Cataphract without bows?

[Slaists]

Vardariotai pretty much work as Kats on steroids anyway. I can't make heads or tails of the Byz cavalry roster - why bother training anything after Vards?

I suspect, CA has forgotten/overlooked some building restrictions for many elite troops. It was similar in MTWI though: in the vanilla version high and late period units became available right away (regardless of game year) as soon as one built the building of the appropriate level. In a subsequent patch, they restricted high and late units to their respective periods though.

As to Vardariotai: their easy availability relative to much weaker units does not make much sense right now. One can build them pretty much from one the lowest level castles. Due to their availability, there is no point in training byzantine cavalry and scythicons. Also, neither byzantine cav. nor scythicons have good stamina whereas Vardariotai do, adding to the obsoleteness of the former right at the start of the campaign.

It is similar for the Turks who have access to Turcopoles and Turkish Horse Archers pretty much at the same time. Turcopoles outclass Turkish Horse Archers by far, making the latter obsolete at the very start of the campaign. I am not sure about Azabs either... a weak unit, available from a high level barracks, with the previous level javeline armed unit having better combat stats... Seems like a bug to me.

IMHO, it would make sense to allow Turkish Horse Archers being available from the most basic castle structure, whereas Turkopoles would require some combination of higher castle + stables. Vardariotai could be restricted in a similar manner. This would make the basic units more valuable.