best way to react a crusade or jihad...?

[Paladin94610]

Hi, friends.
If a crusade or jihad has been called against you, what is the best way to solve the problem? For now I suggest let them take it. Imagine about 25,000 men of 20 armies in a queue marching towards a city of yours. Will you defend it at all cost and let your faction depleted of troops and harming the relationships with other factions you are not originally at war with? Just let them take the city and them let the other crusader armies fall back to their own territories so that you can deal with the one who took the city. I think it may works coz the crusade or jihad involves in only one settlement with hidden resource crusade or jihad . Once the crusade or jihad had been succeeded, the union of crusaders break apart and that's when you must strike hard on the once crusader armies of your original enemies and retake the city. Are there no other side-effects on letting the crusaders/jihadists take the city?And I am talking according to version 6.3.

[Kaledon]

If you want an easier time, yes, you can give up on the crusade target. However, I am a stubborn man and as such, refuse to ever give in. This often results in countless lives lost, but hey. Most of those lives are worthless peasants anyway.

[Amaranth]

but hey. Most of those lives are worthless peasants anyway.

Hmm..That's gotta be something Darth Vader said about Alderaan shortly after this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Pambas]

Hmm..That's gotta be something Darth Vader said about Alderaan shortly after this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A sad LOL. .... but a LOL indeed

[RollingWave]

it depends on the situation, but if I have the option i will defend , hell I just successfully killed basically every king / emperor of the Catholic faction in my defense of Vilnus including the pope lol!!!

typically if you have a huge city / citadal crusaded against, defend it. it's not THAT hard, the AI's siege tactic is usually pretty meh anyway.

[PerXX]

If you don't mind the dishonest approach, assassins can be a very effective way to deal with crusades/jihads. Assassinate the general and the rest of the army will disband in a few turns.

[chris7ian]

Historically speaking people wouldn't give up their city to a foreign army of a different religion without a fight, so why would you in game?

[Alavaria]

Historically speaking people wouldn't give up their city to a foreign army of a different religion without a fight, so why would you in game?

But we're all Catholics .. it's just that the Pope was being annoying so I evicted him from Rome....

[Alavaria]

Forts! I kept all of Europe off my back by clutching my Rome tightly with a ton of forts that have random amounts of levy archers in them ...

(Ironically when I tried to screenshot the Crusade announcement screen, I couldn't get the pope to call a crusade again... so I suppose reloading makes the problem go away)

[philipjd]

I find that defending against crusades/jihads is a good way to remove opposing armies from the actual schwerpunkt (critical area) and usually fighting them in a place that you know it will happen at so build that place accordingly. Letting your opponent meet you at a strong place 'of your choosing' [sort of] is part of the art of war.

Other than that... usually the target is a well developed/able region [Constaninople being the clasic example, worth shedloads of cash] so why give it up, even temporarily, when you don't have to. I'd also rather any crusading/jihading armies get wiped out against my stone walls than be let loose to wander through my territory where they can attack at will.

All the above without bringing in the death of the civilians for whom 'you' are responsible, peasants I know

[Smokey Bacon]

"Historically speaking people wouldn't give up their city to a foreign army of a different religion without a fight, so why would you in game?"

Moscow. When Napoleon reached Moscow it was deserted.

[Killswitch]

I'm in the middle of defending a Crusade playing Lithuania , great fun and what a challenge . I moved some stacks south into Poland and started fighting the crusading armies on their way to Vilnius . There's loads of opportunity for ambush , night attacks etc in that part of the world. I'm probably doomed to wreck my empire doing it but god it's fun .
Generally i'd say your better off giving up the target area temporarily unless your prepared or happen to have allot of spare troops but even that may still leave armies wandering off to hit you elsewhere. It's a hard choice but Pagan's will not be intimidated by the grovelling half men of rome !

[Killswitch]

I'm in the middle of defending a Crusade playing Lithuania , great fun and what a challenge . I moved some stacks south into Poland and started fighting the crusading armies on their way to Vilnius . There's loads of opportunity for ambush , night attacks etc in that part of the world. I'm probably doomed to wreck my empire doing it but god it's fun .
Generally i'd say your better off giving up the target area temporarily unless your prepared or happen to have allot of spare troops but even that may still leave armies wandering off to hit you elsewhere. It's a hard choice but Pagan's will not be intimidated by the grovelling half men of rome !

Don't listen to me in future . The pride of Lithuania marched to the call of the Archduke in defence on Vilnius and after defeating the first 7 stacks from Poland , HRE , Norway and The Dane's the weary battered armies were routed by the French who allied to Venice stormed the castle with 4 full armies slaughtering all within .
The remnants of a once mighty military force limped into Pskov to consult with the God's ... retibutuion must be delivered to the cradle of this atrocity , time for Rome to burn even if it's our last act we will be rmembered as the Pope burns with his city around him.

[King Siegfried]

Defending against a crusade can be the most fulfilling campaign you'll ever lead. Back in 6.1 I was playing as my own Kingdom of Jerusalem when a jihad was called on Jerusalem. Sure enough, I had five full stacks of armies coming at me from every direction. Two from the Fatimids, two from the Turks and one from the Kwarezmians. Since only one stack can garrison a city at any time, I was well and truly screwed. So what I ended up doing was raising an army of strictly Hospitaller Knights from my surrounding regions (Acre, Damascus, Kerak, etc) and rode upon the Turkish armies. With my 800 Knights, lead by the general I was hoping to adopt into the family tree and potentially become king in the future, I charged their men. Then retreated. And charged again.

It was a complete suicide attack. But in the end, I had completely eliminated one full stack and wiped out almost half of the other (around 3,000 men), all with just 800 Hospitaller Knights. Of course, Mr Reniers ran out of movement points before he could retreat to a castle, and so they chased him down and killed him. But the elimination of that stack and a half enabled Jerusalem to withstand the siege and successfully repel the attack (also, ballista towers).

So that was fun.

But if you want to use the Scorched Earth tactic, that's quite liable. Deconstruct every building you've got (except churches, 'cause-a da Pope-a hates-a dat) and get a lot of money for it, then abandon the castle with a Peasant garrison. Bam. There you go. What I would recommend you do instead is stock up on the heaviest spearmen you can get and the best archers you can get. Oh, and make sure you've got Ballista Towers. Then you hide within the innermost court you can, preferably with curtain walls (applicable for castles only, obviously). Let your archers go to town as the Ballista Towers hurt them. By the time they engage your infantry, your archers/Towers should have done a lot of damage. And then keep hurting their morale as your spearmen hold them off. Works almost every time for me.

[sbroadbent]

It was a complete suicide attack. But in the end, I had completely eliminated one full stack and wiped out almost half of the other (around 3,000 men), all with just 800 Hospitaller Knights. Of course, Mr Reniers ran out of movement points before he could retreat to a castle, and so they chased him down and killed him. But the elimination of that stack and a half enabled Jerusalem to withstand the siege and successfully repel the attack (also, ballista towers).

I did that against the Mongols. 14 units of Hospitallers, 5 Mounted Sergeants and a general. Result. 695 (of 793) dead Mongols 144 (of 581) fallen Templars. Normal unit sizes.

Cavalry armies can be devastating, but expensive to field.

[Paladin94610]

I did that against the Mongols. 14 units of Hospitallers, 5 Mounted Sergeants and a general. Result. 695 (of 793) dead Mongols 144 (of 581) fallen Templars. Normal unit sizes.

Cavalry armies can be devastating, but expensive to field.

You miss something. First you said you have hospitallers, then the dead men are templars.

[Ishan]

You miss something. First you said you have hospitallers and then the dead men are templars.

Does it really matters?
What ever unit it was both are mounted units with same stats and his point is stressed on this:-

Cavalry armies can be devastating, but expensive to field.

[sbroadbent]

You miss something. First you said you have hospitallers, then the dead men are templars.

Hospitallers referring to the unit. Templars referring to the faction since it was more than just hospitallers that lost their lives in that desperate attempt to save Danish held Baghdad from the Mongols.

How the Danes had hold of Baghdad is an entirely different story, one that can be found in my Templars AAR

[Paladin94610]

Hospitallers referring to the unit. Templars referring to the faction since it was more than just hospitallers that lost their lives in that desperate attempt to save Danish held Baghdad from the Mongols.

How the Danes had hold of Baghdad is an entirely different story, one that can be found in my Templars AAR

Sorry mate, I thought Templars to be Templar Knights but now...
You mean Knights Templar Faction of 6.1, right,which is currently in 6.3 The Crusader States?

[spH3RiCal]

+1 for assassins. Also build forts to all the narrow passages to the city but ALWAYS leave one open. Put a good garrison in case they attack and recruit tons of assassins.