His Hatness' Lack of Geography Skills

Dear All:

Greetings from Canada!! I hope this finds you and yours well. As for me, I COUld complain...yadda, yadda, yadda.

It appears that the Holy Father doesn't realize this distance between Scotland and Jerusalem for I, as Scotland, have just been called for a crusade on Jerusalem. I can't get military access through France because they keep complaining that I'd strand their troops (whatever that means) if they do grant me military access. I'm thinking of sending a diplomat to start greasing His Hatness' palm.

Any ideas, vague notions and opinions gratefully received!!!

Live long and prosper, take care, and thank you kindly!!!!!

Sincerely yours always,

Indy.

Indy, if you create a crusading stack and send it off, that stack (and all your crusading stacks) have "automatic" and unhindered military access through any catholic lands on your way to the destination. Just keep in mind if someone beats you to the goal and the crusade ends, and you're sitting on another catholic's lands, you'll suffer the "transgression" penalties like normal. Also don't forget, overland is usually the best way to go on crusade, if you go by boat you risk mass desertion (which is a complaint known to CA).

:bow:

Indy,

I'm not sure what other people's experiences are with this, but I've found that going by boat is the best way, my troops only deserted if the boat was next to land at the end of the turn, whether this is supposed to be the case I don't know.

As (just like you) I was playing as Scotland I got some boats, put the crusading army on and sailed around the Iberian peninsula and all the way trhough the Mederterainian without a single desertion.

Nellup

If you aren't ready to crusade, a bit of grease applied regularly to Il Papa's palm will result in his indulgence. I set him up a trust fund early of 200 per turn for 20-30 turns. Later the amount has to go up, but that covers a few early sins and still is enough to keep you rising in his estimation (unless, maybe, you're HRE, or play like Milan and Venice... or France).

But, as others have said, crusades can just waltz through other Catholic lands, leaving no devastation (oddly), gaily waving their ladies' favors. The orthodox can get a bit uppity. And those musselmen downright ornery.

From Scotland I'd beeline towards Dover, hop a merc fleet across the channel, then walk straight across France to the Alps, through the most direct pass, then down the length of Italy to the boot heel. There hire another merc fleet over to Greece (or just take the fleet all the way from there). Just watch out for the fleets of whoever owns the target, as you ARE at war with them from the moment you join the crusade. And for pirates, of course. A sea battle means delay, and you WILL see desertions then. But you can always hire more crusaders.

It's about 2 turns sailing from the boot heel to the Holy Land, maybe 3, when crusading. As long as you're close to a straight line to the target, you won't see much desertion.

Don't bring agents in the crusade stack. They slow it down. No seige gear either. If you want those (and agents and seige stuff is handy), ship it separately. If you are slowed down from the perceived proper speed: desertions. (Everyone has to be a backseat crusader!)

Sailing around the Iberian peninsula is bad business when crusading!!! If you didn't have mass desertions doing it, you are extremely lucky. Mostly, the game decides if you get desertion based on how much progress you make toward the goal, judged as the crow flies (i.e. straight line). Going around the Iberian peninsula is actually away from the target most of the time, which generally will cause massive desertion when you do it. What Vonsch mentioned is probably the best method of getting to a crusade target: plot a straight path from where you are to where you're going, and move along it, by land or by sea as necessary. From Scotland that would be boat to the mainland, then down to somewhere in the area of Italy probably, where you'd pick up by boat again (hire mercenary boats, or have a fleet sail ahead of the crusade stack to meet it) and probably get basically to the crusade target by sea from there. You can do it entirely by land or entirely by sea, but in general the first is much slower and the second easily causes mass desertion, so the blended approach is widely considered best, at least if you want to arrive in a timely manner and w/ some troops left under your command.

As Scotland I did two trips by boat one no desertion and the other mass. I also tried through land but if your not quick enough you can hurt your rep.
Just make sure you have enough escort ships. The Egyptian navy can be quite large and ready for you if you fall short of land and have to wait a turn.
It's a bit of fun once you get there.

The fastest way, in my experience, is always by sea, because there's usually annoying enemy/neutral stacks within Europe that block your movement for a turn (especially in the busy mountainous area around the HRE and Northern Italy).

You have 10 turns to join a Crusade. As soon as the Crusade is declared, create an army as soon as you can, and take a ship around the Iberian peninsula, but do not join the Crusade until you come past Gibraltar. Travelling around Iberia is seen as travelling further from the target, but from Gibraltar onwards you're always making progress towards the Holy Land. You won't necessarily get there first this way, but you're in just about the worst position as Scotland, so you can expect to be beaten to the target every now and then,

imho, the fastest way is as follows (using the extreme example of scotland)

Scotland > Southern England by land
> France by boat
> Southern france by land
> Southern italy by boat
> South-Eastern italy by land
> Greece by boat
> Skim along the turkish coast by boat, landing each turn, until the target is reached

That way you don't have to end any turns at sea and thus you can survive with just merc ships

If you go by boat for the last Mediterannean leg, be sure to get a respectable fleet if you have enemies that operate in those seas. I remember having two full stack crusading armies destroyed just because I was too cheap and only hired a few mercenary ships. As soon those ships got anywhere Jerusalem, they suddenly got attacked by a half stack of ships, lost and retreated, another half stack of turk ships, lost and retreated, and then another stack of egy ships where it sunk

That's why you land every turn (there are enough islands along the way to make this possible) ;)

Though I did have a very embarassing moment when I was forced to land on Nicosa and the Byzantines smashed me :laugh4:

Go to where the men speak Italian, then continue until they speak something else.

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Originally Posted by adembroski

Go to where the men speak Italian, then continue until they speak something else.

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Ah, I see you got the same guide as I did.:laugh4:

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Originally Posted by adembroski

Go to where the men speak Italian, then continue until they speak something else.

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I can picture some poor Hungarian crusader with bad geography skills approaching Italy from the east and then end up in Spain frantically searching for Jerusalem

In most cases, you can take a crusade target city with one stack or less of mediocre troops. That also means it's quite feasible to do it purely with mercenary troops. When I'm playing Scotland or England, this is what I do:

1. Get my designated general(s) and enough peasant units necessary to start a crusade.
2. Disband the peasant units--generals travel faster by themselves.
3. Walk the crusading general to southern France.
4. Hire Mercs and merc ships
5. Land in Southern Italy and hire more mercs and ships
6. Land in Southern Greece and hire more mercs and ships
7. Land on Rhodes and hire more mercs and ships
8. Finish your trip to your destination and kick ass

Regions in #4-#7 produce different types and sets of merc units so there should be no problem collecting and replenishing a stack of units even if many of them dessert. Likewise, if you don't need extra troops, you can skip the landing on any of the above.

Yes, I love how your troops manage to desert IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN.
"We aren't making enough progress, let's jump overboard, boys! Our horses can swim, right?"
Then apparently AI stacks never have desertion problems, as I've had foreign crusader stacks sit in my settlements for turn after turn, not budging an inch.
Honestly, would it really do anything negative for the balance of the game to just make it impossible for ship-bound troops to desert?

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Originally Posted by rosscoliosis

Yes, I love how your troops manage to desert IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN.
"We aren't making enough progress, let's jump overboard, boys! Our horses can swim, right?"

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IIRC, horses actually swim quite well. At the very least they instinctively know how to do so, and will if in water.

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle... Still, in the middle of the ocean?

If they took a few ships from the fleet with them it'd make more sense (though ti would also be more of a pain).