How are crusade "winners" determined?
- Thread starter MCMartel
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Any way you want, I guess.
It counts everything: murders, executions, deaths in prison, duels...If you can raid you can take a lot of prisoners and fuel your list that way:
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Raiding plus Bloodthirsty Gods is great for it. I had one game where anyone that couldn't be ransomed and where I didn't have some use for them become some piety and prestige for me. I had to lay off England for a bit because I realized they were running out of nobility. (I mean, I know it will spawn more, but when you open a prisoner's character sheet and realize all of their siblings and ancestors have a red skull from you sacrificing them...) That game almost made me wish I had Sunset Invasion just to watch the Aztecs show up and get upstaged.
That said, had no issues with the game slowing down from too many characters.
AI Aztecs don't raid. People taken as hostages in battles or sieges tend to have a life span of a day or two though
Aztecs: We sacrifice people we take in war.AI Aztecs don't raid. People taken as hostages in battles or sieges tend to have a life span of a day or two though
Those Vikings: Well... yeah. We also sacrifice the ones we take when we burn down your holdings in between the wars.
Aztecs:
Isn't that just.. war?Vikings: Nope, totally different. Also, send more people, please.
It's definitely worth breaking off a a couple of small siege forces (that will soon be joined by big allied stacks), but you absolutely need to send your main stack into some big battles if you want to end up as the top Crusade leader. Keep your small siege stacks in adjacent land so they can reinforce if a big enemy stack comes after them. Your small siege stacks, when reinforced by allies (as they almost always are), will also tie up some allied armies in low-score siege mode rather than out fighting and racking up warscore. I always send a substantial army and fight to win, meaning I avoid sending guys to certain death - I don't want the war to drag out for years (or for allies and siege armies to get wiped out, thus failing the Crusade).
Easiest way is with one of the raiding cultures. If you have enough bonuses to it you can pretty much guarantee capturing all the dependants after a siege. Once they're captured, execute them by whatever means you prefer. As a bonus, if you have access to a Warrior Lodge, you can supplement the total with duel kills. As a second bonus, Warrior Lodge types tend to become almost unbeatable in combat and so you'll add a few through normal war fights. But it's the executions and sacrifices that rack up the numbers.
Also Blots, or just being Aztec.
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Do you guys like to take titles for yourself, or choose a beneficiary? Like, on one hand, you don't get the kingdom, but on the other hand, I got ~10k gold from the warchest.
But why would you ransom those who pay only 10 ducats? It is better to sacrifice them for 10 prestige and 5 piety each.
Granted, I've not tested how occupying holdings works out in 15 year+ crusades. However, same as for sieges goes with battles too- Have your tiny army engage first and be battle leader, reap contribution for 10k attached soldiers fighting under "your banner", much faster and much more efficient than sieges.
Noteworthy is also that it pays off immensely to have a mercenary stack, or lacking these your levies, shipped in place already for the launch day of the crusade, and landing them asap. If you start with 100% contribution from a month or two of being alone on crusade, you can completely ignore all other factors, and only have to take care the crusade actually wins. Also highly recommended if you want to form a crusader state, as any army deployed to siege territory that's not the crusade goal will not contribute presence-contribution-score, and obviously once you do form the crusader state, the occupation there is gone too.
Noteworthy is also that it pays off immensely to have a mercenary stack, or lacking these your levies, shipped in place already for the launch day of the crusade, and landing them asap. If you start with 100% contribution from a month or two of being alone on crusade, you can completely ignore all other factors, and only have to take care the crusade actually wins. Also highly recommended if you want to form a crusader state, as any army deployed to siege territory that's not the crusade goal will not contribute presence-contribution-score, and obviously once you do form the crusader state, the occupation there is gone too.