Crusades

[rockoutloud1213]

I'm playing Aragon in the early period on normal. I just got to building a chapter house in Aragon itself (year 1131 I think) and I have a crusade ready to be built. However, like transporting armies with boats (which I only recently learned how to do) the process of using a crusade is slightly illogical and cryptically referenced in the manual. How exactly does it work? Just to set it up, I've already got the whole Iberian peninsula and North Africa up until Egypt. I want to use a crusade to complement attacks on Egypt. I'm thinking of setting it up in Aragon and shipping it to Algeria. However, then I don't get zealous people from other factions, so would it be beneficial? What is the benefit of a crusade vs. a normal attack? What are the disadvantages (eg how much do I have to pay the pope for it?) And will the Byzantines let me through if I want to go the long way around?

[seireikhaan]

It tends to vary somewhat as to the cost from the Pope. Sometimes, if you're target has been a particularly egregious offender, the Pope will let you do it for free. Usually, though, it ranges from 500 to 1,500 to crusade. As for the route, DON'T try going the long way. The Byzantines will usually let you through, but the Turks will not, and there's also the strong possibility that Egypt wiped them out and controls those lands as well. This means your crusade would likely have to fight AT LEAST four battles just to get to Egypt. In addition, all the Byzantine provinces have low zeal as well, meaning your crusade would dwindle once you got to about Bulgaria.

THe advantage to a crusade is that winning it(completely capturing the target province) will raise the influence of your king just in itself. Keep in mind that taking another province could up your King's influence anyway, so a crusade can potentially raise the influence of your King by 2. And high influence helps you pop out heirs who have more command, acument, etc... Of course, if your crusade fails, then your King's influence drops instead. So I would just send your crusade right there with the fastest route, so you lose fewer troops. And make sure to load as many of your troops in it as possible. Troops in crusades don't require maintenance, so any troops that you planned on taking w/ the crusade, just pile them into it as well to save a little cash while you're at it.

[MJF]

i sometimes find when i launch a crusade, say from wessex, i cant plant the crusade onto mainlaind europe e.g. flanders, and march it across europe soaking up everyone else's troops. the comp will only allow me to plant it straight on the target province (which my navy allows). why is this?

also, what exactly is zeal. if the zeal is high does this mean that none of your crusaders desert, or more troops join your crusade or both?

cheers

[seireikhaan]

i sometimes find when i launch a crusade, say from wessex, i cant plant the crusade onto mainlaind europe e.g. flanders, and march it across europe soaking up everyone else's troops. the comp will only allow me to plant it straight on the target province (which my navy allows). why is this?

also, what exactly is zeal. if the zeal is high does this mean that none of your crusaders desert, or more troops join your crusade or both?

cheers

The game was designed so that Crusades and Jihads will take the quickest route possible to the target province. If you move your ships so you don't have a chain set up(generally do this for just one turn) and your crusade will have to take the land route.

As for zeal, that does impact the troops. High zeal means that more troops will join the crusade. If its neutral(around 50-55%), the crusade will stay about where it is. If its lower than that, you may start getting some desertion, though the first few turns of a crusade generally don't get much desertion. Its important to note that you will almost always have a little desertion, even if its only a few troops. However, high zeal means that you will usually get more troops joining it and very few deserting it. A favorite tactic of mine is to raise the zeal in a few choice crusading provinces(up to about 75%: after that you're inquisitors will lower it back down a bit after burning a bunch of people). Use one of them to crusade and a couple others are nice to have for extra troops. Anyways, once you start the crusade, let it sit in the same province for one turn. If you've raised the zeal enough, you'll get a bunch of troops. My personal record was gaining 700 troops in one turn as sicily when i got the zeal of malta to 95% Well, aside from the one time I jihad spammed the Mongols...After letting it sit the one turn, set it through the other few provinces and then hit the target province. Maybe its just me, but I don't like waiting for my army to go through all of mainland Europe. Well, its your choice, they both probably will work.

[MJF]

thanks for that. answered my questions brilliantly. much appreciated.

[The Darkhorn]

What's fun it to let it sit several turns in somebody else's high zeal province. Just doing that will give it thousands. Or just leave it in one of yours, but make sure you move any troops you don't want in it out of the province on the same turn. Just sitting a Crusade in a high zeal province for several years can fill it up by a couple of stacks without putting any troops in it, especially early.

[cosminus]

i sometimes find when i launch a crusade, say from wessex, i cant plant the crusade onto mainlaind europe e.g. flanders, and march it across europe soaking up everyone else's troops. the comp will only allow me to plant it straight on the target province (which my navy allows). why is this?

also, what exactly is zeal. if the zeal is high does this mean that none of your crusaders desert, or more troops join your crusade or both?

cheers

Take care and not keep a crusade longer in a province even with high zeal. The crusaders will desert and vanish even if zeal is > 70% if you keep them long enough. It is better to quick strike with your crusaders (in 3-4 turns) otherwise their numbers will decrease and you loose strength.
HTH