Recruits: Prisoners of War Addon

Turn battlefield defeat into army growth with dynamic morale, POW capture, slave cages, automated liberation, and strategic player truces.

Overview

The Recruits: Prisoners of War Addon completely overhauls military combat within the Recruits mod. Battles are no longer simple fights to the death—units now experience panic, morale collapses, and mass routs. Defeated soldiers can surrender, be bound in shackles, locked in iron cages, and eventually brainwashed into fighting for your own vanguard. Alternatively, launch daring rescue missions to liberate your captured men from enemy lines!

Features

• Dynamic Squad Morale & Panic: Low-health recruits (<30% HP) risk panicking and fleeing. Veteran recruits hold the line longer than raw novices.
• Mass Routs & Surrenders: When over 40% of a squad panics, unit cohesion breaks, forcing retreating soldiers to surrender as Prisoners of War (POWs).
• Direct & Automated Shackling: Bind captives with leads manually or order loyal recruits to tether and lead prisoners.
• Iron Cages & Captive Management: Secure slaves in Iron Cages, break a captive's willpower over time, manage their armor and weapons, and hire them into your specific squads for free!
• Liberation & Rescue Systems: Rescue your team's captured troops through active squad commands, passive captor elimination, or direct cage interactions.
• Player Truce Mechanics: Formalize surrenders between player commanders to trigger temporary team-wide truces.
• Custom Items & Creative Integration: Includes craftable Iron Cages, an Admin Key for server moderators, and a dedicated Creative inventory tab.

Gameplay Guide

1. Battlefield Morale & Surrenders

During engagements, recruits taking severe damage enter a panic state. If a squad suffers catastrophic losses, a Mass Rout occurs: 50% of panicking troops drop their weapons into their inventory, raise their hands, and enter the POW state.

A surrendering recruit entering the POW state with hands raised.

2. Shackling & Transporting POWs

Once troops have surrendered, you can transport them back to your base:

• Manual Interaction: Right-click an unshackled POW with a Lead/Rope to personally tether and lead them.
• Recruit Commands: Open the global Recruits POW Tab, select a loyal unit from the drop-down menu, choose target POW groups, and order your troops to shackle and transport them. Shackled POWs dynamically match the movement speed of their captors.

Loyal recruits escorting tethered POWs across the battlefield.

3. Caging & Enslavement

To prevent escapes and begin conversion, POWs must be caged:

• Place a craftable 2-block Iron Cage and right-click a shackled POW with it to lock them inside.
• Alternatively, command your squad via the POW tab to store prisoners—recruits will automatically scan a 20-block radius for available empty cages and fill them.

A caged slave held securely inside a 2-block Iron Cage.

4. GUI Management, Gear Control & Forced Recruitment

Right-click any occupied Iron Cage to open the Slave Inspection Screen:

• Gear Access: Safely add, strip, or replace the slave's armor and weapons directly through the menu interface.
• Willpower Cooldown: Higher-level recruits take longer to break (ranging from 1 minute for Level 1s up to 2 hours for Level 20 veterans).
• Hiring: Once broken, click "Hire Recruit - Free" and select the destination squad to induct the slave into your army.
• Freeing Slaves: Click "Free Slave" to release the captive, instantly teleporting them back to their original commander (if online).

The Slave Cage GUI showing inventory access, recruitment group selection, and release options.

5. Liberation & Rescue Operations

If your soldiers are captured, you have multiple ways to bring them home:

• Active Squad Rescue: Select a loyal unit in the commander menu and order a "Liberate POWs" action. Your unit will search a 20-block radius for friendly unshackled captives, play a rescue animation, and restore them to your squad.
• Passive Tether Break: If a captor recruit dies, panics, or is captured themselves, their tether breaks and the captive is instantly liberated with a morale and level boost! You can also sever tethers using Shears.
• Mass Cage Liberation: Click "Free Slaves" in the POW tab to send troops to open nearby occupied enemy cages.

🔨 Items & Crafting

• Iron Cage: Survival-craftable block used to contain prisoners (crafted using Iron Bars in a chest formation).
• Admin Key (Creative Only): Allows server admins to instantly open and liberate any slave cage with a single right-click.
• Custom Creative Tab: All mod items are conveniently organized under their own creative menu tab.

ℹ️ Compatibility & Credits

• Required Dependency: Latest version of Recruits Mod (1.20.1)
• Developer: gptdoktor
• Beta-testers: vimreicher, redude8
• Integrations: Compatible with Ranks and Titles mod for player surrender hierarchy.