Once again the subject of sieges, pillaging etc come up. I've written about it several times before, but I realize it's both complex and perhaps poorly explained.
Occupy: To occupy a province you need to neutralize all fortifications within. Then you need a number of units = province level to do the actual occupation. These units are in addition to any neutralizing units. Think of it like this; those units neutralizing fortifications are conducting sieges, thus cannot steal, rape, burn, and kill the common people.
Neutralize: To neutralize you need (castle lvl + units inside) x2 units of your own (this is one of the times when levy/militia is just excellent for providing you with numbers - you don't leave them alone with a siege of course, or use the for assaults, but for just sitting around catching various diseases they truly excel). Forts are (fort lvl + units inside) x1 own units.
Forage: Once you occupy a province you can forage freely; just put your units on half supply and note that they are foraging. This will cause province growth damage, reduce prosperity, save you upkeep, and hopefully keep your troops fed. Technically you CAN forage even if you don't occupy, but you are much less likely to succeed.
Pillage: If you occupy you can pillage. EXCEPT that which is protected by fortifications! Even a neutralized castle protects against this, up to its own level, all holdings AND province level. A neutralized fort only protects the holding it's protecting. Big difference. Also remember that trade holdings never get any protection from fortifications
Taken from the RG:
To pillage a holding you must have a number of active units present equal to the holding level. The pillaging units can be the same ones that occupy the province, but they cannot also be engaged in other tasks such as taking part in a siege or acting as law holdings, nor can they pillage multiple holdings simultaneously (but if you have extra units present they can do it).
Pillaging a holding nets you a number of GB equal to holding level, although you must expect your units to keep some of the money for themselves (expect to get anything from 50% and up to 100%, depending on the situation – lawful good templars of Haelyn under the direct command of the Pontiff might take nothing for example).
You can also pillage province levels. Each pillaging unit causes 2 GB worth of negative growth and gains you 1 GB of pillage (of which part might be taken by the unit, as described above). Provinces can be pillaged once per month. If enough negative growth is accumulated the province level is reduced accordingly. Excess holding levels are immediately lost (so it's a good idea to pillage those first).
Cracking a heavily fortified province can be very tough. I won't go into the rules for fortifications and dealing with them, but it can take many, many turns. But there IS something you can do. You can cripple you opponent's ability to gain income from the province and/or kill his prosperity. Occupation is worth -1 prosp, pillaging another -1. If you can actually manage to pillage that's even more prosp hits. So either the besieged has to drop his taxes to little or nothing, or his prosperity will plummet. The end effect is much the same.
This sounds about right doesn't it? You've in control of the countryside, with the enemy hiding behind some fortified cities and towns, nobles' castles, and military forts etc. You can't get to the really important stuff or force him to battle, but you can make sure he doesn't enjoy the fruits of his commoners' labors.
Note: If a province drops to rebellious because o sieges etc. doesn't mean they are rebelling against their lord. It just means the commoners are at the end of the line. They are probably hating more on the attackers than their own lords.
