Holy crusade abandonment

[Nopkar]

This isn't about having a general abandon a crusade, it's about his units abandoning him because of his progress.

Pope calls for a crusade across the map in Cairo (I'm in ENGLAND).

I rally to the cause, amassing 1500 troops within a single turn and board a ship straight to Cairo! (and by straight I mean around Spain...and then across the Mediterranean. You get my point)

Next turn 2 units abandon the cause...then another one...and another. by the time I reach Cairo I'm down to a single unit of spearmen and my general.

WHY!?!?!?!?

This has always been a problem for me and I can't think of a way to solve it. It's a 10-12 turn journey and I can't keep an army for near enough time to even get there!

any Ideas would be helpful.

*Info*:
Faction Leader: 10 Authority, 6 command, 10 piety and 6 Chivalry

Crusader General: 6 Command, 4 Chivalry, 3 piety and 7 Loyalty

[PapaRosario]

English crusading armies are notorious for deserting when traveling around the Iberian peninsula. It's because they start to desert if you get further away from the target, which you might for a little while when going around the Iberian peninsula. One solution to this issue is to not join the crusade with the general until you get around Spain and into the Mediterranean. The drawback to this solution is that you won't get the crusade movement points bonus for the first couple of turns, but I guess that's the price you'll have to pay to keep your troops from deserting.

[Sanderlicious]

Maybe a "no deserting while aboard" script could be written? I'll see if there is something I can do...

In the meantime, I suggest recruiting the minimum number of units required while in England, then picking up a mercenary army at destination or along the way.

[rickroe]

I would just join the crusade in England proper and then take a boat to France and march down to Italy and hire some ships at the heel or toe of the boot. You can also pick up troops along the way to join the crusade. As long as you join the crusade early on you should be fine. I would then try to leapfrog from land to land with your boats leaving your army on shore at the end of a turn. If you leave the army at sea your general may get Scurvy or worse there could be a terrible storm or enemy fleets be it pirates (rebels) or other factions. Another thing to remember is bringing spies, priests or diplomats with your crusading army slows them down considerably on land.

[k/t]

Have more than one ship in the fleet, select the ships and press Ctrl+A. Click to the destination, and when the ships stop moving due to no movement points left, click again. The ships will keep going as if they weren't carrying anything.

[Duck of Death]

If you're playing 6.4, there may be something else wrong here.
Ive played England many times and sent them on many crusades to the holy land (sailing around Spain) and Ive never once had a single unit desert as long as you dont actively go backwards on a turn or not move at all on a turn. Regardless whether I had the minimum 8 units or maxed at 20 and regardless who the general was leading them.

When you joined the crusade, did you switch generals? Or add a general to the group maybe that hadnt joined the crusade yet?
As long as the navy didnt lose a battle and push you back on a turn or something like that, this sounds very strange.

Also... make sure your crusading general never leaves his crusading army for a turn or you will definatly get desertions. Thats all I can think of.

[tudor93]

When I played as England and joined the crusade I went via land all the way to the french shore near Tolouse, hired mercenary ships from there and sailed directly to Cairo. I had an alliance with them and military access, but it's not a big deal if you don't have military access, your relations with them won't be affected too much.

[total war lover]

Just march through France's lands with your crusading army, then hire mercenary ships and sail to cairo

[dahooscarl]

I agree. March on land to France or Italy and hire boats and sail from there.

[Desperado Outlaw]

Yeah, I remember being in the same situation as yours first time played Medieval II. I did exactly as tudor93 did.

[Chazz1225]

I remember a similar subject being brought forward in the vanilla, the way to never loss any crusading units was at the end of every turn the army must have travelled closer to the target region. However in a ship they were not technically moving so units would disband, in SS they fixed that problem as long as the ships carrying the army would move more closer to the target region, so going around Iberia would be a great problem. So keep moving closer to the region every turn and you'll be fine, do as the above have said march through France but in a way that you are still moving closer to the target region, you should end up at Marsielle, and sail further on

[Black_ice_Spain]

cant you just simply start the crusade in ireland (i guess you have it), and go to spain? that should get you always closer to the target...

if not, go with the ship one turn into the atlantic ocean

[total war lover]

cant you just simply start the crusade in ireland (i guess you have it), and go to spain? that should get you always closer to the target...

if not, go with the ship one turn into the atlantic ocean

Useless advice since you don't uderstand the problem. The crusade target was CAIRO not Spain. So sailing from Ireland to Spain would still cause your troops to desert

[k/t]

He's saying you should move farther away west before joining the crusade, that way even when you're going around Spain you're still getting closer to CAIRO.

[Kilmantor]

One possibility is to unload them at the coast of the Reich or France and move the rest of through the Byzantine Empire by feet. Your way will be longer, but no units will desert, because you never get away from the target as you do wenn sailing around the iberian peninsula. Or you park some ships in the Mediterrainian see before and load them in again in Italy or Greece.