How do you raze settlements

[nextgenfanboy]

I heard you can completely remove a settlement from a map for some extra cash instead of sacking or exterminating the populace. so how do you raze?

[saxdude]

You heard wrong, you cant eliminate anything. occupy, sack or exterminate are the only options.

[Silverheart]

You can´t remove a settlement.
What you´ve heard of is razing buildings. This means that you destroy the buildings in a settlement to regain some of the build cost.
It is not advisable to do recklessly, unless to plan to abandon the settlement and never, ever take it back - those buildings still fill their function, and destroying them means you´ll have to spend time and money building them again in the future.

[Latin Knight]

As Silverheart pointed, you can only raze the buildings, and you should only do this if you plan to immediatly abandon the settlement.

That is how "raid tactics" work in this game. Suppose you are in a Crusade with a full stack, to take Jerusalem. However, for any reasons (war at home), you don't want to manage a distant settlement beset by enemies and full of religious unrest. However, you can make a lot of money, by quickly taking the city, sacking it and destroying all its buildings. Assume Egypt is your enemy, you take it by surprise, capture Jerusalem, then take a boat to Alexandria and then Cairo, sack them and destroy its buildings, then sail back home.

The advantages: in the early phase of the game, it can get you a lot of florins, you won't have to worry about keeping distant settlements, will cripple Egypt's economy (by reducing its largest cities to stone age), and your general and army will get the crusading bonuses. The only warning is that you have a strong fleet, so the enemy's fleet or pirates don't sunk your ships, with your army on it.