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Howdy ya'll. I've been playing the English for a while and this is my first go at Glorius Achievement mode. To complete this and blag the major points it wanted me to set off on a crusade to Antioch.
I took 2000 men give or take, made it as far as the first Turkish province, took it, held it for a couple of years, but gradually got battered into submission and the crusade was scrapped.
I made sackfulls of loot from the Byzantines, so I wasn't too fussed at the failure, but still I thought I'd have a pop once more. 3800 men set out across Europe, this time pausing to hammer the Byzantinians that stood in the way. This crusade made it to Constantinople before being stopped by a smaller force of Turks that frankly pissed on my army due to crappy moral. I was just about able to hang in to Constantinople long enough to capture the castle and sell everything before I was forced to torch the chapter house, abandon the crusade and bundle my army into Greece to hole up and try to hang on.
Where did it all go wrong? Well to be honest I'm not sure. Although I am fairly sure I stuck some pretty good generals into the crusade when it set off the guy in charge by the time things kicked off was a boy-hungry pile of lard who couldn't have lead a turd downstream if you paid him. Coupled with that my lean, mean soldiers started deserting like anything once they were in hostile turf, and lost their bottle in battle to boot.
So how does one go about a successful Crusade? What are the do's and don'ts?
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I played my fourth campaign as eaarly Spanish, GA victory. Due to a serries of unsuccesful crusades by land in the previous campaigns, I try to move my crusade by sea this time. This require more preparation.
- I need a big fleet. Big enough to defeat whomever fleet I am gonna crusade against.
- I train the best troops for the crusade. My crusade will consist of 1 offensive army (army composition that I use on offense), 1 defensive army and 1 siege/reserve army.
- I don't like to move my crusade through other land to pickup junk troops while losing my core troops. I will take the shortest route to the target and get thing done as quick as possible.
- The first thing I will build in the captured province is the port. In case an AI crusade head to that province, I can move out my troops before AI crusade evict me and sometime forces me to pay ransom for my army. If I can hold the province, I will build Chapter House to launch crusade to nearby province.
That's how I crusade in GA mode. In Total domination mode, I don't crusade.
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Here's helpful tip for your next Crusade.
Send a bunch of Inquisitors and/or Grand Inquisitors into the same provinces you move your Crusades into (I'm not sure whether it's more effective to do this at the same time or the turn before). Inquisitors raise the Zeal level in Catholic provinces and the higher a province's Zeal rating the more likely it is to help fill your Crusade's ranks with eager religious zealots (not to mention it will help to keep the Crusade's higher quality units from being depleted along the way).
Obviously once you reach Orthodox, Pagan or Muslim territory this strategy will no longer work. However, if done correctly this strategy should help your Crusade build a massive following by the time it reachs the infidels' lands.
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If you don't have a fleet in time send your army to venice & it can hitch a ride down on either the italian or scilian fleets. Another thing is to never stop your crusade always keep it moving although I did stop one of mine as I was facing a 6 star general with more troops than me so I stopped for 1 year in trebizoind. They attacked so after I beat them I moved on. I have lost generals from crusades & a lot of troops so the best thing is to keep going till you get to objective province once there you will not loose any more men even if teh castle is still in enemy hands. The funniest is near the end you end up with mostly pesants & a lot of enemies. If the pope is allied with the byzantines & is at war with the turks you can pass through their lands without fighting.
[This message has been edited by insolent1 (edited 10-12-2002).]
