Defensive war tip: get more for your trouble

[Philo32b]

When I used to conduct defensive wars, I would accept a peace treaty as soon as I reached 100% warscore, but lately I've changed my strategy. Now, if the situation permits it, I ignore the aggressor's feeble attempt to stop the pain if I am crushing his military and either reject or ignore his peace treaty. Instead, I continue to siege his realm's holdings, earning a lot of additional gold through plunder. He will stay at 100% until you are ready to stop the war, there is no reason you need to stop it before you are ready. I have made a fair more gold since I've started doing this.

[OrangeOranges]

Thats a good idea, Ill have to give it a go one time.

[eustachio]

Are you sure the plunder gold compensates for for what you are paying in army upkeep?

[Isaios]

Are you sure the plunder gold compensates for for what you are paying in army upkeep?

I've never seen it NOT do so. Particularily when using vassal troops

[apg]

Are you sure the plunder gold compensates for for what you are paying in army upkeep?

well it will cover it easily if using vassal levies lol

[AchedTeacher]

How much do you get on average for plundering one county? Just checking.

[Blastaz]

You can also make a fortune through ransoming characters back if you get lucky.

[mightypirate]

Since the release of 1.05, I've joined a few wars for this reason. Not sure if it's worth it but I have captured a few people that I can later ransom.

[riknap]

How much do you get on average for plundering one county? Just checking.

the yearly income of that holding
ie. plundering a city is a lot more profitable than plundering a castle

[AchedTeacher]

You can also make a fortune through ransoming characters back if you get lucky.

this. I actually sat out a couple of 3000 on 2000 battles for the pure reason of getting POWs, even though I was already at 100%.

[Euan]

Just make sure your knights don't focus on POW's only, lest they get all blind to the archers that are shooting at them. They'll get all stuck in the mud and trample all over each other. Before you know it those sneaky archers are cutting your bogged down nobles' throats and history will forever remember them for losing to longbows.

[Kynaz]

haha yeah i thought about doing this. But honestly my economy always ends up sky rocketing to stupidly high levels anyway. I commonly end up with 30-70 gold coming in a month. Like the pope you simply can't spend it all.

[Puritan]

If you are lucky, you can make a killing ransoming back barons. I've never had much luck with Counts or higher, they usually die before they can afford the larger amount required.

Sacking holdings makes some money, but I either don't need the money, or am barely scraping enough together to make ends meet and assaults arn't an option.

The biggest profit comes from the peace settlement. As the King of Galicia I once got 600 gold in the settlement with the sheik of Sevilla. Thank god he didn't use that money to hire mercenaries like I did later...

[Isaios]

the yearly income of that holding
ie. plundering a city is a lot more profitable than plundering a castle

This is true for cities and bishoprics, but doesn't seem to be the case for castles. When taking a basic castle, you get 7 gold, not the 4 that would be from taxation. There's at least something more to it.

Oh, and looting coupled with POWs make war really really profitable. PArticularily with how you now get participation score in wars you but into. So joining in every religious war you find nets you lots of loot, prisoners and quite a lot of bonus prestige and piety. Prety sweet.

By the way; the gain from barons, counts etc is tiered at 25, 70, 145, 250 and probably even higher for Emperors, but there's ALSO good money in heirs. The heir of a Duchy is worth between 40 and 50 gold, while a prince is worth some 120-ish.

[Arumba]

The gold gained by seiges is "Fort lvl + Base income" so usually for castles it starts at about 7, 3 fort level and 4 base income.

[Isaios]

The gold gained by seiges is "Fort lvl + Base income" so usually for castles it starts at about 7, 3 fort level and 4 base income.

Ah! Thanks for that bit, it had been bothering me

[Philo32b]

By the way; the gain from barons, counts etc is tiered at 25, 70, 145, 250 and probably even higher for Emperors, but there's ALSO good money in heirs. The heir of a Duchy is worth between 40 and 50 gold, while a prince is worth some 120-ish.

Anyone get a ransom for an emperor? That would be a nice prize. Few things are as sweet as some duke or king attacking you only to fall to you as a prisoner and have to pay you reparations *and* ransom. Plus if you do ransack several of his holdings first and break up some of his armies, that will also weaken him so that you can, if you have a CB, turn around and declare an offensive war immediately after for another round. Good times!

[Isaios]

Never gotten an emperor unfortunately, but I did get Alp Arslan himself once. THAT made me ever so happy. I didn't bother savaging the Seljuk lands, I had more important things to deal with as the ERE after all, but I got him, at least a dozen baron tier people, three counts and a duke. I got enough cash to build something in every county I had I like being invaded

But there're a few error with the ransom system. You'll often capture courtiers, but as long as they're not landed, or direct heirs, you'll never get money for them. The only response is a ----- malus due to "doesn't care" essentially. BUT! Some of those you capture are kin to whomever doesn't care, or are their marshall. The game doesn't recognise these as of value, so they just languish.

You'll find the same thing with rebels that you've stripped of titles; the father holds one county, the son another, and after stripping the father of his, the son refuses to pay the measly 10 gold you can demand for him. Sad, sad thing. And finally, I really wish I could ask for LESS money than the set price. Sure, I might get AS MUCH AS 145, but if the Duke in question is 72 years old, has been maimed, and is sitting in a dysentry infested dungeon, I'd much rather get the 90 gold he's got available at the moment.

[Philo32b]

And finally, I really wish I could ask for LESS money than the set price. Sure, I might get AS MUCH AS 145, but if the Duke in question is 72 years old, has been maimed, and is sitting in a dysentry infested dungeon, I'd much rather get the 90 gold he's got available at the moment.

LOL, you *are* an enterprising ruler, aren't you? You've got ransoming down to a science. That's actually spot on with how they were in the Middle Ages.

I do like your idea of asking for less, but the main limiting factor is the sophistication of the AI. *You* can readily determine when to settle for less, but it must be harder to code when an AI should settle for less. Although, now that I think of it, you could just trigger it on age: if they are above 50 years, the AI will take whatever they have instead of the full ransom, as long as it's not less than 50% of the value of the ransom, or something like that.

[civilizedAustin]

I had a rival duke dying on me in prison 2 days before accepting my ransom offer...