Prisoners...

[gregori99]

What is the benefit/point of executing the ringleaders/executing them all/releasing them. What abou the "Value of Confiscated Lands"?

I actually roleplay this. If I invade a rebel-held province successfully, I always release the prisoners - after all, they were just defending their homes. But if one of my own provinces rebels I have no mercy on them and execute them all, because they were disloyal. They took their chances and lost

[Bregil the Bowman]

I actually roleplay this. If I invade a rebel-held province successfully, I always release the prisoners - after all, they were just defending their homes. But if one of my own provinces rebels I have no mercy on them and execute them all, because they were disloyal. They took their chances and lost

You shouldn't take it personally. Execute the ringleaders and send the misguided peasants back to the fields.

In battle, I slaughter prisoners only if I'm in danger of losing or if there is a prisoner I particularly want dead - e.g. an enemy king with no heirs. I try not to pick up vices unnecessarily, hence my general rule of mercy for the common soldier.

[Heidrek]

Hi all, I recently started playing MTW Gold Ed. - Great game, I'm throughly addicted now!

Is it possible to get both the Swift Justice type vice/virtue and also get Occasional Mercy or other nice guy traits as well?

How much does Dread actually help in keeping the populace happy? Is it worth it or should you just go for straight happiness boosting traits?

I often kill prisoners in battle for a couple of reasons:

1. To get the Scant Mercy vice/virtue for the +1 Dread.
2. To restrict the amount of soldiers my opponent can potentially field against me later. This makes the conquest easier and more importantly faster. this is particulrly true against the Golden Horde, who show up with a huge army, but no provinces of their own to replenish themselves. Killing every one of their captured soldiers means their army gets dramatically smaller than if you ransom them, and therefore reduces their ability to mount further attacks.

The money you get from ransoming back a bunch of horse archers and heavy cavalry wont help you much when those same units come back with more friends in a copule of turns under a new general. It's not unusual to get 3-400+ prisoners against the Golden Horde, which equates to around 6-10 full units or troops. If I can sacrifice a couple of thoudsand florins to kill half an army that the enemy can't replace, especially when I'm already outnumbered, I'll do it.

Most often I'd rather lose a bit of cash than have to re kill good or annoying units like Horse Archers, heavy infantry/cavalry units. Also, if I've captured an enemy general with a decent command rating I'll kill them all for sure, just to get rid of him. I'd rather face an enemy with a 1 or 2 star general than a 4-5 star general with a -ve morale trait. Especially when they can also get the Captured trait which loses them 1 command, but gives a morale bonus to offset Good Runner.

Didn't know that killing prisoners reduces enemy morale, good to know. I wonder if the number of trooops executed affects the amount of morale lost? I hope so, otherwise you could get big morale swings by many small groups of troops.

The exception to my Kill 'em all approach is weak units. I'll happily ransom back pesants, woodsmen, spearmen and other weak units I've chased down. Good untis though are unlikely to survive a lost battle against me.

Question: Is it only the commanding general that takes a morale hit if they flee? If I ransom back 40 heavy cavalry, and they get lead by a new general, do they have lower morale, or do they keep their natural morale?

[Heidrek]

One other thing too, the Captured Vice gies +3 Morale but -1 Command. If this is on the General of an army, does the whole army get +3 Morale or just his unit?

I have a 9* general at the moment with Expert attacker. If he got the Captured Vice, he'd be 8* with +3 Morale, a pity good trade considering the 9th * only gives extra morale anyway.

Likewise, the Good runner vice gives a -3 morale penalty. does this apply to the generals unit only, or the whole army?

I still favor killing prisoners unless I desperately need some money. I'd rather hasmtring my opponents ability to raise an ongoing defense or counter attack than gain a few hundred florrins. Most likely that would only buy me a couple of new units anyway, some or all of which would die fighting the men I ransomed back. I'd also have to wait to get those new units to the front where I needed them. Killing them now gives me the benefit immediately.

[Tratorix]

The captured and good runner vices affect the entire army under that generals command. So getting your 9* general captured can be helpful, though if your not careful he might flee the field or get himself killed.

[Heidrek]

Even aside from my 9 Command general, the Captured vice is actually not a bad one to have. There are plenty of ways to get your general a few (3-4) stars to allow his troops a small edge in battle. Once he has a few stars he can start winning battles in his own right.

The global Morale boost is pretty decent for the loss of a single star. I might have to start looking for units with Captured commanders to promote with titles and turn into fully fledged generals.

[macsen rufus]

If you want to use the "captured" vice, it's best to find a general that already has it, rather than trying to "earn" it for one that doesn't yet have it. Why? Remember that to get captured, a soldier first has to be running away, and the AI tends to the perverse - if you're trying to get 'captured', you can pretty much expect to get 'good runner' instead .