How do I Crusade?

[fester]

So do I just get an army together, board a ship and sail to were ever the pope tells me to invadec or is there more to it?

[Quintus.JC]

There isn't really much more to it, what you've just said is pretty much what crusade is all about in MIITW in a nutshell.

There are some details that is worth mentioning though. Successful crusades gets you nice rewards from the man in pointy hat (more importantly the boost you get on your character traits compensates for the lost soldiers alone). Failure would have penalties, though it would be of little consequence if your relationship with his holiness is very good (the only penalty that is worth avoiding is one which involves excommunication, nasty business that). Other details are more trivial e.g. desertion, zealots... Furthermore you can determine the location of a crusade to your own purposes, that is if you're favoured by the Papacy.

[Qilue]

You don't really need to put them on a ship. I've sent a crusade overland from Caen to Antioch with no ill effects to my relations with other catholic factions. As long as it continues moving towards the goal, you don't get any desertions either.

[PBI]

Um, I think it's worth pointing out that you do need to get your general to actually join the crusade. Get the general you want to lead the crusade together with at least 6 (I think) units and open the mercenary recruitment screen; there should be a button in the bottom right corner to get the general to join the crusade (if the button is faded out, you aren't eligible to join).

Joining the crusade (rather than just sending a normal army to the target) has a few advantages:

*The movement speed of the crusade army is doubled; this is a huge advantage in getting to the target in a reasonable period of time (and is why sending a normal army to the target is unlikely to work; the other catholic nations will leave you trailing).

*The crusading general can recruit a number of special mercenary types for a very low price; these vary by region but range from Crusader Knights (basically mailed knights on steroids, on balance one of the best cavalry units in the game) through Crusader Sergeants (pretty much standard armoured spearmen) to Pilgrims (pure cannon fodder, good only for manning rams and maintaining public order).

*All units in the crusade do not cost any upkeep for the duration of the crusade (a huge advantage, and one which can be flagrantly abused if you are so inclined).

*If the crusade succeeds, all units on crusade receive an experience boost. This applies whether the army actually took the target or not (though is obviously more for the army which took the target). You also get a moderate cash reward, the general gets some very nice traits and ancillaries (typically increasing chivalry, very useful for growing cities in the early game), and your popularity with the pope will increase substantially.

The disadvantages are:

*Most importantly, you must keep the army moving closer to the target every turn; if you don't, units will begin deserting from the crusade (for this reason, you should never send a crusade to the middle east by ship around the Iberian peninsula from northern Europe; send them overland instead and hire mercenary boats once you reach the Mediterranean coast).

*Once a unit is part of the crusade, it is committed to the crusade until either the target is taken by a catholic nation, or the army is destroyed. Removing the unit from a stack commanded by a general will cause it to desert immediately (note this applies even if the general leading the crusade dies on campaign; for this reason, it is best to use young generals to lead crusades).

*You cannot use a crusading army to directly attack fellow catholics; the payoff is that your armies can cross their lands without penalty. Take care to avoid their armies and cities though, straying into their ZOC will end your army's movement for the turn (I usually just use toggle_fow to find a clear path, this can get very frustrating otherwise).


Crusading can be a very powerful tool; obviously the merits of it will vary depending on your circumstances. Generally speaking it involves considerable cost and difficulty at first to establish and expand your holding in a distant land with a hostile religion, but later becomes very lucrative due to controlling some of the most wealthy regions in the game and having easy access to some of the best merchant resources. I almost always try to get in on one of the early crusades, it is generally a good idea to give yourself the financial edge over your neighbours.

It's worth noting that many of the crusade mechanics can be abused, which can make the game very easy if you do it flagrantly enough. I generally try not to go overboard with this, restricting myself to the normal benefits that crusading brings, but if you want to see just how far it can be taken you should check out the Blitzmaster thread; most of the strategies there revolve around massive, rapid, cheap expansion in every direction using crusades.

[fester]

thanks guys knowledge is poweer

[Prussian to the Iron]

You don't really need to put them on a ship. I've sent a crusade overland from Caen to Antioch with no ill effects to my relations with other catholic factions. As long as it continues moving towards the goal, you don't get any desertions either.

unfortunately this is really the only way to do it from England; i once tried to sai a crusading army from london to Jerusalem, and somehow people still deserted, even when i was just trying to sail around france.

[Quintus.JC]

unfortunately this is really the only way to do it from England; i once tried to sai a crusading army from london to Jerusalem, and somehow people still deserted, even when i was just trying to sail around france.

You could sail your ships to Southern France first, then send your land forces to march through France to join your fleet. That way there won't be any desertions since you are never marching away from the target settlement (this route was used by Richard and Philip II in the 3rd crusade, they marched through France first and then sailed at Italy). Alternatively you could start from Caen, march toward the southern France coast, then hire mercenary ships to carry your men to the holy land. But beware of this method because the mercenary ships are mostly of poor quality (cogs) and would be in trouble when facing any naval oppositions.

It is troublesome for English forces to reach the Holy land entirely by sea. Sailing around the Iberian penisular will lose you massive amount of men. In my opinion the best method is still to do a bit of travelling by foot and then by ship, instead of getting there entirely on foot.

[Seabourch]

Where the hell do men go when they desert from a ship? Do they drown or suddenly gain the ability to work on one water like a certain Jew 2000 years ago?