Wow, what a holy rush! (into our treasury)

[PseRamesses]

I currently play the "Egyptians" in Pro Deo et Rege mod, great job btw. I just have to tell you this story. Nice to know if anyone has experienced any luck with ransomes or this frequent crusading.

AAR: My Caliph Al-Mustansir and his generals set out on a bold blitz jihad to enlighten their uncivilized neighbours and bring them into Allahs busom.

Betwen 1080-1086ad Aswan and Buhen to the south soon fell. Our able prince Al-Mustansir, later known as "the conqueror" moved on Bardiya, Bengazi, Sirte, Tarabulus, Gades, Tunis and the island of Malta to the west. In Arabia Bostra, Aqaba, Medina, Jeddah and Makkah welcomed our "liberation" by Umar Al-Kashshab, later known as "the holy warrior". In the Levant and Syria our great Caliph, later known as "the honourable" seized Yerushalayim with a jihad, Akka (jihad in 1086ad), Tripoli, Antioch, Adana, Halab, Homs and Deir al-Zur soon fell too.

The Byzantines clearly had a problem with us taking over Antioch which they had recently lost due to a rebellion and in the year of 1087ad they attack our garrison in Adana. The settlement is sallied by our next heir in line, after Al-Mustali, Nasir who will go down in history as "the Lazy" and "fat". He swiftly moved on the Byzantines holdings on the islands of Kypros, Rodos and Kriti which fell before his might. In 1090-91ad he took the Byzantine holdings of Smyrna, Myra and lauched a jihad on Iconium. All settlements was then handed over to our allies the Seljuks in exchange for Edessa, Mosul and Baghdad and a nice chest with 20.000fl to further bolster their efforts against the Byzantines.

So by 1091ad we hold all lands from Tunis to Baghdad, from Buhen to Adana and all the isles in the central and eastern Mediterranean. Time for build-up.

In 1099 the pope calls for a crusade against our capitol Al-Qahirah and in the fall of 1102 the first horde of infidels struck us. A young general, Bakr son of our belowed caliph is entrusted in defending our homelands. Now, the set-back here is that we have constructed forts in all mountain passes except one, the pass between Adana and Antioch so here is where our young and cunning general sets his trap.

Here comes the holy rush: (year, faction and stats)

1102ad
HRE, 1655-378, r: 1.444fl.
Danes, 1226-394, r: 812fl.

1103ad
HRE, 878-40
Portugal, 1077-609, r: 12.268fl.
HRE, 1533-170
Genua, 1598-248, r: 8.667fl.

1104ad
Spain, 1564-263, r: 3.462fl.
Sicily, 1363-253, r: 10.001fl.
English, 1620-326
Venice, 1442-226, r:3.448fl.

1105ad
Venice, 830-226
Polish, 1498-205
Magyar, 1368-110
France, 588-185, r: 12.224fl.

1106ad
France 1458-112

Bakr proved his worth bringing ransomes of over 50.000fl. into our treasury that later came in use on our quest to bring the prophets teachings to the infidels holy father. A campaign where he would earn his epiphet "the conqueror", but that is another story.

[Grog]

Nice going, 50-60k of ransom in 6 turns , although you probably loose half of that in retraining and 6 turns upkeep

I did a similar thing against the welsh in my first kingdoms campaign, ransommed them dry with a roaming dread general after they annoyed me one time too many (I'm currently marching on the last welsh settlement caervanon...), always helps to continue battle and mop every last router up with cavalry to get the most florins.

[PseRamesses]

Nice going, 50-60k of ransom in 6 turns , although you probably loose half of that in retraining and 6 turns upkeep

Well, I was shifting troops anyway from mostly spears to swords. What surprised me was the frequency of crusades. I mostly play muslim factions or Byz but 15 well equipped crusades was a nice surprise.