(unlurks)

Hey everyone, I've been eagerly playing MTW2 and so far have only encountered one severe bug / gameplay issue so far and that is with Crusades.

When a crusade was called for, I gladly donated a stack of my English troops who were left over from invading Paris to the cause. They marched west, and bumped into a single opposing army's unit. The entire crusade stopped dead.

Next turn, they move west and got stopped by moving next to an ALLY'S city (an HRE). Attempting to move south, I got stopped by the Milanese city. At that point, I literally got blocked in by units cities, etc.

I could not attack, and no matter what I did, I could not move. I literally wasted eight or so turns just trying to get out of the general area. The entire army deserted and that was the end of my trying to join the crusade.

The only method of crusades worked, because noone could block them due to the simplistic Risk-Style map. However, now, it seems like anyone who is Christian can sucessfully halt your hopes to Crusade by just moving a unit next to or around your crusade, making you stuck in that red 'danger zone' area.

If you can't attack them, and you can't escape them, then what is there to do!?

Oh well. Figured i'd toss it out there and see if anyone else had the same problem.

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Had this too, only option is to go by boat to get around it really.

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Interesting - I tried to get an English crusade by sea, but was pipped to the post by the Poles within sight of the Holy Land. I vowed that next time I would go by land, but reading the OP, I'm having a rethink.

I suffered desertion twice by sea - once sailing west around the north coast of Spain (maybe the computer thought I was going away from my target?); and once when a Moorish boat was blocking the Gibralter straits.

Next time, I think I will try my MTW tactic and send a regular army alongside the crusade, so that after desertion, I still have a viable force.

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The problem with going by sea is that those damn pirates will sink any force of ships smaller than at least six, and those better have some experience. Its bloody frustrating when a force of three pirates sinks your force of four ships loaded down with happy crusaders.

I to wonder how they manage to desert at sea, when theyre fifty miles away from the French coastline. Thats a long swim for a guy in chain mail :P

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I guess I got lucky with my four boats, but thanks for the tip. I was pleased that the crusading boats become free upkeep though.

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I think the fastest way, if you're the English, is to go over land to the mediterranean, then hire some mercenary ships to take you the rest of the way. Saves you having to go all of the way around Spain.

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I've been playing Byzantium, and three different crusader armies have come through my lands on the way to Antioch. None of them attacked me on the way - even though I was at war with Venice at the time and one of those armies was Venetian - and none got stuck until after the crusade ended. The third one, a Danish army, got stuck near Constantinople when the crusade ended. I can't say about them being stuck by others, because armies in my lands were pretty sparse. They avoided the cities, and my field troops were busy dealing with two of my three foes, so they could move without interference.

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same problem here. I was totally stuck with my huge crusading army by Milanese.. annoying critters

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I think this is something that needs to be addressed in the patch possibly.

The pope should not allow blocking of crusades, similar to what was done in the first MTW when you did not allow a crusade along.

I appreciate the 'x2 move bonus' but if the bastards block me in, what am I suppoed to do?

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I complained about this exact same proble in another post, but I do know a solution. Whenever you are moving a crusade army, make sure that you do not have movement accelerated (space bar). Then click on your destination and CAREFULLY WATCH the path your army is walking along. The very instant you see any army or settlement along that route, immediately hit backspace. This will stop the army where it is. Then click on your destination again. The game will plot a new path that avoids the obstacle. Rinse, repeat every time you encounter another army or settlement.

Using this method, I was able to get an army from Caen all the way to Antioch without losing anyone to desertion and I got to the city before anyone else. I also highly recommend taking a spy along with the Crusade Army to aid in spotting.

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Thanks for that, I've been having the same trouble. It was extremely frustrating to also try and pull my troops back from the middle of Europe when someone else had succeeded with their crusade. Reputation with a couple of countries took a severe hit pulling my armies back as well.

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Sounds damn good to me.

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Why not use several spies to scout ahead?

edit: doh! Read the whole post TinCow made now.

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As the english i went to more or less 5 crusades overall, all by sea. I was under the impression that catholics wouldnt attack me if i was a crusader army, got lucky i guess.

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Playing as the Spanish, my faction leader was ordered on crusade by the pope. I had sent him with a full stack to attack the Milanese, so I simply turned that stack into a crusade and marched on. Apparently the Milanese missed all the crosses, because they attacked me in Northern Italy and were promptly excommunicated, despite having good relations with the pope. This saved me the trouble of navigating past the Milanese armies, as I can simply bludgeon my way through now.

Playing another game as the HRE, I've gone crusading once, and discovered what seems to be a bug that takes away the extra movement points you get for crusading. This makes desertion brutal when you're trudging slowly through anatolian mountains, so I'll definitely consider the ship option next time.

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I carefully choose the route my crusader army goes and encounter only little delay cause of other Christians blocking me. I did found it very annoying that sometimes, not always, my allies also blocked my movement. That's definately a bug.

I'm only in turn 30 or so now and haven't used a fleet to transport my crusader army to the holy land.
Question: Will my mercenary fleet also get a double movement bonus when there's a crusader army in it? My guess would be that there's no bonus because the admiral is a non-crusader unit and in command of the fleet.

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