Scorched earth - in your opponent's territory

[Astaroth]

Everyone knows the famous scorched earth policy which many nations used to make it much harder for their opponents to conquer their lands. However, while the historical scorched earth strategy was usually used defensively, how about using it offensively in RSII?

In my second campaign I tried it as the Seleucids vs the Romans and it worked perfectly. To illustrate what I mean: you essentially build one or several armies, bypass the enemy's forces (that's much easier via sea, mind) and completely destroy all of his core cities. Playing as the Seleucid Empire Rome declared war on me after I conquered all of Asia (south of the Caucasus). In order to weaken them, I gave one of my 10 star generals a single (!) full stack of decent (though not elite) units, sailed to Italy and conquered the following cities: Tarentum, Rhegion, Croton and all of Sicily. I extermined all of them and then proceeded to destroy all buildings. After taking a city I immediately moved to the next, not allowing the Romans to engage me in battle. I also did the same with Rome itself, Arretium, Massilia and two Roman cities in Spain.

As a result, the Roman Empire's population got almost halved and the Romans essentially ceased being a superpower. Though me conquering Greece and Macedonia from them with 4 stacks of elite units probably contributed to that.

So my question is, have you ever tried anything like that? Having done it once I probably won't do it again... the AI can't really cope with it, and while it's somewhat fun it also makes the game way too easy. Also, I will probably refrain from spamming ships. They seem to be quite cheap in RSII, so you can pretty much build 3 full stacks of them and block every single enemy port...

What I will probably keep doing is razing a few border cities to the ground when I want to eliminate the threat they pose to my territory without actually expanding my lands by conquering them (e.g. Cimbri cities east of the Rhine when playing Romans).

[General Brittanicus]

The good ole' raiding tactic. I generally only use it if i'm fighting a multiple front war and need to take the pressure off one of the fron't for a while. You'll have to be careful if doing it as Rome though, as if you just let the towns rebel they will go to the Roman Rebels and as one guy found out they could become a superpower whilst you are off busy fighting elsewhere and cause you a serious headache later on.

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

Did that to fuel Denmarks rise to superpower status in old M1TW, made a bridge of ships down to North Africa-Middle East (since that won't get you excummunicated) and went on a pillaging spree, extremely profitable, calle it the Viking strategy.

[Ferdiad]

Raiding gives good exp to generals also makes you loads of money.

[Astaroth]

Raiding gives good exp to generals also makes you loads of money.

Yeah, I made almost 150,000 a turn just by pillaging cities and selling everything in them. (alongside my regular income of another 150,000 that was a nice sum of money... I could afford to constantly construct buildings in every single one of my 80 or so cities).

Another fun strategy is using elephants for siege. When your opponent doesn't have huge (?) walls, you can simply conquer several settlements in a single turn. Elephants also don't slow down your army iirc (unlike siege engines). That way, I conquered the whole Peloponnese from Rome in a single turn. Poor Romans...

[Ferdiad]

Leave those poor Romans alone, they just want a hug

[ethan340]

Everyone knows the famous scorched earth policy which many nations used to make it much harder for their opponents to conquer their lands. However, while the historical scorched earth strategy was usually used defensively, how about using it offensively in RSII?

In my second campaign I tried it as the Seleucids vs the Romans and it worked perfectly. To illustrate what I mean: you essentially build one or several armies, bypass the enemy's forces (that's much easier via sea, mind) and completely destroy all of his core cities. Playing as the Seleucid Empire Rome declared war on me after I conquered all of Asia (south of the Caucasus). In order to weaken them, I gave one of my 10 star generals a single (!) full stack of decent (though not elite) units, sailed to Italy and conquered the following cities: Tarentum, Rhegion, Croton and all of Sicily. I extermined all of them and then proceeded to destroy all buildings. After taking a city I immediately moved to the next, not allowing the Romans to engage me in battle. I also did the same with Rome itself, Arretium, Massilia and two Roman cities in Spain.

As a result, the Roman Empire's population got almost halved and the Romans essentially ceased being a superpower. Though me conquering Greece and Macedonia from them with 4 stacks of elite units probably contributed to that.

So my question is, have you ever tried anything like that? Having done it once I probably won't do it again... the AI can't really cope with it, and while it's somewhat fun it also makes the game way too easy. Also, I will probably refrain from spamming ships. They seem to be quite cheap in RSII, so you can pretty much build 3 full stacks of them and block every single enemy port...

What I will probably keep doing is razing a few border cities to the ground when I want to eliminate the threat they pose to my territory without actually expanding my lands by conquering them (e.g. Cimbri cities east of the Rhine when playing Romans).

actually sounds like a cool idea. gonna try it once i get my disk back

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

I imagine it works less well in RTW engine since you need to storm cities to capture regions and siege assaults are twice as costly in lives as field battles.

[Astaroth]

I imagine it works less well in RTW engine since you need to storm cities to capture regions and siege assaults are twice as costly in lives as field battles.

I think it works fine since the AI usually only puts like 1-3 units into its core cities. Since they're so close to the capital they're not likely to rebel so they also don't have a huge garrison. I tend to do the same in my own empire as well. And a single or two units simply can't defend a city against a full stack of mine. You can also simply auto-resolve without too many losses (I do that when I can't be bothered to fight out the 500th battle of my campaign when I have a full stack of units against a single unit of Roman auxilia for example...).

Another nice strategy is hiring mercenaries in your opponent's territory. That way, you can suddenly double your forces as long as you have a general in your raiding party. Sieging and conquering two cities at once is also a nice bonus.

[chris10]

hmmmm...this topic could easily be renamed into "Basic RTW cheating and exploiting of poor engine programming" and It would not make a difference...
Due to the way the engine is programed all described tactics here can not be countered, are not even realized by the AI and therefore fall into the exploit/cheat group...its like hitting an unarmed unprotected old blind man from behind....but thats just IMHO of course

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

hmmmm...this topic could easily be renamed into "Basic RTW cheating and exploiting of poor engine programming" and It would not make a difference...
Due to the way the engine is programed all described tactics here can not be countered, are not even realized by the AI and therefore fall into the exploit/cheat group...its like hitting an unarmed unprotected old blind man from behind....but thats just IMHO of course

Hey I consider my M1TW raiding stategy to be suitable roleplaying when playing as the Danes.

[Astaroth]

hmmmm...this topic could easily be renamed into "Basic RTW cheating and exploiting of poor engine programming" and It would not make a difference...
Due to the way the engine is programed all described tactics here can not be countered, are not even realized by the AI and therefore fall into the exploit/cheat group...its like hitting an unarmed unprotected old blind man from behind....but thats just IMHO of course

Hence:

Having done it once I probably won't do it again... the AI can't really cope with it, and while it's somewhat fun it also makes the game way too easy.

It's not completely unhistorical, considering that raiding was indeed done back then, but since the AI has no way of dealing with it I have stopped using this "strategy".

[Enyalius]

hmmmm...this topic could easily be renamed into "Basic RTW cheating and exploiting of poor engine programming" and It would not make a difference...
Due to the way the engine is programed all described tactics here can not be countered, are not even realized by the AI and therefore fall into the exploit/cheat group...its like hitting an unarmed unprotected old blind man from behind....but thats just IMHO of course

from sun tzu book of war
-Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where
you are not expected.


-Hence that general is skillful in attack whose
opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful
in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.


I allmost allways attack undefended citys or lure garrisons out to ambush them

I allso invade and destroy the undefended core citys the enemy have when
I am either not interested in taking them over in my empire,
if I want extra money or if I just want to mess up my enemy.

to add to that, playing rs2 I tend to give pillaged citys to vassals(or others)
to dissrupt alliances and trade etc.

Yes the AI is stupid but people just wanna play with their own style.

btw would be cool if u could really wipe out citys, like tear down walls and
enslave+massacre the population, like alexander did with thebes, or the bloody romans to
mighty carthage.

[Ferdiad]

Works brilliantly in M2 though.

[Dramatic Cat]

House Rule no. 1

Dont exploit and abuse an already extremely IDIOTIC AI.

Not that its noobish, but its really abusive to the AI.

[Dahoota]

As Carthage against Rome I did this a few times. Can be devastating and effective if you have multiple spies set up in place already . Ended up resorting to it to stop them stack spamming (destroying key buildings in the settlement).

[-Duke Nukem]

My scorched earth strategy: DIE DIE DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 WELCOME TO THE LAND OF FREEDOM BI*CENCORED*!!!!!!!!!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

[ithinkitsdead]

If I do decide to raid, I will build up a cheap stack of units and send it on a suicide run into the center of a factions homeland. Disrupts their movements, and can cripple them. But, I always have that stack die.

[Enyalius]

in shogun 2 everybody teams up against you

[Ferdiad]

in shogun 2 everybody teams up against you

After RD sure, before not at all.