21.15 Plundering, looting and razing/destroying locations.

Let us assume you have completed your legion engagement and stand victorious on the battlefield. You have laid siege to the enemy defences and these have been destroyed. What follows is the plunder and potential razing (destruction) of the conquered territory. This is described below. See HELP BATTLEFIELD for details of legion conflict and engagement; HELP BESIEGING for information on laying siege and destroying defences; and HELP SUPPLICATION, HELP CONQUEST and HELP OCCUPATION for helpfiles detailing the end-consequences of these military actions.

NOTE: remember you will need to have deployed your legions to utilise the appropriate skills for plundering and razing, using the ACTIONS and DEPLOY command orders. This is documented in HELP DEPLOY and should be perused before you attempt your plundering/razing endeavour.

Syntax: ... PLUNDER <direction>/HEREABOUTS.
Plundering is one of the most enjoyable of exercises for the soldiery, a great boost for morale. It employs, for the most part, the specialist-skill of "plundering" to dictate discipline, speed and efficiency of the action. To plunder is to strip an undefended target or locale of its contents, passing the possessions/valuables/livestock out from the defenceless positions back into the inventory of the plundering aggressors. This is used to decimate enemy treasure chambers, commodity stores, bank vaults, etc. It can be used to empty the deepest, darkest stockroom of its booty - providing you have your legions in place and all defences (and, of course, defensive legions) have been fully destroyed.

Syntax: ... RAZE <direction>.
Bringing to bear the most destructive specialist-skill of all, that of "razing", this command-order leaves a potentially indelible mark on the landscape of battle. Most commonly it is used within the citywalls of a defeated foe and as part of a broader strategy to force a surrender or strengthen a bargaining position preceding an occupation. Quite simply, razing a direction destroys it completely. The location target must be besieged of all defences and plundered of all its goods; then it can be destroyed permanently.

Short of divine intervention there is no way to recover a razed target; it must be reconstructed from scratch. Ministry buildings, commodity stores, guilds, shops, great palaces, gatehouses, private homes: all are potentialy vulnerable to being razed.

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