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Old 11-15-2015, 09:46 AM   #32
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: [Mass Combat] Discipline, Law, Order and Preventing Atrocities

Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
How many in an Average Troop Quality unit of TL 2-4 soldiers will seize upon a chance to rob, rape or murder one or more civilians during an assault on a city that was held by the enemy?
During the assault, in the calm after its success, or once command has been re-established? Those are likely to be different, I suspect.

Let's consider looting first, because troops who don't loot are unlikely to commit any other crimes.

During the assault, only the undisciplined will be diverted by the prospect of loot, because leaving loot around as a distraction is the kind of thing desperate defenders are reputed to do as a means of staging ambushes. However, if the loot is good, and also easy to carry - hard cash, hard liquor, and the like - it will be very tempting.

Once the battle is won, almost any troops will take loot that is lying around, and doesn't have to be actively taken from its owners. Units that had a hard fight and significant casualties are more likely to actively rob, because they feel they deserve recompense. At a rough guess, 20% of troops will actively rob.

Once command has been re-established, and the lying-around loot is all gone, robbery will be confined to the actual criminally minded soldiers, who I'd reckon would be about 5%.

Rapists will be a fraction of the robbers; murderers might well be more common than rapists, simply because confrontations over robbery can turn violent fairly easily.
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