Ever tried this?

**Agent Miles** · 01-27-2009, 17:25

I was able to get a Crusade against Arhus. Before I took the settlement with my Crusader army, I had all of my leaders and military units, wherever they were, join the Crusade (In preparation I had stacked them in large groups), a sort of 'marshalling of the reserves'. Then I took Arhus. I got a lot of money from the Pope as a reward for my huge force and all my units got an extra level of experience.

**Monk** · 01-27-2009, 17:32

Hehehe.

No I never considered that, but that's a sneaky way to get some free unit experience! I'm sure its been discussed before but it's new to me.

**FactionHeir** · 01-27-2009, 17:42

What Monk said: its been done before (especially when rushing the AI) and its an exploit - generally not needed unless you want to beat the poor AI even more than you already do

But then of course its your decision.

**Quintus.JC** · 01-27-2009, 17:45

I've done it before. In my Spanish campaign I frequently called Crusades agains Muslims and excommuincated factions. I made previous preparations and made sure all my units were in sizable armies led by general, on the last turn before the settlement falls I made all my armies join the Crusades and they all got 1 experience bonus in the end. So at the end even my spear militias got gold chevrons on them. This trick works very handy with Muslim factions too.

**Agent Miles** · 01-27-2009, 17:52

I got the idea when I was ordered by the Pope to send my son to join a Crusade. By the time I got my son out of the war I was fighting and joined the Crusade, the very next turn it ended. I thought, if I can get something for nothing, then why not make the most of it.

**anweRU** · 02-12-2009, 22:38

Works with Jihad as well. I like the "free" experience.

The money reward seems to be related to how many troops were lost in the assault though, based on a test I did playing as the Turks in the Kingdoms-Crusades campaign. The more troops lost, the larger the reward...

**Agent Miles** · 02-13-2009, 14:50

It works with the Appachean Faction's 'Warpath' in the Americas expansion, too. I got experience and money in this instance even though the settlement, which had been under siege, just gave up without a fight.