1. Make sure you have lots of money
2. Make sure you give lots of tribute to the Papal States

Re: crusades, I seem to remember back in MTW that when a crusade would go through my lands I would lose some units to it as they would join it. But in M2TW, I've successfully managed to get the Pope to call a crusade, and have built my army, and it's winding its way towards the target (Venice, which has been excommunicated). But nobody's joining my crusade! I do notice that other countries have "joined" the crusade but have put together armies/stacks of their own and are making their way to the target. Is this how the crusade is handled now? Shame - I wouldn't have minded commanding a motley bunch of troops...

Yea... that would have been cool. Sadly the only troop changes in this version crusades is that you lose troops if they don't think you're making enough progress towards the target.

I think the problem with armies standing in one place is definitely a gameplay bug or a couple bugs... not an AI issue.

It seems that if I own a besieged city and I attack the besiegers... the game doesn't force me out of the gates. I'm free to stand on the walls and let my archers, mortars, and city defenses pick at the attackers. Without a time limit on the engagement you can do that until the attackers are forced to withdraw (that's probably why they put the time limit option in there in the first place).

I don't know about the AI support army issues during city attacks... they just aren't reliable, sometimes they just stand there for the entire engagement. I think that happens to me whenever I immediately attack (using cannon) instead of waiting and building siege equipment.

Outside cities they just always seem to work... although sometimes they take forever to decide to engage. I've learned that if I'm counting on an AI support army to help carry the day, as soon as the engagement starts I need to pull my army over to where the support army is located (If I'm under attack), or wait until they decide to move before attacking (If I'm the attacker).

Anyone else find that one of the most effective City/castle attack army is one cannon and a full stack of Cavalry? I just bash down a couple gates, split my army into 2 or 3 groups and rush the city center from multiple routes simultaneously. Even inside the city, cavalry seems to be able to run over most foot (not very realistic, cities should be death traps for cavalry), and if you have multiple routes they can't stop up the road and prevent you getting at their archers.

Most engagements of this type I not only capture the city, but lose fewer troops in the process than the defending army (highly unlikely in real life).

You know what's annoying? Going on a crusade, missing out because some other army took the city, then ending up making your relationship with your "ally" worse because now you're standing on their soil with nowhere to go! :mad:

That's why i call for crusades myself, and i do so when i'm already in the land where the target is going to be. :D I called a crusade on Jerusalem when i was actually standing in front of it's gates. Thee other nations joined in, but came too late naturally. I'm doing the same thing with Tunis as we speak. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

I'm learning - I'm just waiting to call on a crusade for Paris as the Frogs just got themselves excommunicated. :D

Anyone else playing this?

I don't understand the main benefit of a crusade in MTW2. In MTW1 you called a crusade and you could "add" units from other countries as the crusade went past, but they've removed that here. So I can only see the benefit as being that you can freely go through other countries without diplomatic penalty. You still have to put up all the troops (except they get those little crosses in their unit cards) and you still have to formally declare war and take the diplomatic hit on the target. So what's the benefit to calling one, aside from game flavour?

A crusading army has a higher movement rate, and makes the Pope happy. I'm not sure what the benefit of making the pope happy is other than avoiding excommunication... and keeping the inquisitors from whacking your Nobles all the time.