How Useful are Crusaders

[jaki_staurt]

I'm yet use a crusader effectively and I'm a warmonger.
They are slow to arrive at your frontline, they don't seem to preveil in battles and are yet prove effective as defensive units for when your stack is healing. As for the ability to build a fortress, If ever I felt I needed it I have travelled with a stack of workers who connect conquored cities build them in a single turn. I usually build the wonder so that it can boost unit numbers when my cities are concentarting on improvements that way I'm less likely to get extorted by AI.

 

[dgfred]

I have never built that wonder, but I have captured it before . Recently
I faced the Celts and they had both Ancient Cavs AND Crusaders---but NO
Gallic Swords---how wierd is that. They were both cannon fodder for my
Berserks and Berserk Armies . The Crusader is a nice looking
unit , I'm not sure of their value though because of lack of use.

 

[Amiri]

I used the Crusaders alot. Though i have to admit it's more for show and miltary numbers than anything else. (I like the shiny sheilds) I can only re-call one war where i used the crusader. That was against the hated Spanish. An old enemy. I was the Duth (first time) And i used the Crusaders to fight of the musketman. And the Crusader won more times than not. But when i used calvery on those same musketmen...they lost. Go figure. So anyway the combo of Crusaders and Calvary saved the day and me and the French went on to rid the world of Spanish annoyance.

 

[Horton]

Crusaders are great. 5/3/1 is very powerful considering your opponents will have only muskets at best to defend with.

Put some crusaders in your trebuchet/cannon stack and not even rifleman can stand up to you.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Crusaders are a nice addition. However, where they really shine is in not needing any resources....
I'd rather have 5 Knights ASAP then KT, but 2 Crusaders are easily as helpful as 7.5 Longbows.

 

[Gargantutron]

crusaders are mostly just for fun. the times i've had the Kinghts Templar, it's been when i have failed to build Sun Tzu or Leonardo. (or both.. )

anyway it's a fun unit to have, but yes, often any war in wich you could've used them, is over before they reach the front. but sometimes, you do have a chance to really use them, and they are great! 5 attack is great, 3 defense is also great. the build fortress ability is fun... in the industrial era i commonly am at peace. i'm building! building rails, building factories. no time for warfare. then i use my crusaders to build forts along any border i am sharing with a rival. just for fun. then i put riflemen, later infantry in these forts. haha.

at one time, an AI declared war on me, and in order to reach me with his cavalry he had to pass through another AI's land. they had ROP. anyway when his forces reaches my defense line of infantry+artillery in forts, they actually turned around! it's true only time i've seen the AI actually retreat! made my day!

 

[biggamer132]

The one time I actually had a large number of crusaders in range was when the roqious launched a massive sneak attack against one of my cites (we had been alles n conquering Portugal, and now the A wanted to take my side of the new territory. While my knight were rushed to the front to keep the city from being pounded, my crusaders were sent to take the cities the Iroqious had taken from Portugal. Eventually, they managed to take two or three cities easily without much help from knights of artillery.

 

[The Last Conformist]

I tend to rely heavily on Medievals and Trebuchets in medieval wars, so Crusaders come in handy - that +25% attack over the Medievals does tell when attacking cities.

Not exactly a game-winner, tho.

 

[Ben E Gas]

I am using them now for the first time in my current game. They are slow, true. But I have 4 elite crusaders stacked in one of my armies. That is a nice unit to have. I landed right at the capital of the Byzantine empire with my crusader army and 4 knights. I took the capital with ease and was able to hold the capital by sending out the crusader army and picking off all the counter attacks at my newly aquired city. I don't think my enemy thought I'd be so bold as to land right in the heartland of their empire. They were so pi$$ed.

 

[bonscott]

My latest game is the first I've ever had Crusaders. I must say they rocked. I piled them all along a border I had with Arabia and them along with my old Swordsman and a few knights rolled over 8 cities in 2 turns. I'm nearing the modern era and still find them usefull: Guards for combat worker stacks and cannons (now arties). 2 crusader plus 1 infranty. They never get attacked. They offered great protection in numbers, even against calvary. They also can attach calvary and take them out most times as well. Obviously they are pretty worthless once your opponent has infranty, but until then, very nice. But they make an effective military police unit and to help quell resitance. Nice to use them instead of my infranty to help calm down a newly taken city.

Anyway, all in all not bad. I only got them because I got beat to Leo, but I might actually look to it in future games.

 

[dgfred]

@ bon- Is that an AC/DC reference, just curious . I love 'em
by the way .

 

[denyd]

If I happen to acquire Knights Templer, I try to use my next Great Leader to form an army of them. A 3-man Crusader Army is a 6-3-2 (a 4-man is 7-4-2) which stacks nicely with Knights as the first attacker against pikes in larger cities. They will normally win easily against the best defender and then my knights can finish up against the rest. If you end up using them individually with trebuchets & MDI, I prefer to have a couple of pikes along to absorb any attacks.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Crusaders are good units, they pack a punch for the early Middle Ages
They're just not so good that i'd go out of my way to build the wonder.

 

[petermarkab]

A 3-man Crusader Army is a 6-3-2 (a 4-man is 7-4-2).

You don't get extra attack or defence points for an army; only movement.

Of course if you combine different units that's a different story, but not 3 or 4 crusaders at 5-3-1.

And whilst playing as Germany, I've always gotten a golden age from building the Templar.

 

[SuperFurry]

RE: peter you do get increased att/def for armies in conquests, you get an extra fraction added to the base value - not sure what it is but I'd say denyd has worked it out right.

Have crusaders in my current game + they're alright, use them for base defence as the city is too far from the frontline, and there are loads of galleys worrying me by skirting my coast, ancient cav are in a different class however - LOVE them.

 

[petermarkab]

I just checked the army stats and I'm afraid the only bonuses you get are for movement FOR IDENTICAL UNITS.

For example: 3 Crusaders at 5-3-1 gives an army of 5-3-2. This is calculated as follows:

Let Ai = attack value of ith unit; Di = defence value of ith unit; Mi = movement of ith unit; N = number units in army.

Army Attack = Sum(Ai)/N : halves are rounded up.

So for a 3 Crusader army, you get (5 + 5 + 5)/3 = 5.

Army Defence is calculated in the same way.

ArmyMovement = {Sum(Mi)+3}/N

so that a 3 Crusader army gets {(1 + 1 + 1) + 3}/3 = 2.

Sorry for the tangential off-topic!

 

[petermarkab]

On the other hand, for an army of 1 Swordsman and two Knights, you get:

Attack: (3+4+4)/3 = 3.666 rounded = 4.
Defence: (2+3+3)/3 = 2.666 rounded = 3.
Movement: ((1+2+2)+3)/3 = 2.666 rounded = 3.

The advantages of filling your armies with units from different eras become apparent and your army's effectiveness later in the game is increased.

 

[viper275]

I use Crusaders a lot when I build Knights Templar. One thing that I think is pretty appealing is that you get them every 5 turns in addition to whatever you're building. Slow? Just as slow as Medieval Infantry. Their defense isn't bad, and their attack is excellent. If I plan on any Middle Age warfare, I try to get Knights Templar whenever possible.

 

[Longasc]

They can also build fortifications when they get obsolete or right where they are.

Perhaps not as good as the Ancient Cavalry, but strong and basically for free an uber Medieval Infantry, not too shabby either!

 

[denyd]

Help - I can't find the thread I was going to link to but here's a synopsis:

Armies get a movement bonus of 1 and an attack & defense bonus of the sum of the attack or defense values divided by 6 if no military academy & 4 if you have one.

No Military Academy:
So an army of 3 Cavalry which are 6-3-3 would become:
Movement = 4
Attack = 9 because 6+6+6=18 & 18 / 6 = 3 + base of 6 = 9
Defense = 4 because 3+3+3=9 & 9 / 6 = 1 (rounded down) + base of 3 = 4

An army of 4 Cavalry is
Movement = 4
Attack = 10 (6+6+6+6=24 & 24 / 6 = 4 + 6 = 10
Defense = 5 (3+3+3+3=12 & 12 / 6 = 2 + 3 = 5

With Military Academy:
An army of 3 Cavalry which are 6-3-3 would become:
Movement = 4
Attack = 9 (6+6+6=18 & 18 / 4 = 4 + base of 6 = 9
Defense = 5 (3+3+3=9 & 9 / 4 = 2 + base of 3 = 5

An army of 4 Cavalry is
Movement = 4
Attack = 12 (6+6+6+6=24 & 24 / 4 = 6 + 6 = 12
Defense = 6 (3+3+3+3=12 & 12 / 4 = 3 + 3 = 6

And for the really nasty one with a Military Academy
An army of 4 Modern Armor of 24-12-3 would become:
Movement = 4
Attack = 48 (24+24+24+24=96 & 96 / 4 = 24 + 24 base = 48
Defense = 24 (12+12+12+12=48 & 48 / 4 = 12 + 12 base = 24

My original posting had similar information except I was using fractions and I was corrected by one of the top players that the factors were all integers and the values rounded down.