Do scorced Earth tactic work?

**HuangCaesar** · January 24, 2012, 02:03 PM

Hey I'm playing Rome and Aedui keeps attacking me and all my troops are stationed in greece. Is it a good idea
to raid enemy territory with a small levy force by attacking weak cities and then just leave and destroy their buildings so they can't recuit?

**Lansa** · January 24, 2012, 05:12 PM

Yeah, that works pretty well if you can pull it off. As the AS, I managed to turn Makedonia from a financial powerhouse slinging stacks of Argyraspides at me into peasants who could only field levies. You can make loooaaads of money from smashing their recruitment buildings as well as the public order ones, as they're costly and undermine their government when the settlement returns into enemy hands.

**Ferdiad** · January 24, 2012, 05:12 PM

Its called raiding. Its best done ala pirating by getting a shipt then just useing hit and run tactics on the coast.

**Ryoga84** · February 13, 2012, 12:17 PM

Originally Posted by Ferdiad

Its called raiding. Its best done ala pirating by getting a shipt then just useing hit and run tactics on the coast.

I do it frequently with the sea-oriented factions (Greece, Cartage) and sometimes even with Casse, in the east I use a cavalry party (mostly nomad) that raid, hire a local mercenary band, take down the city and then is dismissed.

The annihilation of a major city, as I've seen, is highly effective

**~~The Kybrothilian~~** · January 25, 2012, 02:50 AM

Scorched earth tactic would involve you pulling out of your own settlements, bringing down all the buildings in them, in order to deny the enemy as much as possible. It's only viable to do, if you think you can't hold them, and wont be able to take them back for a long time.

**smoesville** · January 25, 2012, 06:42 AM

Originally Posted by Ferdiad

Its called raiding. Its best done ala pirating by getting a ship then just using hit and run tactics on the coast.

That's how i financed my Casse campaign, the iberians didn't know what hit them

Also the Carthaginians, romans, Egyptians, makedon... the list was pretty long really, only places not raided were along the Gallic coast since i intended to occupy them in the near(ish) future. If anyone asked i could just tell them it was those blasted irish

since i used mostly irish units, i figured i wouldn't be able to retrain them anyway so far from home so why not use the Goidels. One army ended up in east Syria after the sack of babylon

Originally Posted by scutarilegion

Scorched earth tactic would involve you pulling out of your own settlements, bringing down all the buildings in them, in order to deny the enemy as much as possible. It's only viable to do, if you think you can't hold them, and wont be able to take them back for a long time.

Never really did this, even the ones i can't hold i wouldn't completely strip because i tend to retake them sooner than expected

I do tend to destroy MICs but that becomes a little pointless unless the enemy can use them.

**fireblade** · January 25, 2012, 07:37 AM

Agreed, I would never destroy buildings in a settlement that I'm forced to pull out.

On the other hand, I'm all fan of deep strike methods. For example, in a Karthadast campaign, if the ptolemies keep sending stack after stack containing their elite phalanx (is it klerourchon Agema?), you just take a small army, and torch alexandria. That will slow them down ( or at least make them send machimoi phalangites instead for the next 5 years)

**~~The Kybrothilian~~** · January 25, 2012, 08:23 AM

Originally Posted by smoesville

Never really did this, even the ones i can't hold i wouldn't completely strip because i tend to retake them sooner than expected

I do tend to destroy MICs but that becomes a little pointless unless the enemy can use them.

That's why I said:

if you think you can't hold them, and wont be able to take them back for a long time.

For example as AS, you will most likely lose Alexandria-escharte and Marakanda early on. Scorched earth would be of use here, since your major recruitment cities are very far away, and you'll probably focus on Levant and Anatolia at first. By the time you return to Transosaxonia, the infastructure has most likely been fixed, and maybe even improved in those two towns.

**Menestheus** · February 04, 2012, 08:29 AM

Only problem that can arise with using this tactic is that even if you exterminate, when you destroy all buildings and withdraw your army a revolt can occur if your enemy does not re-occupy the city fast enough, giving them a new army to play with.

**~~The Kybrothilian~~** · February 04, 2012, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by Menestheus

Only problem that can arise with using this tactic is that even if you exterminate, when you destroy all buildings and withdraw your army a revolt can occur if your enemy does not re-occupy the city fast enough, giving them a new army to play with.

Depends on, who the rebels will go to in the first place. Settlements usually have a home faction who they rebel to, though I think that if they rebel from the home faction, they go for the Eleutheroi instead.

**Sting the King** · February 04, 2012, 03:22 PM

I used raiding on the ptolomei powerhouse of late game. Raided all of their Asia Minor cities + everything down to Jerusalem basicly. It didnt' stop them at all, for some time they were just pupming out levy armies, and after that they just got back of track. Ptolomei stack spam is such a boring thing

.

**Menestheus** · February 04, 2012, 07:14 PM

Must admit that playing as Pahlava, I got a real kick out of using deep penetration raiding against the Seleukids. Sending in a Steppe nomad raiding party (with a few regional noble units for diversity) into the heart of their territory and camping outside a major city (Ala Seleukia or Antioch) until they surrendered/sallied forth then exterminating their populations, destroying their infrastructure and riding off into the sunset with their women to repeat the process elsewhere was something I found truly invigorating. Used to leave wonders intact out of respect though.

**Thracian Princess** · February 08, 2012, 08:57 AM

As others have said, that would not be the Scorched Earth Policy, but instead raiding, and yes it is effective. Scorched Earth tactics could be effective if you think you won't be able to retake the city you're destroying and leaving to die for a long time, but you'd need to be careful and it would be a very situational thing. I'd personally only use Scorched Earth tactics if I was in dire trouble and wanted to deny my enemy any advantage taking my city would give them. But yes, I think, if used in the right situation, Scorched Earth tactics could be effective.

**Boriak** · February 08, 2012, 06:03 PM

The AI gets money through the script so it's no use demolishing economic buildings. The only buildings worth destroying so the AI can't use them are the military installations and possibly blacksmiths. Other than that, Scorched Earth tactics would only hurt you in the overall scheme (since I assume you are bound to take that city again).

**Ferdiad** · February 11, 2012, 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by Boriak

The AI gets money through the script so it's no use demolishing economic buildings. The only buildings worth destroying so the AI can't use them are the military installations and possibly blacksmiths. Other than that, Scorched Earth tactics would only hurt you in the overall scheme (since I assume you are bound to take that city again).

Im not sure of that actually.