Crusading Armies parking outside Constantinople?

[Nikitaras]

I am playing SS 6.1 as the Byzantines (late era campaign). There was a crusade called against Jerusalem. A bunch of crusading armies parked themselves outside Constantinople and Nicea declared war on me but have done nothing but sit there over several turns. I offered a cease fire which some of them accepted only to break it the next turn. I don't want to fight them (it would cost too much money and with so many armies they may even win).
Anyone seen this before and any suggestions how to get rid of them?

[ceaser543]

Assasinate the genrals then the armys will desert.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Unless your willing to fight ceaser543 speaks the gospel.. The Great City attracts much envy and hatred. This is the price you pay for Byzantine Greatness. Plus your in a really bad neighborhood

[Gorrrrrn]

Agree this painful, not just for the Byzantines but also the crusading armies.

It would help if more would travel by ship thus avoiding the Constantinople / Cannakale bottlenecks.

(Not to mention finding a way to stop automatic war being declared when crusading armies enter Byzantine territory. The AI very rarely bothers with military access agreements (only seen it once in 6 months.) Is there a way for crusading armies to be given military access through Orthodox territories? We're all aware of what happened historically when the venetians made an unscheduled stopover but I would prefer to avoid these unintentional wars.)

A revision of the map (being done) should help armies negotiate Anatolia, but we need the diplomatic AI fixed as well.

[Nikitaras]

many thanks for the advice
Will give it a try and see what happens.

[ryoma]

Just let them go, often times they won't act on the declaration of war (Or at least, they haven't in my game)

[Meister Sibrand]

lol the fourth crusade is on it looks like

[Tetsu]

Constantinople, being the major city it is, has cheap parking facilities and plentiful taverns, providing a pleasent place to leave ones army while he heads to the merchant quarter to find gifts for his wife.

[Nikitaras]

Constantinople, being the major city it is, has cheap parking facilities and plentiful taverns, providing a pleasent place to leave ones army while he heads to the merchant quarter to find gifts for his wife.

Or his Mistress...
Well some of them left but some of them are still around even though I manage to assassinate their general. I tried to attack one of the stacks but my losses were too high so for the time being they are just milling around Nicea. They now seem to accept and maintain a ceasefire I offered (perhaps because the crusade was successful) so I am going to have to live with them.
Interesting...I wonder if I contributed the problem in the first place by using a forts on both the Bosporus and the Hellespont (Dardanelles). I evacuated the fort so they could find their way to Jerusalem but they never did. I had a similar issue with a Moorish army earlier that kind of got lost on its way back from a Jihad.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Actually your at the Crossroads...So your going to get it from both East and WestEmbrace the Orthodox Alliance with the Rus & Novgorod, settle in, grab some popcorn and wait for the fireworks.

[obbob]

Constantinople, being the major city it is, has cheap parking facilities and plentiful taverns, providing a pleasent place to leave ones army while he heads to the merchant quarter to find gifts for his wife.

Unfortunately they dont pay for their parking hours, so the byzantines have to give them a ticket, which they never pay.

ON a serious note, i havent seen constantinople for a while, but does it occupy all the squares across on one side of the strait?

If it does, then that means armies cant bypass it. So when they leave to make a detour, they lose sight of the city, meaning that they lose sight of the red squares, so they return, continuing the cycle.

[ryoma]

I think there's one "square" all the way around Constanople, in a "box"

[The Noble Lord]

Start assassinating their generals and the Crusading army will start melting.
The generals are the key when you are fighting the Crusading armies,
if there is only one of them. Otherwise, stay in the Constantinople and you will be safe behind your walls. They will make a move sooner or later.


CHEERS

[Cooltosha]

Simple, do the basic trick from Crusades Campaign in Kingdoms vanilla, build 2 or 3 forts immediately surrounding Constantinople. Also you should add some troops and make forts near Adrianople. I always use the forts and it has worked so far, even against Jihads (which are, to be honest, much more often and way more numerous).

The best tact is to keep almost full army with 2 generals in Constantinople, and have forts full to half capacity, then send an army from Adrianople and keep Crusaders and Jihadists between hammer and anvil, in which hammer is the Adrianople army, and anvil is Constantinople and it's forts.

I don't see how could anything else work. Crusader generals are a tough game to hunt down and kill.

A lot also depends on faction's behaviour and it's psychic. For example, Germans and English just purchase some mercenary galleys and sail over. Danish and Norwegians just walk through even if they enter your controled area, and can't move, they will patiently wait. BUT, Venetians (as usual), Genoans (as usual), French (I knew they're mean) and Polish (who always come crying for alliance just so they could attack you) WILL ALWAYS ATTACK, even if they have army that's only general, 1 spear militia, 1 regular swordsman and 2 Pilgrims............

I think you get the picture.

[Gorrrrrn]

revision of the map is being done to help alleviate the problem.

Most recent version I've seen French, Sicilian and others get past Constantinople and Anatolia without major mishap (I was playing as Seljuks so may have missed other crusaders getting stuck or going the long way round.)