Defending the Holyland

[Gunnarr]

Currently defending against an Invasion two years after the crusade. The old sultan has over 1000 piety so it was bound to happen.
Its going quite well, with both holy orders and my own 3.5k levies from portucale I have so far been able take down any army they threw at me.
The Knights Templar are especially usefull, their commander is 28 martial holy warrior. He eats muslims for breakfast!

...

I was making a post three hours ago to say they would probably attack within 2-3 years (and I also thought I said that in a previous post but I had not!!!) My computer ran out of power and I had to go XD

And yes, I meant chancellor not spymaster, i just think "spy" when i see "sabatoge" (I played too much Medieval II!) and others are probably right, should be sent to increase relations

I also was writing for you to please update on the game, if you continued it because I would love to see how this all pans out!

I am curious, how large is your army? And how large are the Fatamids armies when they come to you?

and holy cow... that is one INCREDIBLE grand master!

 

[Jautenim]

Swear fealty to the HRE or the ERE (the most powerful, really) and push for independence 30+ years later when you'll have your levies.

In the meantime try to destabilize the Fatimid sultanate by all means.

 

[feastonthrones]

True but I have played and captured Jerusalem a number of times. The CB they use each time to declare war on my newly acquired Kingdom of Jerusalem is a holy war. I know I was extremely lucky to have leaders of foreign powers join, I am not belittling that impact on my game, but if it happened to me, it is possible to happen to other people too.

The best hope you can have is to hope they launch a holy war for their territory back.

 

[feastonthrones]

Well I am currently playing a spanish game, and when I have had my primary title under threat from Muslim holy wars, my neighbours and other rulers a little further afield such as Genoa or Tuscany offer support as well. I don't know if thats because Im pious, or have enough prestige, but its not an isolated incidence.

 

[Flamestalker]

just won the war, and am now rich with Delicious Fatimid money :laugh:

I hired the Holy Orders the second the war was declared. The first battle was the biggest and most decisive of the war. The old sultan's personal army (13K strong including the Mamluks) approached from Northern Syria and a second army (9K strong) from Egypt.

The Holy Knights, still short some men from the crusade marched north toward Tyrus while my own Army from Portucale landed in Beirut. Together 15k strong, my army intercepted the two armies just before they could join up. I attacked the main army in Safet, My army had 14 days to get an advantage before the army from Egypt would reinforce. The battle went well and both my flanks did some good damage before the reinforcement arrived. The Knights Hospitalier could not handle the new troops and were hit hard but the Templars bravely held their ground and defeated the enemy.

I had the numerical advantage for the rest of the war and easily defeated the smaller armies(3-6K each) that arrived later. I got lucky a few times aswell when I notices the Mercenaries, and later 2nd coming of the Mamluks/Hashashins, before they had build their morale. What really won me the war was the fact that Holy Orders regenerate in the field, other wise they would have eventually overwhelmed me.

The Fatimids were still weakened from the Crusade, I doubt I would have survived if they had been on full strength.

and holy cow... that is one INCREDIBLE grand master!

He became even better, he also gained the trait Cruel and increased his martial to 31!
Just check those modifiers!

He also liked the Holyland so much that he switched culture to Levantine and happily lives in his barony in Acre.

 

[CelticMutt]

If, and I do mean if, you have the money for mercs - at least enough to keep them going to your levies from home arrive - or you have good alliances, one way to ensure you keep the Holy Land is to destroy the Fatimids' ability to make war in the first place. Namely, holy war them before they holy war you, and take their heartland - Cairo and Diametta, and to a lesser extent Alexandria. Those three duchies seem to be where they get most of their money and manpower from. Take them away and their power is greatly reduced. Of course, as long as they have piety they can still get Hashashins, but at least their ability to field levies is reduced, and their money for even the cheap mamelukes will slowly dwindle.

 

[whosthebestcop]

Once you them beaten, I would immediately declare war on them. Catholic respecting a Muslim truce bah! Once they are on the ropes keep them there.

 

[Frozen_Predator]

My own strategy when I started as Brittany was:

-chancellor was improving relations in Caïro, a good chancellor should be able to give you a monthly +40 relations with them, reducing the chance of an attack.
-use holy orders whenever possible.
-hope for Fatimid collapse

during my game the Fatimids attacked once during a regency and retook 1 duchy. when the Fatimids began to collapse I took back said Duchy and began attacking rebellious duke in order to grab the Sinaï and Damietta.

Damietta and Cairo are important anti-fatimid duchies to hold, because those two are manpower factories and taking one of them will seriously hurt the Fatimids

 

[Gunnarr]

Thank you for the updates! that grandmaster... aiaiai!

76% increase when fighting Muslims!!!!! That is incredible!

 

[mr_human_555]

If, and I do mean if, you have the money for mercs - at least enough to keep them going to your levies from home arrive - or you have good alliances, one way to ensure you keep the Holy Land is to destroy the Fatimids' ability to make war in the first place. Namely, holy war them before they holy war you, and take their heartland - Cairo and Diametta, and to a lesser extent Alexandria. Those three duchies seem to be where they get most of their money and manpower from. Take them away and their power is greatly reduced. Of course, as long as they have piety they can still get Hashashins, but at least their ability to field levies is reduced, and their money for even the cheap mamelukes will slowly dwindle.

And one more easier target that are game-changing is surprisingly Sinai (yes, that piss-poor duchy), for the reason that if the Fatimids have revolts ongoing on the Asian side of their little empire, the AI have to walk all their doomstack thruogh Sinai and thus incur heavy attrition damage. You can also take advantage of this by holy warring the Asian side of Fatimids first after capturing Sinai

 

[Isaios]

And one more easier target that are game-changing is surprisingly Sinai (yes, that piss-poor duchy), for the reason that if the Fatimids have revolts ongoing on the Asian side of their little empire, the AI have to walk all their doomstack thruogh Sinai and thus incur heavy attrition damage. You can also take advantage of this by holy warring the Asian side of Fatimids first after capturing Sinai

Sinai is also a very nice place to have battles. As long as YOU own the place that is. It rather neatly shift the balance of quite a few engagements.

 

[noobermenschen]

The Knights Templar are especially usefull, their commander is 28 martial holy warrior. He eats muslims for breakfast!

Ewww yuk. Maybe Phillip the Fair had a case against the Templars after all.

One player suggested destroying the Kingdom Title and giving it all to the Pope, when he does that his holiness has a pretty good track record holding on against the Infidels. You could also keep one duchy to get that tech boost for your other holdings.

As a small side rant, I am still trying to win a Crusade as King of England - First one was fun for the Caliph as his big doomstack bent us over and had teh seks with all of us. Second one we were at 85% warscore and I was at 51% contribution when my doomstack met a bigger one. Warscore down to 21% by the time my levies had replenished and I went back and stomped everything - them the Caliph was overthrown by a decadence invasion and the Crusade ended inconclusively.

Bugger. Byzzies are gone and their land is split between the Egyptians and Persians. Gonna be a long three centuries.