Quote Originally Posted by Kobal2fr
Plus, frankly, I've never understood the point of having a castle there - it's out of the way of any and all invasion routes (no defensive value), the port is far from the castle so it takes longer to prepare naval invasions from there, and it can't supply many towns with quality troops either...The only thing it does is provide Byzantium with a shield against Venice attacking from Heraklion I suppose, and Rhodes is a better option for that.
For the Byzantines, it's not really useful if you have Sofia, but it can be quite handy for additional troops. Besides, it doesn't create that much income anyway.

However, for just about any other faction, it becomes THE province for attacks on both the balkans and asia minor. As egypt for example, it turns into a superb staging point for a jihad against constantinople, as well as attacking the turks from two points. For the turks, it's good for a two-point attack on the Byzantines(or hungary if they've taken over). For any western faction it's a wonderful staging point for attacks anywhere in the east.

Yes, Rhodes could be used for some of that, but if you lose your navy, you're screwed. From corinth, you can still go by land. And the mountains there are much easier to defend.