...and it was pretty tedious, coz basically u have to sit and wait for the warscore to go up, while the crusaders really had nothing to throw at u in the later stages. I play as the Oghuz Turks, and I own Khwarizm, Khiva, Cumania, Alania, Georgia, most of de jure BYZ, and Lantium. Took Lantium from the pope after I got all of Sicily, as I knew he was gonna crusade me anyway. I saw in earlier game whenever the Fatimids occupied Sicily, the pope called crusades on them. So, all 4 crusades so far (including the last one against me) were for Sicily. Reckoned as much, I just took Rome from the pope, and prepared for the impending crusade.
Yeah, that guy called a crusade for Sicily as soon as he could. I took it very seriously and called up every soilders in my realm, sent them off to Sicily and waited. Honestly speaking, it was a really boring and exhausting experience, and I had a feeling I was cheated by the AI. If I was really there, in that world, I might hear the following conversation:
"To arms, the crusaders are coming!"
"But... but captain! There are only 6 guys! Are u sure they are taking this crusading business as seriously as our sultan thought they do?"
"............"
Yeah, that was what happened most of the time, especially in the later stages of the crusade, the AI just threw like 100/200 "stacks" at me. Once I saw 2 guys tried to siege Messina, and they were carried to Sicily with 100 boats :closedeyes:
The best challenge came from the 2 holy orders, the templars and the Teutonic Order (or was it the other one? ain't sure as all 3 of them joined the crusade, but I think only 2 of them showed up). Their heavy cav was so strong they would actually take on 2.5 to 3 times of their numbers, if u dun adjust the columns. I have to put most men in the middle column of a 23,000 stack, to beat a some 6800 templars army (yeah, after they crushed my 1st stack, I learnt to adjust my columns before throwing in the 2nd stack). The king of france joined the crusade too, and they did sent 15,000 men initially, but they were easy meat for my 15,000 pure cultural horse archer retinue. Otherwise there weren't anything exciting. The war just proceed to what I describe above, AI throwing small stacks at me, and what I had to do is board a stack and throw it at the province concerned. Some dun even need attention as they are so small (seriously, 2 men seiging Messina?) they had no chance at all.
The whole thing dragged on for 3/4 years though. Last time I checked I only get 15 warscore from battle, the other 50 came from the enemy not been able to take any land (or win a battle?) the whole time. I took Venice early on but it contributed nothing to my warscore. Then I found that the pope actually owned some land outside of Italy, 2 bishoprics in Iberia and 1 in west Poland. I really grew impatient and thought it didn't hurt to try, and sent an army to Iberia to take those bishoprics. Once I took the 1st bishopric, the warscore went up from 65 to 100, thus this crusading business ended.
So, my thoughts of the crusade as a defender are, they are way too unorganized. Everyone participate just throw whatever men they have to the target area, and easily get crushed. Something like a temporary "faction" between the crusaders when a crusade is called should be a good addition I think. They would represent the inner struggles between the crusaders, and their troops might at least be a bit organized. Well, it's just a though.
Yeah, that guy called a crusade for Sicily as soon as he could. I took it very seriously and called up every soilders in my realm, sent them off to Sicily and waited. Honestly speaking, it was a really boring and exhausting experience, and I had a feeling I was cheated by the AI. If I was really there, in that world, I might hear the following conversation:
"To arms, the crusaders are coming!"
"But... but captain! There are only 6 guys! Are u sure they are taking this crusading business as seriously as our sultan thought they do?"
"............"
Yeah, that was what happened most of the time, especially in the later stages of the crusade, the AI just threw like 100/200 "stacks" at me. Once I saw 2 guys tried to siege Messina, and they were carried to Sicily with 100 boats :closedeyes:
The best challenge came from the 2 holy orders, the templars and the Teutonic Order (or was it the other one? ain't sure as all 3 of them joined the crusade, but I think only 2 of them showed up). Their heavy cav was so strong they would actually take on 2.5 to 3 times of their numbers, if u dun adjust the columns. I have to put most men in the middle column of a 23,000 stack, to beat a some 6800 templars army (yeah, after they crushed my 1st stack, I learnt to adjust my columns before throwing in the 2nd stack). The king of france joined the crusade too, and they did sent 15,000 men initially, but they were easy meat for my 15,000 pure cultural horse archer retinue. Otherwise there weren't anything exciting. The war just proceed to what I describe above, AI throwing small stacks at me, and what I had to do is board a stack and throw it at the province concerned. Some dun even need attention as they are so small (seriously, 2 men seiging Messina?) they had no chance at all.
The whole thing dragged on for 3/4 years though. Last time I checked I only get 15 warscore from battle, the other 50 came from the enemy not been able to take any land (or win a battle?) the whole time. I took Venice early on but it contributed nothing to my warscore. Then I found that the pope actually owned some land outside of Italy, 2 bishoprics in Iberia and 1 in west Poland. I really grew impatient and thought it didn't hurt to try, and sent an army to Iberia to take those bishoprics. Once I took the 1st bishopric, the warscore went up from 65 to 100, thus this crusading business ended.
So, my thoughts of the crusade as a defender are, they are way too unorganized. Everyone participate just throw whatever men they have to the target area, and easily get crushed. Something like a temporary "faction" between the crusaders when a crusade is called should be a good addition I think. They would represent the inner struggles between the crusaders, and their troops might at least be a bit organized. Well, it's just a though.
