Warfare

Warfare stub

When you go to war you get to choose a looting policy.

Setting it to "Light Looting" will order your troops to mostly leave the province alone after a succesful siege. This will barely gain your treasury any loot afterwards, but it will also protect the province from manpower loss, province trauma, etc. Useful if you want to keep the province for yourself afterwards. Moreover, this choice will give your armies a boost to siege ability (soldiers who are forbidden to loot will be more disciplined)

Choosing "Medium Looting" will allow your troops to loot, but not to a punitive degree. Choose this if you still want to keep the province, but are currently in the red (i.e. you funded this war with a loan or an expensive mercenary company is draining your treasury) and desperately need funds to continue the war.

Choosing "Severe Looting" is basically giving your troops a free pass to loot, kill and plunder. This option will net you the most amount of money (some gold-rich provinces or cities with high urban developments can net you anywhere from hundreds to upwards of a thousand gold), but it will also kill off a ton of locals, and you will be left with a high level of province trauma. Also, your armies will have a malus to siege ability that will prolong the war significantly, adding to war exhaustion and manpower loss. Only use this on rivals or enemies you have absolutely no interest of conquering and just want to cripple them/spite them/hear the lament of their women (Raid/Humilliate Rival/Diplomatic Insult/Trade Dispute CB are great for this).

However, it's worth keeping in mind that killing off a large portion of a province's population can prove detrimental to your own trading situation. Less pops mean less customers for your industries to sell to, which can be a potential cause for overproduction and wastage. Keep that in mind whenever you want to choose "Severe Looting"