Number of Men in a Crusade

[Ciaran]

As far as I know, Zeal influences what happens to your crusade. When it travels through high-zeal provinces, chance is that parts of the units stationed there join the crusade. Travelling through low-zeal provinces has the opposite effect, the soldiers desert the crusade. As to what units you get when you start I have no idea. In my Italian campaign I´ve launched my crusades from Malta, sometimes I got a couple of Hospitaller Knights, then loads of fanatics, then only a few order foot soldiers

[yesdachi]

In a Spanish campaign a while ago I had a good piety king and high zeal in the province and I had been crusading like crazy I was getting 3 – 5 units at no cost every time. The units I received seemed random one time being all fanatics and another being all KoS (that was sweet!). It was definitely the campaign that I had the best “luck” with crusades. Not sure if there were a reason or if it was just my turn to be lucky but I was “the Spanish” and they have a lot of GA crusade goals and I was usually going after those heathen factions and stayed on the pope’s good side.

Additionally, I learnt a while ago from the boards here that maintenance cost is zero for units in a crusade even for merc units so every time I want to go after a province I would try to start a crusade and save some cash while gaining the benefits from a successful crusade, even if it was a little one.

[Geezer57]

In one of my Sicilian campaigns, I kept my Crusade at home for over ten years. Since it was a very high-zeal province, it kept generating new troops for the Crusade, eventually levelling off at over 3000 men. It helped that it was also a high-tech province, so a substantial percentage of the troops were of the more advanced types.

Once the gains slowed way down, I moved the Crusade on to the ultimate objective. Of course, it was taken easily.

[Deus Ex]

In one of my Sicilian campaigns, I kept my Crusade at home for over ten years. Since it was a very high-zeal province, it kept generating new troops for the Crusade, eventually levelling off at over 3000 men. It helped that it was also a high-tech province, so a substantial percentage of the troops were of the more advanced types.

Once the gains slowed way down, I moved the Crusade on to the ultimate objective. Of course, it was taken easily.

I have done something similar - having a crusade built in Castile - very high teched - I moved all of my other troops out of the province.

With a very high zeal (90+ IIRC) my crusade picked up a large number of troops (over 500?? IIRC) - without disrupting my regular units since they were not there.

Unfortunately I do not recall what kinds of troops were added, but it was significant numerically.

DE