Is an early crusade against pagans always doomed to fail?

[forfor]

Fair enough. It's been a long time since I've played a tribal XD

 

[DPS]

Actually, I think that prestige retinues are a straight upgrade for all tribals. (With the possible exception of independent counts that have: no nearby co-religionists, minimal prestige, and no retinues inherited from previous rulers.)

Reasoning:

• The decisions are only available for the primary defender;
• Retinues are available for all tribals;
• Tribals involved in a defensive war tend to call in a lot of secondary tribal participants (eg. vassals, allies, nearby co-religionists)

What I was talking about was early in the game, when you often have a retinue cap of something like 55--you simply can't raise any retinues at all at that point.