Crusades question

[KARTLOS]

I have the same problem too. I thought maybe it's because I'm playing with Scotland now and they are way too far from the Holy Land. The first Crusade I joined was on Antioch, I tried to sail there only to have a quarter of my army desert by the time I got near the Portuguise coast, then I got chased off by pirates and was forced to go back home.

The second time was against Tunis which I figured was alot closer, I landed a Calis (sp) and marched through France, into Spain. By the time I got to Spain I had lost about 25%, by the time I got to the coast of Spain to go into Morroco, I had lost another 15% (this is even after I hired mercs to replace my desserters from before) I get into Morroco and again I get more dissertion, I went from a full stack in Scotland down to only 8 units or less in enemy territory. I barely made it across the dessert before I lost to a huge Islamic army.

its because you werent making enough progress in the right direction. you CANNOT sail around the iberian penisular as the game see you going away from the target. the best thing to do if you are england or scotland is pop across the channel and then go overland- perhaps just to the marseille or venice where you can hire a crusade ship.

[Prodigal]

I'm now on my 6th crusade & everyone has gone belly up so far, desertions.

The best thing I can suggest is a big fleet, overland is simply too slow, I'm not certain of this but if you do not go the shortest route every turn the desertions kick in, & by land one set of troops blocking your path could activate it.

You have time to get a fleet together before joining the crusade, & as long as its big enough you'll be fast getting to the location, & nothing short of an act of god wiping out your boats will stop you getting to the target.

Going by boat was the first time I had no desertions, (until I got beaten at sea & went into high speed reverse, as soon as that happened I started losing troops), so I would recommend, large fleet, then join crusade only when you're about to board.