Does calling a crusade even do anything

[cockerill.j]

i have launched them mulitiple times and no one ever does anything

[Tony Costa]

Yeah, in that aspect teh crusade is useless; no one really cares if you call for a crusade. But if YOU want to fight a non christian it's really helpful. The morale bonus and manpower, etc... perfect if you play Poland or Hungary and want to kill the Ottomans.

[Moo Cow]

Paradox needs to make more things not useless. So many features that would be cool... if they did something. LOL

[Kagemin]

Crusades are pretty darn strong if you actually make use of it, the benefits from being at war with the targets are fairly big.
It does give every catholic neighbour of the target a CB, so sometimes that's enough to prod the AI into declaring, but I don't know if they factor the bonuses into their calculations too.

[Dreamers]

Crusades are to give bonuses to you plus whatever allies you call in and for helping countries who are already at war with target or who will soon be.

It won't make countries that would never declare war on the target do so but it will make countries that were already itching to do so the final push to.

[Tony Costa]

By the way: imagine you call a crusade on, say, the ottomans, playing as poland. If you declare on them and get the crusade bonus, and THEN declare on another nation, like Muscovy, do you still keep the crusade bonus even if you're fighting agaisnt muscovy? Because that can really be abusive now that I think of it...

1- DOW random nation e.g touggort or mzab while calling a crusade on them
2- DOW real target and use crusade bonus
3- profit??

[Dreamers]

Yes that is one of the things that made Catholic the best religion before curia was changed.

[Xdevo]

I'd imagine it'd help more if the crusade target's neighbors had militariestic rulers and a good reason to declare war (reconquest), but the way the non-militaristic AI works kinda screws the crusade idea for non-human players. I guess i does make Curia Control a bit more useful than it would otherwise (divorces are nice and all but I don't really make RMs with non friendly countries) which is a boon.

[Kagemin]

Originally posted by Korukhan:

By the way: imagine you call a crusade on, say, the ottomans, playing as poland. If you declare on them and get the crusade bonus, and THEN declare on another nation, like Muscovy, do you still keep the crusade bonus even if you're fighting agaisnt muscovy? Because that can really be abusive now that I think of it...

1- DOW random nation e.g touggort or mzab while calling a crusade on them
2- DOW real target and use crusade bonus
3- profit??

According to the wiki you need to control at least 1 province owned by the crusade target to get the bonusses, so it looks like at some point it was changed to avoid the worst exploits.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

Crusades were obsolete by the time of the Mongols, and this is 150+ years later. So no-one much is going to care if you tell the world 'Lets kill Otto'. They add the feature because some people enjoy the idea though.

[Kagemin]

Originally posted by BiteNibbleChomp:

Crusades were obsolete by the time of the Mongols, and this is 150+ years later. So no-one much is going to care if you tell the world 'Lets kill Otto'. They add the feature because some people enjoy the idea though.

There were crusades deep into the 15th century. The starting truce between the Ottomans and Hungary etc for example comes from the Crusade of Varna, the end of which marks the earliest bookmark in EU4.
I think there were a couple more against the Ottomans, as well as some against various heretics within Europe past that.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

Yes, but they were losing steam and were nowhere near the size or commitment seen at say, the Crusade for Jerusalem in 1095. And the Ottomans proved they were much stronger than the Arab caliphates of old.

[Erawolf]

Try Crusader Kings II for better crusades.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

Originally posted by Erawolf:

Try Crusader Kings II for better crusades.

I have. It provides a useful distraction for my strongest opponents while I plan an assault >:-)

[Lucas Kane]

Originally posted by BiteNibbleChomp:

Crusades were obsolete by the time of the Mongols, and this is 150+ years later. So no-one much is going to care if you tell the world 'Lets kill Otto'. They add the feature because some people enjoy the idea though.

This.

The age of the Crusades was all but over. It was something that's still "reasonable" to call for a Pope, but in this timespan it would have been more of a formal thing, and would have never had a huge "de facto" impact, and so it is in the game. If you want to go crazy all-crusader style, you need to play Crusader Kings II :p

[Kagemin]

Crusades in CK2 are closer to the big crusades into the holy land, while in EU4 they are closer to the various more regional crusades (would be even better if heresies worked differently).

The crusades into the holy land ended a long time before the start of EU4, but there still were a lot of smaller ones, imo this fits pretty well with how it's handled between the two games.