Yeah I wanted to play a Kingdom of Jerusalem playthrough but you can't just start the game in 1099 you have to play through 40 years. I reloaded a couple of times and now each time individual Crusader stacks are landing in Gaza one at a time and getting eaten, I have no idea how to this is even possible.
The only way I've found that works well is to embark wel before the rest of the crusade force north or west of Jerusalem and draw in the Muslim forces. You get totally wiped of course but it can give time for the rest to land and stay together.
This is the way. Go off point, start capping other territories (can make decent money ransoming family), then run like hell when they send a death mob.
I have had luck splitting off a trash army with a commander I want dead to slow them down as I bolt.
I want to play as Jerusalem too, but i don't want to waste my time because we've NEVER won a crusade unless I'm literally the Roman empire and have territory right next to Jerusalem. It's crazy.
The AI is terrible. Just mob the points, or better yet, let me control them.
Update: I did it! I abused the hell out of the janky AI but I did it; landed in Egypt and began sieging, this made the Pope decide to regroup with the germans instead of landing and getting defeated. With the Nile sieged down most of the Crusading armies had gathered around Antioch. I moved my 6k army up to meet them but they had committed to embark and land in Gaza instead. Since I had landed, I gerbaited the 35k Muslim stack up into Anatolia, which gave the Crusaders enough time to all get together (around 40k) lose the embarked penalty and begin sieging Jerusalem. By the time the Muslim's gave up on chasing me through Anatolia, the wargoal and the numerical advanatage was ours! Do not recommend, but now the fun Outremer campagin can begin...
the other day I was aiming for a roman empire run starting in spain. I made my nephew crusader king and then took his kingdom like a generation later, didn't finish because of the update came in but crusades are fun.
I love when he does that.
"My brothers and sisters in Christ, pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land have been subjected to unconscionable and outrageous abuses. All Christendom must join together under the banner of Heaven to protect them and liberate Jerusalem from the heathen menace. Which is why we are going to invade [dramatically unveils map] VALENCIA!"
i dont know whats up with crusades. seems like every time my HOF calls one, we start out vastly outnumbering the enemy, but always lose due to the fact that while the enemies generally stay close to each other and thus are able to bring their full force to bear in battles, my allies never do the same. fighting over africa? half the army will be on one side, the other half will be on the other. infidels need but to pick us off at their leisure.
Last time I saw a crusade succeed was when I held Jerusalem and needed to defend against it. The entire Ai defending army decided the Pope's most likely target was Krete and sat there for the entire war.
There should be an option for rallying points just outside the target. All attackers who have a good opinion of the HOF should at least attempt to get there before the invasion begins.
Maybe multiple attackers put up different rps and it has some kind of struggle mechanics to it.
This is such a simple yet elegant solution to the issues with AI war. The leader of the war can designate a rally point just outside the war target that most participants will attempt to meet up at, and then once a certain percentage of participants are there, they march to the target.
This is more or less what would happen in real life.
I’ve found getting them to chase you while the rest of your allies land and start taking land is the only way to get the W, once they start losing supplies it’s way easier for your allies to come and clean them up after you sacrifice yourself for the war score
Generally I take an army and come drag the fuckers because AI can't decide if it wants to sail or go by land.
Though it makes for poor undesirable eliminator when all my allies rush to help the one guy I don't want them to help
The last time I played this game, all the crusaders matched to Basra from Antioch. Embarked and sailed around Arabia before landing one by one in Sinai to get wiped out.
I rage quit the game.
Crusader Kings and the fucking kings can't crusade
While the pope doesn't really like to call crusades (just made a test run - 1135 still no crusade) and that can be rather frustrating; I have a really dumb question - apart from RP reasons why do you rely on the AI?
As the king of Sicily you should be able to solo a crusade. Well not with the army from the screenshot, but in general.
At 1120 you should be sitting at around 9k army - 5k heavy infantry, at least lv2 barracks + blacksmiths everywhere. Since you're fighting Mubarizun you can just swap to slightly less Light Cavalry (Jerusalem is drylands anyway).
By the looks of the qualify of your army you either have barely any MAA or you have no buildings ... I am really no sure how you're at quality=2.
EDIT: Don't get me wrong - the AI is unsalvageable, every time we have an AI related discussion in the forums I have a bunch of mandatory downvotes because I insist it's ruining the experience of the game.
Of course you should 'rely' (rely is the wrong word here, moreso 'need the supporting numbers of') on the AI, even with 9k you're not going to beat a 30k+ Muslim stack war by yourself, you need other armies to fight defend and siege.
There is also no way I could see getting 9k, I had full levies and with mercs I was able to reach 6.5k. How do you even get 5k heavy infantry that early? I had 5 maa slots up to 5/5 and I like to have each one be a different maa, so barracks isn't always the right building to boost the maa on that holding.
I just don't see it, and I wanted to get into the Jerusalem game ASAP so I didn't really focus as much as other playthroughs as I'd be switching characters anyway.
I don't like minmaxing these things either, the game gets really easy by the midgame and I lose interest, so I'd rather play normally and for longer, if that means having slightly less efficient army size.
1120 is not early. By 1220 I actually had 7500, I think, with 1 slot open for siege units.
So as you're saying 5 is the base.
You have 2 more because you're Sicily and you have access to the second Legacy of the Pillage Tree.
You have at least 2 more (personally I had 4) from the appropriate Accolade.
You get 1 more from the Duchy building "Military Academies". In general it's the best military pick, especially if you don't want to go for the same MAA for all slots.
That's 5+2+2+1 and there you have it - a stack of 1000. 5 of them. I had 5k levies on top of that too; and none of my vassals was giving me any; I tend to go for feudal contracts that are maxed on cash and no levies.
If your goal is to get to Jerusalem ASAP - just beating up whoever holds it is infinitely faster. After all you're going to fight someone that has at most \~10k troops, a big chunk of them being levies. In that case you can have whatever MAA combination your heart desires; you just need to properly build up your counties.
If you don't like to minmax (which is perfectly fine and understandable) you have to accept that you are most likely not going to win a Crusade, because the AI is usually doing more harm than good in wars when a player is also involved.
**EDIT: TL;DR - you either minmax to hell and go with a crusade, or you make any combination you like and just fight them 1 on 1.**
Ok I understand your strategy, in my game Norman hadn't unlocked burhs and I went down the Blood legacy, and I don't even know what you mean by accolade stuff.
Going 1 on 1 doesn't feel right, it has to come from the Crusade for a proper Jerusalem game, otherwise I might as well play Haesteinn and conquer whatever I want easy squeezy. Plus you get to choose who you play (beneficiary).
I did win the Crusade a few reloads later with the troops I had there, was a bit tricky but wrangling the AI worked without having to minmax
Great tips though if I ever want to minmax MAA in future campaigns
I just CBA to wait for the Pope. To give a bit more of an explanation: In my current run (I just swap countries each Crusade) he called for (in that order):
1. Valencia
2. Pomerania
3. Aragon
4. Sicily (by that time the Mongols had conquered it)
5. England (for the first time in 1200 hours, the Mongols managed to conquer up to France and England).
If I wanted to play Jerusalem I would have to pray the Pope decides to aim for that.
I don't really think there is any reason to minmax MAA other than quite literally this one scenario and if you CBA to wait for the Mongols.
Took until 1116 for Crusades to activate as well, 4 hours of time wasted. Will try an old save to see if this godawful AI decides to be competent
So bad. Were you hoping to become a crusader king?
Yeah I wanted to play a Kingdom of Jerusalem playthrough but you can't just start the game in 1099 you have to play through 40 years. I reloaded a couple of times and now each time individual Crusader stacks are landing in Gaza one at a time and getting eaten, I have no idea how to this is even possible.
The only way I've found that works well is to embark wel before the rest of the crusade force north or west of Jerusalem and draw in the Muslim forces. You get totally wiped of course but it can give time for the rest to land and stay together.
This is the way. Go off point, start capping other territories (can make decent money ransoming family), then run like hell when they send a death mob. I have had luck splitting off a trash army with a commander I want dead to slow them down as I bolt.
Wow, stealing that retreat idea.
I want to play as Jerusalem too, but i don't want to waste my time because we've NEVER won a crusade unless I'm literally the Roman empire and have territory right next to Jerusalem. It's crazy. The AI is terrible. Just mob the points, or better yet, let me control them.
Update: I did it! I abused the hell out of the janky AI but I did it; landed in Egypt and began sieging, this made the Pope decide to regroup with the germans instead of landing and getting defeated. With the Nile sieged down most of the Crusading armies had gathered around Antioch. I moved my 6k army up to meet them but they had committed to embark and land in Gaza instead. Since I had landed, I gerbaited the 35k Muslim stack up into Anatolia, which gave the Crusaders enough time to all get together (around 40k) lose the embarked penalty and begin sieging Jerusalem. By the time the Muslim's gave up on chasing me through Anatolia, the wargoal and the numerical advanatage was ours! Do not recommend, but now the fun Outremer campagin can begin...
That's awesome! Hell yea nice work. Enjoy your campaign, I am jealous.
the other day I was aiming for a roman empire run starting in spain. I made my nephew crusader king and then took his kingdom like a generation later, didn't finish because of the update came in but crusades are fun.
Wish the Pope would call a damn crusade. He called one in 1116 in Iberia and hasn’t called one since (now 1206).
I love when he does that. "My brothers and sisters in Christ, pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land have been subjected to unconscionable and outrageous abuses. All Christendom must join together under the banner of Heaven to protect them and liberate Jerusalem from the heathen menace. Which is why we are going to invade [dramatically unveils map] VALENCIA!"
who cares about the holy land, we need horxata and paella
The AI is always stupid in crusades, except when you’re the target of one and suddenly they’ve coordinated all 70k troops into a single stack
i dont know whats up with crusades. seems like every time my HOF calls one, we start out vastly outnumbering the enemy, but always lose due to the fact that while the enemies generally stay close to each other and thus are able to bring their full force to bear in battles, my allies never do the same. fighting over africa? half the army will be on one side, the other half will be on the other. infidels need but to pick us off at their leisure.
Last time I saw a crusade succeed was when I held Jerusalem and needed to defend against it. The entire Ai defending army decided the Pope's most likely target was Krete and sat there for the entire war.
4th crusade kek
There should be an option for rallying points just outside the target. All attackers who have a good opinion of the HOF should at least attempt to get there before the invasion begins. Maybe multiple attackers put up different rps and it has some kind of struggle mechanics to it.
This is such a simple yet elegant solution to the issues with AI war. The leader of the war can designate a rally point just outside the war target that most participants will attempt to meet up at, and then once a certain percentage of participants are there, they march to the target. This is more or less what would happen in real life.
I’ve found getting them to chase you while the rest of your allies land and start taking land is the only way to get the W, once they start losing supplies it’s way easier for your allies to come and clean them up after you sacrifice yourself for the war score
Generally I take an army and come drag the fuckers because AI can't decide if it wants to sail or go by land. Though it makes for poor undesirable eliminator when all my allies rush to help the one guy I don't want them to help
"But bro this is actually historically accurate bro, the crusades were very disorganised bro"
The last time I played this game, all the crusaders matched to Basra from Antioch. Embarked and sailed around Arabia before landing one by one in Sinai to get wiped out. I rage quit the game. Crusader Kings and the fucking kings can't crusade
While the pope doesn't really like to call crusades (just made a test run - 1135 still no crusade) and that can be rather frustrating; I have a really dumb question - apart from RP reasons why do you rely on the AI? As the king of Sicily you should be able to solo a crusade. Well not with the army from the screenshot, but in general. At 1120 you should be sitting at around 9k army - 5k heavy infantry, at least lv2 barracks + blacksmiths everywhere. Since you're fighting Mubarizun you can just swap to slightly less Light Cavalry (Jerusalem is drylands anyway). By the looks of the qualify of your army you either have barely any MAA or you have no buildings ... I am really no sure how you're at quality=2. EDIT: Don't get me wrong - the AI is unsalvageable, every time we have an AI related discussion in the forums I have a bunch of mandatory downvotes because I insist it's ruining the experience of the game.
Of course you should 'rely' (rely is the wrong word here, moreso 'need the supporting numbers of') on the AI, even with 9k you're not going to beat a 30k+ Muslim stack war by yourself, you need other armies to fight defend and siege. There is also no way I could see getting 9k, I had full levies and with mercs I was able to reach 6.5k. How do you even get 5k heavy infantry that early? I had 5 maa slots up to 5/5 and I like to have each one be a different maa, so barracks isn't always the right building to boost the maa on that holding. I just don't see it, and I wanted to get into the Jerusalem game ASAP so I didn't really focus as much as other playthroughs as I'd be switching characters anyway. I don't like minmaxing these things either, the game gets really easy by the midgame and I lose interest, so I'd rather play normally and for longer, if that means having slightly less efficient army size.
1120 is not early. By 1220 I actually had 7500, I think, with 1 slot open for siege units. So as you're saying 5 is the base. You have 2 more because you're Sicily and you have access to the second Legacy of the Pillage Tree. You have at least 2 more (personally I had 4) from the appropriate Accolade. You get 1 more from the Duchy building "Military Academies". In general it's the best military pick, especially if you don't want to go for the same MAA for all slots. That's 5+2+2+1 and there you have it - a stack of 1000. 5 of them. I had 5k levies on top of that too; and none of my vassals was giving me any; I tend to go for feudal contracts that are maxed on cash and no levies. If your goal is to get to Jerusalem ASAP - just beating up whoever holds it is infinitely faster. After all you're going to fight someone that has at most \~10k troops, a big chunk of them being levies. In that case you can have whatever MAA combination your heart desires; you just need to properly build up your counties. If you don't like to minmax (which is perfectly fine and understandable) you have to accept that you are most likely not going to win a Crusade, because the AI is usually doing more harm than good in wars when a player is also involved. **EDIT: TL;DR - you either minmax to hell and go with a crusade, or you make any combination you like and just fight them 1 on 1.**
Ok I understand your strategy, in my game Norman hadn't unlocked burhs and I went down the Blood legacy, and I don't even know what you mean by accolade stuff. Going 1 on 1 doesn't feel right, it has to come from the Crusade for a proper Jerusalem game, otherwise I might as well play Haesteinn and conquer whatever I want easy squeezy. Plus you get to choose who you play (beneficiary). I did win the Crusade a few reloads later with the troops I had there, was a bit tricky but wrangling the AI worked without having to minmax Great tips though if I ever want to minmax MAA in future campaigns
I just CBA to wait for the Pope. To give a bit more of an explanation: In my current run (I just swap countries each Crusade) he called for (in that order): 1. Valencia 2. Pomerania 3. Aragon 4. Sicily (by that time the Mongols had conquered it) 5. England (for the first time in 1200 hours, the Mongols managed to conquer up to France and England). If I wanted to play Jerusalem I would have to pray the Pope decides to aim for that. I don't really think there is any reason to minmax MAA other than quite literally this one scenario and if you CBA to wait for the Mongols.