Hi everybody,

This is my first post. I've been playing the Byz on level hard. I've not been playing too aggresively. Not initiating any wars myself. Just taking over the old eastern roman empire. I have wiped out the Turks, the Hungarians and the Egyptians. I control all of the middle-east, asia minor, russia as far north as smolensk and as far west as austria and sicily and corsica.

Does anyone have advice as to how best to use the Byz armies later in the game? My infantry and cavalry are not as all conquering as they once were. My Treb archers are a lot less effective now that they are encountering more armoured troops. I'm also finding myself very vulnerable to heavy cavalry and heavy knights. The Mongols caused such heavy losses that i had to break up their armies with bribes. I've still not managed to get Kiev back from them.

I built up to county militia hoping for pikemen and i don't get them. Arrgh. I very protective of my soldiers and losing 1200 of them to Mongolian rebels in a single battle makes me sad. Please help.