Killing POWs

[Rnold]

Assume you are attacking/defending with a smaller army while a large ai army stands in front of you. You are winning (of course).

Your general already has the scant mercy v&v. Not killing POWs means they will return in the game and are to attack you in the near future. This is not what you want! Killing the POW's means crippling his armies and decreasing the threat the ai poses. It also means a higher dread but a negative effect on the morale or your general.

Assume you dont need the ransom money. What would you do? Killing the POWs, time after time again? Letting them go?
What would happen with the v&v? I know you will get the scant mercy then the no mercy... what is next?

[Kraxis]

Then it is Merciless, then Blood Lover and finally actually a good Vice with no penalty to Morale. Can't seem to remember it.

But yes the Moralepenalty is to the troops. It is not good to get Merciless (+2 Dread, -2 Morale) if your general has no boosters to Morale, as it has come to some players mind that the generals ranks don't add Morale in all cases, if any at all.

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BTW, Danish Crusades are true to history.

You may not care about war, but war cares about you!

[Rnold]

i wouldnt mind riding the enemy down with a satanic horde of infernal knights

[Odyssey of War]

Due to the adverse effects of always killing POWs, I have found that it is best to only kill POWs when you either are losing the battle or when you are trying to fully destroy an enemy. Never kill POWs in battle after battle, as this will also lower morale. One good option I have found is to take a worthless general (but enough to win the fight) to lead your army and get rid of him once the battles where you want to get rid of POWs is over. Then replace him with a better general and watch the morale of your troops go up once again.

For battles against rebels, the best thing is either to just kill the leaders or dont kill anyone. This will keep the province more loyal to you and give less chance for revolts to occur.

[Rnold]

okay so i should keep on killing in other words, until i lose the morale penalty.

[Paladin]

Let me tell you what I do as the Byzantines to my filthy vermin Islamic prisoners:

I herd them into torture chambers where they are beaten night and day until they confess that they were sent by the Devil to destroy the peaceful Christian nations.

I have no mercy for these animals. Is that wrong?

[Rnold]

Paladin:
+2 dread, -2 morale

[aX1s]

When im first attacking a stonger faction i kill due to the fact that the POW's will be put back into the front lines...but once the enemy is weak or iam in need of money i let them go.....btw dont care much for V&V's cuz they dont work properly anyway....

i ve got a 8 star general with 3 dread and ive had egyption armies that outnuber me 2to1 just run from the battle field without taking any casualties WTF

[Kraxis]

Quote Originally posted by Rnold:
okay so i should keep on killing in other words, until i lose the morale penalty.[/QUOTE]

You could... but it takes insane amounts of killing. Normally you won't get past Merciless.

------------------
BTW, Danish Crusades are true to history.

You may not care about war, but war cares about you!

[Kraxis]

Ok I looked it up...

After Merciless you might get Secret Blood Lover (+3 to Dread), but it might become known, we don't know which will happen when you get it, in that case it is +3 Dread, -3 Morale and -2 Piety.

Then there is the Vice Butcher, it is not listed as the PrisonerKiller Vices, but nonetheless it is much the same description and give +3 Dread.

About rebels...
Release all the first time, then kill all, from then on kill the leaders. In another province you can start over.

------------------
BTW, Danish Crusades are true to history.

You may not care about war, but war cares about you!

[Rnold]

Okay. next question. If your gen has a morale penalty it will affect his whole army thus causing it to rout sooner in battle. Bummer.

If your gen has dread rating does this affect your whole army too? In other words: does the enemy become more afraid of the rest of your units? Does this have *any* effect on the battlefield or just on the strategy map?

I read somewhere that the usual dread value has an effect on the strategy map but the scant mercy has effect on the battlefield too... true?

[Cadarn]

Not sure if the game models this, but if I was in an army facing off against a known butcher of prisoners I would have 2 "morale checks".

First, to get me into the battle in the first place!

Second, assuming I'm brave enough to fight the Butcher's army, there is no way I am going to break and run. If the butcher is going to kill his prisoners, then I'm fighting to the death.

Thoughts ?

[Paladin]

Quote Originally posted by Rnold:
Paladin:
+2 dread, -2 morale[/QUOTE]

Is that all the "Dread" I get? And, I think my troops really enjoy it when I torture these degenerates. In fact, I get a +5 to Morale if the prisoners are Ottoman Turks.

I would like to write a little wav file into the game that everytime I kill Ottoman Turk prisoners, a booming voice clearly coming from heaven says, "Well done, my faithful servant."

Thoughts?

[Jaret]

Most enemy units are weak ... I only use to kill prisoners when I capture some nasty, elite units, to get rid of them completely.

Those Peasants are supposed to increase the valour of my armies anyway ... so if he pays the bill ... fine with me ... then I can kill em again http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif.

I always let rebels go ... because it gives your General and your King some nice v&v´s ... increasing the Happyness of their Province or the entire Kindome. Rebels don´t pay for their comrades anyway ... killing them time and again will only get you v&v´s you don´t like.

[Kraxis]

Quote Originally posted by Rnold:
Okay. next question. If your gen has a morale penalty it will affect his whole army thus causing it to rout sooner in battle. Bummer.

If your gen has dread rating does this affect your whole army too? In other words: does the enemy become more afraid of the rest of your units? Does this have *any* effect on the battlefield or just on the strategy map?

I read somewhere that the usual dread value has an effect on the strategy map but the scant mercy has effect on the battlefield too... true?[/QUOTE]

Ok... this is going to get tough.

Yes, the Moralepenalty affects the whole army, that is what is so bad about it.

Dread... this was what I was referring to. Nobody knows if this has any effect besides giving loyalty in the generals province, if he has one. This has been asked perhaps a hundred times, but nobody have been able to provide us with any numbers or facts. Only "It seems the enemy runs from my high-dread generals".
And if it is the case that Dread gives nothing but loyalty, don't kill the rebels, release them instead. Dread gives about 5% loyalty regardless of religion (Piety gives 10% to own religion I think), while 10% to happiness is basically the double of that. So actually 20% to happiness and -1 to Dread, which you get the second time you release the rebels is well worth it, but after that you have to kill them all at least once, for releasing them again will just give you another -1 Dread but nothing to happiness.

[solypsist]

already in the archives.