crusading.

[Inhuman One]

I think the desertion for not reaching the target fast enough might need to reduced a lot.

When crusading as scotland and sending a full stack, you can be happy if there are still some soldiers left when reaching the holy lands.

[GiorgioIII]

well pretty realist this ain't it? I don't think Scotland ever took part in a crusade. Distance was a major issue these days

[Croaton]

Viva la Scotland

Do what I'm doing m8. Just bring an army with full of cheap units like peasants, and use ships! Maybe you will get there. The only expensive and worthy unit you can loose is your general. So better to send an idiot

[Waar]

I've never had a general dip on a crusade, not even sure it's possible.

[Croaton]

Under loosing I mean = he dies because of age, he will be killed in a battle, his ship will be sank etc.

Of course he will not abandon the army.

[Chimander]

Is it possible to change the desertion rate, or is it hard coded?

[Inhuman One]

I know the scottish didnt go on crusades, but the english did and quite a lot. they would have the same problem. Might be even worse for Norway and Denmark.

I arrived in the holy land with a small army.

a general, 1 unit of highlanders, 2 units of galloliach mercenaries, 2 units of crusader sargeants, 1 unit of mailed knights and I recruited a unit of sudanese tribesmen there.

That was my army to take Cairo with.

Jerusalem seems powerfull in this campaign, they took Alexandria, Gaza, Antioch and several other provinces from egypt.

Still, egypt is focused on destroying my small army instead of the bigger threats from Sicily, Spain, Hungary and of course Jerusalem.

I defeated two armies, the first was twice the size of my own but was all infantry and one unit of archers. casualties werent too bad here but I suffered some still.

The second was twice as big as my own as well, but this one had more elite units, and two generals. It consisted out of two parts, the main army and then the reinforcements. two waves.

My general was slain in the first wave when the first general attacked mine. They fought the wave off, and the second one as well.

But since my general was dead it didnt matter at all since they all deserted the next turn.

Now I have a diplomat, a spy and a priest there, and a small fleet. I hope to bribe a general or a small town somewhere and hope to build up something instead of sending troops from scotland again.

[Gorrrrrn]

Scottish did go on crusade (at least to Spain) IRL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Teba

(Haven't see many crusading Scottish armies in the game, but that's because as England I wiped them out very early on
---

SS6.1 suffers less from desertion than previous incarnations it seems to me.

I have an english garrison sitting in Jerusalem and so can watch other crusading armies arrive and I've not noticed much desertion thereabouts. Venice has captured Acre and there have been Genoan, Hungarian and Danish armies involved hereabouts as well. Norwegian crusading armies have fought in the siege of Vienna. The only faction that never goes on crusade is Ireland (unless anyone has seen them do it.)

[Roboute Guilliman]

never really had an issue with losing my army if they are packed on a boat

[Caesar Clivus]

Yep you just need to keep your army moving in the direction of the crusade target. For factions on the British Isles heading to the middle-east, it is best to use a boat to get to the mainland, move SE until you get to the Mediterranean coast, hire some mercenary ships and sail to the middle-east. This also has the advantage of getting your army there quicker than anyone else

[Inhuman One]

well I rather not provoke wars.

[Laconian]

When I play s northern European faction and I sail to the Holy Land I usually have some stop off points where I hire new mercanaries. These places are Gibraltar, Crete and Sicily. It really helps in keeping your troop numbers up.

[TheColdTruth]

well I rather not provoke wars.

You don't provoke wars if you are joined in the crusade, you can walk in anyones territory if they are Catholic and nothing will happen unless they are excommunicated.

[Inhuman One]

that might work, I personly hoped to hire many soldiers around Cairo but only one unit of sudanese tribesmen was available.

Some of my best troops had deserted, I lost a unit of mailed knights, 2 units of highland nobles and three units of highlanders.

It was the first crusade that was called, I couldnt send a full stack yet.

[spanish_emperor]

thecoldtruth is right, once you are in a mission of God all Christians must let you pass and restrain from attacking your crusade....otherwise they will have to deal with more than one crusader army and these will be knocking on their capital

[Gorrrrrn]

The important thing is to keep moving towards the crusade target. having a general with good traits also might help. You might want to send a couple of spies on ahead to check out any chokepoints - moving through France can be a real pain. You might also need to micromanage your move to avoid any ZOCs.

(ditto on ships - you can travel a long way, but micromanage if you want to avoid the prog sending straight into a pirate fleet or enemy harbour.)

[Darviathar]

I always take a young priest with me on my crusades as well. Don't take an old guy with you that will slow down the stack. As long as you make progress towards the target (even if it is just one space) you won't suffer desertion. This was a problem early on for me in vanilla, as I cheerfully attempted to sail from England around Spain via Gibraltar to the holy land. I'd have very little left by the time I started making progress again towards the target. My advice is to arrive in Europe before you take up the crusade. Once you hit the coast of France, join it, hire some cheap crusader units, and either slog through on foot, or head southeast to the coast of France and hire merc ships.

[Clayton Gold]

I've never really had a problem with desertion, except for when I stop to attack other targets on the way.

I usually throw a priest, spy, & diplomat in the stack, and sail there, landing the army every turn, if possible.

It was also mentioned above to be careful about chokepoints - this is critical, you need to scout ahead.

[Inhuman One]

well sometimes the ships stop moving even while they werent blocked by anything. I believe my fleet laid still 1 turn because of that.

[spanish_emperor]

i hate it when desertion happens while you go around iberia. or did they fix this


Say its fixed, say its fixed