Four failed Crusades and Two Civil Wars in Five Turns

[Cowhead418]

In my Hungarian campaign on the XL mod (excellent mod by the way) I had an ill-fated Crusade headed to the Volga-Bulgars only province. They only had about 500 men so I figured I could win if my Crusade was large enough. However, I was at war with the Cumans and my Crusade had to pass through one of their territories. It wasn't very large at this time and was full of Fanatics instead of Order Foot Soldiers or special Knights. The Cumans wouldn't let me pass and massacred my Crusade army. The Crusade survived and I decided to let it continue. I attacked with a ridiculous 111 men army and the Crusade failed.

What I hadn't realized is the severe damage a failed crusade will cause. The next turn my empire erupted into civil war with me losing Austria, Serbia, and Wallachia to the rebels. My new king (I backed the rebels) had only one turn to reign before the Chapter Houses were destroyed in Austria and Serbia resulting in two more failed Crusades. Next turn resulted in yet another civil war. I was able to bribe back the army in Austria and sent off another Crusade to Leon, which the Almohads owned. Two turns later the Danes took Leon from the Almohads so I had yet another failed Crusade on my hands. No civil war this time but my king did take an influence hit.

Next turn I was able to bribe back Wallachia's army but the Sicilians had bribed my army in Serbia before I had time to get my Emissaries there. I didn't want my own troops to be in an enemy's army so I declared war on the Sicilians and attacked Serbia (who had a quality army defending). The result was 350 casualties of my own and 450 kills. I now have my empire back under control but have lost my king, several quality heirs, some infrastructure, lots of quality troops, and took a severe hit to the treasury bribing back my armies (I don't have any trading provinces so I rely on farm income). Fortunately the Crusade sent to Leon sent back 1700 troops of decent quality after it was disbanded so my military is still in good shape.

[Marquis de Said]

Sounds like you're having a helluva campaign!
I love civil wars every once in a while, when you can just pick a high-dread rebel general to become your next king and have to win back all of your provinces.
Often picking a high-star genral as your new king will restore your royal line to a healthy one with loads of stars and acumen instead of the inbred, unhinged loons that you start getting as heirs.

[Cowhead418]

Yes this campaign is turning out to be very interesting. I'm about 40 turns into the game. I'm at war with a fellow Catholic (Sicily) but we both have 8 provinces so the Pope hasn't done any scolding yet. The Germans, Armenians, Serbians, Spanish, Byzantines, Turks, French, Bulgarians, and Crusader States are all dead.

The top two superpowers are the Egyptians and the Danes! The Egyptians have an enormous army and are taking all of the lower east side of the map. The Danes have taken Norway, Ile de France, Flanders, Castile, Leon, Portugal, and another Almohad province and have about ten thousand troops. Sicily has taken Greece, Nicea, and Constantinople but that is about to soon change. The Almohads used to be the most powerful but since have been clobbered by the Genoese and the Danes. The English sent a Crusade to Algeria but the Crusade went in the opposite direction and is currently fighting the Cumans on the opposite side of the map from their target.~:confused:

This campaign is really a complete turn-a-round from my previous ones because of how much power the English, Danes, Almohads, and Sicilians have. The English usually get pounded by the French and never stray from the isles of Great Britain. The Danes always went broke and never expanded past Denmark. The Almohads always were killed by the Spanish and the Sicilians never expanded past their original possessions.

[cegman]

why don't i ever get such fun campaign Ok I'll admit that took me about 5 minutes to write trying to use dovork typing style.

[elbasto]

Loyalty has a lot to do with your King's influence.

A 9 influence king should be able to leave recently conquered provinces fully ungarrisoned and still don't suffer any revolts. That's one of the reasons why once your king dies revolts occur, not only because your king has died but also because your prince probably has far less influence than his father.

Crusades and helping allies are great ways to increase influence, try leaving an orthodox or muslim island in the Med isolated, conquer it, raze it, leave it ungarrisoned, raise the taxes and once rebels appear crusade it to oblivion.
That's a great way (and exploit) to get to 9 influence in no time.