Crusades Campaign: Jerusalem

[frogbeastegg]

This topic is for the Kingdom of Jerusalem faction in Kingdoms expansion's Crusades campaign.

[PseRamesses]

Basically your objective to win is to eliminate Egypt and hold Baghdad for 10 turns which IMHO makes KoJ the easiest faction to win this scenario with. Here´s my strategy.

Egypt will always move on Alia and the Beni Camps in Arabia. Saladin will launch a Jihad on Jerusalem on turn 2 (1176). The north is secure through your alliance with KoA and through the eastern deserts there will be no threat so your only front is the west and Egypt.

1174ad. Goal: secure south and take rebels in the north to force KoA into turkish lands. For offensive armies I use the squires, archers and mounted sergants that I have an abundance of.
*Balain of Ibelin marches on Alia reinforced with troops from Ascalon, Jerusalem and Kerak.
*Prince Guy lay siege on Banyas reinforced from Arsuf and Acre.
*Raymond of Tripoli lay siege on Ballbek.
As garrison troops I use 2 dismounted knights and one KoJ in each settlement.
I convert Ascalon, Arsuf and Tyre to settlements and will settle on having castles in Kerak and Ballbek which will be more than sufficient.

1176ad.
*Prince Guy takes Banyas and Raymond of Tripoli takes Ballbek.
*Gerard the crusader takes Guys army and lay siege on Damascus.
*Raymond of Tripoli lays siege on Homs.
*Balain of Ibelin faces two stack of reinforcement Jihad armies in the south and takes them out. Marches towards Alia. A half stack of egyptians is heading this way too.
You might have noticed that I use all my generals atleast once. This will enhance their loyalty and sense of feeling appreciated. Baldwin IV is kept in Jerusalem to defend it and Ascalon which will soon encounter the Egytians.

1178ad.
*Gerard takes Damascus. Marches to the Tyre coast where a ships is waiting.
*Ray takes Homs and marches on the tripoli coast to board a ship.
*Prince Guy (or an emergant general) takes these two armies (above) to Cyprus.
*Balain attacks the egyptian force usually led by their heir (nice ransom) that is laying seige on Alia. Lay seige to Alia.

1180ad.
*Lay seige on Nicosia on Cyprus.
*Take Alia and move Balain NW to intercept all the egyptians that is pouring in over the Sinai desert.

1182ad.
*Take Nicosia and Lay siege on Limassol (victory goal).
*Move all excess troops towards Ascalon.
A crusade reinforcement led by Richard the Lionheart will soon arrive. Use him and Balain to secure the bridges west of Sinai and move on Saladins lands when you feel ready. Use diplomats, spies and assassins in each army stack to protect and counter assasins otherwise Balain and Richard will not make it.

1184ad.
*Limassol falls and I ship these troops to the Egyptian front.
By this time I usually can spare troops and take a general to take the Beni Camps (3) in the Arabian desert. Taking these settlements will give you a nice backdoor to Baghdad and you can use the rivercrossings of the great rivers as nice defendable positions against the Turks and in the future the Mongols.

I´ve modded the Turks into a far stronger faction due to their fragmented position so they are quite a challenge in my games, just the way I like it. And if you play turtle for a while after taking out the Egyptians you´ll face the mongol invasion north of Basra and the Turks will see a new leader emerge - Osman! Boy, I do like this script. Have fun.

[TheLastPrivate]

Does the KoJ get Marshall of the Templars, like the hospitaller equivalent of Antioch?

[Iavorios]

They do. And they have the Countable of Jerusalem cav. unit, which has a size of 60.

[Master of Puppets]

I played as Jerusalem first and honestly I wasn't too impressed. It was extremely easy, the music wasn't really that impressive, and it was like everything was handed to you.

Idk, I kind of prefer building things up on my own over having armies and insanely heavy knights just handed over to me. It just seemed way too simple and straight forward for my taste.

[Atreides]

I played as Jerusalem first and honestly I wasn't too impressed. It was extremely easy, the music wasn't really that impressive, and it was like everything was handed to you.

.
Odd. Whit my start the Egyptians started steamrolling towards me. When you defeated their initial four near full balanced stacks you can attack them. Before you should save your skin....

Besides, the music is great imo.....