The Kingdom of Jerusalem.

[Comrade]

Hey. Pardon my ignorance; I played neither of the previous Total Wars aside form Rome, so my knowledge on what was done in MTW (the first) is lacking. Anyhow, that aside, I’ve been searching through the various press releases and other posts on this forum about the upcoming second MTW and have been unable to determine an answer to a question I feel rather important, namely: The Kingdom of Jerusalem. As far as I can deduce it is obviously not in the game in the form of its’ own unique faction, thus I’m a bit confused on the nature of lands conquered through Crusade, especially in the Holy Land. What will become of cities seized at the behest of the Pope? Will they remain with the conquering faction? If so, a concern arises: will the Moslems not be able to destroy the Crusader holdings piecemeal? While I’m aware this is indeed what happened somewhat in history, game play would seem to necessitate the unification of the small holdings by the Crusaders into a single state (or under command of the Pope, perhaps?), if simply to offer a more challenging reconquest by the player. Perhaps, given experience with the previous Medieval Total War titles and additional information they might have, someone could clue me in as to how the lands conquered by the Crusaders will be administered?

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

Well if you manage to capture the crusade target then yes you will gain control of that area.
Naturally the Muslims will conduct a jihad to retake it if it is a muslim province that was lost(remember that you can get to crusade against other catholics if they have been naughty).
That could result in a endless *****-slapping contest in MTW1 which was fun.
The *****-slapping ends when either 1. another catholic faction managed to conduct a crusade on the target before you which results that he will be drawn in to the *****-slapping contest instead, 2. You get tired of capturing the same province for the 5th time and ignore it or 3. You expand and destroy the muslim faction that is bothering you.

[Big War Bird]

It would be cool if the target province of a crusade became a vassel state that you couldn't directly control but would send tribute.

Here's an idea for a mod, have a hidden resource that generates extra income for Christian factions holding Holy Land provinces. Religious pilgrims were the tourism industry of the middle ages.