Help!

[Heraclius]

Okay, I need your advice. This is going to be a very long post but please read as much as you can, I know I'm not a great writer.
I'm playing as the Byzantines early/hard with Wes's mod. The year is 1127. I control from Greece and Bulgaria to Tripoli and Syria. The Turks are destroyed and I am at war with the Egyptians. I cut off and executed their main army so they are now no threat. I have two small Egyptian forces under siege in Antioch and Tripoli. The year after I took Antioch, an Italian (my allies) crusade arrived in Bulgaria, heading for Antioch, declared before I took the province so I am not at war with the Italians right now.
The crusade moves into Bulgaria and the message asking if I will let them pass pops up and I accept because I have about 500 men and the crusade has two red bars on the flag (I'm not sure how many men that is but I would be killed if I resisted). I figured they would have to trek over Asia Minor, which has very low zeal provinces, to reach Antioch and would lose many men.
However the next turn the crusade went straight from Bulgaria to Antioch and they had no ships connecting the two provinces I guess they must have used my navy. I did not know that was possible. Then another message pops up asking if I will give Antioch to the crusaders.
If I say no, I am outnumbered 2-1 and they have better troops although I have a seven star general and they have a 2 star one. I could pull off a win but I'm not sure if I want to. If I do say no and win, the Italians will be at war with me. Their navy is much stronger than mine and could easily beat me. They could then attack my medium sized army in Greece. Constantinople does have a strong garrison however. Also my economy depends on trading with the Italian, Papal and Sicilain provinces and I will lose that source of income if I go to war. All my Catholic allies will probaly abandon me as well.
If I do let the Italians have the province I will have a huge force in the middle of my empire. I will have to keep large garrisons in four provinces to discourage them from attacking and I'm not sure my economy could support that as well as taking out the Egyptians and then the Almohads and defending my borders from the Russians or Hungarians who might attack, although we are allies now. Basically I will have to attack Antioch eventually, probably when my economy gets rolling.
If you made it down this far congrats The question is should I let the crusade take Antioch. What should I do?

[Jon von]

Take Antioch for you. It's a very rich province with precious commodities to trade. Your 7 star general should make the difference (if you got some good quality units). Ask the ceasefire to Italians ASAP and improve your garrison in Greece and Costantinople, then build some naval units... and risk
To leave a strong army in that province means that you won't re-take it for many years, and Antioch would give you almost 1000 fl. a year..

[Leet Eriksson]

hmmm,its not really a big problem playing as the byzantines,its up to you,but if i were you i'd keep it.or hand it over,wipe out the egyptians hastily and try to ceasfire the almos,kill off the italians and ceasfire them and return to war with the almos.but if the italians did not accept the ceasfire,then wipe out italy and then deal with the elmos.

[powdermonkey]

DON'T hand it over - Antioch is too good a provinve to have, and as you say, the garrisons needed should you hand it over will cost a fortune
Sooner or later there will be more crusades to the Holy Land, and if you hold those provinces, then they will be sent against you http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif
Crusades are usually easy to defeat as the majority of the units are understrength (less than full companies) or are peasants.
Kill em all Build up your navy and prepare for the repercussions. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif

[Juan Madsen]

On the contrary I disagree with the previous post. Do not open a second front unless you are very strong, particularly if your economy is highly dependable on the Italian posture.

Certainly if they take the province your priority will become to recover your national territory (although not necesarilly has to be like that). If the crusade takes Antioch the most probable thing is that it will get stacked there forever and never bother you again (they can reinforce with regular units though...). Therefore I don't think you need four armies to counter them. Just keep an army to counteract if necessary and solve your first war quickly, very quickly, to face with all your means this new menace. After all the Italians are currently your allies and they will most probably maintain this status for a while.

In the mean time make sure the province becomes fully orthodox (100%).

And build up your navy, otherwise a war with the Italians could be a nighmare to you.