Crusades agaisnt Egypt Help

[Espadas:Benson]

In my usual england campaign, the Crusade is targeted to Jerusalem (after the selujks get it) but now, It was called onto Cairo. I have my faction heir (6 stars 7 Chivalry 7 Loyalty 6 Peity {I know pwnage} ) leading the crusade with 4 Miles, 5 Light Men at arms, 4 Norman Serjeants, 6 Longbowmen, 1 gen of course =p, all with weapons and armour upgrades (exept for the normans because they cant get any) What I dont know is the Egyptians. Never fought them once, so i could use a little Help. Im also sending in 4 of my best bishops and 2 of my best merchants.

I dont know the lay of the land very well, so if someone could help me guide this Crusade through, i would be very appreciative.

[agc28]

Do you intend to hold onto Cairo after you conquer it? Your stack is enough to conquer Cairo. But be prepared to ship more reinforcements from England in order to hold onto the city (2-3 full stacks at least). You need a lot of army for garrisons. The Egyptians will probably attack you every turn. They have awesome cavalry and above average archers. They have really crappy infantry though. They don't really have good horse archers like the Turks. Occasionally, they have camel archers that can scare your horses.

[RabidSheepLegion]

how do you get sword upgrades?

[Espadas:Benson]

thanks. Thats the problem though, i dont know if its worth it to hold Cairo. If it was jerusalem i would hold it (good income +nice base in the holy lands + crusaders are a close ally) but in Cairro, i think i could be overwelmed, and reinforcements would arrive for a while since im in a war in scotland. But if i get good income, and a good base in the middle east, ill suck it up and keep the city. So what do you think is the best?

[sbroadbent]

thanks. Thats the problem though, i dont know if its worth it to hold Cairo. If it was jerusalem i would hold it (good income +nice base in the holy lands + crusaders are a close ally) but in Cairro, i think i could be overwelmed, and reinforcements would arrive for a while since im in a war in scotland. But if i get good income, and a good base in the middle east, ill suck it up and keep the city. So what do you think is the best?

Cairo is one of the Fatimid's big money makers, so if you do claim it, it cuts down their income to strike back. Cairo on it's own won't generate as much as it could if you remain at war with the Fatimid Caliphate.

If you take Cairo, also try to get Alexandria and Damietta for a good solid base of operations (1 castle and 2 cities). Gaza would also be a good target, though it's far from Cairo to provide military support against the Fatimids.

[Callawyn]

Given the distance from your Capital, any provinces you gain in the Middle East will have very high corruption. Look at the info panel for the city (once you get it), probably >50% of the income will disappear due to corruption each turn. You can reduce the % lost by building law/order buildings or parking general in town that has +Law traits. This makes it much less desirable to carve a mini-empire in the Mid-East.

Also, your whole empire can support an army of only a certain size at any time. Consider well if you want to be splitting your forces between your expanding empire at home and your new empire in the Middle East. Doing so can considerably slow your overall expansion.

That said, it can be quite a lot of fun to build yourself a little fiefdom in the Levant.

So, first, decide right now what your goal is. Do you want to take Cairo and then bring your army home (you can use diplos to trade it for whatever advantage you can get, maybe even another province elsewhere)? Or, do you want to establish a foothold in the Middle East that you can expand over time?

Cairo can't be held on its own. If you want to hold it you pretty much have to break the Seljuk's power base. This will be difficult to do with only 1 army so far from home. The best time to send reinforcements is NOW, while you still have the movement advantage from the Crusade. If Alexandria/Damietta are weakly held, be sure to take them. If you can get Alex/Damietta/Cairo, you've pretty much replaced the Seljuks, but you still have work to do to finish them off. Gaza, as always, its the key to the region. If you hold it, you're a power there, if not you're a target for the other factions.

[Chees3]

Cairo is just as big a moneymaker as jeruselam,if possible try and capture gaza

[Espadas:Benson]

Hm... decisions decisions. The scots have proved to be rather..... interesting (let them develop for 20 + turns, also used console to give them 15K so they dont suck) and i have to say.... they threaten my big money makers (York and Dublin.... to far to reach london) so i think i'll give a bloody nose to the Fatamids by taking Cairo, and surrounding weak provinces so i can forcus all my reinforcments to scotland border. Ill trade one provence for Angers, France. Another to Germany, and request assistance from the Norweigans and Danish... and ill take 1 more reagion, and gift it to the papacy/germany depending which alliance i want to keep.

Thanks for all the input guys! Tell me if my strategy doesnt work

[Ichon]

Thanks for all the input guys! Tell me if my strategy doesnt work

It should work though likely even if you capture entire Egypt the faction you give it too won't be able to hold it with such low religion. Possibly Damietta but the rest likely to lose it in a few turns if you don't stay and convert for quite some time. That maybe doesn't matter to you at all though... personally if I start as far away as England from middle east I send cheap army and old general on the Crusade because it takes so many turns for them to return.

[Callawyn]

It should work though likely even if you capture entire Egypt the faction you give it too won't be able to hold it with such low religion. Possibly Damietta but the rest likely to lose it in a few turns if you don't stay and convert for quite some time. That maybe doesn't matter to you at all though... personally if I start as far away as England from middle east I send cheap army and old general on the Crusade because it takes so many turns for them to return.

Return is much faster if you bring just the general home.

[Kawee]

Why bother? What I do is go there, kill as many Egyptians as possible, capture as many settlements as possible, sack them for money, destroy all the buildings, and give them all to the Pope. You get loads of money, perfect relationship with the Pope, and let the Pope fight his own Holy War. That'll teach him for bullying others.

It gets real interesting as well if you give the Pope a good enough base (like 4-5 provinces) in Egypt or the Holy Land. The Fatimid is too weak to strike back, so the Pope gets some time to build up it's base. Then when both are ready, you get some fun action in there.

[Tears of Destiny]

Why bother? What I do is go there, kill as many Egyptians as possible, capture as many settlements as possible, sack them for money, destroy all the buildings, and give them all to the Pope. You get loads of money, perfect relationship with the Pope, and let the Pope fight his own Holy War. That'll teach him for bullying others.

It gets real interesting as well if you give the Pope a good enough base (like 4-5 provinces) in Egypt or the Holy Land. The Fatimid is too weak to strike back, so the Pope gets some time to build up it's base. Then when both are ready, you get some fun action in there.

I actually did this, but to the turks... Interesting idea....

[Baldwin of Jerusalem]

Why bother? What I do is go there, kill as many Egyptians as possible, capture as many settlements as possible, sack them for money, destroy all the buildings, and give them all to the Pope. You get loads of money, perfect relationship with the Pope, and let the Pope fight his own Holy War. That'll teach him for bullying others.

It gets real interesting as well if you give the Pope a good enough base (like 4-5 provinces) in Egypt or the Holy Land. The Fatimid is too weak to strike back, so the Pope gets some time to build up it's base. Then when both are ready, you get some fun action in there.

I like this idea and from historical research, this was actually what the Pope was after. Its just that the crusade leaders didnt want to hand over their hard won conquests after so many years of hard fighting and ultimately, the Pope was too far away to do much about it.

[RabidSheepLegion]

lol i just besieged jerusalem (9 turns remaining) so going to starve them out, that way the other catholic crusades can get there, so when I capture it, they will just spread out in diff directions and capture the other muslim regions

[Birk]

lol i just besieged jerusalem (9 turns remaining) so going to starve them out, that way the other catholic crusades can get there, so when I capture it, they will just spread out in diff directions and capture the other muslim regions

Your'e "allies" will probably remove all the stacks with soldiers and bring their general home. After the crusade.

[RabidSheepLegion]

lol even tho i'm "Very Reliable"? that figures

[Tears of Destiny]

lol even tho i'm "Very Reliable"? that figures

Crusade is over, so the buggers go home. Unless you ask for "Military Assistance!"

[RabidSheepLegion]

ahhh ok, 9 turns remaining, and i have about 3-4 diplomats spread about for the map so I can prolly get that if I try my best

[k/t]

I don't think crusading troops will put up with a 9 turn siege. The last time I besieged a crusade target for more than 1 turn was back in Vanilla, in my first ever campaign, and my troops started to desert.