Controlling Outremer...

[Durallan]

In my denmark campaign my capital is either Frankfurt or Nuremburg depending on which one I like better or the time, because I own all the cities except one along the Baltic Sea its my prime money earner (Stockholm gives 9 k a turn :) )

Putting my capital here has enabled trade to flourish and I don't get a too heavy penalty on the middle eastern states I own. Although right now I can't really tell because I have full stack armies in Antioch Damascus and Baghdad because of the Timurids. However the Timurds recently seemed to decide that losing 4 full army stacks against Antioch was more than enough. thank goodness I can build war clerics just about anywhere, also have fortresses in acre and gaza. I tell you if the battles that happened at anticoch happened in RL, it would be an archaeologists paradise, and a landowners nightmare Also even though you may love your original capital city it is extremely wise to move it in the later years....

Even the POPE in my game has moved the capital from Rome to Florence! Rome has become 'just another big city' I've noticed alot of the AI's have changed their capitals, some of their own accord ( Pope never lost rome , in fact hes got a very powerful empire and is just about to wipe out the last of the Holy Roman Empire who foolishly attacked him. ) and some forced. But the economic benefits outwiegh the nostalgia of keeping London or any of the starting cities as the capital in your growing empire.

[Furious Mental]

Exterminate when you establish a Crusader state- always.

[_Tristan_]

Yes....KILL THE HEATHEN.... GOD'S WILL BE DONE....

[Erik Bloodaxe]

Yes....KILL THE HEATHEN.... GOD'S WILL BE DONE....

Amen.

[kawligia]

After a crusade, I destroy everything and give it away. Either to the Pope or a to a faction that is close to the original owners, just to cause trouble.

Then I just keep conquering and sacking and destroying until my army is dead and I am filthy rich.

Its basically just a profitable suicide squad...and so I only do it when I have an old general or two who won't be around much longer. If they are that old, I can't rely on them to lead a standing army for any significant amount of time...may as well put them to good use and let them die with honor.

[TevashSzat]

Now a days, I usually only join crusades to attack closer targets, ie I join for the movement and troops and then abandon it when I'm next to my target. The only times I actually take cities in the Levant and hold them is if my empire has reached to it usually in Venetian or Sicilian campaigns or I am doing a migration campaign

[FactionHeir]

Occupy actually works well enough if your general is high chiv, which he usually is after a crusade. Sack if you really need florins (a lot of traits are linked to treasury so its a bad idea to have too many)
Exterminate if you are only wanting to get the Genocide line of traits or the torturer ancillary.

If its a huge city, exterminate isn't as bad than if it is a town or lesser city. You do want to stay on top of the technology.

[Skott]

Antioch is one of those cities thats great for constant sack strategies. You know... Attack, sack, pull out and let it go rebel, sack again, repeat and rise again and again. You can make alot of money doing this. Its a hard city to keep happy. If you plan to keep it its better to exterminate it and even then its going to get unhappy later down the road and probably require you to cut the population down to size once more.

[FactionHeir]

It also ruins your global rep nicely.