Viking Raiders and Loot.

[Garuda]

If a band of Viking raiders arrives in one of your provinces but does not have enough men to successfully lay siege to your castle do they still gain any loot?

I ask because I'd like to know whether or not it's necessary to keep raising the levies to chase them off every time.


EDIT: Also, if raiders do successfully carry away loot how does it directly effect my income and/or vassal's incomes? Does looting have any negative impact on the county itself?

 

[Cliges]

If a band of Viking raiders arrives in one of your provinces but does not have enough men to successfully lay siege to your castle do they still gain any loot?

I ask because I'd like to know whether or not it's necessary to keep raising the levies to chase them off every time.

Unless they changed it in recent patches, there is a certain amount of wealth in a province that's protected by the fort level. That has to be sieged in order to be looted, but the rest can be looted just by raiders being present.

 

[iniudan]

Yes, free looting itself reduce tax income, ever notice the yellow bar in the settlement windows, when it is full you get full taxes. There is also a protected loot level, it will never go down lower then it, from free looting, as long as the holding have not been successfully besiege, the protected loot is affected by fortification level.

 

[Finnish Dragon]

Yes, they will get some loot by pillaging the countryside. The best way to reduce that loot and make you less attractive is to build fortifications and walls. The Vikings do generally target wealthy and poorly defended provinces were they can get plenty of loot so having good fortification level in your provinces makes them to choose other targets.

If Vikings raid your land then my policy is always to kick them to the sea. However, if small viking parties loot my vassals but are unable to conquer castles then I my choose to ignore them. I tend to engage larger viking raider forces because they can do pretty much damage if successful.

 

[szmik]

sometimes province doesn't have enough income so whole is protected, AI seems to target such province regardless and you can simply ingore them. If they try to loot my capital, I just raise my levies and throw them back to sea, annoying thing is I have to do that once a month for years.

 

[JaguarXJ6]

Being raided in one or two counties doesn't have a major impact on your income if you have a sizable collection of vassals. As Francia, I don't even see income budge it if they are raiding 5 counties at once. The cost of forts is a larger drain on income than letting them raid. It's the seige/warscore that ticks me off and why I shoo them out.

That doesn't happen in peacetime, I found the AI will avoid protected counties if there is a stack made of retinues and demon army split into 3 stacks and positioned within 2 counties of any coastal one. Of course, moving these opens me up to raids again.

 

[Maeldun]

Being raided in one or two counties doesn't have a major impact on your income if you have a sizable collection of vassals. As Francia, I don't even see income budge it if they are raiding 5 counties at once. The cost of forts is a larger drain on income than letting them raid. It's the seige/warscore that ticks me off and why I shoo them out.

That doesn't happen in peacetime, I found the AI will avoid protected counties if there is a stack made of retinues and demon army split into 3 stacks and positioned within 2 counties of any coastal one. Of course, moving these opens me up to raids again.

There will be a noticeable reduction in your tax income if the looters are raiding a province in your demesne. Feudal vassals don't normally pay taxes to their liege. You have to pass a law for that and it's not generally worth the loss in vassal levies resulting from the negative opinion modifier.

Note that there's currently a bug that will cause raiders to remain in a province indefinitely, well after they've collected all unprotected loot and despite being unable to siege.

 

[TheCrimsonMajor]

Yes, they will take loot above the fort protection line. I guess this creates kind of a gameplay disadvantage to building only cities in your new holding slots (besides having weaker mixes of military units).