Paid ransom, general executed anyway?

[Lionel-Richie]

Has anyone had this happen to them before?

I was moving a general unescorted and he got jumped from the fog of war by a large army...he couldn't retreat so I had him fight the battle. Well, after doing some damage he routs but then gets "killed" and captured (the "Has been captured" soundbyte plays). The enemy then offers me him back if I pay the ransom, which is pricy, but I do because he's a decent general.

Well then I get no units back. I mean I can see this happening if I'm having his bodyguard ransomed and there's no family member to head it (so it gets disbanded), but he was the only one captured and the ransom said his name.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

What are you doing so far from home?

This happens when you have nowhere to retreat such as an island (and you happen to move the ship away from shore) or in enemy territory with no border to your territories.

This can be used as a bit of an exploit to get good traits as when you are attacked under similar circumstances you release the prisoners but unfortunately for them they have nowhere to retreat and get executed.

[Lionel-Richie]

Well this happened in northwest Spain...playing as Spain.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Although I have not experienced it seems like no retreat/no release prisoners applies to ambushes as well.

[skullman86]

Maybe you didn't have enough money.You can try to ransom without the proper funds I believe but it just results in execution.I don't know if the option gets ghosted or not, I haven't been offered my units back to me in a while .

[Ermeni]

strange in deed......

[darox]

I was just having the same problem. I'm Spain and have conquered Antioch in a crusade. Egypt backstabbed me (oh surprise) and began a siege on Antioch. My main general (José the Honourable) was out in the desert fighting the Turks, whereas his son was cornered in the city with the main garrison. I moved José close to the city and attacked the besieging Egyptian army, his son and the garrison was able to join in. I lost the battle pretty dearly. Numberwise we were about equal, but the Egyptians had better troops and an eight star general leading them (although José also has 6-7 stars on attack but apart from two stacks of dismounted crusader knights -which rock- most of his troops are worn down or consist of non upgraded militia). José's son died in battle and I had like 51% casualties, the rest either fled or were captured. Post battle the Egyptians offered me the prisoners for 556 florins, which I paid and the money was subtracted from my treasury. But nothing happened! Instead I continously got further offers for the same amount of ransom, which I likewise accepted. I then got a dozen messages piling up on the side that the prisoners have been released out of good will (naming different numbers of prisoners each time) but I lastly ran out of money and was forced to decline further offers. But I didn't get any of the prisoners back at all, even though I've paid like 5000+ florins in total! And no, I didn't get a refund either. The city is empty now and I doubt it's because they can't retreat, since I've got three ships in the harbour and José's army is still in the field.

Oh and btw, the battle was pretty good for a change. The AI actually took the initiative and attacked me, although I was the attacker. They almost overran José's smaller army and squashed the reinforcements too. Wish battles were more often like this! But I have to complain about the reinforcement system, because the battle was a total mess due to it. Amongst others, my first group of reinforcements consisted of a full stack Pilgrims (still useless), 28 Almuhavagars and a bunch of Crossbowmen (likewise half strength). While a stack of Spear Militia and even more important three stacks of Sword Militia didn't enter the battle before I withdrew the former! Another really annoying thing is that the reinforcements actually waited till the withdrawing unit had totally left the map (not just the red line). Since it's a game/technical related issue that these units can't be deployed from the onset, I think they should be able to enter the battle immediately once the others have crossed the red line and additionally we should be able to choose which reinforcements are deployed first anyhow.