For sale: Holy Battering Rams - 250 piety!

[Alerias]

A funny bug I wanted to share.

You know how holy orders aren't allowed to be used in combat against fellow Catholics? Well that's a great feature and all, on paper I find this a very creative mechanic.

Thing is, they still can and WILL 'assault' catholic forts in any war. Given the bulk of my casualties tend to come from assaults, when I realized this I figure this one needs to be squashed. As things stand, you can raise 15K worth of mobile Battering Rams for 250 piety to assault all enemy fortifications while your levies keep the troops at bay :blink:

Of course I couldn't get myself to seriously abuse this, but given my tendency to merge alot of stuff into stacks, I might have done so accidentally at a point or two before I noticed.

 

[Nate90909]

Correct me if I'm wrong but don't they charge you 30-40 gold upkeep if you are not at war with heathens? I swear I noticed that during the crusade they were charging me 0 gold upkeep, but afterwords all my money started to disappear and they were the cause.

 

[Diagille]

Pretty sure that's accurate.

 

[Dorevai]

If you're defending against heathens they cost nothing. So to properly abuse this you need to be weak enough to be attacked by a neighboring muslim but strong enough to brush them off. Castille vs. Mauretania has potential. So does Sicily vs. Tunis. You get to freely keep them on the payroll so long as the muslims are attacking. I'm curious if you can occupy the muslim cities and then just sit with a positive score against them while they maintain an offensive war against you and you abuse the holy order to assault christians.

 

[Secret Master]

Personally, I would hate to piss away the holy orders on fortress assaults. The concentration of heavy cavalry and heavy infantry make them so great at killing enemy armies.

But if you have the piety to burn, and the can afford the upkeep until you burn them out in assaults, then I guess that's fine.

 

[Alerias]

Honestly I didnt even know about the upkeep, I was 90+ years into the game when I first tried them without being at war against Muslims, so I was already rich enough to be able to soak up a 30g upkeep if need be. A well upgraded, large demesne in all the best cities of Italy and a century of plundering Byzantine tech does wonders.

Actually I discovered this accidentally; during my invasion of Byzantium I wanted to see if Orthodox would be treated as an OK enemy for them or not. Turns out that I still dont know, because that test was inconclusive because there was a Catholic on the throne of Byzantium, but I guess it wouldnt work anyway. Anyhow, first thing I tried was to assault a fort and it worked. Then I moved them towards enemy troops and they didnt fight, so I understood there was an issue with fortresses.

 

[Viper1989]

Hmmm.... Holy Battering Rams for 250 piety?

How much for Holy Hand Grenades?

 

[Alerias]

Hmmm.... Holy Battering Rams for 250 piety?

How much for Holy Hand Grenades?

500.

Kudos on catching the vague reference.

 

[Viper1989]

500.

Kudos on catching the vague reference.

That was intentional? I thought it was a happy accident.

 

[Malkara]

There's certainly historical precedent for crusaders taking christian castles. Poor, poor Constantinople.

 

[Secret Master]

There's certainly historical precedent for crusaders taking christian castles. Poor, poor Constantinople.

I think they can attack Orthodox and Orthodox heretics, just not Roman Catholics. But I haven't tried in awhile, so I could be wrong.

I also think they can attack Roman Catholic heretics.