.

The AI won't accept cities, even when gifted, if they are in a state of unrest.

unless you pay them as well.

Yeah, I gave the liberated Dutch some new land so they will help me fight the French.

Im hoping for an option that allows you to peacefully occupy a region, and then give it its independence a few turns later. I usually liberate countries on my long march to burn Paris, and I often end up liberating atleast 5-8 countries along the way. It would be nice to occupy a region for a few turns and then let them go.

I always Occupy Peacefully. I barely ever Loot unless I intend on wrecking it before selling it on.

I only Liberate if my men are worn out and need rest. For example, if they've been fighting forever and each unit has less than half strength, I will choose Liberate option to give me a buffer zone for breathing space. Then, once I'm almost done, I'll go back and conquer them.

Cause I can.

As occupying late in the game reduces your diplomatic standing at a time when things can get a little tense, liberating is often the best course of action. Besides, it's fun nation building.