What do you do after a Crusade?

[Masked Marauder]

So, if you're playing as a catholic faction and the Pope starts a Crusade, what do you guys do with the city? Particularly in the early stage of the game..

For me, the Pope started a Crusade rather early, like around turn 25, and I think my faction(Spain) was the only one to answer to the call. I went by boat to get to Antioch a LOT faster, not sure why the AI normally goes the land route, but I got there and Egypt only recently got the town, so I took it with ease. I gave it to the Papal States as a gift(after sacking the place) and got my units back to my small island(the northern on near Italy, I also have Florence)

I don't think the Papal States held the region for 3 turns, seeing as though the public order was rather low. Of course, I had an ongoing war with Milan at the time, so I was counterattacking Milan, and then I get excommunicated. Well, sent in an Assassin with a skill of 8, killed the pope, my cardinal got elected, and Milan is destroyed. All in a days work.

[totalwar_legend]

Turn 25 is about normal, I've found. You can start one yourself a lot earlier than that though. My recommendation is don't give regions to the papacy. They only need 1, or even 0 still works. If you want to be on their good side then just give them money.

After i've done a crusade/jihad, I usually just keep going sacking every city in the vicinity.

[Masked Marauder]

Turn 25 is about normal, I've found. You can start one yourself a lot earlier than that though. My recommendation is don't give regions to the papacy. They only need 1, or even 0 still works. If you want to be on their good side then just give them money.

After i've done a crusade/jihad, I usually just keep going sacking every city in the vicinity.

Eh, I gave it to them knowing that I couldn't keep it at the time, and I just do it to be funny.

[sickpeople]

I go like a true crusader looting every city I capture and kill as many muslims as I can, before retreating across the Mediterranean. I am a terrible person, I know.

[totalwar_legend]

I go like a true crusader looting every city I capture and kill as many muslims as I can, before retreating across the Mediterranean. I am a terrible person, I know.

In those days if you did that the Catholic Church would label you a saint. It was a product of the times. The Ottoman Empire was surely guilty of equally bad behaviour. Cough *Armenian Genocide* cough.

[Highlander of Scotland]

i exterminate or sack the city and surrounding regions. Then gift it to a vassal in return for some of their regions

[Kataphractos]

A couple of times I've just exterminated and torn down the city in vanilla, and then done the same to the neighboring regions. Egypt is typically destroyed in the process and the Turks weakened, depending on how far south they've moved and/or if they attack me. In one game, the entire region between Tripoli and Antioch was a barren wasteland right up to the Mongol invasion (Mongols went after Kiev IIRC); even the Turks and Byzantines didn't try retaking the Middle East. It was rather amusing seeing 6+ heretics in almost every region there.

[Maklodes]

IMHO, extermination and crusading are counterproductive. If you want a high dread general, you shouldn't take him on crusades, because he'll get chivalry. If you want a high chivalry general, you shouldn't exterminate cities, because he'll get dread. Sacking or occupying seem better (for crusades). Although maybe I'm just too obsessive about getting all chivalry/dread traits pointing in the same direction. (I love the Apachean warpaths which give you high dread. Plus Apachean generals seem to be immune to chivalry, even if they do things like occupy villages and institute low taxes in the cities they govern. Plus the fact that you can declare a warpath on turn 1 against Tongva (I think?), conquer it the same turn, and declare another turn 1 warpath, because the game somehow doesn't realize you just had one. Plus there are no other Great Spirit-worshipping powers to mess up your warpath plans.)

Personally, I like to try to hold the area. It's a challenge.

[PrestigeX]

I gift it to the pope, and I use the crusade to "merc hunt" so I have one or two army at Crusade target - and another 'roaming' europe gathering up Crusader mercenaries.

Unless it is a later game crusade against lands in Europe. I'll also usually take one of the adjacent territories in the holy land and also gift that to the pope. Then I return to my armies to the homelands / frontier. Especially getting as many of those Crusade Knight DFK variants, those are some of the best heavy inf in the game.

[Highlander of Scotland]

it gives me the fell of being a crusader malkodes

[lolIsuck]

I normally don't go on crusades unless I have enough money and I have easy access to the Mediterranean. I don't join crusades as Denmark or England, they take too much time, half your troops desert before you land and it's not very profitable to have a city on the other side of the map. If I go on crusade I immediately take all neighbouring regions too and start an early colonial empire. Most of my campaigns last only like 60 turns before I get bored so I don't care about the Mongols etc.

[Dude with the Food]

If I ever decide to follow crusades (which I don't) then I try and keep the city as long as possible while taking the surrounding cities. It is so much easier getting the Knights guilds over there but when I get enough of them/Mongols arrive, I load them all on ships and sail them all the way back home to kill some Christians. Naturally after setting taxes very high/burning all buildings.

[Satrio Eko]

If the public order in the settlement is too low,i will exterminate the population.but if the public order is relatively high sometimes just sack or occupies it i know that extermnate city population will result the general get a dread.but honestly i'm not too care about dread or chivalry

[_Elysium_]

The target cities are usually far from my territory, so if I choose to go I'll sack the city, destroy all the buildings, raise taxes to very high then leave after disbanding any crusaders I picked up en route.

[NBA 2022]

After I take the holy city I sack all the near by enemy cities kind of like a horde in BI.

[Kataphractos]

I don't join crusades as Denmark or England, they take too much time, half your troops desert before you land

So long as you're moving your crusading army toward the target, this shouldn't happen. If you're only moving it like 5 or 6 tiles per turn, then yeah, I could see it happening. But with crusading army's huge movement bonus (especially by water), there's really no reason to not send them to their maximum movement range each turn.

[Dargaron]

So long as you're moving your crusading army toward the target, this shouldn't happen. If you're only moving it like 5 or 6 tiles per turn, then yeah, I could see it happening. But with crusading army's huge movement bonus (especially by water), there's really no reason to not send them to their maximum movement range each turn.

The thing is (as Denmark and England), if you want to follow the sea route of Sigard Jomsfar (around Portugal and into the Mediterranean), for the first few turns, you'll be going away from the Holy Land, which means your soldiers will desert. If you take the land route down the rivers of central Europe to Venice, and take the sea routes from there, you'll be angering all the land powers along the way, since you probably don't have military access with all of them.

[fredtrotter]

The thing is (as Denmark and England), if you want to follow the sea route of Sigard Jomsfar (around Portugal and into the Mediterranean), for the first few turns, you'll be going away from the Holy Land, which means your soldiers will desert. If you take the land route down the rivers of central Europe to Venice, and take the sea routes from there, you'll be angering all the land powers along the way, since you probably don't have military access with all of them.

I believe crusading armies do not damage relations with catholic factions while they are walking through their territory.

[Tuscan]

I've always been a sucker and simply occupied the crusade target city, only to usually have it revolt unless I brought a platoon of priests with me. I'm still relatively new to M2TW so I think the next Christian campaign I do I'm going to simply sack the target city and go on a sacking rampage from Antioch to Alexandria, wiping out Egypt along the way if possible.

[princeofegypt]

I gift them to different factions so that the middle east become battle ground to ease conquering them when I am ready .