Crusade hints

[killmore]

1) After you gather the army, don't join the right away. Transport it as far as possible (check how many turns you have) and the join crusade. This prevents desertions.
I unloaded my troops on Create joined the crusade then got back onto the boat. (Is this an exploit?)

2) Don't buy any "crusaders" until you reach the destination. Their upkeep is more expensive then their price

3) Once AI breaks through 1st wall, it will walk on top of the walls to get pass the second wall. So don't expect a battle on the second wall. - That seems wrong

4) If you are Spain you will get attacked by Portugal, France right after you joined Crusade. This resulted in couple of exciting turns but AI proved to be incompetent in attacking castles. I won the defensive battles I should have lost. Whats up with attacking with just one "wavering" unit then before it attacks it panics and tries to run away - repeat 100 times.

[Greggar]

2. Units in a crusading army have no upkeep while they are actively crusading.

[Hedniskhjäertad]

1) After you gather the army, don't join the right away. Transport it as far as possible (check how many turns you have) and the join crusade. This prevents desertions.
I unloaded my troops on Create joined the crusade then got back onto the boat. (Is this an exploit?)

Desertions mostly occur when you have no leader on a crusade army, or if you take too long to get to destination. But i advice to join right away if you think you can reach the destination fast, the Crusader Army has more move points.

2) Don't buy any "crusaders" until you reach the destination. Their upkeep is more expensive then their price

Crusaders don't have upkeep.

3) Once AI breaks through 1st wall, it will walk on top of the walls to get pass the second wall. So don't expect a battle on the second wall. - That seems wrong

4) If you are Spain you will get attacked by Portugal, France right after you joined Crusade. This resulted in couple of exciting turns but AI proved to be incompetent in attacking castles. I won the defensive battles I should have lost. Whats up with attacking with just one "wavering" unit then before it attacks it panics and tries to run away - repeat 100 times.

I agree with the two last parts. AI is very weak when attack a castle, i managed to kill more than 3000 men with 3 units of Dismounted English Knights and a Yeoman Bowmen. The ai just sent their light cavalry to charge my gate with the help of some archers on melee. Leaving their heavy infanty on the field, to get mowed by ballista towers & archers.

[Ceasar]

Desertions mostly occur when you have no leader on a crusade army, or if you take too long to get to destination. But i advice to join right away if you think you can reach the destination fast, the Crusader Army has more move points.

Playing as Venice, I send a crusade towards Antioch by sea. Even though I set course directly towards the target, the men deserted. I lost seven of nine units on the trip which took no more than four turns... And the army was lead by my faction heir who had a command rating of four.

[Delexit]

@Hedniskhjäertad

I agree with the two last parts. AI is very weak when attack a castle, i managed to kill more than 3000 men with 3 units of Dismounted English Knights and a Yeoman Bowmen. The ai just sent their light cavalry to charge my gate with the help of some archers on melee. Leaving their heavy infanty on the field, to get mowed by ballista towers & archers

hm im playing vh/vh & when im attacked is like 1 ram, 2 catapults 2 siege towers & 2 laders all maned by feudalkinghts ( or higher). defending a castle is quite a chalenge couse they reach my walls before breking the gate thus the fights is already intense on the walls. however with help of other hints from this forum :
a)- spearmen( as many as the nr of towers & laders) + archers on the walls
b)- spearmen 4 units min at the gate with general behind
c)- 2 balista : at a good distance from the gate facing the gate with "hold fire" & "ingnated ammo"; both balistas with a unit of knights behind.

the result:
speramen on the walls with help from archers will repell the heavy infantry from laders & siegetowers.
spearmen at the gate will hold (hard but they will) at the gate with the general behind at close but safe distance to boost the moral.
the balistas will be ordered to fire ignated ammo in the bulk of attakers at the gate inflicting from left & right huge casualities & ofcource panik.
the knights behind the balistas will charge at the moment u see that alot of enemy's flags r changed to "broken". at that momnent "stop fire" balistas, call the general horn turn ur archers toward the mass of attackers at the gate & charge with all remaining spearmen.
most of the time works cool and the end is like the destrutkion of the entire enemy army

[jimbob]

My main tip would be don't crusade early for your victory condition province. It's pretty easy to send a crusade to jerusalem as the english, and take it early on, but its another thing trying to keep hold of it in the middle of muslim territory with the mongols and timurids rampaging around. Unless you specifically want to conquer the middle east, then I reckon it's best to use early crusades to gain favour with the pope, and only crusade for your victory region when you've got 40+ territories already.

[Black Francis]

Why all the moaning about it taking ages to get to Jerusalem? CALL A CRUSADE YOURSELF!

If your rival Catholic faction gets deemed ex-communicatus get a Crusade called against them.

If playing as Spain get a Crusade called against the Moors in North Africa. You will get there first, get all the rewards and as piety makes for better governors, end up with a couple of Generals great at governing settlements.

[johnnytrenton]

i didnt get and deserters when i put them all into boats, then at the end of each turn i made sure to unload them on ground. then i put them back in the boats(they have a lot of move points when crusading)
maybe it was because i had alot of money though?

[Faelan]

My first two attempts at Crusdading resulted in both desertions and the boats my Crusaders were on being sunk by pirates!

Any tips on stopping this?

[killmore]

My first two attempts at Crusdading resulted in both desertions and the boats my Crusaders were on being sunk by pirates!

Any tips on stopping this?

Buy "crusader" boats to make your fleet strong - they have no upkeep right?

[Lavastein]

My first two attempts at Crusdading resulted in both desertions and the boats my Crusaders were on being sunk by pirates!

Any tips on stopping this?

my first attempt got my entire army sunk at sea. it was a fiasco.

[Shaio]

another tip. send 2 generals or family members.

when u get there split them and you can purchase almost an entire second stack Right off... and you get to hurl pilgrims at the walls
plus all those crusader armored sergeants and unhorsed knights make it very easy to take a few extra city's and hold your place in the middle east. 9 there also amazingly cheap )

oh.. and always sail with at-least 6 boats.. otherwise your just asking to be sunk.

annoying thou when calling crusades you never seem to have a very large choice of citys.

[Atillium]

Playing as the HRE, I crusaded my European empire together. What the heck do I need Jerusalem for?? I preferred Milan and Venice

Gotta have good relations with the pope to do that though.

[killmore]

If you are Spain it takes a long time to get your troops to Crusade destination. I joined the crusade at once -> bunch of them deserted on Hight seas...
Yes I had commender and they were moving directly to target
So then I "replayed" the situation - You get no desertions when you move boats as far as possible before joining crusade.


Interesting - I had no idea that "Crusaders" have no upkeep

Still it is better to buy them as late as possible. This way you can get large crusading army to destination, then split them in half and then fill the slots with "crusador" units... Thats what I did

[Hedniskhjäertad]

Also, try to bring at least 2 family members. You might find one inquisitor on the way, and you know what he would do with that 'man that is going to risk his life to retake the holy lands'. Yes, he will torch him.

[Odovacar]

I successfully reached Jerusalem from Portugal without desertion.

-As the author of this topic advised: dont join the crusade right away the pope calls you, travel towards Jerusalem meanwhile
-Then embark your troops and join.
-Go straight away...if you make a little override they realise you dont go after Jerusalem and desert
-They may desert if you take another city, however i experienced, you can make battles with them against muslims
-If they are deserting put them into a city or separate from the general. The general is crusading, but they cease to be crusaders, you must pay them then but you will not use them.
Then abrupt crusade and resume it.

[ArcadesX]

Joining Crusades seem pretty pointless if you are far away. I accepted the crusade as england and had my army halfway to jerusalem in hungary next thing you know crusade is over and im stuck with an army in hungary and they didn't like it very much. I think im going to try and take one of the islands first like crete,rhodes or cyprus. Then i'll have a nice spring board for any other crusades.

[Reiver]

-As the author of this topic advised: dont join the crusade right away the pope calls you, travel towards Jerusalem meanwhile

You'll manage to piss off everyone between your starting off point and Jerusalem though if you march a normal army through their lands.

[Hedniskhjäertad]

I usually go to Italy, and from Italy i grab some boats and go. When there are enemies nearby i usually tend to stop on some islands to get fresh merc boats.

[Odovacar]

Who is speaking about marching? Don't you have boats??