VanillaMod:byzantines

I was playing as the byzantines in VanillaMod and finding the turks to be harder than usual. Usually I use my king to take trezibond and the rebel provnices around that area,while Prince John takes smyrna,rhodes,then heads to Antioch via ship and takes that,but the turks beat me to Adana,but have 4 full family members with HA's camped around that area,so I accepted an offer to become a protectorate of there,while I build my forces. Then Venice launched a invasion of rhodes via sea,which I countered by landing 6 units of my Ha's on Rhodes and destroying them,then accepting an offer to become their protectorate,so I can deal with the Turks and hopefully keep Venice off my back.

Unfortunalrly they launched a crusade against Inconium,took it,and are now attacking me with the usual militia spam/Knights Hospitaller/calvary militia,as they have a master level St. John’s Chapter House in inconium.

Anyone have any tips on how to get rid of them quickly,as I need to prepare for the arrival of the mongols in 20 turns or so?

Hmmm sounds like you are in a rather peculiar situation.

Do you have a screenshot of your current faction extent to help draw a map in my mind?

Outside of that, I would try to send in some assassins and spies to deal with family members and their Hospitaller building so you have a bit more of a breather for a few turns. Also, Byzantines do have decent HAs, so they should be good against their slower cavalry - of course cavalry upkeep is quite high so you need to use them strategically. Byzantine Infantry and Dismounted Lancers should be able to keep their infantry at bay generally, and can provide a cover for your Trebizond archers if you have any.

Building a few forts to slow down large advances and hopefully kill some cavalry (man them with some spearmen and trebizond archers) can help as well of course.

I'd also recommend not being a protectorate as that puts a great strain on your finances.

http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/d...d97553744c.jpg add Corinth,thessalonica,trezibond and tbliss to the image as it wouldn't all fit in one and I didn't want to clutter it up with too many images.I negoited they they pay me 3,000 per turn for 3 turns for me being a protectorate,did same deal with turks only it was a 7,000 lump sum payment. I do have som good ha's that I got from mission rewards,but I'd rather not waste them against the italians if I can help it,as they are hard to come by in my current castles. as i said I'd like time so I can build up my cities and castles and stock them with my best trrops,id the mongols want them,it's not going to be a walkover..

As I said, best to use agents to weaken them and blockade them. Turks have fast HAs but you have long range footarchers which generally beat HAs 1v1 due to higher numbers, a bit better armor, and slightly better accuracy if you can avoid being trampled.

Against the mongols, you want to be mainly relying on spears and a few Dismounted Latinkon and Varangians eventually.