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Quote Originally Posted by Joh
@askthepizzaguy

I just read your thread about conquering 108 provinces before turn 60. I have to admit I never thought the "abuse" of the crusades could reach such a scale, and please do not understand "abuse" as a derrogatory remark. I am basically impressed. I do not like to play the game like that, but that is my gaming style. I am not judging your style either, this is just a game after all.

I have to admit I have not played that much with catholic factions since I find them a little bit to much aim them and slug it out. Muslim factions add a little bit more in my opinion. Must admit, haven't played with eastern european factions though. And I seldom use crusades/jihads, only to keep up with the AI.

Anyway, I seem to remember that I tried crusading with the English in my initial campaign, and that I lost a lot of unit to desertion (playing 1.3). Have you tried your crusade tactic with the latest patch? I am not completely sure it will work since you loose units if you do not approach or slowly approach the crusade goal. It could also be because I only use a single stack army, so it could have an influence as at least one of your stacks is getting close to its destination.


Don't be ashamed to say it. It IS abuse of the crusade function to use it for non-crusading purposes.

I 'abuse' ALL the loopholes in the game. Crusading through Byzantium even if they aren't the crusade target, diplomatic trickery, crusading in the wrong direction and then leaving/joining the crusade to prevent desertion, and intentionally abusing the captain promotion device (even if you have a general, if you have overwhelming odds, let your troops ride ahead with a captain and slaughter your opponent on the field for an easy promotion) so that I can have endless stacks of generals and troops for crusades, buying/selling provinces to my advantage, the list goes on and on.

I don't do this every time. I am perfectly capable of 'restraining' myself and enjoying the game with actual use of assassins and merchants and realistic conquests and economic growth. However, one of the things that pleases me the most is seeing what the maximum limit is for possible advancement in this game, and attempting to reach that upper limit.

Is it possible to conquer all provinces by turn 55? Who knows until we try?
I say it might be possible. I was only 3 turns shy. 2 with France.

So my objective is to see what's possible with the game, without actually hacking the game files or using cheat codes. Just whatever the game allows you to do in it's original version. Different versions have different rules.

Example: There is no way to conquer all provinces on Lands to Conquer by turn 60. It is absolutely, physically impossible, and that's a fact.

But what about turn 90? It may be possible. The trouble is, excommunication is a much larger factor in LTC.

If you saw my Egypt thread, you know that the Muslim factions have the capability to roll up the map as well. I can abuse jihads very well indeed.

And with Russia, none of that was possible. But I did manage to obtain more than 1 province every turn. Which is pure blitzkreig at it's finest.

I am sure that if I played the game more often as the rest of you do, I would have more stable, defensible empires. But it's not all that impressive to look at if you post screenies of it. Anybody can do it.

I also think my skills as a general might improve if I slowed down a bit... but when you can win the war with force alone on the campaign map, it feels like a step backwards to put yourself in the position of turtling and using a stack at a time, even with better troops.

I know I can paste the computer with town militas, mounted scouts, and mercenaries. The only point of getting better troops is either overkill or amusement, and I'm plenty amused already. I note that many people say they become bored with blitzing... I don't know... it's easy to begin a blitz. What's difficult is going full throttle constantly, without breaks in the action, facing every single faction at once. If you blitz carefully, of course it's boring. You're supposed to blitz like you need to own the entire world by lunchtime.