After completing the civil war story line (Imperial side), I was ordered to destroy any Stormcloak encampments I happen to come across during my travels. Since my character excels in sneaking and archery, I figured it would be fun to load up on some dragonbone arrows do some sniping. After decimating a couple of camps, I saw that I racked up 22 murders! I did not incur a bounty (thankfully!), but the fact that sacking these camps counts as murder bothers me, especially since Legate Rikke herself gave the order. Anyone else encounter this, perhaps from the Stormcloak side as well as Imperial Legion?

Nah, sniping Stormcloaks/ Imperials (delete as applicable) is fun!

Killing my stormcloak brothers and sisters is murder.

I kill deer and other animals and for some weird reason it counts towards assault.

The SPCA and PETA have strong chapters in Tamriel, hunt at your own risk.

Is that a surprise, in a game where killing a chicken is a capital offense?

Doing this after the war is finished is murder, indeed. You can decimate all the camps you want but only before the end of the war.

And this makes perfect roleplaying sense to me. It's this way in real life, too.

I dont get what the problem is. You finish the CW quest (regardless of side) and are told to take out any camps of the opposing side that you come across in your travels. Who cares if you charge in with a warhammer or snipe from a distance? You're still doing the same thing. Shelly's right. Perfect RP'ing sense.

I think this is a matter of perspective. The greater war is over, yes. But the fact that there still exists enclaves of "terrorists" that threaten the social order, regardless of which side you were on during the quest (Imperial or Stormcloak), eradicating terrorists should not be registered as "murder" in your game log.

I'm with you on that. Our orders are to take out enemy camps in the HOPE that one day they'll leave (Which they never do). Any camp of the enemy before the war's conclusion is now still home to the enemy in my mind whether you call them terrorists, liberators or rebels. With the end of the war these SHOULD be abandoned or subject to destruction. Again IMO

That is unless the enemy camps are in your territory and the negotiated peace allows them to remain there. No nation will allow an enemy to remain within their borders unless it is weak and can't enforce a complete withdrawal.

But on the flip side of that Ive come across enemy camps during my travels after the CW quest is over. Just minding my business and they spot me and attack, so why wouldn't I take the initiative?

Another excellent point. I believe we have taken the initiative in this debate.

It appears that way

Yep. Due to game mechanics, sniping any Stormcloak / Imperial / Thalmor is considered murder, although attacking those in military camps usually won't net you a bounty. What irks me is that attacking random Stormcloaks in Imperial territory does net you a bounty, and vice versa for Imperials.

Not if you face-pull them. If you stand near them long enough to make them attack first*, you don't even get an assault crime.

*For Thalmor, you can just talk to them and force them to call you a heretic; for Escorting a Prisoner encounters, you can free the prisoner.

That is true for all patrols, they don't like you getting into their biz, just hanging around long enough can sometimes trigger an attack. As mentioned before it's too bad you can't take the intiiative but game rules explicitely state it is not a crime IF YOU are attacked, not the reverse. So any pre-emptive action is frowned upon unfortunately.

Edit: If you think about it hanging back can have benefits as shown before on this forum as Companions have been attacked accidently by players. Best to just bite the bullet if you KNOW you are facing an enemy and damn the consequences. If you're not sure then verify your target first. Some are obvious and some are not.

Neither should "Friendly Fire" in a battle (IMHOP), but it does.