Ever tried this?

[Agent Miles]

I was able to get a Crusade against Arhus. Before I took the settlement with my Crusader army, I had all of my leaders and military units, wherever they were, join the Crusade (In preparation I had stacked them in large groups), a sort of 'marshalling of the reserves'. Then I took Arhus. I got a lot of money from the Pope as a reward for my huge force and all my units got an extra level of experience.

[Monk]

Hehehe.

No I never considered that, but that's a sneaky way to get some free unit experience! I'm sure its been discussed before but it's new to me.

[FactionHeir]

What Monk said: its been done before (especially when rushing the AI) and its an exploit - generally not needed unless you want to beat the poor AI even more than you already do
But then of course its your decision.

[Quintus.JC]

I've done it before. In my Spanish campaign I frequently called Crusades agains Muslims and excommuincated factions. I made previous preparations and made sure all my units were in sizable armies led by general, on the last turn before the settlement falls I made all my armies join the Crusades and they all got 1 experience bonus in the end. So at the end even my spear militias got gold chevrons on them. This trick works very handy with Muslim factions too.

[Agent Miles]

I got the idea when I was ordered by the Pope to send my son to join a Crusade. By the time I got my son out of the war I was fighting and joined the Crusade, the very next turn it ended. I thought, if I can get something for nothing, then why not make the most of it.

[anweRU]

Works with Jihad as well. I like the "free" experience.

The money reward seems to be related to how many troops were lost in the assault though, based on a test I did playing as the Turks in the Kingdoms-Crusades campaign. The more troops lost, the larger the reward...

[Agent Miles]

It works with the Appachean Faction's 'Warpath' in the Americas expansion, too. I got experience and money in this instance even though the settlement, which had been under siege, just gave up without a fight.

[Old Geezer]

I thought this was S.O.P. Without doing this it is very hard to have many level 9 units with which to fight the Timurids.

[Cardinal Bard]

Can be very useful early to mid on when you are using alot of low morale troops gives them that extra boost to hold the line. The other thing is i like to see my dis mounted tropps with experience as it seems to me that i always have some gold chevroned cavalry and im not exactly a horse master

[Old Geezer]

The main reason that I like to use this exploit is because I really have a very huge compulsion to have golden-chevroned, level 9 units with which to stomp the Mongols, Timurids, and Space Invaders. (But why did not the designers make it possible to achieve level 10? If there are level 10 units in Empires, I might consider purchasing said product forthwith.

[the red knight]

The main reason that I like to use this exploit is because I really have a very huge compulsion to have golden-chevroned, level 9 units with which to stomp the Mongols, Timurids, and Space Invaders. (But why did not the designers make it possible to achieve level 10? If there are level 10 units in Empires, I might consider purchasing said product forthwith.

Because there are alreay 10 levels in M2TW. Level 0-9, that's 10 levels.

,trk

[Old Geezer]

Zero don't count unless there be a numeral afront of it.

[Vuk]

lol, this is a Vuk tactic. :P It can be used to get decent and really cheap troops as well. :P So I would not have to declare war yet, and would be able to keep my armies with free up keep I had them all join the crusade, and then I put them on ships out in the middles of the sea so they could not desert. Of course they still did. :P I guess they are pretty good swimmers. :P

[John_Longarrow]

Old Geezer,

Are you sure you don't want yours to go to 11?? Hey, if its good enough for Spinal Tap, its good enough for me!!!

[Old Geezer]

Things just need to be even. Nine chevrons is not even. Ten would be even. Eleven would be uneven. Now 12 would be OK. It is just too easy to get to 9 chevrons and why can't my superior-to- the-Timurid-and-Mongol troops get a chevron to show it! It could show up by having a piper to accompany my Scot's pikemen as they annihilate the Timurids at the gate and in the field.

[John_Longarrow]

But the 9 level's is three levels in each of three colors. If you want it even, then it should be 4 levels each in 4 colors. Maybe Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum?

[cambovenzi]

But the 9 level's is three levels in each of three colors. If you want it even, then it should be 4 levels each in 4 colors. Maybe Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum?

yeah since it goes in threes i not sure ive ever cared to notice if it was "even" or not.



as to the OP, sounds like a nice exploit.

[Old Geezer]

Y'all gotta watch more Monk!

BTW, I just got a crusade called on Timbuktu. We Portugese are going to be so flush with coin we're gonna bail out our friends, the English, and pay off their national debt. Exploitasarus is alive and well.

[The New Che Guevara]

Old Geezer,

Are you sure you don't want yours to go to 11?? Hey, if its good enough for Spinal Tap, its good enough for me!!!

On that basis,

Spinal Tap: Total War

allows for 11 chevrons
all range weapons are guitars (starting with poor rip off brands)
All melee weapons are drumsticks
Cavalry are moving amplifiers
and elephants are drumkits

[FactionHeir]

Please stay on topic.

[Old Geezer]

I think the computer plays this exploit. I have often seen factions send off huge armies which don't even seem to be trying to get there and would be so very late that they don't have much chance of getting there to take a city unless 5 other armies get defeated. I just had to destroy an impressively powerful French stack of "ex Crusaders" who never got close to getting out of France. The stack had many mercenary spears and crusader sergeants and 5 crusader knights and a mounted sarg and 3 mailed knights. The only weak units were 3 peasant crossbowmen. Having a 7 star general and each unit having a chevron resulted in me losing 600 men in a close battle in which my 61-year old king performed a few suicidal charges. However, I can not recall ever seeing an AI faction send more than one Crusader Army. Has anyone else?

[anweRU]

However, I can not recall ever seeing an AI faction send more than one Crusader Army. Has anyone else?

HRE sent two crusader armies to Marakesh in my current Venetian campaign. The second army started one or two turns after the other, with the Crown Prince. I suppose the HRE AI got the "send faction heir on crusade" mission from the Pope.

On a side note, the Danish crusader army never left Stettin, and did not lose its army to desertation either.