How Do You Crusade?!!

[Bafe4u2]

Umm...I know i sound kinda stupid...but I've been playing this game for quite a while, but i still don't get the concepts of crusading!

[Ethelred Unread]

Get any family member and make a stack with at least 6 (or is it 8) units in it.

Then click on the general to bring up his information scroll. In the bottom left there should be an icon for "join crusade" it's a cross i think.

Press this.

Then move towards your crusade objective each turn.

Be sure to fill up the rest of your stack with religous fanatics and/or other mercs and send these into battle first to tire your enemy.

[Lupiscanis]

There are two different kinds of crusades -

Player started.

Non-player started.

To initiate a crusade, you must have good pope-o-meter standing (through building churches, high religious values, obeying the pope etc), and open up your diplomacy/papal standing scroll. Hit the Papal standing section and to the left of the picture of the pope and his vices/virtues, there will be a 'request a crusade' button. Click on that, and it will give you a choice of heathen cities to smite (note: only non-catholic and excommunicated catholic factions are valid targets. You cannot crusade a non-excommunicated catholic faction, regardless of how bad their standing with the pope is).

To join a crusade (after starting your own, or after one has been started already), simply get a general/family member (has to be a general or family member, cannot be just a captain) + 7? (I think its 7 units, might be 6) and either right click on the general, or left click on the hire mercenaries button. At the bottom left of the scroll will be a 'join crusade' button. If you don't have enough units, or there is no general/family member present, the button will be greyed out.

Hope that helps.

[trickydicky]

I beleive it's 8 units in total, including a general guys. But other than that it should work if you follow the above info.

Oh and welcome to the org Bafe4u2.

[Betito]

In an english campaign of mine, i recall not being able to crusade against Orthdox's provinces... that made me kind of sad, because i wanted contstantinople. I don't recall the diplomatic status of the Biz, but they may have been allied with the pope, with that being the reason constantinople was not choosable.

Have any of you experienced something similar? or you just plain can't crusade the orthodox??

[Zarky]

You can´t crusade Orthodoxes, but if you want the target region and Constantinople you can sen 2 armies to Crusade and when you reach Constantinople with other one, you can abandon crusade and attack Constantinople then.
To get to crusade you need AT LEAST General/Family Member +7 (8 total) If you do crusades for first time I suggest you Crusade Jerusalem wit full stack and then split some troops and/or hire mercenaries to get Acre.
This way Turks can´t attack you expects by the sea if Egypt has take surrounding lands. Best way to get to crusade target is to get to Mediterrean coast and then hire lots of boats, but this is risky since enemies might have more ships waiting for your small fleet.

[Aaronontheweb]

Once you become one of the Pope's boyscouts you can request crusades. One of my favorite all-time tactics to make unashamed land grabs is to request crusades against excommunicated Catholic neighbors.

[diotavelli]

If you do crusades for first time I suggest you Crusade Jerusalem wit full stack and then split some troops and/or hire mercenaries to get Acre.

My own suggestion would be to go for Tunis. In the case of most factions, it's closer. It has a smaller garrison. It is neighboured only by the Moors and their attention tends to be elsewhere for the most part; otherwise, there are only rebels in its vicinity.

A great tactic is to put two or three generals in a stack with a few makeweight units. Call a Crusade and recruit any good or cheap crusaders available. Jump on a boat and take Tunis. Leave a small garrison and take Cagliari on the return voyage. The whole thing should take less than 10 turns and you should end up with two or three highly chivalrous potential governors. Return these to your core territories and build up your key provinces.

I've found this to be the very best first crusade you can undertake if you're chasing a rapid and high return on investment.

EDIT: by taking Tunis, you'll have an excellent base to launch the careers of future cardinals, too. The Holy Land tends to be full of Imams and heretics which can hinder more than help you. Tunis is yours for the taking and those red hats will follow as sure as night follows day.