Dealing with the Billmen and Caravels

[Prince Cobra]

Billmen are indeed among the best foot units of the game due to their availability cheap price relatively high armor piercing attack and bonuses versus cavalry all with a solid morale, decent armor, decent defence and decent stamina.

The Byz. should have no trouble in getting them as long as they have Varangians that are in a different league altogether - however in late you have to do without them. Your best heavy melee units are indeed cavalry (byz cav/ pronoiai - kataphraktoi are too vulnerable to the many good ap units of late due to their speed), and unfortunately Bills can handle them because of the +3/+1 bonus against horsies and the ap attack.

Your foot melee units (urban militia and byz infantry) cannot match the bills unfortunately, so all you are left with is tactical tricks: shoot them with bows and crossbows; tire them by using your inferior melee units to grind them and then cavalry charge them to brake them; pin them using upgraded spears in hold position/formation and charge them in the rear/flank. Use strong chargers - pronoiai if possible.

Also muster whatever decent foot mercenaries you can get your hands on - they are imperative for Byzs in late; have Inns in your border provinces (that mercenaries are attracted to) and kep an eye on billmen, chivalric men at arms and other such overpowered infantry units as well as for almohad urban militias and even militia seargents.

If you want to peranently solve the problem of Byz foot units in late, conquer Switzerland and pump out Swiiss halbs that are a really good poison against all other poisons.

In fact, the game makes a good demonstration of the superiority of the English military, which historically resulted in the success of a small 4 million England against 20 million France.

Yes, there is always a free space for the billmen in my army. I occasionally hire Longbowmen. I have not tried the Chivalric men-at-arms but I doubt they will be successful against the billmen. I do not envy the French in high and late. Basically, I am really content with the Pronoiai Allagion (Byz cavalry are also nice, though I use them in small quantities). With an excellent general, master horse breeder in Nicaea, one can even see a Pronoiai cavalry wiping 20 Royal knights with the Spanish heir inside with relatively minor casualties (of course, I was fighting downhill). I need to test the Naptha explosives. I am sure many of my men will hate me for that!

Btw, I am quite sceptic of the armour upgrades (one silver armour province is more than enough, the other can go even without armour). I have the feeling they are only useful against the Mongols (protect from arrows) but are useless and even harmful because of the huge amount of armour piercing units and the fatigue. I am not even sure whether they affect the defense in a hand-to hand combat.

On a different issue, the problem of the Late campaign is that when you finally manage to secure yourself financially (bribes!), the game is going to be over.

Slightly off-topic but since we are discussing the Byzantines. I always dreamed of making an army of deadly assassins but the border forts absolutely limit my options on this occasion. How many stars are required in order an assassin to be able to evade the curse of the border forts?