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- Pillaging and loot
Pillaging and loot
Raid, steal, escape and bank: take wealth instead of only killing workers.
Raid the economy#
Some military units can pillage farms, storehouses, markets and returning caravans. Pillaging takes time at the target. When it completes, the loot leaves the owner's stockpile and the raider carries it.
| Target | Loot |
|---|---|
| Farm | Food |
| Storehouse | Food, wood, gold or stone: you choose which |
| Market | Gold |
| Returning caravan | The value of its trip |
A raid can take no more than the raider can carry, what the building currently exposes and what the owner actually has. Pillaged buildings recover their exposure over time. Cavalry carries more than infantry, and Steppe cavalry carries the most. A raider carries one kind of resource at a time.
In the development build#
Select soldiers and choose Pillage, then click an enemy farm, storehouse or market. Press Pillage again to change what you take from a storehouse (food, then wood, gold and stone). The raiders work at the building for 3 seconds, take what they can, and head for your nearest storehouse or town hall to bank it. Give them any other order to escape another way; Bank loot sends them to a drop-off of your choice.
| Raider | Carries |
|---|---|
| Scout, Steppe Lancer | 15 |
| Heavy cavalry, Guard Cavalry, Horse Archer | 12 |
| Knight Retinue | 10 |
| Cataphract | 8 |
| Levy, spear, Shield Guard | 5 |
| Bow, skirmisher, Arbalester, Composite Archer | 3 |
The Steppe Confederacies carry 30 % more than these amounts.
Rams, trebuchets, villagers and caravans cannot pillage. A farm or storehouse exposes 30 at most and a market 40, each regaining 0.5 a second. A haul of 10 or more is recorded in the chronicle. Carried loot shows in the selection panel.
To rob a caravan, order raiders to pillage it: they must reach it, and only a caravan heading home with its earnings has anything to take. Dropped loot lies on the ground for 60 seconds as a small sack. Right-click it with soldiers or villagers to pick it up; they carry it home.
Escape and bank it#
Stolen loot counts only once the raider reaches one of your drop-off buildings or a Town Hall. A completed Great Ordu also lets Steppe raiders bank at forward camps. If the raider dies on the way, the loot drops on the ground. Anyone can pick it up, including the villagers of the player who was robbed.
Diplomacy#
Pillaging is a hostile act. You cannot pillage a ruler you have a Truce with, or a teammate. The owner is always warned when their buildings are being pillaged, and anyone who can see a raider can see what it carries.