Best way to capture kings?

[Martok]

Just about any time I've captured a faction leader, I've had to force his BG unit to route first. If he simply stands and fights without running, he'll usually be killed instead of captured.

Certainly the most foolproof way to capture a king, however, is (as the others have already pointed out) to leave him no province to which he can escape to. Even if a faction leader makes it off the battlefield without being caught, he'll still end up in your clutches if he has no place to go.

[caravel]

Just about any time I've captured a faction leader, I've had to force his BG unit to route first. If he simply stands and fights without running, he'll usually be killed instead of captured.

Certainly the most foolproof way to capture a king, however, is (as the others have already pointed out) to leave him no province to which he can escape to. Even if a faction leader makes it off the battlefield without being caught, he'll still end up in your clutches if he has no place to go.

+1

The problem with the high defence/low attack unit approach is that the faction leader's/general's unit will always be "winning easily" against them. So his morale is unlikely to break and he will most likely go down fighting. I find that the best way to capture a general/faction leader is to rout his other elite units around him first, and then take on his unit. If this doesn't rout him, then his morale is probably too high to rout anyway and he will probably fight to the death. In general terms if you've wiped out his army and the rest of his unit, then you'll probably end up killing him before you capture him.

[Roark]

Just surround him with spears. He'll usually start running eventually, and as long as he's got rank upon rank of spears around him, he'll eventually get captured.

If he's massively high valour, though, quite often it's just plain impossible. In this case, just javelin him to death.

[Ignoramus]

A 100% chance of capturing a king is in the Late Era with England. You can grab your army from Mercia and Wessex and invade Denmark. The Danish King always retreats, and so falls into your hands. Because the Danes hold Estonia, you still get around 10,000 florins.

[Beirut]

A 100% chance of capturing a king is in the Late Era with England. You can grab your army from Mercia and Wessex and invade Denmark. The Danish King always retreats, and so falls into your hands. Because the Danes hold Estonia, you still get around 10,000 florins.

Yeah, I just found that one out last week. I figured it was a "cheat" put in the game to help you out. I picked up 14,000 dollaridoos in ransom a few times. Great little kick start.

[Tratorix]

I find having a unit of light cavalry around really helps. If the king does escape whatever death trap you've set up, just have the cav charge past him a couple of times while he's routing. Used to work for me.

[Vladimir]

The strategic capture is best. However short of that you need to isolate him and surround him with spears. I recommend an overlapping triangle. Give him some room to move in the middle but hold the sides firm. Works best after you've destroyed the rest of the army first.