How to Counter Holy Orders

[Calbrenar]

I started a game in multi as the Duke of Marrakesh and I've been steamrolling. i declared war on Navarra and France joined in.
No problem right?

Wrong. Apparently France brought one of the grandmasters and navarra hired the other. Despite having crazing better leaders the heavy cavalry just slaughters me. I can't counter it even with more numbers and them having cross water penalties etc.

I hired every single merc available and had all my numerous levees and I just can't stop the heavy cavalry. Max retinues as well

 

[Casiru]

Holy orders usually require some abuse of tactics such as the Arab desert ambush tactic. The holy order owned by Navarra should be considerably weaker since they don't have access to the German/Frank's tactic. You should also make sure you can raise over 10k levies and appropriate retinues, if your holdings are not upgraded then it doesn't matter how much land you own.

Unfortunately Arab units are kinda sub par so your going to need a lot, you can also weaken them considerably by losing several battles until they have very few units left. Holy orders are like the last boss for your region and therefore require the most effort your likely to put in to any war your fighting.

 

[Calbrenar]

What's the desert ambush? I'm at a standstill now because even with 2x their numbers i can't even take little places like galicia or navarra cuz they all have piety for holy orders which are then free and never lose battles even at 2:1 odds and terrain/attack penalties

[edit]
i managed to overcome by getting a standing army of 15k (with retinue + mercs) and just sitting outside their territory before declare and jumping on their holy orders immediately 2:1 with them having no morale.