Jerusalem

**O'Hea** · January 31, 2009, 12:21 AM

So I've just successfully crusaded on Jerusalem in my first French campaign, and I'm a little torn on what to do with it. Gifting it to the Pope is a popular choice (I've done it in most of my previous games), but on the march I noticed that most of the Levant is very lightly guarded, the Egytpians are weak and overextended, and some settlements (like Edessa) are still open. I'm tempted to just grab as much as I can, while the gettin's good and I have a full stack under a 10-star general. I'm not exactly thrilled about having to deal with the Mongols, but it's really only around turn 40 and I think that even if I have to ditch the holy land when they turn up, I can squeeze quite a bit of money out of it in the meantime. Maybe I can tech up to some more respectable troops by then, I dunno. I haven't got much of a feel for France's tech tree just yet.

Thoughts? Advice?

**Voolma** · January 31, 2009, 12:54 AM

My advice is that conquer as mach as u can in the holy land. But dont up to turks and bryzantines.

Try to get jerusalem, acre, aleppo. damascus, antioch and gaza. I think extending more then it gets too difficult for u.

**Conquistatore** · January 31, 2009, 05:04 AM

Just make yourself a nice crusader state and keep a foothold in the holy lands. You will need it for when you have dealt with the Mongols and Timurids.

**merocaine** · January 31, 2009, 07:06 AM

Take the castles in the holy land(cypus too), tech up, build towers, get ready to monster the Mongols when they arrive!
Use a collapsing strategy, make them bleed at your castles, keep a strong mobile reserve to hit any Mongol stacks that get isolated from the horde.

In Jerusalem, build a lot of milita and catapults when the mongols attack reteat to the main square, put your Catapults in the middle, hold the choke points with spears and flame the mongols as the try to flood the square with there cavalry.
No Mongol army will last long.

I love the Mongols, its like fighting 5 factions at once!

**Viking Prince Olaf** · February 01, 2009, 09:39 PM

Originally Posted by O'Hea

So I've just successfully crusaded on Jerusalem in my first French campaign, and I'm a little torn on what to do with it. Gifting it to the Pope is a popular choice (I've done it in most of my previous games), but on the march I noticed that most of the Levant is very lightly guarded, the Egytpians are weak and overextended, and some settlements (like Edessa) are still open. I'm tempted to just grab as much as I can, while the gettin's good and I have a full stack under a 10-star general. I'm not exactly thrilled about having to deal with the Mongols, but it's really only around turn 40 and I think that even if I have to ditch the holy land when they turn up, I can squeeze quite a bit of money out of it in the meantime. Maybe I can tech up to some more respectable troops by then, I dunno. I haven't got much of a feel for France's tech tree just yet.

Thoughts? Advice?

You don't know if their coming to the Middle East or not yet but if they do you need to defend Antioch THE MOST. Cut them off at the 2 river passes leading to Antioch as thats where their gonna come. Ambush, nightfights, do dirty things util their small enough to engage. Until then just stay in your castles and take down as many as you can before they reach Antioch.

One more VERY IMPORTANT thing though, DO NOT LET THEM GET A
HOME OR IT WILL ALL BE OVER!

**Conquistatore** · February 01, 2009, 10:34 PM

The best offence for dealing with the Mongols is defence. Bridge battles, defending your cities in sieges, siege weapons and ranged units.. keep them at a distance and at a disadvantage. If they reverse the roles then you better be prepared to be defeated.

**merocaine** · February 02, 2009, 10:46 AM

One more VERY IMPORTANT thing though, DO NOT LET THEM GET A
HOME OR IT WILL ALL BE OVER!

Ah come on man thats where the real fun starts

**Reynolds** · February 02, 2009, 10:51 AM

Just create a crusader state that remains distinctly south of Antioch, and then just pick up the peices after the Mongols clash with whoever is up north (probably The Turks)

Or for funzies take Antioch and Aleppo and give away any other crusader cities and see if you can hold the Mongols with just a castle(hopefully a fortress or citadel) and a city without european reinforcements

The seiges will be great

**merocaine** · February 02, 2009, 11:51 AM

A Citadel or Fortress is a must, and always have a stack as backup to retake that fortress on the next turn if you lose it... Cyprus is the key, that and lots of cash, once you have Cyprus you can keep feeding in reinforcements to the battle, think of it a Verdun and the sacred way

I love the Mongols, I'm like begby in trainspotting when someone picks a fight with him.

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=yx5wj2...eature=related

yyyeeesssss!

Or for funzies take Antioch and Aleppo and give away any other crusader cities and see if you can hold the Mongols with just a castle(hopefully a fortress or citadel) and a city without european reinforcements

Spear milita and catapults can work wonders if used right !

**Conquistatore** · February 02, 2009, 03:03 PM

Haha some funny suggestions here. I guess it depends if you want to have fun or have a challenge or something of both. Play however you like, make sure you save your game regularly though for when you change your mind.

**Nazgûl Killer** · February 03, 2009, 09:55 AM

The way I see your dilemma, you have several options set before you:
1) Expand westwards, and take Cairo and the surroundings
2) Take the holy land, and expand if you wish
3) Sell Jerusalem to some state, or give it to a state you dislike, and just wait for a war between them and Egypt/Turks/Mongols to erupt
4) Give/Sell Jerusalem to the Papacy
5) Conquer the whole of the middle east
6) Expand northwards
7) Kill everyone
What I'd pick? Honestly? I'd take the holy land, and keep it. I'd establish a nice crusader state down there and just reap the benefits, and once I'm ready I'd take modern-day Egypt, afterward conquering the entire east, and proceeding to crushing Europe from the east and west. But that's just sadistic me.

**Landtuber** · February 03, 2009, 10:17 AM

Hold only Jurusalem, fight off the Mongols however you can, and hold off the Timurids when they arrive. Ideally, you hold off the Timurids long enough to make contact with the Aztecs and gift Jerusalem to them. Let the Aztec Horde deal with the Timurid Horde. Never tried this, but thought that would be great fun when reading this thread.

Pretty sure you can gift things to the Aztecs?

**merocaine** · February 03, 2009, 12:21 PM

Hold only Jurusalem, fight off the Mongols however you can, and hold off the Timurids when they arrive. Ideally, you hold off the Timurids long enough to make contact with the Aztecs and gift Jerusalem to them. Let the Aztec Horde deal with the Timurid Horde. Never tried this, but thought that would be great fun when reading this thread.

Pretty sure you can gift things to the Aztecs?

genius, that's it that's what I'm going to do,

**Last of the Mohawks** · February 04, 2009, 02:58 PM

Originally Posted by Landtuber

Hold only Jurusalem, fight off the Mongols however you can, and hold off the Timurids when they arrive. Ideally, you hold off the Timurids long enough to make contact with the Aztecs and gift Jerusalem to them. Let the Aztec Horde deal with the Timurid Horde. Never tried this, but thought that would be great fun when reading this thread.

Pretty sure you can gift things to the Aztecs?

Nice can you do AI vs. AI battles? I might set one up if you can

if you cant it'll be 2 Vs. 1 with me sitting back watching the fight

**Conquistatore** · February 03, 2009, 03:07 PM

Hmmm gift a city to the Aztecs, i'll have to try that one, would be immensely interesting to see what they do with it. When America is discovered, do the Aztecs sail to across the sea to Europe or Iberia? Or don't they have ships?

**Landtuber** · February 03, 2009, 08:41 PM

They don't have any ships, pretty sure you can give them a city though. Gonna have to try that when my current campaign gets to America in like 2 months... sigh...

**Nazgûl Killer** · February 04, 2009, 02:45 AM

Lol. Tuber, that's a very nice idea though. I'd love to see an Aztec-Timruid battle.

**Viking Prince** · February 04, 2009, 05:25 AM

Might be interesting. I always wondered how effective spamming peasants as the Egyptians would be also. An attrition campaign where you take 40:1 losses but make it up in volume so to speak.

**Conquistatore** · February 04, 2009, 02:49 PM

That would be a fun campaign. It would be awesome to just see the enemy overpowered by all your units, with no where to run.

**Nazgûl Killer** · February 05, 2009, 07:13 AM

You can, however the AI seems to love targeting the player instead of the other AI, as I've seen in allied battles (4v4), all the AI on the other side went for me, and the AI on my side tried to help me, so it might just be like that in campaign too.