Saldoon
Recruit

I love the game, and I'm sure I will love it even more when more content is added in.
However, one of the major gripes I have is that there aren't serious consequences. The main character and his/her heroes are invulnerable. They can be knocked out, and battles can be lost resulting in troops getting wiped out and goods stolen, but that isn't high-stakes enough for me. IMHO, part of the fun in playing a game like this is beating incredible odds, and part of the "drama" or excitement comes from risking something.
Perhaps it could be an option to choose (much like the saving option). Or, better yet, maybe it could be an in-game thing: when your hit poins get reduced to under 10% your opponents give you the option to yield and live, so long as you pay a ransom. If you do not yield, you fight on, and if you are reduced to 0 hit points, you're a goner (or possibly, there is a random chance of unconsciousness or death). That way you have some control over whether you want to risk death. While I realize M&B isn't a medieval sim, it obviously draws a lot of its material from the middle ages, and ransoming was a huge part of battles. Lords rarely ransomed their "expendable" troops, but they often paid for their own lives as well as other knights/men-at-arms/etc.
If ransoming were included, and you had the cash to afford it, you could offset some of your troop's deaths as well if you opted to go that route rather than fight on. The choice would be the player's, but the risk would really heighten the excitement. You'd be a little pickier about what troops you chose to fight against as well. Especially if you're playing the "tougher" save option.
Along the same lines, the NPC should definitely be killable. Now, I would like this option more if there were more than two of them--that way you could find some replacements should comrades fall. But again, having more at stake makes the game a lot more enjoyable.
Thoughts?
However, one of the major gripes I have is that there aren't serious consequences. The main character and his/her heroes are invulnerable. They can be knocked out, and battles can be lost resulting in troops getting wiped out and goods stolen, but that isn't high-stakes enough for me. IMHO, part of the fun in playing a game like this is beating incredible odds, and part of the "drama" or excitement comes from risking something.
Perhaps it could be an option to choose (much like the saving option). Or, better yet, maybe it could be an in-game thing: when your hit poins get reduced to under 10% your opponents give you the option to yield and live, so long as you pay a ransom. If you do not yield, you fight on, and if you are reduced to 0 hit points, you're a goner (or possibly, there is a random chance of unconsciousness or death). That way you have some control over whether you want to risk death. While I realize M&B isn't a medieval sim, it obviously draws a lot of its material from the middle ages, and ransoming was a huge part of battles. Lords rarely ransomed their "expendable" troops, but they often paid for their own lives as well as other knights/men-at-arms/etc.
If ransoming were included, and you had the cash to afford it, you could offset some of your troop's deaths as well if you opted to go that route rather than fight on. The choice would be the player's, but the risk would really heighten the excitement. You'd be a little pickier about what troops you chose to fight against as well. Especially if you're playing the "tougher" save option.
Along the same lines, the NPC should definitely be killable. Now, I would like this option more if there were more than two of them--that way you could find some replacements should comrades fall. But again, having more at stake makes the game a lot more enjoyable.
Thoughts?