This is great advice for anybody that's having problems with this. If heading for the east, Jerusalem always has a good selection of crusading mercs available. On arrival / getting near to your destination, hire up some better units. Any deserters are cheap and will only speed up your army. My advice to the OP though, is to simply start your crusade with the cheapest units you can get and only hire pilgrims if you need some additional beef to pass through hostile infidel territories. Only if theyre left to occupy a captured city - and thusly the troops are removed from a crusade. Originally posted by Kusarigama:Doesnt making Forts prevent this as well? From my understanding if they are in a city or fort they can not desert. As a general rule if you make enough progress south towards the heel of Italy per turn you shouldn't lose any troops. I've done this many times and after a bit of practice you will not lose a single soldier to desertion. Once your force reaches the southern greece/crete area it should be a relatively straight forward task of island/coast hopping from Crete towards your target city.
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Re-embark them at the start of the next turn, if their ships have been sunk rehire new mercenary galleys. Close to the end of their fleets movement It's a good idea to land them on the areas: Southern Greece coast, Crete, Rhodes, Asia Minor (south coast), Cyprus. Once you set sail from Italy try and land your crusader fleet armies at the end of their turns as the mercenary galleys are extremely vulnerable to sinking (Pirates/Hostiles).
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Take 2-3 generals on crusade to do this.įrom the heel of Italy you should hire merc galleys and sail to the southern Greece/Crete area. Using this route means you can recruit a multi-stack crusader army, it's a really rich crusader recruitment area, lots of Crusader Knights/Spearmen and Religious Fanatics. Use spies to plot as direct a route as possible before you move your crusader army. If your spies discover that the Alpine passes are blocked it may be better to head for the French Mediterrean coast recruit Merc Galleys and sail to Italy. To overcome this take spies with your force to scout the route ahead so you can bypass these obstacles and avoid any unexpected nasty surprises. This will most likely result in desertions. One of the biggest problems you will face is unexpectedly bumping into another factions unit/army blocking a mountain pass or bridge. Recruit crusader units at the start of your armies turn movement phase, before you move never at the end (units recruited at the end of an armies movement will always desert as they have made zero progress towards their target}. Land your force in northern France marching south through Europe towards the heel of Italy
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Imagine drawing a line from London to the heel of Italy and stick as close as you can to this line. To avoid desertions the route from England should follow as direct a line as possible from London to the heel of Italy.