The AI Ate My Crusade

[juststeve]

Ok, I was wondering if anyone else ever had this happen. Last night, I was playing a new game as the Polish (modded to allow Crusades). Early on, I notice that the Italians are jumping on the HRE, so I rush to build the chapter house and pump out a Crusade, since I figure it's just a matter of time....

A few years go bye and bingo, the Pope excom's the Italians. So, I quickly target the rich region of Venice for a Crusade, pay the Pope the florins and load it up with all I have handy, and prepare to march thru to Venice, hopefully sucking up HRE and Hungarian troops along the way.

Well, I got to within one region of Venice when the Pope suddenly dies. The old excom's are lifted, and I get a message that the Crusade has been cancelled because the lands now have been returned to true Christians. or some similar message. Then I get a message that I need to pay a ransom for the return of troops/nobles, which I figure is my now stranded crusade. I agree to pay, and when the campaign map comes in, I don't see my armies anywhere I even checked my General's roster, and the guy I had leading the Crusade is gone The Hungarians ate my Crusade

[Cheetah]

Hehe, be careful with those naughty Hungarians.

Oh, and welcome to the ORG

[bighairyman]

yeah, that happens to me too. not sure if it's a bug or part of the game. i will go and check the manuale

[Scipio]

ya well if a huge hunk of soldiers were going past my province and theire leader was stranded from his mission in real life I would take the opertunity to take the army by suprise and taken the booty from the army to. wouldnt you?

[Cebei]

I can say two things on that

1-I am sure that happened to many of you. The crusades can get lost. There are several paths to the target province, and if you go from the wrong way, the crusade no longer advances and stucks in somewhere.

2-Depending on the piety and zeal, as you go through zealous provinces your crusade collects volunteers and as you go by less zealous (or including high percentage of non-catholic population) provinces, your men leaves the crusade.

Any two of those must have happened.

[Brutal DLX]

Did your crusade marker return? If yes, then you will never keep the men you had in that crusade. They are scattered into the winds. You just happened to get fooled by the Hungarians to pay for them before the crusade dissolved (And that is really a glitch, I think, but live and learn and I'm sure you won't get fooled twice that way).
If the crusade marker didn't return, then you have indeed discovered a more bugged way to lose men
Never happened to me before though, which isn't saying a lot really.

[barocca]

sounds like a bug to me,

an event so uncommon that it was not picked up during QA,

The odds of a crusade against a christian faction failing becuae the pope dies and the excommunication is lifted are remote,


Just like a princess sent to propose to your heir,
on the turn she proposes your heir becomes king,
you agree to marry, the alliance is made, the princess dissappears from the stategic map
BUT your king in UNMARRIED
if she arrives the turn after your heir becomes king,
your king gets married,

the odds of a princess proposing to your heir the turn your king dies and your heir ascends the throne are so remote it did not occur during QA,

B.

[The_Emperor]

Only Crusaders captured in battle by the enemy can be Ransomed back... Crusader armies tend to melt away rather than get ransomed back.

So never pay the money unless your sure your men were captured in battle

Ultimately Crusades are expendable when you send them marching across the map far from home... Don't add troops unless you can spare them, and are very sure of victory

[juststeve]

In my case, the Crusade was lost, no troops showed up anywhere, and the Crusade marker was gone, as well. It hurt my position in the game at that point, because I was playing as Poland, and was looking to not only take Venice, but send so many men there that I could possibly wind up grabbing more land off the Italians. When it entered Hungary it had way more troops than that region, so if they had to slug it out to get home, it shouldn't have been a problem.

Oh well, just an unusual bug. The next time I start a campaign as Poland, I'll make sure to take Hungary before I try to advance towards Italy.

[Jeebus_Frist]

Quote[/b] (The_Emperor @ Oct. 24 2003,09:01)]Only Crusaders captured in battle by the enemy can be Ransomed back... Crusader armies tend to melt away rather than get ransomed back.

What happened was when the Pope died and all excommunications were reversed, the Crusade dissolved as it no longer had the authority of the church behind it and the Italians in Venice were good little catholics again. The troops in the crusade became just a regular army stuck in whatever province they were in when the Pope died. This is why they had to be ransomed back as there was no clear path back home. The same thing happens if you relieve a siege for an ally or co-invade a province with a smaller force than your ally when there is no clear route back to your lands. That is why he had to ransom his troops back. As to why they never reappeared after he paid the money, i would hazard a guess that this is such a rare set of circumstances that it is a bug that slipped by QA as was stated earlier.