Last night, I received a mission to open diplomatic relations with the Holy Roman Empire. Well, I'm playing Egypt and considering I was at WAR with the HRE and they had a Crusade marching my direction, I thought that rather curious.

So I go to their capital and think, what the heck, they're sending a Crusade my way so they'll want map information. Since the Crusade to Jerusalem is coming whatever I do, I offer it to them and ask what they want in return. To my amazement, they offer a ceasefire. I've also spotted their Crusade by now. It's in the Balkans, apparently on its way to the Black Sea to either cross by sea or veer down to Constantinople.

I take the ceasefire, then offer another deal with trade rights. They accept again.

So here's the deal. Egypt and the HRE aren't going to come to blows over Jerusalem for several turns yet. In the meantime, we both decide to make a little money. My only cost is some map information that won't do them any good or me any harm anyway.

In the meantime, I've had an allliance with the Turks that has held for about 40 turns. He started moving armies my direction, but stopped after I took a huge stack out of one of the provinces bordering his. Somebody else has noticed that "backstabbing" alllies become more loyal when they're not in the shadows of huge armies of yours. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.