Another stupid thing in M2TW is that with regular tributes and such your budget can go negative, but with onetime deals such as ransoms it cannot. I haven't had anyone agree to a ransom yet, because AI uses its money by the end of its turn, as do I usually. It doesn't matter whether a faction gets a 500 or a 30,000 surplus every turn, if there's no money at that particular moment, ransom is useless. It would be great if paying a ransom could get a faction seriously in debt.

Please tell me I'm wrong in what happens if you release or ransom prisoners. I had a huge battle in which I attacked with 2,500 Macedonians two Getai armies, totaling 4,500 men. I managed to wheel my cavalry so that just before the infantry protecting the flanks of the phalanx broke, the whole enemy line disintegrated. With light infantry and cavalry I managed to capture nearly 4,000 enemies, with only a few hundred enemies killed. I figured this was the deciding moment of the war and, in hopes of peace and as a friendly gesture, I released the prisoners. Just then apparently the two stacks I annihilated reappeared almost at the same spots where they were previously. Is this actually what happens? Instead of returning to recruitment pools the units just reappear at the front lines? If so, what's the point in releasing prisoners if you have to fight them again the next turn?