HELP: Crusading Army calls for peace.. now what ?

[Shahed]

Hi everyone!

When the Byzantines declared on me, the French imediately launched a Crusade for Antioch.



Exciting !

KEEEEEELL the INFEEEDEEEEELLS
SWEEFTLLY OR SLOWLY, I CARE NOT, JUST KEEEEEEEL THEM !!!



Was really looking forward to it, had a whole nice stack of Sipahi, Turcomen, Sipahi Lancers, Alans, and ofc the trusty bodyguard with a decent general dispatched to Nicea to await the hapless enemy.

Spies left the comforts of the brothel pleasure dolls and spanned out into Hungarian and Venetian territory, to give advance reports of the enemies army.

A level 5-6 diplomat sitting in Tuscany was approached by a Fench diplomat soon after. The French offered 1600 Florins/Turn for 6 Turns. I was like...

CANT KEEEL THEEEM !!!....

....but wow great, THANKS ! I accepted.

Now a while later that French army has arrived near Constantinople. I moved my stack to the OTHER land bridge over the Bosporus, the one further away from Constantinople and blocked it because I don't want it going through my territory towards Antioch and have to shadow it with an army because then I have to block this bridge with another army. Which I can do because a defensve infantry army is garrisonned in Symrna.

What I wanna know is what should I do now. That army just keeps looping form Constantinople to the landbridge further south, back and forth X10. He won't attack me. The Byzantine AI has gone defensive and amassed like 2000 men in Constantinople and outside, and about 1700 outside Nicea and outside. He has nothing in his rear.

If I can make this French army disband or vanish it then frees one of my cavalry armies to go into the rear and start decimating any reinforcements to the font line.

I need that cavalry army freed up QUICKLY ! I don't want to declare coz that wil totally mess up my relationship with everyone.

Any ideas, thoughts/suggestions most welcome.

Salute !

[Whacker]

blah blah blah words blah blah stuff blah words

Hey mate!

My two cents. I think you're either going to have to 1. suck it up and assault or 2. assassinate the named characters in the stack then try to bribe them out of existence. 2. is going to take a long time, but would probably be better if you want to preserve your reputation and not start another war. Of course, you could try 1. and then send a diplomat back to the french to try and negotiate peace, this might be possible, but you'll likely take a hit to your reputation. Whatever happens, do tell!

(btw, assuming you're playing the turks???)

Cheers!

[Quillan]

If they're part of a crusade against you, peace isn't going to hold. I suspect something is bugged, however, because otherwise that army would desert in fairly short order. If it's on the western side of the straits, looping back and forth between the Bosporus and the Hellespont, it certainly isn't making any progress towards Antioch, is it? Back when I was playing Byzantium, the Moors asked for peace in the middle of a jihad, and I accepted, thinking they'd lost their army or something. They hadn't; it was just coming overland through Europe. About 15 turns later it arrived, and they declared war again to besiege Constantinople. So if that army ever makes it across, you'll be at war again.

On the other hand, park some ships across the two land bridges at the Bosporus and the Hellespont, and he WON'T be able to cross. That should free up your cav army.

By the way, I suspect the cause of the problem is the pathfinding algorithm on the campaign map. I had something like that happen to me in one campaign, when I was giving an agent movement orders over multiple turns. He was in between Iconium and Nicaea, and I wanted him to cross over to the western side and move on down towards Budapest. On one turn, his path was to move up through Nicaea, southwest to the Hellespont, and cross over. The next turn it was turn around, go back through Nicaea, northeast and loop back to the Bosporus to cross over. The following turn it was back down towards the Hellespont. Repeat ad nauseum. The issue was an army I didn't know was there, but the computer did. It kept moving in such a way that I couldn't cross. When you give anything - agent, army, or character - a multi-turn movement order, it picks the shortest path. It does account for blockages aside from zone of control issues.

Oh, if you capture Constantinople, are you going to rename it Istanbul? And are you going to give Constantinople the works?

[Spartiate]

I am experiencing the same situation in my current Moors campaign.I hold the right sequence of cities/bridges that nothing can get down the Iberian peninsula without getting smacked in the head by one of my armies. There are currently 3 crusading armies in front of the bridge north of Cordoba and two of them have asked for a ceasefire. It is now 20 or more turns later and they still have not attacked me. I wonder are A.I controlled crusading armies afraid to waste their strenght before reaching their objective as i have NEVER seen one instigate a battle. If i leave a route open they will take it and ignore army stacks belonging to me no matter how weak i am.Anyone else noticed this or am i wrong? Phew..........7 a.m............time to get some shut-eye.

[Bob the Insane]

The Cursade will eventually run out and it will then just be another stack sate there (which will annoy the Byz)...

I am interesting to know with the French crusading army is losing any troops or whether desertion does not apply to AI armies...