Do you recruit the True Cross ?

[a_ver_est]

Do you recruit the True Cross ? I have saw it available as a crusade mercenary unit and I have recruited it. But is it a usefully unit ?

It give some moral bonus to your army but it cannot attack. So I don't know if an extra combat unit will be better or not than the True Cross.

What's your opinion ?

Anyway it give a realist look to my holy lands realm.

[zstajerski]

The great croos as well as the (I forgot how it is called, when you play with Venice you can recruit them) ...., have pruven worthless for me
:(

Rather go with an extra unit that can fight and does not to have to carry around a crosss

[joe4iz]

The battlewagons (whether city standard or True Cross) raise the moral of the units around it. I always garrison one with cities who have militia or other low grade moral units.

When a city gets sieged, I place it close to where the fighting is going to be. In a couple of battles, it turned the tide.

One tactic that works well is to push the battlewagon into a breach, this breaks all the formations that come thru that breach(even after the members who man the wagon are killed.).

They are exceptionally good at breaking cavalry charges.

In my second campaign, I kept Jerusalem from the Mongols for 3 sieges with the help of a True Cross battlewagon. My faction member was killed during the first seige, and there was no way to reenforce the garrison ( I was playing as the HRE and did not have any of the other provinces around it.)

[Cecil XIX]

What I remember is how much it slowed me down. I couldn't get to Antioch in time (to be fair, that wasn't the Cross's fault), and when I suddenly had to pay for a full stack the Cross made it take that much longer to move my army someplace useful.

Cost me a lot of money, that Cross.

[diotavelli]

I always take battlewagon standards when available. It's true that they slow down armies in the field but most of mine have artillery so they're none too quick anyway.

In battles they can also prove useful. Don't forget that it's possible to drop the standard (as you would a ram or siege tower), which frees up the small but powerful unit of elite troops who form the escort; at this stage, they can attack. The standard is not easy to destroy, so it can be left unguarded temporarily.

I've not tried it in sieges but think the combination of a standard in the breach and the elite troops as a tide-turning reserve force would probably be highly effective.

[Marquis of Roland]

I recruit them as much as I can, I don't care if they're slow they just look too cool not to recruit

[Snoil The Mighty]

I recruit them as much as I can, I don't care if they're slow they just look too cool not to recruit

Sometimes the reason really is that simple

[sapi]

They are also the only unit in my experience that can survive a mongol charge without breaking.

I buy them just for that eventuality

[LordKhaine]

The Italian standards are also cheap to maintain, so they can justify themselves easily in the long run. Handy in bridge battles, sieges and other games with lots of concentrated fighting. The morale bonus really can decide a battle. That being said if I have the cash to afford a full stack... I'll do that. I don't think the standard can match an extra unit of heavy infantry/cavalry.

I always grab the True Cross when I can... simply because it's a crusade! It needs the true cross!

[gingergenius]

can you get more than one??

I'm doing a 2 by 2 collection of mercenary units in forts around my capital (London) so that I can take them to the New World. Yet I have just 1 true cross. Also, where do Religious Fanatics pop up?

[Carl]

Also, where do Religious Fanatics pop up?

Try in france, I find loads their during Crusades.