Quick question about desertion

**pigwiddeon** · January 16, 2012, 01:59 PM

Hi,

My army joined the crusade to antioch. When i directly click to antioch(from hamburg) it draws a way through russia to the target. Bosphorus is the shortest way i guess but i cant go through there because of the enemy constantinapole. To have the armies not deserted, should i follow the long path it draws or first click on the constantinapole and pass it to enter anatolia. Thanks.

**HMS England** · January 16, 2012, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by pigwiddeon

Hi,

My army joined the crusade to antioch. When i directly click to antioch(from hamburg) it draws a way through russia to the target. Bosphorus is the shortest way i guess but i cant go through there because of the enemy constantinapole. To have the armies not deserted, should i follow the long path it draws or first click on the constantinapole and pass it to enter anatolia. Thanks.

I usually take a ship, cuts the trip time into about a fifth. However, if you must go by land I suggest going just South of Constantinople into Asia Minor. If you'll notice there are two bridges next to Constantinople.. again, make sure you take the Southern most one to go around the city.

**eXistenZ** · January 16, 2012, 03:29 PM

ships are indeed adviced, you can do huge distances as a crusader army.

**CavalryCmdr** · January 17, 2012, 05:54 PM

If your going to bo by land go constantinople way, if the land bridges are blocked you can usually recruit a merc cog to cross over.

**El Cid99** · January 17, 2012, 05:58 PM

Another thing is, while on Crusade, you MUST NOT move away from your target ON EITHER AXIS. For example, playing as Spain, if their is a Crusade on, say, Turkish-held Constantinople (Istanbul), then an army sent from Valencia will suffer desertion if sent by land. If it travels south through Africa, then it will suffer desertion until it reachs Africa and can travel due West (slightly north too), and then again when it passes due souh of Constantinople, and continues East, through the Levant. If it travels through Europe, it will suffer desertion as it passes north of Constantinople's latitude.

If this confuses you, consider yourself normal. But its correct.

In plain English, the best thing to avoid desertion would be to march south-east to Greece, then board a ship and travel east to Antioch. Heading through Russia will both take time and cause major desertion.

**Scelesticfish** · January 17, 2012, 06:13 PM

I usually take a ship, and join the crusade when I land.

**HMS England** · January 17, 2012, 06:34 PM

Originally Posted by Scelesticfish

I usually take a ship, and join the crusade when I land.

But then you'd have to pay upkeep, you'd save more money just to loose a few units and pay no upkeep anyways.

**eXistenZ** · January 18, 2012, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by Scelesticfish

I usually take a ship, and join the crusade when I land.

Like In3x says, this is a strange strategy. Crusader armies have no upkeep and move faster, so if you want to join a crusade, its best to to it as early as possible

**In3x** · January 17, 2012, 08:18 PM

A post from my AAR to answer a similar question:

Originally Posted by In3x

The crusades exploit I used was found by either ATPG, Grog or SirRethcir. It involves leaving the crusade then rejoining with the generals of an army every turn. This effectively "resets" the crusade for that army allowing you to move in any direction until it is too late to join the crusade (10 turns after it is called is the cut off point). After 10 turns you better have finished your crusade or be heading in the right direction.

If you don't want to use this exploit then just try to ensure your crusade is always moving towards the crusade target. You do not have to be moving towards the crusade in both the north/south axis and the east/west axis but you must move towards it in one of them, also you cannot move away in either axis, even a little. For instance, if you are heading for Jerusalem from Palermo and you go north of Crete, you will get desertion. This is because you are moving away from the target in the north/south axis and the game doesn't care that you have actually got much closer to the target.

**Diamond** · January 18, 2012, 06:48 AM

Just go on the direct path. If you're crusading Jerusalem from Spain, going on land in either direction would cause desertion (because when you crusade, you have to be going directly towards the city nearly the entire time). It's best to just take a ship directly east.

If you're going from England, for example, you need to land in France and travel towards the direction of Jerusalem (not go directly south straight for the sea). This means you will be going southeast. If you keep going directly southeast in this manner, you will land at the Adriatic, which you can take without desertion straight to Jerusalem after you endure that one turn of going south, when the game gives you one-turn leniency when it comes to crusading direction.

**TheDarkKnight** · January 18, 2012, 07:55 PM

I'm still curious how people manage to desert in open sea...Lol

I lost an entire army taking a ship from England to Jerusalem. It was some of my better units too. And then the general died en route and everyone deserted.

**Diamond** · January 18, 2012, 10:09 PM

Also, @ the strategy posted above (the weird one) you can try to avoid joining the crusade until you're on a straight line towards the target. For example, as England, land your units in northern France, go directly south to the Med. Sea, hire a merc ship, and then join the crusade; however, this will 1) take longer and 2) make the French mad if you don't have military access. Crusading/Jihading armies are allowed to cross territories without diplomatic penalties.