Crusade nightmare

[Furtrapper]

Aargh!! I am playing the Italians, c1211, and doing pretty well (richest, biggest army etc - love this faction!). Currently there are only two other Catholic factions left (French, v powerful) and HRE (weak). When the French launch Crusades, which they do with distressing frequency, they seem to be able to move at will around my territories, decimating my armies until they finally get round to moving some way towards their destination.

However, when I do it, I can't move all over the place at all, the thing only lets me take a very narrow route to my destination, which inevitably means I'm contributing most to the army.

So basically, the French AI seems to be able to weaken my defences for its eventual attack without me being able to do a damned thing about it!

Help! Any suggestions? (Short of fighting the Crusaders, which I don't want to do at the moment and wouldn't be confident I'd win)

(Hopefully without tweaking files please, I'm not into that. I like to play as the game was designed, annoyances and all; I remain bemused by the number of complainers on here - if you don't like the game, don't play it! I think MTW is great!)

[Daevyll]

Move your troops out of the way of the crusader army, and move them back when it has left.
A crusader army cant conquer christian factions unless you refuse them passage, so you're safe in doing so.

[barocca]

this is a bug,
being fixed in patch.

[Furtrapper]

Yeah, I've tried moving them out but sometimes it just leaves me too defenceless in a particular vulnerable territory. Plus, the Crusade just tracks my armies! In one instance, the French Crusade moved to Venice, then to Denmark (me again, via my ships) then back to Venice then Austria, Hungary and back to Austria, all, supposedly, on its way to Constantinople! I've heard of scenic routes, but that's ridiculous!

I do try to move them out (Sardinia and Corsica are very helpful in this regard) but my main gripe is that they seem to be able to do it when I can't!!!

[Furtrapper]

Thanks Barocca, just seen your post!

I did wonder!!!

For the moment, I'm just going to have to avoid the swine. Oh, and destroy them so no more Crusades...(actually, I plan tactical assaults to destroy their pesky Chapter Houses, as then it will take at least eight years before they can generate another Crusade!)

Looking forward to these patches...!

[olaf]

This pisses me off too. AI factions will launch crusades and then just make the rounds through my territories even if they are not along the way.

Hopefully the patch will be out early next week.

olaf