casualties

[Ibrahim]

I like MTW2's prisoner taking abilities; I find it fun and amusing listenin to the prisoners begging for mercy.

that said-what are you going to do about casualties (killed, wounded); the battles tend to degenerate into senseless, overly violent carnage (c'mon, you know the average battle doesn't have 50+ casualties for the winner); does this have to do with lethality, or is it simply a different engine, or, most feared, is it hardcoaded? ; I'm not sure...
just out of curiosity.
and is it possible for you to make differinlethlities for different misslie(jaelin, etc) types? or is that hardcoaded too?

[General Appo]

Actually, in ancient warfare the winner rarely took more then 5% casualties, and most men were killed when they tried to flee. After all, why do you think so many men from so many cultures where eager to go to war and gain plunder if half of the winning army´s men always died?
I for one is truly looking forward to taking prisoners and giving them the proper treatment (being nailed to a cross that is).

[antisocialmunky]

It would be fun if EB was implemented like that. I don't like replacing half my men and having to run back to Italy to do it.

[stupac]

Seems to me M2:TW got it reversed, I thought it was typically only the nobles who were kept alive so they could be ransomed, sort of a unspoken courtesy between rulers. If that was correct, FM's would be captured and ransomed rather than the army. How I wish they had implemented that. Maybe some historians can comment on the classical period, but I think that for the most part enemies that surrendered would most likely be disbanded and returned to the now subjugated population, I don't think they had POW camps. Those who ran would be killed. Maybe if the general felt the enemy had committed some especially heinous act, he might offer no quarter. I don't think M2:TW system of releasing and ransoming is especially realistic.

[Maeran]

Maybe take the less politically useful prisoners as slaves?

Prisoners were definitely taken by both sides during the 1st Punic war. Otherwise there could not have been prisoner exchanges.

[Ibrahim]

Actually, in ancient warfare the winner rarely took more then 5% casualties, and most men were killed when they tried to flee. After all, why do you think so many men from so many cultures where eager to go to war and gain plunder if half of the winning army´s men always died?
I for one is truly looking forward to taking prisoners and giving them the proper treatment (being nailed to a cross that is).

that was what I said in my opening post (when I said winners don't take 50+% casualties); my question had nothing much to do with prisoners either: I was asking if EB team can find a way to cut down on exessive carnage to the average 5% winner casualties..

[dom385]

the only trouble with having 5% casualties is that you would constantly be fighting the same army. and how is looking out across a field of your dead enemies with baners sticking up out of them not a realy cool sight it wouldnt have quite the same affect wiht about 50 bodies.

[Ibrahim]

true, but still:

if you can kill more than the 5-15% of the enemy, then it shows true genius(or madness); it also more realistic, since most defeated armies in antiquity could still remain fighting (e.g Scipio the elder's (not Africanus-that was his son) defeat & death did not destroy the roman army in spain-just badly mauled it), or Antiochos II after thermopylae 190-ish BC.

it's also more challenging, now that you won't be unopposed once you've badly defeated an enemy (i.e wars last longer)
besides, if you read carefully, I was referring to the winner, not loser

[General Aetius]

I don't think 5-15% will work in a game where the armies are already undersized and cant be made as big as they were historically. Ancient armies where anything from 10,000's too 100,000's.

and casualties weren't always so low:

1. Issus- the Persians lost about 50% of their army
2. Trebia- Romans lost 30,000 of their 40,000
3. lake Trasimene- Romans again lost around 30,000 of their approximate 40,000
4. Cannae- Romans lost 50,000 out of around 86,000
5. Carrhae- 24,000 Romans killed and 10,000 captured from an army of 39,000
6. Aquae Sextae- 100,000 of 150,000 Germans (Teutones) killed
7. Adrianople- 40,000 of 60,000 Romans killed

General Aetius