they keep coming and coming and coming...

In my current campaign as the moors (VH/h) im being harassed by various catholic factions.
I took Toulouse from the french and 3-4 turns later the pope issues a crusade against toulouse. It's now been about 10 turns and i've killed stack after stack and this doesnt seem to stop :dizzy2:
I took rome about 5 turns after the crusade was issued and the pope was killed during my siege, yet nothing has changed (I'm aware that he will re-surface).
SO, my questions is for how long will the catholic factions try to take back toulouse? Will the crusade expire eventually?

And one last thing,,, I issued a jihad against rome and sent one full stack to lay siege (which turned out fine, I took the settlement 3 turns after the jihad was issued by my imam)
but as i clicked the button 'Exterminate populace' a window popped up that said "Jihad cancelled" ? :inquisitive:

There's a time period during which catholic generals can join the crusade. It's officially 10 turns, but in practice usually works out as 9 turns if anyone other than you is responsible for calling it. After that time period the crusade is locked, and no new armies can join it. The crusade continues until one of several things happen: 1) the target falls to a crusading army (crusade successful), 2) the target falls to a christian (not sure if it must be catholic) army not on crusade (crusade is a draw), 3) the target faction reconciles with the Pope (not possible if the target isn't catholic, and if it does happen the crusade is simply cancelled) , or 4) all crusade armies are destroyed and no more can join (crusade is a failure).

If it's been 10 turns since the crusade was called, then no new ones can join, but you still have to make all the existing crusader armies go away before it will end. If the target is up in Europe, they'll be easy to get to for any of the catholic factions, so you can expect a lot of action there. At least you'll have a number of turns after this one ends before a new one can be called against you. I'd recommend responding with a jihad, possibly on the eastern catholic factions if possible, in order to distract them from you.

thanks man,

guess ill have to try option #4 and kill the remaining stacks completely

I think the big deal is that you kill/capture the crusading general of each stack, as opposed to the entire stack. Numerous people have said that a stack stops being a crusader stack when the general dies. On the other hand, as long as the general who joined lives, he could always recruit crusade mercs and become an effective crusading stack again, and his stack (even if just him) will continue to count as a crusading stack.

AI armies don't seem to suffer desertion from not closing on the target, but the other rules do apply. If all the generals in a crusading army die, the owner has one turn to get a new general there to take command, or the army is disbanded. Assassinating generals works sometimes, as does killing the generals in battle. If they don't get a new leader, POOF!

Anytime a crusade is called against a province in Europe, expect just about every catholic faction to start sending crusades to that area. Due to the small geographic area these guys will be coming at you hard and fast, and if you don't kill all generals in a crusade stack, he will quickly re-hire a full stack of cheap crusader mercs and come at you with a full stack again on the next turn.

Strangely in my last campaign the Pope has had a fixation on Toulouse, every single faction that has taken it the Pope eventually ended up declaring war and calling a crusade. This wiped out the two most powerful catholic factions in my game (Spain and Milan), and Pope owned Italy, southern France, and Spain. Leave it to those Sicilians to get those Papal guys all riled up :yes:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Quillan

AI armies don't seem to suffer desertion from not closing on the target, but the other rules do apply. If all the generals in a crusading army die, the owner has one turn to get a new general there to take command, or the army is disbanded. Assassinating generals works sometimes, as does killing the generals in battle. If they don't get a new leader, POOF!

---

Beg to differ. It doesn't work all the time, cause the AI gets a special bonus of getting replacement generals. Works sometimes though...

Just think of the endless battles as a good way to train up your troops so by the time that the crusades has ended, you will have some awesome elite units to own the already weak Catholic nations

I also reccomend holding them at the gates with spearmen - if the ai is delayed too long there they will send in their general, and in my experience the loss of a crusading general = instant rout + no more army

the crusade finally ended! I killed the last general :2thumbsup: