How to get to Crusade?

[Tully Bascombe]

I'm playing as English, and I've just answered the Pope's early 12 the century call to crusade, the target being Antioch. It took me 2 turns to assemble the necessary number of units. I decided to go by ship from Normandy to avoid crossing other nation's territory. One turn out of Caen my troops start to desert and I get a message telling me to hurry it up! What's the best way to get to the Crusade? If I go by land it will take more than a decade to get to Antioch. I can't cross France then board ship because I haven't got any ships in the Mediterranean already. I thought that sailing around Spain then across the Mediterranean would have been faster because ships move farther per turn than men encumbered by siege equipment.

[alex9337]

Unfortunately, playing as England, you will lose troops to desertion if you attempt to sail around the Iberian Peninsula.

Your only choice is to go across land to the mediterranean area, move your army close to the shore and purchase merc ships.

This is the only way I have found that you can get to Antioch without losing troops to desertion in the early game.

[Tully Bascombe]

Ah, I didn't know I could buy ships.

[Mithradates]

Im not sure but i thought if you are on a crusade your ships travelled faster i can remember getting an English crusade to the Holy Land in less than 5 turns on ships.

[Carl]

Th trouble is it takes 2 or 3 turns to get round Iberia, and during the time it takes you to do that your counted as not moving towards it and will lose troops to destertion. The formulae that determines if you are moving closer treat land as passable for ships, and sea as passable to troops, hence you get desertion problems.

[zstajerski]

Add priests or eaven cardinals to the crusading army that will lessen the effect

[HoreTore]

Yeah, well, it's quite logical really. The quickest way to the holy land from england, is not around Iberia, it's going through france into Italy, and then hire ships to take you there by sea. And that was the historical route too. Going around Iberia is a huge detour, and your troops should be complaining...

[Lorenzo_H]

Crusading armies get movement bonuses.

[Matty]

Ship the army all the way to your target, set them ashore then call the crusade and attack the following turn.

If you want to be cheesy, get all your troops from all over your empire to join the crusade (even if you have no intention of using them in it), take the crusade target the turn after getting the crusade approved and all units get the experience bonus.

[antisocialmunky]

It doesn't make sense that you can desert if you're in a ship unless they can walk on water or something.

[shawpower]

If you want to be cheesy, get all your troops from all over your empire to join the crusade (even if you have no intention of using them in it), take the crusade target the turn after getting the crusade approved and all units get the experience bonus.

That is really cheeky! But also ingenious! I presume the same will work for a jihad.

[gardibolt]

I had an odd crusading experience in my English M/M game.

The Pope called (another) crusade on Jerusalem, held by the Mongols (and soon to be threatened by the Timurids). My Holy Land holdings needed reinforcement anyway, so I sent two stacks on ships from Venice.

On the way, they met a small Byzantine force; although the odds favored me, all of the ships and all of the men were destroyed in an "Act of God." No wonder I'm an atheist.

Anyway, I sent some additional half stacks down towards Italy to attempt to try again, but by the time I got there, the button said "It's too late to join this crusade." I spotted a stack of the Papal forces in the Holy Land, and figured it just took me too long.

But then a few turns later, I got a message from the pope warning me that I had only five turns to join the crusade, or he would be displeased. Curious, I tried to join the crusade and still got the "It's too late to join this crusade." A couple turns later, the Pope took Jerusalem himself, and called off the crusade.

Anyone know what's going on here? What triggers the "too late" message? And why doesn't it cancel out the "join the crusade, already" message?

I hope the Pope enjoys fighting the Timurids.

[Veho Nex]

It doesn't make sense that you can desert if you're in a ship unless they can walk on water or something.

Jesus had many sons

[Foz]

Ship the army all the way to your target, set them ashore then call the crusade and attack the following turn.

Wow... talk about losing everything that's good about a crusade. A lot of the point is that you can get those troops to the target so much faster once they have their crusade movement bonus. I also seem to recall people saying that crusading armies are free of upkeep. I never did much of it myself so I don't really know, but if that's the case then calling and joining the crusade so late is really detrimental to your economy, since those troops could be free of upkeep for all the time it takes to get to the target.