Byzantium

[Aetius22]

I really like trick number 2. I usually just wait for them to spend themselves on the Turks and Egyptians as I conquer the catholics. If I play as the Byzantines again I will have to try conquering the Turks first and this trick. Sounds very interesting if you are able to pull it off.

[Gray Beard]

Sometimes you actually have to attack the Mogols with you cavalry to make trick #2 work. Attack then cancel the attack and back away. get them to follow you. Where it gets really tricky is getting two or three stacks of Mongols following you. You'll generally lose Tbilisi in this process but once they get farther North you can get it back. Especially of the Russians attack the Mongol stack

[oz_wwjd]

Forgive me but how do you make money with the Byzzies? Curently I'm in control of Trebizond Nicosia Smyrna,Corinth and Rhodes which are my main castles, I've also taken the fortress Bran from the Hungarians as they would use it as a base from invading me I also control Caesarea,Constanipole,
Thessaloníki,Smyrna,Iconium,Bucharest,Iasi,and currently have Caesarea under siege,but due to being at war with the Turks,Italians,and Hungarians at once I can't seem to make any decent money.I've tried to get a cease-fire with them but they refuse to listen to my diplomat,what are my best options?

[rvg]

Sounds like you have too many castles...

[Quillan]

Definitely too many castles. In that circumstance, I'd keep Bran as a castle, Caesarea as a castle, and Trebizond as a castle. Convert the rest into cities. You might keep Corinth as a castle, that's up to you. Because of map changes, Corinth as a city doesn't make nearly as much money as Sparta did in RTW (the ports are located in the same place).

[Gray Beard]

I would only keep two castles. If you build those areas as cities you have tons of dough

[oz_wwjd]

Ok I'll do that.What's the best method of battling the mongols when they come? Fill up the cities they are going to hit with as many archers units as possible and hope I can stop their calvary before they batter down my gate??

[Harve]

I would only keep two castles. If you build those areas as cities you have tons of dough

Ive done that- ive kept Sofia as a castle while fighting Venice, Hungary and Poland AT THE SAME TIME! Ive also kept Adana (i think thats the name the one above antioch) as a castle whilst fighting the Turks. I must admit in RTW the Brutii were swimming in gold in Greece but now its not so rich. I have Asia Minor up to Trezibod (sp?) and Adana and as North as Bran and as West as Durazzo but none of the islands to the south on turn 25. I get just 5000 surplus a turn for recruitment and contruction (Constantinople has been waiting to upgrade for ages). Its not enough. I have enough troops though; there are a stunning 3 full stacks seiging various cities and 3 half ones and about 7 little ones mainly coming from my inner cities to the battle zones on the outside. I now have 14 provinces. Its incredibly hard actually, the finances are a lot worse than in Russia as Hungary (and thats said to be bad) and im just fighting on sheer military power. I think i need to half upkeep rates for every unit.

[Dienekes']

Hi
I can't get the fix for Varangian guard to load, it is the one that was posted as version 1.1. Anyone have any ideas?

[dzidek]

Altough i'm Polish i'm a big fan of the Byzantines. I don't know why but i really like their troops, and their map position.

I usually use: 6 Biz. Guard Archers, 4 Dis. Latinkon, 2 Dis. Biz. Lancers or Varangian Guard, 4 Vards, General, 2-4 flanking Cav, and some ballistas (which have a very accurate shot ans i really love to use them)

I play really differnet then most of you. I tend to leave Anatolia and the muslim factions alone.
I would probably leave the pannisula altogether but Nicea is just too good money maker just to abbandon it early. So i keep it and take also Smyrna and make it a castle, then i take Rhodes and make it a city just like i do with Crete.
Then i make some nice stacks of navy and block the paths between asia and Constantinopole, which leaves me with just one west to look at.
I take the emperor and blitz Sophia, Bucarest and Iasi. Iasi i make a castle. The rest cities. It's hard at the beginning but it's managable.
Iasi as a castle with some river crossings near is a perfect place to defend my second eastern border.
Now it's time to take care of the western factions. At the beginning i make a marriage betwenn my princes and the Polish prince... right the Polish... why? cos Hungarians are doomed within the cople next turns. Bran and Budapest are taken quickly, and the faction becomes rebel. i change Budapest to castle if it's possible, if not i leave a large garrison there, this will be me NW border, the city produces little trade as the area has no resources so i concentrate on the military aspects here. Bran i would change to a city or leave it be as a secondary fortress for fast unit production. In the west the Venetians are knocking to you for quite some time by now, especially if you take Durazzo quick as i did.
The key here is their fortress Ragusa. Take it and then kill off their militia with Vards. I make Ragusa a city making Zagreb a Castle to complete my NW border. The last thing is to take Iraklion, but it's obvious.
By now i have like 200000 florins and sit secure in my territory. The alliance with the Poles is strong and it never broke. Especially if you take some minor rebel lands and give it to them.
If the HRE starts to bother you sack and pillage Vienna and then give it to the Pope or the Poles. If you have some princesses always marry them to Polish princes.
This should secure you in Europe forever.
What you do next is up to you. Usually i jump Sicily and the "italian" isles. Then go For Tunis and march throug the Moors.

As for the "hordes". If they go for Constantinopole you hace the passages blocked by navy so only Nicea and Smyrna are in danger. You can try to defend them or let them fall. Your total income wont suffer form it. If they go for the north steppes you have Ias supported by Bran and surrounded by rivers, should be managable to defend.

You should really ally with the Poles, you will have at least 2-3 common enemies. You could try alliance with the Pope especially after some tribute and giving him some lands. Will secure you from the crusades against you. I ally also with the Turks as i don't plan to invade their lands. They usually keep their word for several years.

As for Byz pros:
- great HtH and Missile Infantry
- great early navy
- decent to uber cavalry
- one of the best economic potential
- not boring to play :)

As for Byz cons:
- very weak spear units
- no good gunpowder units
- can't do Jihads or Crusades
- multiple enemies

[Erik Bloodaxe]

After playing 120 years with .5 timescale as the Byzantines, I realised how wonderful they really are! I think everyone should at some point try this faction! Like mentioned before, they got excellent troops and a fantastic central starting position, the Byz have a long history if you are interested too.. It's also easy to make big money (Middle-East area) so you can live with a high army-upkeep.

I have done well with only a few castles, one in Turkey, Greece and Hungary, two in the Middle-East so don't get too many!

The way I have done it is that I expanded east first, force Turkey to become your Vassal and Egypt after that.. If they want to;( In this campaign, there was no garrison in their last city Alexandria, I offered them Jerusalem and Gaza, map information, regular tribute on 1k for 20 turns!! All I wanted back was to protect and help them (vassel) So after like 10 years of good will from the Emperor himself in Constantinople, I clicked on the city and executed the population. Poor guys.

Oh and by the way, when I’m playing the Byz with a touch of role-play, I really hate the HRE – which is neither Holy nor Roman.. Just a bunch of guys who.. Ok, I’ll stop=)

[Erik Bloodaxe]

Ops sorry, it's Vassal and timescale 1

[Gingivitis]

One of the things that made my Byzantine campaign run so smooth was the economy. The Holy Lands are great for that, especially since it seems the pope can't call a crusade on the Orthodox. Another benefit to the economy was that I didn't use many castles. The Byz fit into my playstyle perfectly as I pretty much use infantry as cannon fodder and I could get good units (well good for the Byz anyway) out of city militia barracks. Typical battles/sieges saw me losing 50% of my infantry but only 5-10% of my Cavalry and Archers. Therefore I could easily just replenish the infantry at the cities I just took and didn't have to drag piles of other forces back to retrain, or build castles everywhere.

[vonsch]

Gingi,

Do you still get those nice relics as Bizzy? From looking at the files I'm not clear if they are all generic, or if they are tied to religion.

[Gingivitis]

Sadly after talking over all of the Holy Lands the only relic I got was from Jerusalem and eventually I forgot to transfer the thing before the general that got it died.

[vonsch]

Sadly after talking over all of the Holy Lands the only relic I got was from Jerusalem and eventually I forgot to transfer the thing before the general that got it died.

Ah, but it is possible for Orthodox to get them then. Good. I've only seen one to date too, but I tend to start on the Atlantic and usually restart before more than one crusade.