Crusader armies

[Marfioth]

If one of your marshalls goes on a crusade against another country, what happens after the crusade is over? does the marshall and his army come back to your court?

Cheers

[Mortimer]

it has been awhile since I had a crusade and called it back but if I remember right. you can win and the marshal will take the lead in the new provence, or he will die. I do not think you would get his units back though, if you get any back they are usally beat up pretty bad, maybe next time you get a pope you could save it and send your marshal on a crusade then call him back :p

[Elvain]

There is no chance to get crusader units for a normal marshal.
When you call your marshal back, he will go home only himself with no company (what is sometimes very dangerous when he's crossing half od Europe on a horseback)

Crusades can lead only to 2 final results (unless you sign a peace and your marshal goes home):
1) loss
2) victory - the marshal is a new king of province which he has conquered with crusader armies. This kingdom is your vasal state and (ahistoricaly) and shares the same religion as the province population (though it should be catholic :bash:)
This final victory can be postponed as you can pillage the town several times and get huge sum of gold to your kingdom, but then the crusader army is weaker and weaker so chance to lose increases.

[cathar knight]

And, as for the units the marshal had before going on crusade, they're kept for some time in a "mercenary camp" in the province where he was. You can then bring another marshal (or the one that went on is armed pilgrimage... if it's fast) and pick up that units; they're not fully considered as mercenaries, because you won't pay for them.

[Elvain]

True.

btw, if you find "your kingdom's" mercenaries anywhere on the map they are for free for you

[Doux]

True.

btw, if you find "your kingdom's" mercenaries anywhere on the map they are for free for you
I still learn every time I visit these boards, nice :smile:

[William Blake]

MMM this is actually just part of the truth.

Crusade goes as following:

- You marshal is assigned to lead the crusade
- All his current army is left at the merc camp and yes you can get them for free
- This crusade marshal gets crusader army and goes to some muslim province
- Interesting feature, if the crusader army is close enough to any given battle you can call him for reinforcement, and computer can do the same (Example: you attack german marshal, apparently another german marshal is a crusader and passing nearby, the computer will call that crusader army to reinforce and you will fight normal german army and crusader army no matter who catholic you are.)
- Then crusader reaches the target province he might pluder a bit but generaly he will attack a city.
- If he wins (you can personaly lead that assault) you will have 2 options: make this province a vassal country with crusader marshal as a king or pluder the province.
- If you create a new kingdom the marshal is lost for you, dont choose that
- If you plunder the province you will recieve some gold AND enemy will keep the province
- Now a bit of a stupid part, if you do plunder, the crusader marshal will stand near the city for some time and attack it again.
- Again if you win - 2 options.
- If you plunder again - the thing goes into loop.


Now, how to save your marshal from a crusade:

- Once the marshal is assigned, take another your marshal and pick up the army at the merc camp for free
- Follow the crusader army
- Once crusader attacks a city, reinforce with your second army, kill all the enemy
- Choose option "plunder"
- Now, while crusader will take a short break, attack the city again with second army. DO NOT reinforce with crusader marshal. You will take the city for you own kingdom.
- Now crusader marshal can't attack this city, but he will choose another muslim province and head there
- Rapidly take control over the first city, fill all you squads and follow the crusader
- Make same moves as with first city.
- After several cities the crusade is OVER (i bet you didnt know that) and your crusader marshal looses the crusader army, but returns back under your full control

Just make sure your second army is strong and close to crusader at all times. Crusader can't heal the army untill the crusade is over and crusader feudal knights die very fast to enemy city guards. Also enemy can have quite a bit of force to fight you. Rush the take over the cities you got and heal you second army as much as possible or buy more units and do it fast becase crusader will move out fast.

[Lord_Nick]

Wow, that's a sweet tactic. A few questions for you:

-Does the original marshal's army lose all its experience points when it's camped? I'm assuming it does.

-Does the Crusader marshal ever gain experience points when on crusade, and do his previous skills help him at all when fighting? I'm thinking no to both.

-What happens if your Crusader marshal and 2nd marshal are both part of the Royal Family? Do they both get experience points when either one fights, or is the Crusader marshal excluded.

-Is there any way to select a Crusader army to see the number of units. When I battle against them, I can't seem to click on them.

-How are Crusader marshal's selected? They always seem to be selected from smaller Catholic nations instead of the large ones, and they always seem to pick my most experienced Marshal.

[William Blake]

- I think the units lose the stars (exp) then they become merc camp. But I dont remember.

- Previous experience (skills ) of the crusader marshal are active during crusade. Best skill crusader can have is a first aid up to lever 3, because you can't heal the units. With level 3 first aid you can survive a lot of battles, just lead them personaly and dont let any unit die - they will heal a lot after the battle.

- I think crusader gains exp during crusade as usual, but I can't neither deny no confirm that. I would assume exp gains as usual for all marshals and royal family.

- Crusader is selected as a strongest marshal of all catholic kingdoms I guess. Maybe current army is not counted, just marshal level. I dont recall my king or princes leading crusades though. But on the other hand my king is never a marshal anyway:)

PS
Loaded my old savegame to check and see how the crusade will go to refresh my memory, but apparently i was already excommunicated:) And other saves are not for catholic kingdoms at all.:lol:

[Doux]

Wow, that's a sweet tactic. A few questions for you:

1Does the original marshal's army lose all its experience points when it's camped? I'm assuming it does.

2Does the Crusader marshal ever gain experience points when on crusade, and do his previous skills help him at all when fighting? I'm thinking no to both.

3What happens if your Crusader marshal and 2nd marshal are both part of the Royal Family? Do they both get experience points when either one fights, or is the Crusader marshal excluded.

4Is there any way to select a Crusader army to see the number of units. When I battle against them, I can't seem to click on them.

5How are Crusader marshal's selected? They always seem to be selected from smaller Catholic nations instead of the large ones, and they always seem to pick my most experienced Marshal.
1. The original units lose their experience.
3. Good questions...
4. No you cannot select the crusaders, sadly. But you can check on the worldview which units are there.

[qorda]

William Blake
I think no body could have given a better and more logical explanation of crusader tactics than you. What a gem of a reply!:hello:

[Mircoslavux]

I still learn every time I visit these boards, nice :smile:


thats interesting...new for me too.:lol: :lol: :lol:

[stefke]

well cruseader kingdoms should adopt the religion of the marshals country,so i organise a crusade on jerusalem,and jerusalem becomes a muslim kingdom,even has a muslim flag!thats stupid!

[Sir Sean]

i know it get me so wound up, on my own personal mod 1/2 of them go wrong, but all ive changed is unit specs and the way ai uses marshals, i wish i could show you, but i cant seem to do it again and i had to re instal the game :bash: :bash:

[Lord_Nick]

Not sure if anyone has done this before, but I recently had 2 Crusader Armies at the same time. It's an awesome way to conquer infidels. Here's how to do it.


Get one of your Clerics to be Pope.
Make your relationship with the Papacy as strong as possible.
Have 2 skilled, fully equipped Marshals.
Hire one new Marshal, but don't give him any soldiers.
Send the "new" Marshal on Crusade against an infidel kingdom.
Hire another Marshal, and send him on Crusade as well.
Watch your 2 Crusader Armies work in tandem to conquer a province. Follow them with your 2 regular Marshals.
Once the Crusader conquer the province, and the option to plunder or pillage is presented, select plunder.
When the Crusader Armies move away from the Castle, send in your 2 "regular" Marshals and conquer the province.
The Crusaders will then go to the next province ... repeat steps until the infidel is eliminated.
The Crusaders will revert to regular Marshals at the end of the Crusade. You can use them or exile them.

[Tempest]

Well, that is pretty much the same thing William Blake explained in March, just that you are doing it with two crusades at a time. Of course, your way has the benefit of being able to choose the target kingdom.
Actually I don't like crusades much, I always abort them... especially because I'm usually called to a crusade when I really need my marshal elsewhere.

The tactics Blake and Nick have described have the advantage that you get crusader units for free to support your own troops. But hiring strong units isn't any problem after some time into the game anyway. And if you don't control the current pope, you can't even choose the country to attack. Mostly it is one on the far side of the world that you need ages to get to, and some more ages to get back. Normally it doesn't pay out at all.

[Lord_Nick]

I agree that I would have never figured this out if William Blake hadn't posted his method, but the benefits of my method are:


You pick your target. It's not selected for you.
You hire a couple unskilled Marshals to do your dirty work, and retain control over your skilled Marshals and squads.
It's a much faster way to conquer a province, and with less damage to it. With Blake's method, you have to wait for the Crusading armies to finish pillaging the province and move on to the next one. With two Marshals under your control, you can conquer the province right after the Crusader move away. If you only attack with one Marshal, a Crusader army will reinforce your siege, but you will be asked if you want to vassalize or pillage the province instead of conquering it.
This is a great reason for eliminating all Catholic nations, but keep or reinstitute the Papacy. This way you always control the Pope and always have access to Crusader armies.

[crusaderknight]

Is there any way to mod it so that when a cusader state is made, it is Catholic and not province religion?

[Elvain]

Oh, welcome here, crosaderknight :hello:

unfortunately not.
It is one of the most frequent requests for the second patch

We all know it is against any logic, but the developers probably didn't realize it before the game was released :sad:

[crusaderknight]

Oh, welcome here, crosaderknight :hello:Thanks. Glad to be here.:go:

unfortunately not.
It is one of the most frequent requests for the second patch

We all know it is against any logic, but the developers probably didn't realize it before the game was released :sad:Well then I too will request it for the second patch. Where do I make the official request?

I really want to see this changed. If you'll remember my very brief AAR about my tutorial that I put in the P'dox forums, I made Prussia a vassal after my marshal took it in a Crusade. Well, dag nabbit, Prussia was pagan!:bash: That really frustrated me.:angry: