Currently playing Spain and I had just lost a battle with no cash on hand. So I couldn't ransom my men. But I remember during the same campaign back in the earlier turns, I had sent an army to Lisbon. The army stopped just a step short of the city walls. Lo and behold the Portuguese king and prince brought up an army from out of nowhere and attacked me. I fought them and managed to capture the king and prince. Ransom screen popped up and it was for 24,000 some florins. A godly sum for that stage of the game. I remembered thinking it was probably going to be refused anyway so I hit Ransom.


Much to my surprise they accepted the ransom. Could the Portuguese have been that rich that early in the game? It was probably around turn 10 or 12. They only had Lisbon and Pamplona.

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I think they can go into debt to pay the ransom but then obviously can't build/train until their florins are "back in the black"

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To continue this thought.

...so they won't probably build or recruit anything for atleast 20 turns, knowing how good the AI is with the economy.

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Interesting...well after I got that 24k and they have their king back, the next turn my spy opened the gates to Lisbon and the Portuguese was no more

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It would make sense for them to bankrupt themselves ransoming their king & heir if it was a choice between that and the end of their faction.

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Oh of course, I just find it interesting that it's allowed for them and not us. Or perhaps we can do it to if not accepting to pay meant our faction would end? Has anyone ever been in that position?

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The AI only ransoms if they have the cash. They cannot ransom below 0 (and you cannot either).
Early game, Hungary and Portugal tend to be the richest factions anyway.

If they couldn't afford it, you'd get it in the refusal message. (there are 2 types depending on whether they can afford it or not)

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24k money though is still quite alot, and portugal shouldnt have had that much. Sextus, go to financial rankings graph and see what amount of money the portugals had before the ransom

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Bingo! Yea, according to the charts, at the peak the Portuguese had nearly 30k in the bank

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I find that in every campaign that portugal takes out the 'richest faction' awards, so i'm not surprised that they could pay.

That they did is surprising though

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