Quote Originally Posted by yesdachi
that would be some sweet ransom $ if you could catch an AI king

Yeah, you can get some pretty insane ransoms from kings, princes, and jedi generals. I've been paid as much as 30,000 florins for a single guy before (although most factions can rarely afford such an amount).

Of course, on the flip side, I've had to pay a pretty hefty sum for some of my boys who get captured. One game I where I was playing as the Spanish, I had conquered the Iberian peninsula and the Almohad Caliphate, and had set my sights on establishing an empire around the Mediterranean. Doing this meant destroying the Sicilians (which I was more than happy to do since they're backstabbing bastards anyway ). Leading the invasion was my mediocre crown prince (4 loyalty, 6 piety, 3 dread, 2 stars, and 5 acumen). I had hopes that this war with the Sicilians would either kill him, or make a man out of him. Although I couldn't have known at the time, this turned out to be a grave error on my part.

I took out the Sicilians quickly enough, but then things started to go wrong. First of all, I was excommunicated. This wouldn't have been so bad, however, except for one thing: My 8-influence, 7-star uber-king unexpectedly died (he was only 49) right as my crown prince--who had actually been improving--was leading an attack on the Pope (so as to cancel my excommunication).

Then the worst happened: My crown prince, who was now suddenly the king (although he didn't know it yet), was captured in battle with the Papal armies. Since I had no direct heirs of age yet (only royal uncles and little brothers that were too young), letting him be executed would've plunged my empire into civil war. And I wanted to keep him in any case--he now had 9 influence, 8 piety, 6 dread, 4 stars, and 7 acumen (he picked up the trait that gives +2 to both piety and acumen).

The ransom demanded for him? 55,000 florins. I paid it, but doing so ate up over half my cash reserves.....