How to quickly destroy houses?

Question

I want to upgrade an island's worth of level 1 houses, and the best way I figure is to just destroy everything and let it rezone to my best houses (lvl4 I believe).

My question is then, how do I easily destroy many houses? The only way I figured out to destroy a house is to dig under it then fill the ground, but it's messy because right clicking digs next to the house, then I have to drag towards it multiple times to really destroy it.

Alternatively, is there a better way to upgrade?

Edit: another downside to my way so far is that since I can only destroy one house at a time, and slowly (takes time to drag earth around like that), the guys that vacate the house start construction right away, never giving me time to increase the zone size. I feel I must be missing something here.

Answer 1

1. Stock up on belief before you start
2. Activate a Totem somewhere out of the way
3. Resculpt the land underneath houses to destroy them, then replace the land after the huts are gone

People will flood out of the destroyed houses but won't start building new houses - they will go to the totem! Once you're ready for them to rebuild, deactivate the totem.

Don't do too many houses at once, people get sick while worshipping, if you take too long they'll all die when you deactivate the totem!

Answer 2

The two ways that I know of that you can use to destroy houses are

1. move the ground from underneath them like you have mentioned before

2. use the god power finger of god, this can be used to destroy houses though it doesn't last to long.

There are other god powers that can be used to destroy things though they normally lead to a small trail of destruction behind them which may not be your desired effect, though if it is you could always use something like a meteor strike

Answer 3

It looks like the only way is doing what you mentioned. I haven't gotten super far into the main island, but perhaps if you can unlock Tsunami you can wipe out your starting island.

Answer 4

I did it the way you said (too), but afaik you can also use the "Finger of god" to crush the houses of your humble servants. Maybe take reinsurrance that they wont build any new houses while the resoning isn't completed, so place a totem nearby, where they don't stay in the way...crush everything (very expensive in "mana") and see the city arise again, from the ashes of their past.

Answer 5

If you can build a reliable fire break, Meteor works wonders. A house burning out is practically the only thing I know of that leaves a space completely clear.