King of Jerusalem as The Knights

It’s been a year since I played EU IV. I finally got some free time and decided to come back to my beloved game. In this guide I’m gonna play as the Knights in an attempt to get the “King of Jerusalem” achievement as fast as possible. English is not my native language, so I might make some mistakes. The guide is written is accordance with version 1.11.4. Feel free to ask questions in comment section below – I’ll answer them if I can ;)

Part 0 – Things to know

Before you start, I need to mention that you can get this achievement with two nations – the Knights and Cyprus. The latter is easier in my experience, as you have more flexible monarchy (king and heir are bad but it’s manageable) and stronger position, being under protection of the Mamluks and having OPM (one province minor) neighbours. The cons are the venetians, which have a mission to conquer Cyprus and the lack of a strong ally nearby (except Aragon or Naples if it manages to break free).

If Cyprus’ position is, let’s say, precarious then the Knights’ position is very dangerous. You are OPM, your capital doesn’t share your state religion, you got 3 units and 1 transport ship and only two ways to expand – to the coastal provinces of the Ottomans or to Cyprus, which is under protection of the Mamluks. On the other hand, you have one significant advantage over Cyprus – you can ally Venice, being their “historical friend”.

There are various strategies, involving Balkan and Italian minors but they are too unreliable, since you gotta lose 2 stability to declare war on any country there and settling in a new region can anger your new neighbours. So here I’m going for the only strategy I see as safe and reliable – to tackle Cyprus and Mamluks head on and grab the Holy Land using ottoman and Venetian armies. As any other difficult achievement it requires some specific starting conditions and luck ;)

Part 1 – The start

Firstly, you gotta check if you have +2 diplomatic reputation advisor – if you don’t have one, restart – you need one to secure fast alliance with Venice. Secondly, you leader is past 70 and might die any day now – getting good administrative and military skills is very important. Again, if you got a bad leader – better restart. 3-4 stats are good enough to continue.

Yes, that's good enough, bad military can be compensated with national focus


Start improving relations with Venice, get a claim on Cyprus and start the preparations for war. You don’t need more units and ships – just your initial troops. Wait until Venice gets their “conquer Cyprus” mission and declare the war. To get a proper war score and ensure nobody signs peace before you do you gotta be the initiator. Get 1 unit on a ship and wait for Venetian transport fleet to approach Cyprus. You gotta catch a moment when you gonna land your unit 1 day before venetians so you gonna lead the siege. This is the most important thing to do during this whole campaign! Cypriotes are weak compared to Venetian army (usually Venice sends 6-8 units) so you shouldn’t worry about the battle itself – just land your troops before they do. Then, after you capture the island, attrition war starts – you have 20-30 Egyptian ships against you and now you gotta pray that Venetians won’t lose to them – Mamluks tend to stack their ships in one squadron while Venice prefers several smaller groups. If your ally manages to beat the Mamluks, congratulations – you’ve won the war. Sooner or later Cyprus’ war exhaustions gonna reach 20 and they will agree to your demands.

All is ready for the landing


That was easy


Mamluk fleet has been destroyed


The war is over

Part 2 – 20 Years of boredom

It’s around 1455-1457 and you got Cyprus. Now you gotta deal with religious fanatics and greek nationalists. To do that, you gotta first choose your idea group. Religious ideas are priority one for the Divine Supremacy, which gives your missionaries +3% strength for fast conversion. Otherwise you are not going to be able to convert neither of your provinces fast and end up spending all your military points on harsh treatment. Get your stability to +3 if possible and try to keep it – it also grants +0,5% missionary strength for each level and lowers the unrest level. Take “achieve religious unity” mission for extra bonuses. While doing that, try to get new allies. Poland, Aragon and Castille are good options. Remember that Venice gonna get hostile towards you after you get Cyprus so in order to restore your alliance with them you gotta wait until they drop the mission (which is most likely to happen in 10-15 years). And get claims on Naablus and Ghazzah. Well, that’s practically it – next 15-20 years you gonna spend converting your provinces and improving relations on speed 5.

Yup, Venice is hostile now


Religious conversion process



Although not for long, Aragon is gonna be my ally


I got very lucky - no need to spend extra administration points now


Venice is friendly again

Part 3 – Deus Vult!

If the Ottomans are still expanding and didn’t get beaten by hordes, they gonna switch to south and steamroll the Mamluks. By that time Venice should drop the Cyprus misson and be friendly again – forge a new alliance with them. Maximize your army and navy and wait. When Ottomans attack the Mamluks, wait for them to destroy Egyptian forces and “join” this war. Split your troops in three groups and besiege Naablus, Ghazzah and Al-Quds. Ottoman armies gonna eradicate any threat nearby so grabbing these three provinces shouldn’t be difficult. Venice will most likely land in Cyrenaica and advance towards Alexandria, increasing your warscore. Destroy any Egyptian troops and ships left – and that’s it, you have reclaimed the Holy Land. Core it and the convert it and then you finally can create the Kingdom of Jerusalem!

The war has began


Destroying Mamluk fleet again



Ottomans in Jerusalem are covering me - it's safe to advance


First city has fallen


The inevitable result of Mamluks attacking me while Ottomans are nearby


The second time I got lucky - after the end of first war, Ottomans joined Marocco in their war against the Mamluks


Victory!

Part 4 - Epilogue

If you plan to continue this campaign, remember that your capital is going to be in Asia now, so your tax income can be screwed, you gonna become a feudal monarchy and thus get legitimacy 0, since you were a monastic state. So deal with unrest in your new provinces first. Also, Ottomans and Mamluks will most likely warn you after this war, so starting new conflicts is too dangerous. Ally the Pope (you are strong enough now) to swim in papal influence. Italy is a good target to get some vassals now, since the Papal States frequently starts wars with Tuscany and Urbino.

Some final stats:

Campaign time - 10 hours
Achievement completed in 1492 (could've been in 1489 but the Papal States called me in war)

Check out my other guides:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=304943828
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=441298477
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=461232037
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=611999487

Some aftermath screens:

A call to arms


#0 naval tradition admiral:


Beating Tuscany


Decisive victory


All hail the King of Jerusalem!

[Cinnamon]

Also, about the part where Venice attacks you because of Cyprus mission - you need to get a strong ally to avoid that. Austria, Aragon and sometimes Hungary are good picks. Eventually venetians gonna drop this mission and then they become friendly again (Had the same situation in the guide, check the screens).

I hope I have been of some help, good luck with the achievement ;)

[Cinnamon]

True, this achievement is now harder to get, than it was before (and even then it was hard). Still, the only option I see is Venice. You just don't have any other friendly nation with fleet and army capable of beating the Mamluks. France is too far away to get an alliance and even if you do, they gonna be reluctant to help. RIght now, the only other option I see is Aragon - but then you gotta do it before "The Iberian Wedding" event fires. Strategy is the same - you get an alliance, get them to help you with Cyprus and then try to beat the Mamluks when the Ottomans attack them.

[Scottx125]

I've tried several times. Venice 9/10 times by 1470 loses most of its Islands and its navy is crushed. Mamlukes can generally beat the venician fleet, so can the ottomans. Venice will attack you if you take cyprus if they have a mission to take it. And Ottomans around 1470-1500 will generally attack you when they get the mission to remove the last crusader state.

[Cinnamon]

In latest patch the strategy for the Knights remains the same - you just ally Venice and try to get Cyprus and later Jerusalem using their and ottoman forces. Right now i don't see a point in updating this guide but if you have questions, I'll answer them.

[Scottx125]

Can you update this guide for 1.12/1.13 please?

[CJ]

Gotcha I'll try that method. Thanks for the answer. I probably should have paid more attention to the details of the pictures. I'll try again.

[Jean_Jean93]

One thing that happened in my last attempt was Venice declared war on Cyprus before i even allied them...

[Jean_Jean93]

yeah Venice is very annoying for this achievement and i get very wary of having to rely on the PC and its naval strategy, but for this achievement it must be done.

[Cinnamon]

Well, I know what you feel Christian. I personally had several restarts before I finally managed to get venetian and egyptian fleets into one sea province. I recommend patience and micromanaging - right before the war starts, check the map and try to catch the moment when main venetian force gonna patrol around Crete (not in southern Italy - straights of Messina etc.). This way AI will surely start hunting against the Mamluks. Also, remember that Venice must have its Cyprus mission active - otherwise, without immediate threat to its provinces, AI gonna be reluctant to fight actively in this war.

[CJ]

I hate Venice. They've lost the naval battle five times now. Half of their fleet was fighting the Mamluks and I saw the other half of the fleet going to sail into the naval area right next to them, I was like finally! Then they sailed right on to Venice. I nearly broke my computer. The Mamluks went right on to destroy the rest of their fleet piecemeal. F this game, F the perfect scenerios needed for achievements. This strategy should have worked one out of five times I was actually able to get a level 1 diplomat (five out of fifteen). Not worth my time.