I've captured a Jarl, now what?

[TannerNeedsSleep]

My nation is at war against his. Refer to title

[A Disappointed Horse]

You can either keep him imprisoned to weaken the enemy, or wait for them to send a ransom request and sell him back for a few thousand denars. Up to you.

[White Knight]

If you have an enemy lord as a captive, you have two options: Stick him into one of your prison towers or ride around with him tied up on the back of your horse (or whatever). He will either escape from you - less likely to happen in a dungeon, [more likely] while traveling - or his faction will offer you a ransom at some point in the future.

If he is a lesser noble in his faction, or the faction is stuggling, etc. you might be holding onto the guy for a long time.

This is true for Native and Viking Conquest anyway, I wouldn't know about the options available in the various mods.

What you cannot do is let him go. That is only an option when you first knocked him into the dirt. By letting them go, you miss out on the money but you get a massive boost to relations with that lord and possibly his family and friends. Do that for a while and Calradia will be crawling with lords who think you are really swell guy. They might have blackened eyes and only peasants for troops but they'll thank you for it. When you decide to be a King yourself, these same guys will come to your capital looking for work. You'll have a large pool of very loyal lords to pick and choose from.

That's how I do it and I don't miss the money at all. Early on, that isn't true of course - in the beginning, every denar counts. Once you have a good revenue stream coming in, you won't need the money any longer and can start building up those rep points instead.

If you refuse the ransom, you will make more enemies and cause more trouble for yourself as this will count as a negative hit to your honour. The game is always fair and you will get the going rate, unless the faction is having a hard time coming up with the money. If they are broke, stalling for time by refusing probably won't help you that much anyway.

[one piece]

Fairly common? It's not fairly common.

[White Knight]

Originally posted by Nerevar's Butler's Brother:

Fairly common? It's not fairly common.

If you say so. I chose those words specifically because they allowed for a very wide range of possibilities with interpretation but if I missed the mark...oops.

I don't know the actual percentage used in the game but from what I've seen, riding around with prisoners means it is only a matter of time before they run off. Stick them in a dungeon, on the other hand, and you can forget about them.

I'll go and edit the words "fairly common" with "more likely", that should help.