A fun experience regarding crusades

[Martok]

An interesting battle there, Phil. I don't think I've ever been involved in a battle with more than one ally before, so it was kind of cool to read your recap.

One thing I'm curious about, however: I wonder how the game determined which faction would take which position in that battle? Given that you were probably invading the province from the west/northwest, it would make sense for your army to take the left flank. But the Byzantines were probably coming from the east/south, and I imagine the HRE would've attacked from the west/southwest. Given that, you'd think it would be more natural for HRE to have taken the center, and the Byz to take the right flank.

Oh well; it's just an idle curiosity!

[Peasant Phill]

The battle was a few months ago, so I don't remember everyone's position. I think you are right about the angles we all went in: me from the north east and the west (I was letting the baltic provinces rebel to train troops, which was mostly cav based at that time), the Byz from the south east and the HRE from the south west.
I have no idea how the game calculates where armies start, but I do notice that my allies start to my right side. Is this coincidence? I don't know.

[Empirate]

I just noticed for the very first time that crusades can pass through MONGOL territory freely when their goal is a Muslim province! I was playing Turks in late, and there were several bedraggled crusades coming my way. Well, I thought, at least Bulgaria and Georgia are held by the Horde, perhaps their garrisons will be wittled down a bit. But the German crusade passed through Georgia (...?) without problems and sat in Armenia (Mongol, too) for several turns being afraid of the garrison on the Muslim side of the border. Meanwhile, a French and an English crusade were sitting in Mongol-occupied Bulgaria not daring to attack my large garrison in Constantinople...

Historically, there was an alliance proposal once: Pope Innocent IV. wanted to recruit the Mongols as allies against Dar al'Islam. Seems it worked out fine, at least in my game...

[Zild]

In a recent English Late game I sent a crusade down to (Almohad) Cordoba. My allies the Spanish had a crusade for the territory nested under Cordoba on the Iberian peninsula (can't for the life of me remember the name!) which was also owned by the Almohads, so I figured they could do half the job for me...

The neutral French (not sure why I hadn't killed them yet...) also wanted to play, sending a third crusade down to Algeria.

As soon as it arrived, considerably bolstered by Welsh Longbows and many units of Late Royal Knights, I sent the crusade into Cordoba and the enemy retreated. Too easy.

The next year, the Almohads retaliated with a viciously large army. Whilst my own army was larger, a lot of it wasn't the kind of unit I do well with on the field. Fortunately, the Spanish and the French sent their crusades through my new land in the same year.

We lined up to fight and I was somewhat surprised - and amused - to see the pitiful French force listed as the enemy (especially since I'm sure the briefing screen said otherwise!) The Spanish attacked the Almohads from my left, the French from my right, and I sat there watching (and firing my Longbows!) as they chased each other across the front of my army. I sent in a few cavalry units to capture Almohads and French scum as they fled.

The second wave of the Almohad force must have joined the battle just as the last French were fleeing (the Spanish has retreated long ago). I guess I may have wasted my arrows somewhat on the earlier troops, but that did not worry me - I simply wthdrew them and brought on some good melee and cavalry units in their stead. The Almohad general (a prince no less) long dead, routing the second wave was easy.

Three crusades and another army (unfortunately not a Jihad, which followed ineffectually a couple of years later) - as battles go, this one was pretty different for me!

[Martok]

I have no idea how the game calculates where armies start, but I do notice that my allies start to my right side. Is this coincidence? I don't know.

My allies are usually on my right flank as well, but not always.

I suspect it might actually be whoever has the largest army starts in the center/left, and the smaller army gets the right flank. In a Danish campaign from a couple months ago, both I and the Novgorods had invaded Pomerania. I had a smaller army (by about 100 men), and I started out on the right flank in that battle.

I don't consider this conclusive proof of course, especially since 95% of the time it's my faction that has the larger army in allied battles anyway. So since I don't have much to compare the experience to, all I have is a theory; and whether or not it's correct could be difficult to prove.

@Empirate: Yeah, I remember that happening to me once in one of my Egyptian campaigns. I was sitting there minding my own business when I spotted a Crusade headed my way (Edessa). I wasn't worried, though, since I knew it would probably have to fight its way through the Khan's territory. So you can well imagine my "WTF??!" reaction when it zipped through his lands with nary a scratch.

@Zild: Yeah, that's a pretty funky battle you fought! I wonder why the French were listed as an enemy, though. Were you two then at war after the battle, or did you both go back to being neutral?

[Zild]

@Zild: Yeah, that's a pretty funky battle you fought! I wonder why the French were listed as an enemy, though. Were you two then at war after the battle, or did you both go back to being neutral?

We were at war. Normally war with the French is how I start my English campaigns, but in this case I think it actually turned out to be my downfall - I'd just stretched my troops a bit too thin. I can't recall if I had been in and out of war with them before in that campaign or not - I actually think not, for a very rare change, which made the whole experience even more disturbing...

A less fortunate crusade experience I had (again, recently) was when I sent my (small but adequate) crusade into the target province, not knowing that one of my allies was going to send a force of their own. We won the day but they received the province due to superior numbers.

I expected them to hand the province over to me, given my crusade technically entered the province - but it did not happen! Instead, my crusade (which had helped liberate the target province) was disbanded because the province was back in the hands of the catholics. The loss of influence immediately trigged a civil war that marked the downfall of my empire! I knew my King's influence was low, but I had hoped a cheap-shot crusade would improve things, not put the final nail in my kingdom's coffin!