Strong position, where to next?

[General-Winter]

I managed to get a few hours in last nite, so an update is in order.

The Mongol Horde has somehow, irretrievably stalled. One of the first provinces they attacked was Vulga Bulgaria. The Cumans are there now. Granted, I only have one spy far out that east, but I was expecting the Horde to sweep all resistance before them. It has been about half-a dozen turns since they appeared; with something like the Horde I could conquer a province a turn. WTF? is the Khan retarded or something? Is this normal or what?

The border war between me and the Hungarians has flared up again. the Serbians beyond all rational thinking have joined in against me. My Seven Star General has now wiped them off the map except for a skeletal garrison in Croatia. The Hungarians booted me out with over 2000 men and are now besieging the castle. Some friends, huh?

Hungary has been taken. It was great. Left cavalry flank with Feudal Knights and Mercenary Steppe Horsemen turned the line of Joggaby into mist and broken corpses. Wheeled around and smashed into the commander's unit: Widdle Pwince Ata. Unfortunately the bastard did not die. He hacked his way solo through 160 knights and managed to flee. Should have died on the spot. Bastard.

The battle ended with about 430 casualties for me, around 850 killed and 237 captured. One question. One of my knight units smashed into a unit of Jobbagy as mop-up was commencing. That unit and three other Joggaby charged and promptly slaughtered about 60% of the unit in short order. The knights had 1 valor and level one armor. By all rights I think they should have butchered the lot. I wanted to take a loot at the unit statistics but I am unsure how to. How would I look at the game stats and/or mod them?

Has anyone else had this kind of thing with XL Joggaby? Mind you, it's 2.01. Er... Non-upgraded XL. (Is there a patch for XL yet?)

The Pope has died yet again from an illness! Yay! But I am still "at war" with him. And he STILL won't take a friggen peace treaty from my 4-star emissary. What. The. Bloody. Hell. I still can't Crusade either. Do I need to be at peace with him to crusade? I'm thinking yes but I wanted to confirm it. In any case i'm going to gut-shoot him and let him takethe Papal States when he re-emerges. Maybe the next Pope will have more common sense after an uprising.

By the by, as I am posting this War Pigs is playing on the radio. Reminds me of my Evil Land-Grabbing-Power-Hoarding Self.

What movie was it that said: "It is good to be the king"?

[Tratorix]

You have to be at peace with the pope in order to crusade. If he's only in one province, I reccommend you attack, siege him into his castle(if you they don't retreat automatically, make sure you don't accidentally kill the pope). Besiege the castle until it will fall next turn, then pull out. You should be at peace with the pope then.

As for your question about knights, their main weapon is their charge. Since the Jobbagy caught your knights flat-footed and outnumbered them about 3 to 1, it makes sense that your knights lost. Remember, knights are powerful, but they're not invincible

[Agent Miles]

"It is good to be the king" Mel Brooks in "History of the World, Part 1".