The Sicilian Situation

In one of the other threads, the Sicilians were nominated as a really enjoyable faction to play....I have read a couple of guides about playing this faction, but still have a couple of queries for those in the know -

1. Do they have any "special" or unique units, and are they any good?

2. I gather that sicily can launch crusades, but what type of knights does it get to lead the way? Hospitallers like Italy?

3. If they do get Hospitallers, does the same valour bonus apply if the crusade is launched from Malta?

Thanks for any help in answering these queries.

Cheers & Beers

Sicilians get knights hospitlar just like Italians. They also get the malta bonus which I feel is much better as the Sicilians since you don't have to conquer malta first :).

I like them because they have fun GA goals which besides the regular crusader goals include taking malta (making the kingdom of two sicilies), and conquering Tunisia.

I'm actually not sure if they get any unique units. I play with XL mod so there are a couple of unique units like Dejma which they have access to but i'm not sure if they get anything unique in vanilla.

Cheers Drock!

Never mind; Drock beat me to it. ~:)

Let us know how your Sicilian game is going, bamff!

I have to get hold of VI first....but now I have another incentive to do so, so look out ebay!

Sicily does not get any special land units, but they do get the Italian/Byzantine ships.

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Originally Posted by Drock

Sicilians get knights hospitlar just like Italians.

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Actually in vannila VI they get knights templar like the english and french. At least i think they do, haven't played as them in a while.

I've never had any special units playing as Sicily. I specifically launched a crusade from Malta to Palestine and did not get Hospitallers. I may have screwed up some of the prerequisites though.

Which raises another query....

What determines the units one gets for a Crusade? Is the split between Knights/Order Foot/Fanatics completely random, or is it determined by either the advised cost of the Crusade, or the facilities already built in the province, or by the target province?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bamff

What determines the units one gets for a Crusade? Is the split between Knights/Order Foot/Fanatics completely random, or is it determined by either the advised cost of the Crusade, or the facilities already built in the province, or by the target province?

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Some of the modders might be better able to answer this, but I do know that the cost of the unit (cheaper means more) and the zeal of the province (higher means more) influence which units you get. Medmod v2.04 decreased crusade unit cost leading to more knights and order foot and less fanatics.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bamff

Which raises another query....

What determines the units one gets for a Crusade? Is the split between Knights/Order Foot/Fanatics completely random, or is it determined by either the advised cost of the Crusade, or the facilities already built in the province, or by the target province?

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It's not completely random; if you take a look in Gnome editor, you'll find a collumn with probabilty for different types of units to get into the crusade.

Thanks for that guys. And a good tip for newer members, too - got a question? Go straight to the guild, there is always someone who can answer it or point you in the right direction.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the Sicilians get loads of money and easy access to Venice and all the other rich Med ports, plus their in a central location, once you get over the early problems of only having two provinces the Sicilians can become a dominant faction in the south.