Playing early campaign Sicily, created army within time limit to send toward Antioch from Tunis on a Crusade; Army melted away even though I was heading directly to Antioch and not blocked or suprised as I moved slowly and carefully to avoid getting blocked by opposing army etc but full movement.

I lost a very good army, couldn't recruit anything from recently conquered Tunis even though around 60+ % Catholicised at the time ( My priests double as spies and convert the population before I move in to rule anyway), nor along Venetian held Tripoli, and my favourite General was sort of approaching Antioch by himself in the end via err..far east Tripoli, as I could not recruit anything to form an army. Much to my angst the crusade was over a turn later after I lost my entire army... Oo. N o t H a p p y. lol!

Also, a while after, Spain attacked me whilst in High standing with the Papal States and I was just about to launch a serious attack against the Moors. So I got a bit annoyed and turned my full military might onto Spain starting the next turn and was threatened to be excommunicated. I clicked the tick as I was fine with it, but I could not attack Spain even though I was happy to be excommunicated and clicked the tick?? ...I tried again and again... The Spanish of course besieged me left and center by the end of that turn... sigh*

This annoyed me so much I nearly went for the Pope and his choir boys sitting in Rome. But after these closely related incidents I thought what was the point? If I moved onto the Pope and had to click a tick to be excommunicated (and bugged? ((Or did I miss something?)) so it wouldn't happen anyway) and ai got the initiative attacking me first then what was the point?

So what am I missing?

If you have a fleet nearby, which there sort of was at Tunis... Must you use the fleet instead of land movement in a Crusade? Tunis to Antioch... straight forward march and no land bridges even... And if so how close does a fleet need to be to be factored in as a 'must use'.

Because the fleet was not at port etc but nearby..., this is the only thing I can think of as something I may have missed.


As for Papal Decrees... why threaten to excommunicate me when I have good standing and defending myself, and then can't attack them anyway ( could not click yes please, excommunicate me ) ... even after they attacked me... What's the go with this?


Thanks for any help. Hope someone gets a laugh out of it at least.