Captives after battle.

[Von Nanega]

What is your way of dealing with prisoners commonly? Why?

[Barry Fitzgerald]

I tend to ransom them to get cash..but if the AI has been niffing me off...I just kill them all...maybe it is in the hope that they will back off and stop attacking me...but they never seem to! Maybe I should release them! lol

[zverzver]

It all depends but in my current game I normaly kill them all. There are number of reasons for it mainly deriving from the fact that I play Russia.
I don't care about my standing with the Pope. And most of my catolic allies are excomunicated.
My best generals are my Czar and my Prince and I find it imposible to make them chivalrious as I use a lot of assasins and they pick up a lot of dread from it.
I use a cavalry heavy army so pick up a lot of prisoners, even knights are imprisond as light missile cavalry can outrun them. It is counterintuitive to defeate a full stack enemy army in the field but let 40% to 70% retreate to the fortress after the battle when I will have to assault it shortly.
I used to ransom prisoners before but AI dont have money for ransom, thay may have money to ransom after first defeat but afterwards they are broke anyway. So if they are going to die anyway why should bother and not pick up extra dread.
Currently my Czar who is 46 is 9 stars and 10 dread, and my Prince (23) is 7 stars and 8 dread (he started with 4 stars).

I think even Mongols are affraid of my generals.

[pevergreen]

Kill em if there are a decent amount. When its something like 4 town militia, 12 archers, ill ransom.. of if its the HRE i release! GO THE HRE YOU NEED ALL THE HELP YOU CAN GET!

[Von Nanega]

So maybe I should have added depends on the faction option.

[John Johnston]

It varies from campaign to campaign, but I played a full campaign in which I released nearly everyone, and it didn't make things noticeably harder than one in which I executed and/or ransomed 'em all.

"Very well, varlets, you are free to go. But bear ye in mind that should you turn up next year and attempt to have us in the face, verily we will pwn the hell out of thee again, and sew gold chevrons onto our sleeves."

Admittedly that was pre-patch, and in the colder, harsher world of enemy troops who don't simply line up and wait to be shot, things may be harder.

I like the idea of releasing HRE troops.

[zverzver]

P.S.
Thinking about it, as your general gets more dread your enemies run earlear so you take more prisoners to execute and get your dread even higher. Great circle.

[Bongaroo]

Early game I will ransom. Mid-game I'll look at a lot of factors, such as current funds, expected funds, what size is the nation attacking, do they have any money left anyways...etc.

$$$$

[Sir_Hawkwood]

I find that past 100 turns or so, the AI never has the cash to pay the ransom, so its a choice.

1, Ransom them and end up kiling them without penalty to your reputation
2, Kill them and take the uplift to your dread
3, Let them go...

When I had a few Generals engaged in an active war with the HRE, I chose to kill the prisoners... An HRE stack usually comprises of of low grade units and I found the moral penalty a high dread General gave to be usefull in causing chain routs.

If I capture low grade prisoners then I release them for the Chivalry and for the oppertunity to kill them later for chevrons.

When my army is in jepardy from a large enemy stack nearby, I'll ransom the prisoners because my oponents rarely have enough money to pay.

As discussed in other threads, its difficult enough to level up your units on what opposing factions and rebels throw at you alone, so unless I'm looking for dread to face low moral enemys or have found myself in a poor position, I'll let the poor sods go and hunt them later.

Well...It is Christmas, after all...

Many thanks
SJH

[Bob the Insane]

Money, cash, moolah, spondulicks...

Call it what you like, but I needs it, I wants it....

[Darth Nihilus]

Kill them everytime.

[katank]

The ph33r your superdread generals cause is just awesome. The AI almost never pays the ransom anyhow.

I personally like to use lots of spies/assassins so my king gets dread traits. Chilvarous generals tend to get rebellious when the king is high dread. So my entire general force is high dread.

[madchoochter]

Depends on the general, the cash value of the prisoners and the wealth of the nation of the prisoners. If the general is dread, I always execute. If he's chiv either ransom or release. Ransom if I think they can pay or I don't want them to live but general has good chiv.

I once made the mistake of releasing a bunch Scots instead of ransoming them from an army lead by King Rufus the Chivalrous. I was trying to bump up his chiv even more. Turns out I only killed 1/8th the full stack army and routed the rest, but I suffered enough casualties to leave approx 2/3rds a stack (was not a full stack to begin with tho').

The stack came flying out of Dublin next turn and obliterated the entire army. If I'd executed them, Scotland would be finished. Dublin would have fell easily as the garrison was puny. Moral? Kindness doesn't pay! Everyone gets burned/executed now. None of this be nice to your enemies. Attack me, you die! Defend yourselves, you die!

Well not really, I'm just very bitter about that. A very costly mistake to make.

[Ektelion]

I tend to try and ransom denying the amounts of money the other faction got.

When I have a general with already high dread that I want to buff a bit more, I do the execution.

That and when the anemy just lost a huge stack I dont want to face again for sure.

[Sir_Hawkwood]

Mmm... Madchooters situation only happens to you once...
I know that I'd permanently change my stance if the above happened to me...

[katank]

Note that if the number of captives is less than 80 men, it will not influence your traits. Thus, releasing them does you absolutely no good.

If the number is over 300 or so, it's likely not a good idea to release either as that is actually a hefty number that you'd not want to fight esp. if they retreat to a city that you want to siege.

Thus, there is a very small numerical window for release but executing is always awesome

[madchoochter]

Mmm... Madchooters situation only happens to you once...
I know that I'd permanently change my stance if the above happened to me...

Yup. I play with minimal battle ui which does not have the prisoner counter in battle and didn't realise there were so many. I should have paid more attention to the release/ransom/execute window tho'.

[Sir_Hawkwood]

Less than 80 men?... I had no idea...
Thanks for the advice...

I'll still release them if I think I'll easily defeat them next time, though.

Cheers
SJH

[Halaster]

It depends on the situation. I fought a Heroic Battle with my king against two army stacks and when the battle was done I ransomed the prisoners back to the English for 10,000 florins. The bad part was they attacked me with that ransomed stack and another army right away and we barely won. Now I look at what force I have in the area and what force the enemy has. If the stack can turn the tide against me, I execute.

[IPoseTheQuestionYouReturnTheAnswer]

All my prisoners go off to the Janissary Firing Squad without fail. Usually I'll hang my mouse button over the 'Execute' button for a minute or so before pressing it, just to hear them beg for mercy. It's all so medieval.

[Rhinehard von Dill]

I usually give them no quarter. The last thing I want is to see them in battle again. I've only played as the HRE so my standing with the Pope means little to me.

[Musashi]

I basically release them all. Occasionally I'll ransom them if there's a huge ransom, but typically I release them. I like making my enemies pay upkeep on crippled units, and how the AI sends them back at me without retraining them.

[Wizzie]

Wow, what a bunch of cold-hearted despots you all are!
I usually do whatever the General in command would do.
i.e. Chivalric: Release, Dreadful: Execute. If I can't remember which the General is (can be annoying trying to decide and not knowing what your general's stats are) I ransom. I use the same system in capturing cities. Endlessly sacking cities makes the game far too easy anyway :P

[BigTex]

I release them, almost 100% of the time. Only have executed them twice. Though in some cases when you capture over 2000 I ransom them, give em a fair shot at life or death. Mainly becuase I don't want to have to fight them again, because it could be horendous. About 99% of the time the AI will reject the near 10,000 ransom so they get the sword. The only problem is they on occasions have accepted the ransom, you get the money but they have a full army again .

[Zenicetus]

If I'm understrength on that part of the map, I might execute to avoid killing them all over again. If I haven't had a good battle in a while, and the AI is struggling, I'll release or ransom depending on my estimation of the enemy's finances.

A captured high-star general always goes to the chopping block. I think generals are overpowered in this game. They can act like solo Supermen with a high enough rank, and if I've taken the time (and lost the men) to capture one of these dangerous critters, then I'm not going to give it another chance to deplete my units.

[FrauGloer]

For me, it depends on who the aggressor is. If I attack on enemy soil, I try to get as much money out of the enemy as I can --> Ransom.
The sole exception to this: I always kill all french and all danish prisoners. No offense intended, but those two factions always backstab me regardless of which faction I play, so they deserve what they get!

If, however, an opponent (usually the French, lol) is foolish enough to invade my lands and lay siege to my towns, every single one dies. No mercy is given whatsoever, regardless of general chivalry, as that's an executive order right from the King's "office"!

There are sometimes countries who attack me even though I really don't want war with them (for instance, being german, I always want to be allied with the HRE ) - too bad that the AI always declares war sooner or later if you share a border. In this case, I release all prisoners taken. That's the rare exception to the rule, though.

Ergo: Live and let live, attack me and die!

[Halaster]

I hear you on the French. In my game as the English they laid siege to three towns in one turn. No Quarter was given to the captives, since the combined captives from the three battles was almost 2,000 troops and I couldn't have them coming back soon. Also I have a mission to take Paris and need them as weak as possible. :)

[Snoil The Mighty]

For me it depends on my pre-game "rules". For instance, started Spain on VH/VH last night. All muslim prisoners are to be executed, all game-Reconquista RunAmok game. (Gave myself other conditions such as letting my popescale drop below 5 after diplomatic contact equals a loss, must conquer New World, etc). Will have this rule in a Hungarian campaign I plan to start too where instead of chivalry I will emphasize dread (Hi Valddie ol pal! My o my, what pointy teeth you have....). Haven't decided if the Hungarians will extend such harshness to the ERE, though, as of yet. I am planning a Merchants of Venice Campaign in which summary executions will not be allowed (bad for Bizniss m"lord!), though executions will probably happen frequently as every time regardless of situation they will be offered ransom. That regime will be Mercantilist to the core. Too bad they nerfed bribery to the point of uselessness...

So to answer original post, depends on my personal rules for that campaign.

[Von Nanega]

Seema like so far ransom the loser for profit is getting the most votes.
I will be starting one of the Muslim factions soon. When I do that, any captured Muslim prisoners are released. Catholics will be ransomed only if a faction family member is in the prisoners. All others will be killed. Might be some interesting house rules to follow for Islamic faction.
Thanks for the reply to the poll.

[baron_Leo]

As I never start a war, probably (actually not probably, but pretty sure...actually you can scratch pretty) the other nation declared war. I am a peace loving man I really get pi**ed when someone is declaring war on me, and when I pi**ed, then everyone must die. I do not even think about a ransom...releasing them...bahhh, have you seen Saving Private Ryan? Then you know what happens...