[Suggestion] Capture Enemy Units

from Elemental Forums

I think that it should be made possible to capture enemy units.  Choosing this option over killing would probably cause there to be some sort of attack/defense penalty due to the fact that you are trying not to kill them.  This would mainly only be useful for negotiations, where you have captured some (or all) of the enemy's heirs, or to "tame" wild monsters.  Also for the empires (later on of course), if some of their magics require sacrifices, it would be better to use enemies for sacrifices rather than your own (assuming that the sacrifices would have to come from units).

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Surrender should be dictated from morale.  Your units morale drops below a certain point it breaks and runs.  At that point when it is attacked, personnel begin to surrender instead of continuing to fight.  You want prisoners, break their morale.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

  You could also forcibly capture them, such as disarming them, so they have nothing left to fight with (assuming they have no magic left or they cannot do magic).  Or you could see about restraining them (which would be the case for "taming" wild monsters without magic).

  Morale does not and should not have everything to do with capturing enemies, since if they get disarmed (so there is nothing that they can do to fight back), they would probably surrender or try and run, or in the case of bring restrained (either by some sort of magic restraints or by ropes/chains), they could still have high morale, but have nothing they can do except be captured (except if their side wins or with magic, they could possibly use it to free them selves or teleport away, again assuming magic is not being used to trap them).

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Yea, make it work like total war. When morale reaches 0, a unit flees. A fleeing unit that is "killed" is actually captured. 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

You could also forcibly capture them, such as disarming them, so they have nothing left to fight with (assuming they have no magic left or they cannot do magic). Or you could see about restraining them (which would be the case for "taming" wild monsters without magic).
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What would be the mechanic for it though?  I mean lets face it, very few single combats would ever be decided because someone had been "disarmed."  Multiple weapons combined with that fact that hacking at each other with as sharp (or heavy and blunt) an object as possible does not lend itself to draws means that a single fight probably isn't going to end until one person is down.  In a bigger combat odds are other people are fighting around you, and unless one side is breaking and running you don't have time for prisoners because there would be lots of other threats out there (conversly, there would be lots of dead for that disarmed person to pick weapons off of were you to turn your back).  This is why very few prisoners were taken in medieval warfare until after an army had routed (which was usually pretty early... they weren't the most disciplined bunch).  I just don't see the real need for anything other than the morale of an individual or unit to determine surrender conditions.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

If you out number the enemy with at least 2:1, then you could have time to do so (assuming that on the battle field you have 2v1), also there could be equipment you could get for units, that allows them to capture units, or spells for those that can do magic.