First Crusade

First Crusade
Availability
Introduced in	Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Lords of the West
Civilization	Sicilians
Age	Castle Age
Research
Researched at	Castle
Food	300
Gold	600
Research time	60 seconds
Effect
Each Town Center (max. 5) spawns 7 Serjeants

First Crusade is a technology in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Lords of the West that is unique to the Sicilians and available at the Castle. Once researched, it lets up to 5 Town Centers each spawn a one-time group of 7 Serjeants.

First Crusade is not already researched in Imperial or Post-Imperial matches (like Burgundian Vineyards).

Strategy

The First Crusade research is an easy way to get a lot of infantry units very fast. Its effect is maximized after a build using tons of Town Centers. It may allow some greedier strategies like a four or five Town Center boom on a map like Arena. It's a rather expensive technology which takes a lot of time to research though. If used in combination with the other Sicilian unique technology Scutage, the infantry delivered by First Crusade will help to gain more gold (specially if five Town Centers were deployed).

In some circumstances, First Crusade may act as a panic button if the player needs to defend against an invasion but doesn't have enough troops near their Town Centers. One thing to note is that this technology can still be researched and will provide the same number of units even if it results in the player exceeding maximum population.

If the player has 5 Town Centers, each Serjeant delivered by First Crusade will cost approximately 8.6 food and 17.1 gold. Also, researching the technology takes the same time as training 5 Serjeants in a Castle, and so it is always recommended to research it, both cost-wise and time-wise, whenever the player wants to have a big army of Serjeants.

Team bonuses

• A team containing Berbers: With Kasbah researched, researching First Crusade is 25% faster.

Changelog

Lords of the West

• On introduction, First Crusade spawned 10 Serjeants per Town Center.
• With Hotfix 45185, First Crusade spawns 7 Serjeants per Town Center.

History

While not active participants in the First Crusade in 1091, Sicily, like many other European entities, experienced the effect of the Crusades as military religious orders set themselves up in Sicily, like the Templars, Hospitallers, and the Teutonic Knights. However, the multi-ethnic state of Sicily kept them from actively participating in the religious conflicts, serving mainly to provide material services to the organizations.