The Power Of Byzantium

[Cadarn]

My first Byzantine (hard level) campaign, and I'm impressed mightily with the utility of their early era units.

You have to invest plenty of florins into building work, and quickly too, but if you can wipe out the Turks early on and claim their rich provinces it all gets quite easy - but still good fun.

All these moaners complaining about weak archers should see what 2 or 3 pairs or Trebizond Archer units can do in good conditions for example. And an infantry centre of armour-upgraded spearmen and Byz Infantry is very reliable. And as for the Varangian Guards.......

The Kataphraktoi aren't perhaps as powerful as the manual would have you believe mind you but they ARE tough and the extra speed and offensive punch of the Pronolai Allagion cavalry make them useful in combination.

All in all, the Byzantines are great fun to play as a conquering horde with the battles being a challenge as you field well equipped but perhaps numerically inferior armies against the hordes of your foes.

One small point though. Do the desert armies have poorer morale than christian forces ? As I swept across the east and south of the map I found the Egyptians and Turks very brittle morale-wise.

All I need to do now is put an Orthodox Cardinal on the papal throne to stop those annoying Crusaders disrupting my plans in Germany and Poland as they try and get to Constantinople http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

[Rosacrux]

Hmm... The only drawback with the Byzantines is when you hit High and - especially - Late era.

they just don't have any advanced units to go on. Only missile units - and those ain't quite tough generally.

So, you have to move fast and effective - with cunning and swiftness - to become really BIG, so the better troops of the other factions won't make a difference in the later eras.

But the greatest point of the byzantines, once you get the grip on the game mechanics, is their roleplaying potential. Stunning, indeed. I love them!

[hrvojej]

Quote Originally posted by Cadarn:
One small point though. Do the desert armies have poorer morale than christian forces ? As I swept across the east and south of the map I found the Egyptians and Turks very brittle morale-wise.
[/QUOTE]

In general yes, especially the early units. Almohads fare a bit better in the morale field early on than the Turks and Egypt. Early high morale units are only muwahids, futtuwas and ghazi, I think.

[This message has been edited by hrvojej (edited 10-15-2002).]

[Daevyll]

The Egyptians seem to have a penchant for using camels and peasants a lot, and rout very, very easily in my experience.

Turks however dont; once they start using Saracen Infantry, Ghazis and Futuwwas you usually have a long bloody battle ahead.