Crusader States Strategy?

**Larkin** · July 16, 2015, 11:46 AM

Originally Posted by Dekhatres

as crusaders it's not like you have any option, you either expand or die, this ofc dosent mean that you have to keep doing that, i for example only expand to be sure my faction's survival is secured, only after that i stop conquering and play the good guy, but with curent situation in wich even occupying decreases your rep it's meaningless to be chivalrous

Eh, kinda. When I went full aggressive, exterminate etc with CS I found myself at war with everyone around me, Byzzies included - I couldn't hold all fronts so had to retreat to Cyprus to recover.

When I went for a slower expansion style, I found it much less 'expand or die', as I was never in danger of dying.

**RexTrust** · July 31, 2015, 03:44 AM

Currently playing CS (again!) - yes, my rep is so low, iam happy if i can get trade rights. egypt is mine, syria also. but i have to agree - expand or die. if you dont expand, stack after stack from egypt will rock your kingdom. my tipp: get egypt first, then syria, and then you can go for the byzanthies oder rum.

in my campaign, i have to fortifiy my kingdom (from egypt to syria) and dare to go to war with the byzanthines, who defeated rum - because the mongols appeared and coming towards me with terrifying armies....

**bigdaddy1204** · July 31, 2015, 08:57 AM

How will you attack the Byzantines? Invade Cyprus? Or go into Anatolia?

**k/t** · July 31, 2015, 01:53 PM

Occupying cities decreasing your reputation is a bug from Vanilla M2.

http://t-a-w.blogspot.co.nz/2009/11/...edieval-2.html - reputation bug
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...4#post14627504 - same

**MWY** · July 31, 2015, 02:11 PM

Haha no in this mod it's actually not a bug.

**RexTrust** · August 03, 2015, 04:14 AM

Originally Posted by bigdaddy1204

How will you attack the Byzantines? Invade Cyprus? Or go into Anatolia?

I didnt want to go to war with the Byzantines, but the Mongols are slower than anticipated, and the byzzies attacked me first, so i invade them over anatolia. but really really slow, because they have build up a massive empire with lots of armies. and the byzantine armys are really really strong - i always loose a lot of good soldiers in battle.
(sadly i cant call for an crusade, because i used assasins extensively and i am the "bad guy" of the world, even the pope doesnt like me :-( )

another thing i noticed with the crusader states and SSHIP in general: maintaining an empire requires a lot of micromanagement and strategic decisions. Egypt is revolting every 3 to 10 turns, so a standing army in egypt is always needet. the zenguins are no more in my current campaign, the abbasides are in Irak and sending an army or two once in a while to northern Syria. so there is also a standing army needed.

you really have to educate your gouvernors with schools and academia - a "administrativly minded" gouvernor with 2-5 chivalry and good education can make a city bubble with tax-income!

**jurcek1987** · August 03, 2015, 04:33 AM

Even if you had perfect reputation you wouldn't be able to call a crusade on ERE. Orthodox factions cannot be crusaded.

**RexTrust** · August 03, 2015, 05:44 AM

Originally Posted by jurcek1987

Even if you had perfect reputation you wouldn't be able to call a crusade on ERE. Orthodox factions cannot be crusaded.

Really? At one point a crusade against the French was called - so other catholic factions and muslims can be crusaded, but orthodox factions not?

**MWY** · August 03, 2015, 05:52 AM

Yep. The crusade was not exactly against the french though, it was against those albigensians. I don't think crusades against catholic factions should be possible either, even when they're excommunicated.

**Lifthrasir** · August 03, 2015, 05:59 AM

I agree. Could it be possible to change the actual crusade against a Catholic faction as a mission from the Pope (with rewards if you success and penalties if you refuse it)?

**Swarbs** · August 03, 2015, 06:30 AM

Originally Posted by RexTrust

Really? At one point a crusade against the French was called - so other catholic factions and muslims can be crusaded, but orthodox factions not?

Catholic factions can be crusaded if they have been excommunicated. Usually happens to France and the HRE as they are the strongest Catholic factions and surrounded by other Catholics so get excommed when they expand.

IIRC you can call a crusade on a target the other side of the ERE (Riga is best, or even Qurtuba), then use the crusading armies to attack Byzzie settlements anyway. It won't work against Catholics unless they are excommed, but can be used against Orthodox, although it's a bit too exploitative for my taste.

**Swarbs** · August 03, 2015, 06:32 AM

Originally Posted by Lifthrasir

I agree. Could it be possible to change the actual crusade against a Catholic faction as a mission from the Pope (with rewards if you success and penalties if you refuse it)?

There's already a mission to cancel alliances with excommunicated factions. Perhaps a mission that requires you to kill their king in a battle, thus bringing them back into the fold, would be better than a crusade. That mission could be given to neighbouring AI civs as well, making them attack and focus on killing the king, if that can be coded.

**MWY** · August 03, 2015, 07:15 AM

Sadly I have no clue about missions and I don't know if this could be done. If anybody knows somebody, I would be happy to get something like this implemented aswell.