Sounds interesting so far. One thing came into my mind: the zeal problem. By being forced to march those crusades through quite a number of low-zeal, non-catholic provinces, one runs a considerable risk of failure in these crusades. When I was new to MTW I always marched them overland and lost the greater part of them due to the awful Bulgaria-Big C-Trebizond-Rum-Lesser Armenia-wherever route which reduced most crusades to maybe 1/3 of their strength, making it impossible to hold onto any conquered provinces for a longer span of time. By sending them by sea it becomes necessary to pump up the crusade on one's own, but there are no losses, especially not to the elite core units.....any ideas?