Scorched earth is one of the oldest tactics in warfare and it was used in Middle Ages, for example during the Crusades by Saladin and in the Hundred Years War by both sides, French and English. It could be implemented very easily in the game. It would lower the supply limit, thus increasing the attrition of your enemy (especially valuable against enemies with larger armies than you) but It would increase the revolt risk and lower income and levies.
Why isn't there a scorched earth tactic in CKII?
- Thread starter kristiani95
- Start date
-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Scorched earth in the HYW was mostly the result of mercenaries going unpaid, not a wilful tactic.
Real answer? Because nobody put it in. I very much suspect that it is not because they decided, after a through study of medieval tactics, that scorched earth was not period appropriate. A much more likely reason is that nobody ever bother putting it in during the limited time devs spend on in it.
Because clickables for every province your army could go through would become annoying, and there are issues with army speeds & AI reaction time (or put another way, chasing down the little AI army bouncing around a few provinces is annoying as is, it would be even more annoying if it was damaging your provinces at the same time).
Enemy lack of access to supplies is factored into the province supply limit in any case.
Enemy lack of access to supplies is factored into the province supply limit in any case.
Every one of those issues exists in EU and yet it has scorched earth. Your point?
I agree with you, it would be very annoying, but if you want a simulation that is something to add 
He didn't mention holdings, but that really doesn't have anything to do do with it. In EU 3 there is even more developed landscapes than CK2's holdings under the penalty of scorched earth.
Upto 5 or so sub sub menus to decide which holding to raze... It is tedious
Don't epidemics (diseases) lower the supply limit of a province?
There is a whole lot to this game that's tedious. For instance, presenting a debutante and then going to the marriage menu to see if she is decent at all. I used to think EU3 was bad, but this is even worse.
Don't know how any player could see the tedium overflowing through and through, if s/he is honest with himself.
Also you must consider the scope of the game where the focus is on managing your dynasty, not military warfare. If you want proper wargame try hearts of iron or shogun.
Not to mention, medieval lords rarely used scorched earth. Chevauchee, and others were about raiding intoenemy lands, not those you owned. Most of the destruction that would count as scorched earth actually came from disgruntled mercenaries; only a few rare instances exist.
One other thing that can be implemented for the atacker's side is pillage. The atacker wouldn't have to siege holdings to gain money, but It will take longer for the army to reach the other province this way.