If you have a male heir who is 16 or older, it is advised you bring him along for the crusade as well. For this reason alone, it is recommended to join all crusades called, even if the pope is likely to lose or you are unlikely to be the top contributor.

Not only does it give you +2 marshal, it increases your relationship with any church characters by 25 as well as increasing it by 30 with other characters who have the crusader trait. The crusader trait is a very desirable trait for any character to have. Note that if a crusade is called on a kingdom that is already owned by a catholic nation, that nation will gain all land from the crusade, regardless of contributionВ % scores. Your allies will generate the warscore needed to win the crusade, and you'll get the contributionВ % needed to be awarded the kingdom. The ideal situation has you hunting down and crushing the enemy with your army, while your crusading allies park their armies in various provinces and slowly capture territory. Ironically, it is the capturing of provinces that increases the crusade warscore the most, while winning individual battles does little. You do get some contributionВ % for capturing provinces, but it is very small compared to the points you get for fighting active battles. Seek out enemy doomstacks with your own and engage early and often. This even counts for battles that you lose. The more you fight, and the more soldiers who die in battles lead by you, the higher yourВ % contribution climbs. The most powerful way to gain contribution is to fight enemy armies. A fewВ % points can mean the difference between you getting awared a shiny new kingdom, and some other nation getting the titles. If a crusade is successful, the target of the crusade goes to the nation who has the highestВ % contribution.

Either of the two Caliphs can and probably will call a jihad, so you need to be prepared for a counterattack. Jihads are similar to a Crusade in that it orders either Sunni or Shia nations to wage war against the infidels, most likely Christian nations, both Catholic or Orthodox. If you won the crusade, there is a chance that the Caliph will issue a jihad against the nation who won the crusade. Note also that the Sunni Caliphate works similarly like the Papacy. Beware however, you will gain holdings that is not a barony also,make them a new vassal so you don't have a rebellion later, and if the duchy fell to other vassal's hand, make sure you keep them happy because the long distance between them and you can cause a problem. If a nation/you finished and won the crusade, you will get the land that is targeted and the de jure duchy that is attached to it. The Orthodox Church however, will not be subject to that because the Eumenical Patriarchy never issues a crusade. For example: If the Sultanate of Rum defeats Georgia and takes Derbent, then it is possible for a crusade to happen so Derbent goes to Catholic hands.ДЄlso, note that any heretic nation can be a target of a Crusade, so keep Religious authority high to not become a heretic. Targets of the crusade usually have done things diplomatically that ruins the politics of a certain nation. Or if your nation is very powerful with massive levies ready to be deployed like the Holy Roman Empire, you can go solo and defeat the target alone. For example, if the target is Egypt in the 13th century, 13th century France will need some help from other nations like Scotland or the Holy Roman Empire to assist in that crusade. When a Crusade is called, it is highly recommended to get allies to join, especially if the target of a Crusade is extremely powerful. While early in the game as in 1070's crusades might also be ordered to take a pagan nation. To a Catholic nation that does not follow the Crusade order, the opinion of the Pope will usually be decreased by -15 and to those who follow, will get an increase of +20. Every once in a while, the Pope will order a Crusade to the Catholic nations to fight an infidel, usually to a Muslim nation.

How to declare war in crusader kings 2