Concerning crusades.

[squidums]

I'm pretty new to the world of Total War and have a couple a questions about crusades, which I haven't found answers for in FAQs.


I play as the Byzantines, so crusades tend to go through my lands to get at the Turks. Recently the Germans sent an enourmous crusade aimed at Syria, it has got within two provences and has been camped out in my lands for about 6 years now. Their army is shrinking year by year.
Why would they do this?
What happens to the troops that leave the crusade? Do they go back to their original countries, or just disband and disappear into the ether?
Also, I was am at war with the Turks, and Syria is their last provence. If I was to invade Syria would the crusade turn against me?

Another problem I had, was when the damn Spanish sent a crusade against me!
I built up my defences to approx 2000 troops. Their crusade had about 1400.
I was looking forward to a monumental battle, but every time I chose 'Command the defence yourself' the game would crash
I ended up having to resolve the conflict automatically, which was a disappointment (even though I kicked their a$$es).
I'm wondering if it's a hardware issue.

I have 1Gb RAM, 1.8 Ghz Processor, and Gigs of free disk space.

Does anybody have any ideas??

[drone]

Can't help you with the second question, but about the first:

Crusades lose troops over time to disease/starvation. You don't want to leave a crusade sitting around because of this, eventually the stack strength will wither away. I assume the Turks have a decent sized army on Syria, and the crusade is stalled, not sure if it can win or not. This is win-win for your situation, either the Turks will be beat or weakened, or the Germans are going to pay the penalty for a failed crusade. I would wait to see what happens, if the Turks survive, take them out.

Welcome to the .Org!

[squidums]

Thanx Drone, your advice and welcome are appreciated.

[Deus Ex]

on a related note:

Can anyone tell me WHY the damn crusades always seem to go "OUT OF THE WAY" to go through my territories??? Mutliple times when the AI launches a crusade - the damn thing veers/swerves into my provinces - when there is clearly a much more straight forward path to their destination.

Drives me CRAZY...


DE

[manbaps]

Yes this is very annoying, your only allowed to go the most direct route so why the hell can the ai do as it feels

[squidums]

The AI is trying to raise the largest army it can by steeling your troops.
I'm pretty sure if you were to ask it why it's allowed to do that and not you, it would probably say "'Cause it's MY game ".
I don't think I've ever played a game where the AI had to use the same EXACT rules as the player. - They're cheats by nature.

[littlebktruck]

I've noticed that, if you allow it to pass, a crusade can use your shipping routes. So perhaps they're going to a port province to jump onto your fleet network.

[Deus Ex]

I've noticed that, if you allow it to pass, a crusade can use your shipping routes. So perhaps they're going to a port province to jump onto your fleet network.

That's what I thought the first couple times, but NO they would ZIG into my provinces, and run through a couple, then ZAG back toward the goal - LOL

Now, whenever tactically viable - I reduce armies in potentially travelled provinces to as little as possible - but often times the political realities prevent that from being a realistic option

DE

[antisocialmunky]

If you're playing as the Byzantines in Early. I'd just land a 6 star heir and a massive army in Naples and take Rome. That'll stop all the crusades.

[ichi]

Why would they do this?

drone gave pretty good answer, they're probably outgunned and can't go forward with any hope of success, so they just sit. Eventually they will wither away.

What happens to the troops that leave the crusade?

Build an inn in the province and watch to see if any of the Crusaers show up. Don't upgrade the castle there, that reduces merc availability.

If I was to invade Syria would the crusade turn against me?

IIRC it would.

Can anyone tell me WHY the damn crusades always seem to go "OUT OF THE WAY" to go through my territories??? Mutliple times when the AI launches a crusade - the damn thing veers/swerves into my provinces - when there is clearly a much more straight forward path to their destination.

This is another one of the advantages that the AI gets; whilst the player usually can only go the most direct route, the AI can weave its way across Europe sucking the life out of your army.

Do as Deus Ex advises and reduce armies in the path of a Crusade. Don't forget to clean up after a Crusade passes, reforming those depleted units before the next fight.

ichi

@ manboobs: Your gratuitous use of profanity is inappropriate for a board that is visited by young kids, grandmothers, the deeply religious, and otherwise nice people who don't want to see you drop F-bombs. Do everybody a favor and edit your last post please.

It would read just fine had you posted: Yes this is annoying, you're only allowed to go the most direct route so why can the ai do as it feels

[squidums]

"I'm just a poor old man. ... My legs are grey. My ears are gnarled. My eyes are old and bent."
and I don't know what IIRC means

can somebody please put me in the picture.

[BAD]

"I'm just a poor old man. ... My legs are grey. My ears are gnarled. My eyes are old and bent."
and I don't know what IIRC means

can somebody please put me in the picture.

LOL Nice Monty Python quote.

IIRC = If I remember correctly

IIRC

[Patron]

I don't think they starve... They just leave because they are on the crusade out of their own free will and aren't being paid and likewise are free to leave out of their own free will.

[King Henry V]

If you take Syria yourself and the crusade decides to march in, then first they will ask you nicely to hand over the province peacefully, if you refuse they will attack.

[bretwalda]

If you take Syria yourself and the crusade decides to march in, then first they will ask you nicely to hand over the province peacefully, if you refuse they will attack.

Wow! Does it ever happened to you? If you refuse I guess that is war then, but what happens if you say yes and hand it over? Are your troops removed? Any lost? Etc?

[ichi]

Wow! Does it ever happened to you? If you refuse I guess that is war then, but what happens if you say yes and hand it over? Are your troops removed? Any lost? Etc?

Yes it happened to me in Novgorod; as the Huns I was almost into the province when a Crusade from Spain showed up and demanded the province on the turn after I took it.

Since I said no, I can't tell you what happens if you say yes.

ichi

[antisocialmunky]

Best bet is they retreat or are ransomed if they don't have a retreat route like 2+ faction battles.

Do crusaders in battle get a moral bonus or some bonus valour. Because I was defending against an English crusade in Bulgaria and my 4* general's Infantry line cracked and routed after initial contact with a few Knights Templars and Chivalric Seargents.

[drone]

One question I've always had about crusades: do the Catholic factions that can't crusade (Danes, Poland, and Hungary IIRC) get a compensating ability/bonus? I've tried using the forum search, but nothing jumps out at me.

I was playing the Danes and got ex-commed. I didn't really notice any adverse affects from it, I didn't know if this was a little bonus for not being able to launch crusades. Not that religion means that much to the heathen vikings anyway...

[antisocialmunky]

Szneklys or however you spell it are the most powerful fast HA in the game.

And.

The Danes get the vikings.

[King Henry V]

And the Poles have great oppurtinity to expand.

[Geezer57]

Wow! Does it ever happened to you? If you refuse I guess that is war then, but what happens if you say yes and hand it over? Are your troops removed? Any lost? Etc?

If you allow the Crusade entry into your realm, they may stay awhile - depending on zeal, many of your troops in the same province can join up. Crusades gain troops in high-zeal provinces, and tend to lose men in low-zeal ones.

It's a common Crusade tactic to "Hoover-up" troops from rival factions en route to the target.

[bretwalda]

Correct spelling: Székely (the Hungarian horse archer unique unit)

And the Poles have great oppurtinity to expand.

And if you check my sig you can have them to be able to crusade, as well.

(Which is more or less historicaly accurate as we discussed in some thread. There was a Hungarian crusade that got as far as Cyprus, the Poles did some, too, and the "heathen" (I just quote ) Danes launched some crusades to the east part of the Baltic to convert some pagans.)

(I am sorry I did not mean to put that sad smiley...)

[antisocialmunky]

The Eastern Countries don't really need crusade ability anyways. Are you really going to pay 1000 and 4 turns for 198 Chivalric Seargents and 60 Chivalric Knights to move 1 province?

[Roark]

The Eastern Countries don't really need crusade ability anyways. Are you really going to pay 1000 and 4 turns for 198 Chivalric Seargents and 60 Chivalric Knights to move 1 province?

Obviously your piety is questionable.

Anybody got a match?

[Ironside]

The Eastern Countries don't really need crusade ability anyways. Are you really going to pay 1000 and 4 turns for 198 Chivalric Seargents and 60 Chivalric Knights to move 1 province?

For an extra piety and most inportant an extra influence? Yes

Order foot is better than CS BTW.

And one of the reasons why the comp love sending crusades into your territory is that you got that exellent ship network that it can use. Moving your ships so the comp cannot get there in one turn will reduce the odds of the crusade entering your territory.

On a simular note you can only use the province-owners ships. You can't even use your own ships when in foreign territory. I thank the comp is limited in the same way.

[bretwalda]

The Eastern Countries don't really need crusade ability anyways. Are you really going to pay 1000 and 4 turns for 198 Chivalric Seargents and 60 Chivalric Knights to move 1 province?

But alas, no question! Playing Hungary and successfully killing the heathen Turks with great number of crusades... Adding each territory by a successful crusade piety and influence skyrocketing... Oh yeah, baby!

[antisocialmunky]

What crusader units do the pseudo-Catholics get in that mod?

[bretwalda]

What crusader units do the pseudo-Catholics get in that mod?

I did not assign anything special, so I guess they just get what is default.

[Zarax]

If you want spiced-up crusades with all catholic factions give a try to the mod in my sig... You shouldn't be disappointed, especially as Danish or English...

[bretwalda]

If you want spiced-up crusades with all catholic factions give a try to the mod in my sig... You shouldn't be disappointed, especially as Danish or English...

IIRC English always could crusade...