Crusader Armies

[Knight of the Temple]

I've recently entered the Late Period in my first MTW campaign and I've yet to launch a single crusade. I always wanted to but I just never got around to it, and I wasn't certain of how the whole process worked. I vaguely remember reading somewhere (perhaps in a guide or something) that a crusade could only have 32 units and be twice as big as a standard 16 unit stack. That never seemed like a very big crusade to me.

I wanted to experience crusading but I wanted to see what I was getting myself into first, so I did a few tests. I found out that a crusader army can be huge! I tried to find out what the limit was but I never reached it. I got to almost 14,000 crusaders before I gave up. I had no idea you could have such large crusading armies. Does anybody know if there is actually a limit on how big a crusade can be? So far it doesn't seem like it.

I also thought I read somewhere that if you add your king to the crusade he is then treated as though he is cut off from the rest of the kingdom and there is a big loyalty drop, but that didn't turn out to be the case either. I had my king in charge of the crusade for several years and there was no wavering of loyalty. But obviously if the king does get cut off from his kingdom during the crusade then the loyalty problem does occur. I tested how bad the loyalty drop was and it was extremely severe --- I was expecting maybe 50 - 100%, but in some provinces there was a drop of up to 200%! I do like the idea of crusading with my king, but I guess that's not possible without severe consequences. Does anyone have any tricks for being able to crusade with their king while keeping their kingdom stable? Or how to avoid destroying the port when you secure the province? Even if you lower taxes all the way and boost garrisons a lot of provinces (at least those during my test) would still be below 100% loyalty.

I have one other question. Keeping bishops in a province while using an inquisitor to raise the zeal is supposed to lower the chances of the population being burnt, but do bishops in any way hinder the rate at which the inquisitor causes the zeal to rise?

[macsen rufus]

I've never found a limit to the size of a crusade army, either, but it is way way beyond 32 units! I'm amazed you didn't get a loyalty drop as soon as your king joined the crusade. Quite simply units, once they're in a crusade, cannot leave it, ie it would put your king beyond any ability to return to the homeland until the crusade was over. Also kings just going into (an attacking) battle can put them "beyond the known world" as well, and give a massive loyalty loss.

As for ports, there's no known way to be sure it won't get destroyed, it nearly always is, but I've never figured a way to determine which or how many facilities are lost in a conquered province. Murphy's Law dictates that if you invade a province for its facilities, it will get razed to the ground :beam: Beyond that there seems to be no rhyme or reason.

I've always heeded the warnings, and never sent my king on crusade, though have sometimes sent my heir apparent to boost his stats a bit. Generally speaking, crusades can be a great way to make a right royal dog's dinner of your empire if they go wrong, and a lot can happen along the way. (Ever lost a Chapter House to an earthquake? :skull: )

[caravel]

Placing the king in a crusade does not in itself incur a loyalty drop. It is when the king begins to travel in foreign parts that the happiness of your provinces at home will start to suffer. Your generals' loyalty is not affected. When the crusade gains it's objective the king will gain influence and his generals will gain loyalty. The problem is that since the king is still cut off from the homeland (you may be the English and the King may be in Palestine), the provinces will still be suffering from the happiness drop and may rebel. Personally I like these type of scenarios and so always send my king on crusades and try to hold the country together while he's gone. :2thumbsup:

[jadast]

Crusades are a great way to wreck other countries. Once I take a province I sell all the upgrades to boost my war chest. Then I send this army marching back towards my kingdom. Every province I take complete in 1 turn also gets sold off. If the defenders retreat to their castle I leave them and go to the next province. If any of these armies get back to me then I have many high valor units with a general with many stars. Since I launch a new crusade as soon as I can I usually have 1 crusade marching out and 1 marching home. These crusaders make great shock troops for my border wars.