playing on h/h
i started off by allying with both the portugese and the moors.
i musterd all my forces (leaving toledo unguarded for a couple of turns) and took zaragosa first - as has been mentioned the portugese will get their first and fail in their attempt to take it - thats your chance.
i decided to wait on valencia - it is a tough city to take, so i thought it was unlikley that the moors would get there before me (which proved to be correct)
i moved my army (now nearlly a full stack) up into france - i tokk bordeaux off them and Rennes which was rebel. under pressure from the pope I managed to negotiate toulouse off them for a ceasfire ( it came equiped with troops - never done this before imp impressed)
i then pursuaded the pope to declare crusade on jerusalem. I took a couple of generals, some troops and recruited to full stack with crusade mercs. I had another non-crusading general follow along behind with some milita troops.
I hired cursade merc boat in south of france. first stop ajaccio, second stop florence. The cusade army moved on imediately after taking these territories and the following non crusade general came in after to garrison the new territories. I recruited more crusade mercs in italy and split into two forces. and moved overland down towards the heel where i recruited two new crusade merc ships.
next stop durazzo and corinth both byzantine territories. both taken after one turn of seige. ( tip - to garrison territories whilst on crusade move your general out of the crusade stack recruit mercs - put them in the city, move the crusade stack back to the general and rejoin the crusade. I have also noticed that if you leave crusade troops behind in a city they dont desert into thin air, but just stay in the city.)
The army from corinth moved on to take smryna, whilst the durazzo army too corinth and then byzantium. I ignored nicosia as it was too well defended and moved both armies on to take iconium (also byzantine at this point). i have scurted around adana as it was guarded by almost a full stack of byzantines and i ma about to start moving through the middle east - where helpfully i hhave been able to replenish my severely depleted armies with fresh crusade mercs.
amusingly when i arrived in anatolia i was aproached by the egyptians for a ceasefire (They own Jerusalem so when i joined the crusade it automatically declared war on them) I was able to get 8grand for this! and im just about to break the peace!
Ive been left with a very scattered empire so it should be fun connecting the dots. I think the byzantines might take back a few of their cities but i am not too bothered by this as i got a lot of loot from them, plus i think the idea of a crusading army going on the rampage and taking every city they can is quite historical.
note- i have lost a few troops to desertion, when ive waited to pacify a territory, but not too much, and the cost of rectruiting new mercs pales against the plunder + income from a city.
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