Anyone know how you join a Crusade

[Flavius Gonzo]

Keep in mind that you pay no upkeep on your entire crusading army. That's a pretty huge savings, especially if you have units that have just finished an attack on a settlement and you don't have a next objective lined up for them. A stack of 15 units averaging 200 fl upkeep will save you 3000 PER TURN that it crusades.

Also, I'm not certain joining a crusade just for the new units would be at all effective. Not making fast progress towards the crusade target results in desertion, so my guess if you planned to use them for anything but the crusade, you're probably out of luck. Plus, I'm not sure happens when the crusade ends if you haven't one it, but if you leave the crusade you get mass desertion.

On the other hand, joining and winning is worth it. You get lots of florins and a huge boost to your pope-o-meter. Overall, I think getting a crusade army together is a good investment and worth putting off some construction projects for a few turns.

I play an England campaign too (H/H), and was able to succeed the first time the Pope threw out a crusade. I marched from outside Paris down to Genoa then hired mercenary galleys (3 of 'em), and sailed to Antioch. I suffered some desertion on the march (got hung up by French armies blocking my path), but had no problem with pirates with the 3 cogs. My advice if you try this:

- Have cash on hand during the turn you launch to sea. You'll need it not only for the boats, but also, this is a good time to hire lots of the cheap & effective crusade units. These expenses are a worthwhile investment given that your march to the mediteranean probably just saved you several thousand florin in upkeep, not to mention the money you'll get for winning the crusade.

- Send any agents that you can with your crusade! You can use all of them when you get to the middle east: Priests to convert your newly conquered population, very helpful. Spies are important to move ahead of the army and verify a clear path, but also to protect your general from assassination. Assassins are also useful once you've landed, and even a diplomat could help, to shore up trade rights with factions abroad, or worst case, sue for peace with a powerful faction that might be keeping an eye on the settlement you just crusaded.

- Use a neutral or chilvarous general as the crusader, since winning it gets him huge chivalry bonuses. Preferably a young one, since he'll be one of your best generals after the crusade and you'll want to hang on to him for a while. Executing/exterminating once you've conquered is probably not the best idea either.

Now... once you've conquered Antioch (or Jerusalem or whatever you're crusading for) you'll have to work hard to hang onto it, but I think it is worth the effort. Just try to get those crusader troops disbanded quickly without leaving your new city defenseless, their upkeep when not crusading is very high.

Edit: I just saw your note " I'm in the red with florins." 2 easy ways to fix this: first, evaluate your troop needs, if you have lots of garrisoned troops that aren't doing anything they can quickly kill your economy. The crusades are a great way to cut down on upkeep for these. (Also, watch out for mercs, their upkeep is expensive.) And 2, spam farms & land clearances! This seemed to work wonders for my economy.