Why do computers sit outside you province?

[Arcane]

Link to Main Hall thread.

My appologies for the manner in which I have chosen to participate to a limited extent on threads within the other forums however I see no other way at this time.

I have also seen this happen numerous times and it seems illogical to me... I mean aren't crusaders supposed to have God on their side, therefore they should never believe they will not win regardles of the opposition

I believe this really does need to be fixed in patch 2 (presuming there is one)

Arcane

[Gregoshi]

Arcane, what are you seeing happening with Crusades with the patch that makes you say that? I've yet to play SP since I downloaded the patch and the thread referenced doesn't talk about Crusades & the patch. Thanks.

BTW, there is nothing wrong with your methods in this post.

[Arcane]

Quite often a crusade that is targetting a province of my faction will simply camp in the province next to one of mine, until it whithers away to nothing, If I have more than enough defenders and the AI knows it will get a good kicking

To my way of thinking an army with the power of God on its side would never believe it could be beaten even if outnumbered 1000 to 1, therefore I see it as a bug.

Arcane

[KukriKhan]

I see your point, Arcane, you'd think that a crusading army would be so fired up and self-righteous that it would just charge right in, odds be damned. And I'm sure the Popes who called for crusades hoped that would happen, too.

Sadly for them, in history many crusades (and Jihads) fizzled enroute to their objective, their morale lessened with every year 'on-the-road'. I think the MTW algorithms were coded to reflect that reality. In other words, 10+ years travelling from Normandy to Tripoli, only to face an army 4 times your size, might give me pause too.

So I don't really think it's a bug, per se. However, some of the guys in the Dungeon (who specialize in tweaking the game to their liking) are working on 'stronger' Crusades/Jihads. Take a look in that forum & see.

[Cooperman]

Historically a number of crusades fell short of their objectives and settled for what they had. The third crusade failed to get Jerusalem and ended up in Acre, and I think it was the fourth crusade that never got as far as the holy land and stayed in constantinople.
Crusaders as a general rule were motivated more by potential profit that by doing gods work so a crusade sitting outside your province having captured another is just the AI being smart for once.

[Gregoshi]

It does make you wonder why a strong Crusade would just sit outside its objective without attacking. The only logic I can apply to this that of the commanding general's V&V. In the examples you've seen, was the general hesitant or a coward? That might play a role in the Crusade's inability to attack. At least it is something to look for next time it happens.

[boneyman1769]

Have to back Coop up on this one. Many Crusades stopped short. Whether it was against the heathen Saracen or the pagans of the Baltic region.

[LadyAnn]

I also observe that a crusade went for my province (I played Egyptians, Early era, expert mode, crusade is Spainish), but ends up sitting somewhere else.

Here are my speculation:
1. Crusade depends on zeal of the provinces they pass through. If they attack a province and the province has low zeal, there is a good chance they will simple stop there, or move to a higher zeal province. Since the crusade going to Egypt must pass by the Elmohads or the Turk's territory (I control the seas) the zeal factor is gone;

2. There is a couple of event that will increase zeal or decrease it. Since it was a spanish crusade, the zeal was decreased by an event (forgot which one, some Turkish writer wrote something).

Annie