Sometimes my pure commanders will escape and sometimes held enemy hostages will escape. My experience has been that if the non agent hostage is held by a character without agent skill they will usually escape that turn or the turn following. Sometimes the pure commander will escape later in the game, circumstances surrounding that is unknown.
Once I attempted to rescue a hostage held in the NG capital (a citadel) with an agent in his 80s. Knew there were zero Free characters there from a scout for characters. My agent was wounded in the attempt. From this I conclude that fortifications are a factor in the hostage's defense.
By the Way, when a nation is eliminated all the hostages of that nation automatically escape. Presumably this is for recruitment purposes by allies.
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