u/Jravachi

I've got 1900+ hours in CK3 (and 1200+ in CK2), and here's something I always remembered working differently: when a faction revolts and I capture members mid-war, they used to stay active "participants" in the war. I could ransom them, recapture them, do this as many times as I wanted, and once I won the war, all of them ended up imprisoned and ready for revocation or execution.

Now, when I capture any vassal — including the war leader — they're immediately removed from the war, and the game notifies me that the ruler left and the war leader changed. That part's fine in theory, except they're not branded as criminals when they leave. Which means I can't punish them afterward without eating a massive tyranny penalty, as if nothing happened.

The weird part: the first war leader (the one who declared the faction's demands) and the final vassal (if capturing them ends the war automatically) both still get the criminal brand and can be punished freely. It's just everyone captured in between who slips through with no consequences.

I assumed this was a mod messing things up, so I tested it multiple times on a clean, mod-free save — same result every time. Then I found several old Paradox forum and Reddit posts describing the exact same issue from years ago, even 2020 and 2021.

So: am I misremembering, or has this actually always been a "feature" since launch?

I've got 1900+ hours in CK3 (and 1200+ in CK2), and here's something I always remembered working differently: when a faction revolts and I capture members mid-war, they used to stay active "participants" in the war. I could ransom them, recapture them, do this as many times as I wanted, and once I won the war, all of them ended up imprisoned and ready for revocation or execution.

Now, when I capture any vassal — including the war leader — they're immediately removed from the war, and the game notifies me that the ruler left and the war leader changed. That part's fine in theory, except they're not branded as criminals when they leave. Which means I can't punish them afterward without eating a massive tyranny penalty, as if nothing happened.

The weird part: the first war leader (the one who declared the faction's demands) and the final vassal (if capturing them ends the war automatically) both still get the criminal brand and can be punished freely. It's just everyone captured in between who slips through with no consequences.

I assumed this was a mod messing things up, so I tested it multiple times on a clean, mod-free save — same result every time. Then I found several old Paradox forum and Reddit posts describing the exact same issue from years ago, even 2020 and 2021.

So: am I misremembering, or has this actually always been a "feature" since launch?