On the receiving end of a crusade, tips?

[N Katsyev]

Playing as the Sultan of Africa I proudly snatched Sicily with an invasion CB however now inevitably the Pope has come to take it back.

Militarily there's just no way I can deal with their doomstack loaded with two (perhaps three) holy orders, the best I'm able to do is wipe out the smaller stacks with my human maneuverability (and fleets) and snatch back holdings recently conquered with lightning strikes. Sadly though this isn't a winning combination unless there's some help from outside eventually. Is there any I can depend on? I'm allied with Persia but they're having a civil war, are there no Holy Order equivalents for me to fall back on? I know as a Christian I've fought the Hashashin before but I've no idea how this works on the other side...

 

[Varvs]

All you can hope for is to get some papal holdings occupied to win with warscore or at last keep you from loosing and drag the war over decades. If all fails get your heir to become catholic bite the dust.

 

[N Katsyev]

If all fails get your heir to become catholic bite the dust.

Ouch.

I survived the uber Fatmid invasion and restored my Sultanate without accepting Shia, the Zirid family will fight to extinction as proud Sunnis.

 

[Rakonas]

Perhaps the easiest and most gamey way would be to take Rome quickly and force a peace. Alternatively, have alliances with the caliphates, though it sounds like you don't have a chance to get the fatimids to help you.

 

[N Katsyev]

Perhaps the easiest and most gamey way would be to take Rome quickly and force a peace. Alternatively, have alliances with the caliphates, though it sounds like you don't have a chance to get the fatimids to help you.

Yep so I'm slowly taking Rome, we'll see how it goes. The Fatmids long ago imploded which is when I got my independence back and England took Egypt in a Crusade. The Almoravids died under Fatmid assault early on* and since the Christians overwhelmed Iberia and Morocco. It's an ugly game to be a Muslim.


* The Fatmids in the beginning are ridiculous, they conquered Greece, all of North Africa, most of Arabia, Baghdad and Ethiopia all before their first ruler kicked the bucket.

 

[Kagernaut]

Convert to Scientology. With the support of Tom Cruise and his mercenary band of crazy actors, none can stand before you.

Then....make everyone buy your scientology books and pay fees to the church. Boom, money.

 

[N Katsyev]

Convert to Scientology. With the support of Tom Cruise and his mercenary band of crazy actors, none can stand before you.

Then....make everyone buy your scientology books and pay fees to the church. Boom, money.

Que genial! Nice.

 

[Lamprey]

As Africa, you should be able to field two 10k doomstacks, right? Send them to Rome, assault so it's done quickly. Make sure you take all of the Pope's holdings. You can usually force him to call it off before the other Catholics have time to swarm you.

If you're already fighting, focus on taking out the holy orders; if you wipe them out, it takes a while for them to come back.

 

[Damorte]

immediately when the crusade is called, raise all your levys and occupy the papacy. Unless youve lost lands to the crusaders your warscore should go to 100 pretty much instantly.
This strategy also works against Jihads, go to the caliphs privately owned provinces and capture them. Hes going to instantly surrender.

 

[N Katsyev]

Yeah, unfortunately we'd already suffered some losses against the smaller stacks so couldn't really manage a full 20k. Eventually I surrendered even though I had occupied the Pope's holdings, they had already occupied Sicily. I'm stronger now having finished uniting Africa and fought back some of the Christians in Alger (and I'm Caliph now!) so the second Zirid invasion of Sicily is imminent. Thanks for the ideas guys.

 

[Comradebot]

Aye, sorry to hear you lost, but such things happen. I recently had to re-swear fealty to the HRE, as I was a vassal of Provence which broke free from Imperial rule. Hammadids took Aquitaine in an invasion, then Andalusia holy war'ed for Provence... I was one of the two counties outside of it, so I was left independent and surrounded by Muslims. Swore fealty, and used a holy order to save the lost land from heathen rule.


But the lesson it, sometimes it can be better to take a loss and live to fight another day. Next time, however, I'd advise throwing all your troops into the ships and dropping them on the heads of the Crusaders as soon as they land. Slightly gamey, but I doubt that 20k Crusaders at a time will be coming out of most their fleets.

 

[Olaus Petrus]

There's not much you can do if they decide to crusade you. My own County of Palermo/Duchy of Sicily/Kingdom of Sicily game ended to crusade where almost everyone in France, Germany and Italy attacked against my realm. Taking Rome was impossibility, because I was fighting against last Hautevilles and my troops were already in battle when crusade started. Before I reached Rome there was five times bigger crusader army in Palermo. And naturally my North African allies didn't help me. In another Sicily game pope decided to crusade in Egypt instead and that gave me enough time to conquer the Italy (including Rome).

 

[Mel_E]

Too bad you are not using the Fatimids. Otherwise you might just defeat the army of HRE, ERE, and the three holy orders combined. From there you can continue to bully your good old neighbor Persia or ERE. So much win.

Sorry. I am not really helping, am I?

 

[N Katsyev]

Aye, sorry to hear you lost, but such things happen. I recently had to re-swear fealty to the HRE, as I was a vassal of Provence which broke free from Imperial rule. Hammadids took Aquitaine in an invasion, then Andalusia holy war'ed for Provence... I was one of the two counties outside of it, so I was left independent and surrounded by Muslims. Swore fealty, and used a holy order to save the lost land from heathen rule.


But the lesson it, sometimes it can be better to take a loss and live to fight another day. Next time, however, I'd advise throwing all your troops into the ships and dropping them on the heads of the Crusaders as soon as they land. Slightly gamey, but I doubt that 20k Crusaders at a time will be coming out of most their fleets.

Yep I find that to be correct, I'm quite okay with suffering a set-back and finding a way back.