What can you do with prisoners?

[Rarity]

Hi,
I'm very new to Med II. When my units attack enemy, I usually get a lots of prisoners. I don't know what to do with them.

[A Nerd]

You can release them to your enemy, ransom them to your enemy (he will pay for them or refuse, in which case they are executed), or you can execute them. This all occurs after the battle sequence has been concluded. I beleive the options arise back on the strat map. Kings and heirs are worth alot of money (in most cases)! Hopefully this is helpful! :)

[Nelson]

You can release them to your enemy, ransom them to your enemy (he will pay for them or refuse, in which case they are executed), or you can execute them. This all occurs after the battle sequence has been concluded. I beleive the options arise back on the strat map. Kings and heirs are worth alot of money (in most cases)! Hopefully this is helpful! :)

In addition,your decision can add or detract from your commander’s chivalry or dread rating.

[Alrik]

It also affects you reputation.

Freeing them gives them back to your opponent, which raises the comanding general's chivalry and your reputation.

Asking for ransom gives them back to the opponent if he chooses to pay, but your reputation isn't affected either way regardless if he pays or not, a very good option on islands and such where the released army can't retreat far enough and is routed as a consequence (which means you get money and they don't get their troops back)

Executing the prisoners usually lowers your general's chivalry or raises his dread, it also lowers your reputation.

There's also loyalty, generals with high dread likes executing prisoners and gains loyalty by doing so, but they lose loyalty by releasing prisoners. Things are the other way around for generals with high chivalry. sometimes I get the impression that generals that hasn't seen any action (at all or in a while) gain loyalty by simply leading an army in battle.

[Rarity]

You can release them to your enemy, ransom them to your enemy (he will pay for them or refuse, in which case they are executed), or you can execute them. This all occurs after the battle sequence has been concluded. I beleive the options arise back on the strat map. Kings and heirs are worth alot of money (in most cases)! Hopefully this is helpful! :)

Must I take their captains (or generals) to get the options?

[_Tristan_]

No, but if I recall correctly, you need to capture at least 80 men to get the ransom options.

Of course, capturing a general (a named avatar, not a simple captain) should gain you higher ransoms... However I tend to notice that most factions are close to bankruptcy very easily and will often refuse to pay ransom from lack of funds...

One nice quirk of ransoms is that if you capture men during sieges, even if you manage to ransom them, as the game considers that they have no escape route, they'll be put to the sword anyhow : a win-win situation... (Less so if that is you losing that siege...)

[Rarity]

Oh, I get it..
When I first played the game, I can get the options when I get many prisoners. And I fingured it out that I was fighting to Rebels all along!

[_Tristan_]

Yes, I should have mentioned that ransom only works against AI factions with the exception of rebels... My bad...