What benefit is there to executing prisoners?

[Greywolf]

There are some pretty hefty penalties for executing prisoners in this game, even if they belong to the faction your faction is at war with, what benefit is there to killing a prisoner that would make it worth the huge negative reaction you get for it?

[Cordatus]

In vanilla? None at all. The diplomacy of the game doesn't really have interactions with it at this time. Probably some mods out there that address that. It is more of a RP function I'd guess. If a lord killed one of your clan members, you can seek revenge? However, I've never had an NPC lord execute anyone. Ever. Outside of the starter quest.

[Lokaror]

Yeah, no positives. I guess if you were quick enough you could execute enough enemy lords to make it very hard for them to fight back?

[저지]

Originally posted by Lokaror:

Yeah, no positives. I guess if you were quick enough you could execute enough enemy lords to make it very hard for them to fight back?

This. I made the experience that it helps you weakening annoying opponents that wont offer peace, since if you sell them or they break out, they just come back in another army to bother you again. Especially when you have multiple towns or castles, you will get overwhelmed.

Not sure how the game plays when you are part of a Kingdom with xxx Clans helping you, but when you start your own Kingdom, the near unlimited amount of lords just overwhelms you.

[Tiniturtle]

just keep execute all enemy lord and after a while all arcadia is ur to take
nobody can interfer with u anymore becos they r all dead
kill 1 make u a murder
kill 10 u still a murder
kill everyone make u a king

[Saittam]

The only reason i can think of executing an enemy lord would be to be after their spouse.
Releasing lords after a battle is so far the best way to level in charm.

[Bookhead]

I started a faction, made my wanderers lords, and killed every single person i captured, and even made sure to get captured lords from my army. I killed so many of them, entire armies crumbled into dust. Children ran the other kingdoms and I took them over with ease. So yes, there is a point to killing them, only if you do it a lot, and know where to recruit once you do it.

[Cooperal]

The benefit is one less enemy to worry about. Considering how many enemies there are and how easily they are replaced, the benefit is almost equivalent to nil.

Unless you can identify some huge strategic/political benefit to killing that specific character, or are doing it out of some roleplay reasons, just don't do it. Even letting your prisoner nobles walk away will yield a better net positive. I personally prefer to just put all of my enemy nobles in a well guarded prison until the enemy kingdoms feel ready to pay me a massive tribute.

[Greywolf]

So is it possible just to take nobles hostage and leave them to rot in a dungeon or something? Keep them off the battlefield without killing them?

[Serious Business]

Originally posted by Greywolf:

So is it possible just to take nobles hostage and leave them to rot in a dungeon or something? Keep them off the battlefield without killing them?

Yeah, there's a bunch of perks that reduce prisoner escape chance so you can kit out a governor with those if you really want to go through all that effort. Alternatively just keep beating them until they're your friends and you can recruit them into your kingdom eventually.

[Norðtann]

i havent executed anyone yet.. if u let them free u get a decent amount of charm, which awesome in early game. Genocide by execution is for the long game or rp reasons..

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Greywolf:

There are some pretty hefty penalties for executing prisoners in this game, even if they belong to the faction your faction is at war with, what benefit is there to killing a prisoner that would make it worth the huge negative reaction you get for it?

The only way to truly make such a tactic beneficial is if you can steamroll through a faction faster than that faction can replace those lost Lords. And, if you can do that, then... you probably don't need to execute those Lords in the first place in order to win. /shrug

[Onimaho]

Originally posted by Greywolf:

There are some pretty hefty penalties for executing prisoners in this game, even if they belong to the faction your faction is at war with, what benefit is there to killing a prisoner that would make it worth the huge negative reaction you get for it?

Because...

https://media.giphy.com/media/l3vRkwv2Yz6i8rDwY/giphy.gif

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Onimaho:

Originally posted by Greywolf:

There are some pretty hefty penalties for executing prisoners in this game, even if they belong to the faction your faction is at war with, what benefit is there to killing a prisoner that would make it worth the huge negative reaction you get for it?

Because...

https://media.giphy.com/media/l3vRkwv2Yz6i8rDwY/giphy.gif

The problem, though, is that TW knows how dependent every faction is on having Lords - In Warband, "Lord Drought" was a design flaw. Lords couldn't die, but they could still leave the game, resulting in factions not having enough Lords between that mechanic and the player's own imprisonment/ransom efforts. That could sometimes cause factions to come close to not being able to do anything at all... Lords were completely necessary to form faction military parties to interact with items on the campaign map (Battles/Sieges).

The Clan system supplements the game with "standby" Lords/Ladies, since there's a Death option, now. Children can grow up to take the place of their parents on the battlefield, even NPC children. Many Clans will already have adult members that are not currently leading parties ready to go "just in case."

In Warband, players could make it very difficult for a Lord to escape imprisonment. In Bannerlord, they will eventually escape. Why? Again, going back to Warband, it's a "Lord Drought" contingency. (IMO)

Beheading troublesome Lords, for some roleplaying reason, once or twice may not be a terrible thing for the player-character to do. (Especially if its satisfying for the player) But, using it as a strategy to reduce the Lord population is going to have to also combat the mechanics TW has purposefully put into the game to prevent Lord Drought.

Note: Many players have successfully used such tactics. I'm just noting that doing so has to take into consideration mechanics in the game designed to prevent it. :)

[tank16365]

The satisfaction. For instance, someone killed my wife so I executed the commander after the battle.

[blc]

If you execute them all everything on the map will automatically transfer to you as owner.