where is that crusade going?

[Sandy-San]

and another thing...

How does the AI crusade path finding work?

I'm at war with the French, yet they have just sent a crusade (headed for distant Egypt) rolling right across my lands. I moved armies out of several nearby provinces to stop the crusade stealing any more of my best troops, but then the AI crusade has gone off in completely the opposite direction I expected. It looks like the crusade is heading for my nearby port, and perhaps is going to use my trade route to take it most of the way to Egypt.

Does the AI just pick the quickest route? apart from the initial tick box, do I get any say in where it goes? or are the French just asking for another good kicking? I attacked them (and got told off by the Pope) well over 10 years ago, so I can have another go at them without getting excommed any time I like...

[PanthaPower]

It might be a good thing if you mention if you are pre or post-patch. The pathfinding has changed a lot in v1.1

[Sandy-San]

post patch, ta http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[MizuKokami]

also, if most of the other factions allready have a crusade going some place, if you think you can take the french, and your king is real old, you can risk the ex communication. if the pope dies, or your king, you are no longer excomunicated. if you can kill an enemy completely before 2 years is up, you won't get excom. either. with the other factions haveing crusades going, you can only field one crusade at a time. so if the other factions are out crusadeing allready, they can't crusade to kill you.

get the patch. the patch is worth it just to fix that dam circling crusade.

[Nobunaga0611]

Do crusades still stall a province over from its intended province? I haven't encountered any against me since the patch. Well i got notice as the Turks that I was being crusaded against, but it never came (at least not in the 20 or so years after it was announced).

[Lichgod]

How many units can a Crusade banner have? Also, is there a size limit in number of men -- like the 960 for a single stack?

I have read on other threads about a Crusade banner with three pages of units. What is the limit? Both units (48?) and size (960 x 3 = 2880?).

If you dump Mercs into another faction's Crusade, who pays for the upkeep? If the gaining faction, this might be a good way of (1) getting rid of low strength Merc units, (2) filling up slots (if limited) so they dont suck up your good units, and (3) adding some quality to the overall Crusade army so it might have a chance of succeeding.

My last completed campaign as Danes, I had a highpoint of 300k+ forins. So...I started buying provinces with single stacks. I gained alot of unique units that I could not build/retrain to keep up thier numbers once they suffered losses. I mostly used them as anti-revolt troops. I should have garrisoned Demark with them as three English and two French Crusades and one German Crusade passed through Demark (I had shipping to the East Med). I could have used these remanent formations to flesh out Crusade.

One last question, if a Crusade does get understrength units, will it build them up from the "free" troops it gets as it passes through empty/garrisoned with non-Crusade-type troops? Ex: A Crusade enters a province garrisoned with peasents but it now has free fanatics, crossbowmen, horse archers, etc that were not part of the Crusade before it entered the province. If I stick understrength Trebz Archers in it (gained from buying a Byz army), will it gain recruits of that type to build it up?

[MizuKokami]

they don't stall anymore, but they do allways go thru poland if you play them, so beware. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

[Brown Wolf]

Quote[/b] (MizuKokami @ Nov. 18 2002,07:43)]also, if most of the other factions allready have a crusade going some place, if you think you can take the french, and your king is real old, you can risk the ex communication. if the pope dies, or your king, you are no longer excomunicated. if you can kill an enemy completely before 2 years is up, you won't get excom. either. with the other factions haveing crusades going, you can only field one crusade at a time. so if the other factions are out crusadeing allready, they can't crusade to kill you.

get the patch. the patch is worth it just to fix that dam circling crusade.
not neccisarily,
I as playing the HRE and I was excomunicated, I killed off my king via battle and I found that my prince was excommunicated by defualt. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/shock.gif
Maybe its a new thing brought on by the patch.

(hey this new smilies are great http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif )

[Sandy-San]

well, the french crusade carried on its aimless wandering last night... from Ile de France (where it had been formed) it went to Anoju (my province) then Brittany (also mine) ...and then stopped.

I had a sea lane that would have taken it most of the way to Egypt (which it claims is the target) but then the Elmos decided to attack my shipping. So after a couple of years in Brittany collecting moss and twiddling its thumbs, the crusade then used my sea route to attack the Elmos in Portugal...

I don't know if it asked for permission and was refused (do Islamic factions let crusades pass?) or if it decided to attack the Elmos on the grounds of one infidel is much the same as another, and I still can't work out if it is following the quickest route to its target or what. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[Kraxis]

Quote[/b] (Lichgod @ Nov. 18 2002,13:48)]How many units can a Crusade banner have? Also, is there a size limit in number of men -- like the 960 for a single stack?

I have read on other threads about a Crusade banner with three pages of units. What is the limit? Both units (48?) and size (960 x 3 = 2880?).

If you dump Mercs into another faction's Crusade, who pays for the upkeep? If the gaining faction, this might be a good way of (1) getting rid of low strength Merc units, (2) filling up slots (if limited) so they dont suck up your good units, and (3) adding some quality to the overall Crusade army so it might have a chance of succeeding.

One last question, if a Crusade does get understrength units, will it build them up from the "free" troops it gets as it passes through empty/garrisoned with non-Crusade-type troops? Ex: A Crusade enters a province garrisoned with peasents but it now has free fanatics, crossbowmen, horse archers, etc that were not part of the Crusade before it entered the province. If I stick understrength Trebz Archers in it (gained from buying a Byz army), will it gain recruits of that type to build it up?
Ok...

A crusade can have up to 32 units in it, be it 32 units of 200 or 32 units of 20. The game doesn't care, so there ie is not real limit of men, but of units.

When units are in a Crusade you don't pay upkeep. At least that is how I think it is. But if you payed, then it would indeed be the Crusading faction that payed for them, they get to keep them, remember.

The Crusade will only build up understrength units if it passes through an area with such units. If you have 24 Feudal Knights in a Crusade and it soaks up another 12 you will have one unit of 36 Knights. But it won't strengthen units you can't get, such as Order troops (unless of course you send the Crusade through province with Order troops).

Personally I hate that you can lose Royal generals to Crusades, and have them become Royal generals for another faction. I didn't keep them around to become kings for other factions (though the potential here is great). Further I think Crusades loses too many troops too fast, especially the Order troops. Why do I lose 3-4 Templars in a province with 75% Zeal? Order troops should stay in to the bitter end or at least as long as the Crusade advances.
Further should I pass over other Order troops from past Crusades, they should join up fully, of course only if there is room.

[hoof]

Another thing is that you won't get the "messenger asks you to let the crusade through" message if you use the spacebar to bypass the computer move. Thus if you see a crusade on your border and don't want it to enter (and don't care about being excommunicated), you *must* let the computer finish its turn so you get the message.

It's most frustrating, IMO, to look at your largest army, only to see it's been decimated by a passing crusade that never asked for permission to pass through (thus you didn't even know it was there).