retraining & Crusading

[banick]

can someone please tell me what technology i need & what i need to but to be able to crusade & retrain troops

[Heidrek]

Crusades:

To Crusade, you need to build a Chapterhouse (church upgrade). Once you have a Chapterhouse, you can build Crusades from the units menu. costs 1000 Floring and takes 4 years, so it's quite an investment. Not all Catholic factions can build chapterhouses, so if you're playing the Danes for example you may not be able to crusade.

Once you've build the Crusade, grag it to the province you want to conquer with it. Must be non Catholic (or excommunicated catholic). Valid traget provinces will be highlighted once you're gragging the crusade around looking for a target.

Once you've selected the target, the pope will give you a price for him to support the crusade. You can't crusade without the popes support. I think if the pope is at war with the target faction or they are excommunicated, he'll back you for free. I got charged an extra 500 Florins once, but that's about it.

Once you have the popes support, the crusade will be announced and your crusade army with gain a bunch of units of different types, some of which you can't get any other way and kick some serious rear. Youu can load this crusade army up with as many units as you want - the is no 16 units, 960 man limit to the size of the stack.

From here on in, you can either move the crusade manually each turn until it gets to it's target or just grab it back to the trarget and it will find it's own way, picking up followers on the way. This is a great way to get rid of out of date units.

Retraining:

This is very simple. move the unit you want to retrain into a province that can build that unit. Once it is there, open that provinces unit building menu, the while it's open, select the stack with the unit you want to retrain and drag that unit into the unit building queue. the unit will disappear from the campaign map (important because it will not count towards the loyalty of that province any more - can make a big difference in rebellious provinces like Scottland) and show up in the build queue.

Retraining takes 1 year, no matter how long the original unit took to build (artillery units take 2 or more turns to build, but only 1 turn to retrain) and at the start of the next year you will have a fully manned unit which also has any weapon/armour upgrades the province can supply.

[banick]

Thanks a lot this explains everything i need to know.

Im in as the french & my friend told me you could just by a crusading cross from idse de france or the main province of the french but it didnt let me.

[Heidrek]

No sweat, there's a bunch of people way more knowledgeable that me in this place so it's good to ask. I'm learning a lot here as well.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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In addition to Heidrek's wonderful post, you can't crusade if you're excommed and you can't launch a second crusade before the current one is resolved. (You can train as many crusade markers as you wish though.) Provinces with higher zeal will contribute more units to your crusades. It's a good (and evil ) way of weakening your fellow catholic neighbours.
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[Peasant Phill]

And a few notes on retraining:

- Retraining will give the unit armour and attack bonusses if the appropriote building are in the province. Regional valour bonusses and morale bonusses can't be added with retraining.

- You can't retrain your king, but he'll replenish his unit on his own. So, unfortionatly you can't tech up your king ones he is crowned.

- You can retrain your heir but be careful with that. If the old king dies when the heir is in the retraining cue, it is very likely that the game crashes in some way.

[seireikhaan]

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In addition to Heidrek's wonderful post, you can't crusade if you're excommed and you can't launch a second crusade before the current one is resolved. (You can train as many crusade markers as you wish though.)
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Actually, I've had exactly one exception to this. There was one time, and one time only, where, as the Spanish, the Pope let me launch two different crusades at the Almohods during the same time span. Not exactly common, certainly, but it is possible to get a second one going at the same time. I wouldn't exactly be counting on it, though.

[Kaidonni]

- You can't retrain your king, but he'll replenish his unit on his own. So, unfortionatly you can't tech up your king ones he is crowned.

- You can retrain your heir but be careful with that. If the old king dies when the heir is in the retraining cue, it is very likely that the game crashes in some way.

On the first note, if you're heir isn't teched up at the time he is crowned, since as the heir is crowned in the most advanced province you have, he may be auto-teched by the game. So, if you're heir comes of age in a province with just a Fort...he won't have many upgrades going for him. But if he is crowned in a province with the Master Armourer and a Metalsmith, and hasn't been teched up to those levels yet, he'll be granted them instantly.

And on the second note...sometimes I've encountered CTD issues with retraining non-heir units, but I don't know what causes it. Of course, the one time it was an heir, my king died very soon after as it was...something very strange happening in the process. I decided to remove my prince from the retrain queue, but I did it in the review panel, not the recruitmen/retrain panel, and the next unit, a FMAA...it got a strange name, like 'King Roman Numerals ###' or something...took that guy out, put him back in, and wham! CTD...

Don't forget that retraining may also add morale to the unit you're retraining - I think, anyway. I hope! LOL!

[Mouzafphaerre]

Actually, I've had exactly one exception to this. There was one time, and one time only, where, as the Spanish, the Pope let me launch two different crusades at the Almohods during the same time span. Not exactly common, certainly, but it is possible to get a second one going at the same time. I wouldn't exactly be counting on it, though.

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Interesting. It might be that the Pope changed meanwhile (the one allowing the first crusade died and a new one was elected) but that's a wild guess.
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[caravel]

That would make no difference as it's it's the "papacy" entity and not the papacy faction or it's faction leader that allow crusades. I have seen this before also and it often occurs when the pope has specifically ordered "free" crusades against his enemies.

[LadyAnn]

I thought in MTW/VI, the Pope has one bit memory regarding crusading: only 1 crusade at a time. But then I am just proved wrong.

My favorite way to win as Dane: crusading my way to a sizeable empire :D

Annie

[gregori99]

The land route of a crusade usually only gives you a couple of options, going towards the target, but if you can steer it close to (or through) the Pope's domains, you can pick up a bumper crop of troops, due to the high zeal in those provinces.

Also, if there is no land route to the target, and the sea route is blocked by enemy ships, or you and your allies don't have a chain to the target, the crusade will not be able to move at all.

Btw, the Danes can crusade in XL, possibly other mods

EDIT: Assuming the Danes can't crusade in vanilla/VI. It's so long since I've played anything but mods that I forget...

[Bregil the Bowman]

EDIT: Assuming the Danes can't crusade in vanilla/VI. It's so long since I've played anything but mods that I forget...

Definitely can't, much to my chagrin in current campaign.

Any idea why the Pope sometimes refuses crusades. Playing as Spain a few months back, I had no other crusades, was in a better state of grace than he was, and he turned down my request to batter the Byz. In the end he had to go...

[Tratorix]

Any idea why the Pope sometimes refuses crusades. Playing as Spain a few months back, I had no other crusades, was in a better state of grace than he was, and he turned down my request to batter the Byz. In the end he had to go...

The pope won't let you crusade against any faction he is allied with. He may have had an alliance with the Byzantines.

[Brandy Blue]

Also, if there is no land route to the target, and the sea route is blocked by enemy ships, or you and your allies don't have a chain to the target, the crusade will not be able to move at all.

I've got questions about that.

1: I didn't know you could send armies through a ship chain partly made with allied ships. Is that for crusades only, or can you send regular armies that way too?

2:Also, are there any special rules about traveling by sea when on crusade?

3: I had a Crusader army in Constantinople and was given the chance to move it to Georgia, even though I had no ship in the Black Sea. Neither did my only ally. Byzantium did have a ship there, and my Crusade had permission to travel through Byzantium. I was wondering if that was why I could use Byzantine shipping, or if it was a corrupted file.

[Peasant Phill]

1. For crusaders only

2. You have to follow the shortest route I suppose.

3. You guessed right. you don't have to be at war with that faction to use its navy. If they don't let you through then you are at war with them.

[Ironside]

Actually, I've had exactly one exception to this. There was one time, and one time only, where, as the Spanish, the Pope let me launch two different crusades at the Almohods during the same time span. Not exactly common, certainly, but it is possible to get a second one going at the same time. I wouldn't exactly be counting on it, though.

I suspect the second one was possible because the pope had asked about crusades against that enemy afterwards.

It think I've seen the Italians with 3 crusades once, all against me . Might been 2 though, my magnificant screene was appearently lost to the nasty format C:. I do know that HRE and France had 2 crusades against me as well. Was alot of crusades in that game.
Had all crusades attacked me in Hungary at the same time (was the turks), it would probably been quite problematic, but the never did .

[banick]

i have a crusade of just over a thousand men headed for Palestine with sicilians but i cant get them off malta.

I have ship leading straight to the province but they just wont mave.

Anybody any ideass

[caravel]

Check the following:

1) Does Malta have a port?

2) Do you have fleets of ships in the following seas?

a) Malta Channel, Gulf of Sidra, Nile Coast

or an alternative route:

b) Malta Channel, Central Mediterranean (Deep Sea), Nile Coast

c) If for some reason you're taking a longer route, check that you have fleets in every sea between the port of embarkation and disembarkation.

3) Check that no ships belonging to the faction currently owning Palestine are in any seas on the route.

4) Check for any of your enemies' ships on the route. Hold down the "v" key to show the status of provinces. Red are blockaded, green are passable and brown are where you have none of your fleets present and neither do your enemies.

[banick]

probably C i think

[banick]

no i dont think it is because i can move other troops in/out of Malta but not my crusade?

[caravel]

Pick up a normal stack, not the crusade, in Malta and see which provinces highlight. If Palestine does not highlight then check all of the sea zones again for enemy vessels and ensure that you have a ship in every connecting sea between the source and destination.