[TW Guide] MTW: The Byzantines (General)

[Garbarsardar]

Author: Siblesz
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MTW: The Byzantines (General)

The Byzantines

History

The Byzantine Empire is also known as the Eastern Roman Empire , for it was in fact a continuation of the Roman Empire into its eastern part. At its greatest size, during the 500's AD, Byzantine included parts of southern and Eastern Europe , the Middle East , and northern Africa .

The Byzantine people called themselves Romans although they were actually descendants of various ancient peoples and they spoke Greek. The word Byzantine, in fact, comes from " Byzantium ," which is the Greek name for a city on the Bosphorus. The Greeks colonized the area first, in the mid-600's BC, even before Alexander the Great brought his troops into Anatolia (334 BC). Greek culture continued its influence long after the region became part of the Roman Empire , in the 100's BC. But it was when Roman emperor Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople (Istanbul today), in 330 AD, that the Byzantine Empire really began. It lasted over 1000 years, ending finally in 1453, when the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul.

Christianity had a strong influence on Byzantine art, music, and architecture. Since Constantinople was the political center of the Empire, it also was the educational center, where future government officials learned to read and write the language of ancient Greece . Thus this period produced remarkable works in history as well as fine poetry, and much religious prose. All the visual arts flourished, too. Most of the artists worked as servants of the court or belonged to religious orders, and they remained anonymous. Ivory carvings, Byzantine crosses, and "illuminations," or small manuscript paintings, attest to their skill. Almost all that survives of the Byzantine architecture are its churches, with their glorious frescoes and mosaics. With Hagia Sophia as an example, their architects and artisans reached heady heights of magnificence, indeed.

For 1100 years, the Byzantine's were able to maintain control of their empire, although somewhat tenuously at times; the empire's expansion and prosperity were balanced by internal religious schisms (such as Nika Riot) and recurring wars with enemies from the outside. Finally, weakened by recurring waves of attack, the Ottomans overcame the exhausted Byzantines and a new era of leadership began. The Byzantine Empire , however, had left its mark on the culture, never to be entirely erased.


Timeline

330:

After enlarging the ancient Greek city of Byzantium , Constantine I renames it for himself and establishes an imperial residence there. Constantinople becomes the capital in 359, and Eastern Romans (Byzantines) come to call it simply "The City."

527:

Justinian's reign begins. He is responsible for the re-conquest of Africa and Italy and a codification of Roman Law that affects many future civilizations. With the support of his wife Theodora (who had once been a courtesan), he puts down the Nike rebellion.

550:

Procopius of Caesarea, counsel to the great general Belisarius and author of several official histories in which he wrote approvingly of Justinian, writes his Secret History, which is published after his death. In it he attacks the characters of the emperor and Theodora, stating:

". . . these two seemed not to be human beings, but veritable demons, and what the poets call vampires: who laid their heads together to see how they could most easily and quickly destroy the race and deeds of men; and assuming human bodies, became man-demons, and so convulsed the world." (Chapter 12.)

610:

Heraclius overthrows the mad emperor Phocas. He institutes a system of themes, wherein the soldiers defending a district are the free peasants of that district with a stake in the defense of their homes (instead of mercenaries). This system, adopted by succeeding emperors and expanded throughout the lands, saves expense and strengthens the empire; but Heraclius overextends himself fighting history's first Holy War and loses Syria , Palestine , Persia and Egypt .

695:

Justinian II is deposed. His nose is cut off (resulting in the name "Rhinotmetus") and he is banished to Cheron.

705:

Justinian II regains the throne with the help of Slavic and Bulgarian forces. He proceeds to wreak havoc on all who opposed him.

726:

Leo the Isaurian launches a crusade against the use of icons in the church and sparks the Iconoclastic Controversy, which rages for many years and ultimately results in a division in the Church at the end of the eighth century.

787:

Irene of Athens, regent to her son the Emperor Constantine VI, obtains important concessions in the matter of the veneration of images at the Seventh General Synod of Nicaea . For this she is honored as a saint in the Greek Orthodox Church.

797:

After canceling her son's betrothal to Rotrud (the daughter of Charlemagne), forcing him to marry someone he hated, sanctioning a second marriage (which made him a bigamist) and having him scourged with rods when he showed signs of escaping her power, Irene orders the blinding of Constantine VI and takes the throne in her own right.

860s:

Missionaries set out from Constantinople to convert the Bulgarian and Slavic peoples to Christianity. The brothers Cyril and Methodius learn the Slavic language and teach the liturgy in the vernacular; Cyril devises an alphabet (Cyrillic) for the Slavs.

1054:

The Latin Roman Church and the Greek Orthodox Church excommunicate each other.

1096:

Emperor Alexius Comnenus, having appealed to Pope Urban II for help against the Turks, greets the first crusaders from the west. Alexius sends them to Asia Minor where their victories reclaim land for the Empire.

1204:

Powerful Venetians convince the fighters of the fourth crusade to attack Constantinople before moving on to the Holy Land . The unwary residents of the City suffer the worst devastation in Constantinople 's history, andenice reaps the spoils.

1261:

Control of the city at last passes from the Venetians to the Paleologus Dynasty. The once splendid empire is now not only reduced in size but in its economic and intellectual health and freedom.

1453:

The last emperor of Byzantium , Constantine XI, leads a force of 4,000 troops and succeeds in holding off 160,000 advancing Turks for seven weeks. But the City, now all that is left of the Byzantine Empire , suffers its inevitable fate and falls on Tuesday, May 29.



Strategies for Byzantines

The Byzantines, stretch from Naples to Georgia in the Early campaign, then in the High campaign they are violently shrunken to Nicaea, Georgia and the small island of Rhodes, and finally in the Late campaign only Constantinople, Nicaea, and Rhodes are left of the once humongous empire that supposedly withstood all.

The Byzantine Empire had one of the most advanced armies in Medieval Europe. Constantinople was an oasis of civilization in the Dark and Middle Ages. It was the center of commerce, knowledge, and culture in the Medieval World. How did it withstand army after army of invaders after so many years? By adapting a system used by the Romans many years before that consisted of a main military unit called the legion. The Byzantine Legion where composed of, 3 main types of units. These included the Byzantine infantry, the Byzantine cavalry, and the infamous Kataphraktoi.

The cheapest army the Byzantines could muster where the Byzantine infantry. These men-at-arms have mail armor, large shields and swords and can be relied to fight skillfully against most enemies. These men, where probably the best heavy infantry in Eastern Europe . The main advantages for this unit are their discipline. Discipline is everything that an army needs to win. Discipline can change the tide in battles and can give the commander a great advantage. But discipline does not do anything with poor morale. This is the case of the Byzantine infantry. All units have their downside; unfortunately this is the Byzantine infantry’s downside.

The Byzantine cavalry is the second best unit that only the Byzantines have. The Byzantine cavalry are armed with bows and swords. While not as fleet as steppe mercenaries, they can be relied on to give good account of themselves in battle. These armored horses have everything an army needs in battle. It has a good attack, a good defense, are disciplined, and unlike the Byzantine infantry the have a good morale as well. This unit can be used as skirmishers, and light cavalry, and have a major advantage that most skirmishers do not have during battle, they serve as attackers as well. They have their downside though. Do not use this unit against more advanced armies of Europe, they will just get slaughtered.

Finally the last main unit of the Byzantine legion is the Kataphraktoi. Both men and horse are so heavily armored that they are unstoppable shock troops. This power comes at a price though-the Kataphraktoi are slow and expensive compared to other cavalry, but this is little comfort to their enemies! These men have an irresistible charge, they are very heavily armored, they have a very good defense, they have a good attack, a good morale, and they are very disciplined. These men are mainly shock troops and defensive troops. They do lots of harm until later in the game when more powerful units menace them. This is the most powerful cavalry unit that the Byzantines posses, so use wisely against Europe’s knights.

The next group of Byzantine units come are mercenaries. These include the Proinai Allegion, and the Vangarian Guard. Even the coffers of Byzantium are not bottomless, so the mercenary Proinai Allegion are paid in land instead of money. These men are the Byzantine equivalent of heavy knights: part soldiers, part local rulers. With mail armor, lances, and horse barding, they are as good as many western knights. This unit has a very strong charge, a very good attack, it is heavily armored, it has an excellent morale, and a very good defense. Even though one might think the Pronai Alligion is a better fighter than the Kataphraktoi, this is not so. The Pronai Alegion often runs away from strong enemies and cost way too much.

The best unit in the game is called the Vangarian Guard, and it is only available to the Byzantines. This unit is almost perfect in all senses. The Vangarian Guard, are part of the Royal Household, a force of mercenary bodyguards. They have a tough history of being tough, loyal resourceful men from the North. Over centuries, their ranks included Vikings (and a Viking King), Saxons, and Englishmen. Now they are sometimes a ceremonial unit. They came to be in Byzantine, probably after the 80,000 Viking attack in the 800’s against Constantinople . They have a very good attack and defense, they are heavily armored, they have an excellent morale, a strong charge, and they are very disciplined soldiers. This unit is perfect in every way and has no disadvantages, but it takes 2 turns to build.

This concludes the long unit section of the Byzantines, now I will talk about the strategies for the full campaign in the Early, High and Late periods of the game, which will take me a long time to write.

As I said before, the Early campaign for the Byzantines requires you to keep the territories from Naples to Georgia . This is a very difficult task to achieve considering that the Byzantines do not start out with the sufficient number of units to cover every single territory. So, here’s how you do it. If an enemy faction attacks your lands, retreat into another province if you’re outnumbered, start building up the empire economically and military so that you may maintain all your territories, and do not attack any provinces until you are fully prepared. The Byzantines have a major advantage when playing in the Early campaign, which is the fact that the units that you can build are much more advanced than many of the units of other factions, so this will help you in conquering many places early in the game.

Try conquering the Turks as soon as possible before they conquer you. They are not very advanced at this time so do not worry. The Byzantine Empire in the Early campaign is also very good economically compared to most, but after just 3 trained units, you will have a deficit in your treasury, so be sure to construct more advanced mining camps and farms, raid enemy territories and then retreat, and expand your trade networks. Train some units as you do this, and place them in the frontiers of the empire. After you’re done defeating the Turks, keep some units in the Turkish territories because they are likely to revolt. Then build up you defense in the Egyptian-Byzantine frontier, and also in the Rebel-Byzantine frontier up North in the province of Georgia . Then attack Khazar, and in the South, attack the Egyptian provinces of Antioch and Syria . This will give you a good defense system, cutting the amount of provinces that other factions can attack by 2. If you have a good economy, and the necessary army to take over the Egyptians, do it, but first become a very good ally of the Almohads because you’ll be seeing them soon. After you’re done with the Mid-east, train units in Italy, but do not attack Sicily , they mainly depend on trade and have lots of ships in the sea, so if you wage war on them all your trade routes will be cut down in half. That is all for the early campaign, now you have to figure out for yourselves what do with the empire.

The High full campaign changes dramatically in all senses. In the early campaign you where struggling to maintain the huge empire of yours, but in this campaign you are struggling to take hold of the few possessions that are left from that once humongous empire that supposedly withstood all. After the crusaders took Constantinople by force, the Byzantine Empire was shortened to only 3 provinces, Georgia, Nicaea, and Rhodes. This campaign is hard, but just the right strategies and you might have that once humongous empire brought to life again. First of all build up your army, and your economy. Do this by expanding your trade routes to Israel , and Constantinople. If you have trouble with money, make lots of raids on enemy territory until you have money to maintain your army. Then, after you have a moderate army, bring your men from Rhodes to Nicaea and attack Constantinople and Trebizond. This will fortify your defense system. Then build up again, especially now that you have Constantinople , and ally with all the European nations. Many crusades will come through your lands, so use that as an advantage, after hordes of crusaders weaken the Arabs, it is time to strike them down like flees. Conquer the Turks first, because as I said before they are very dangerous fighters, and go down to Asia after that. Then build up, train units, expand your trade network, and after you’re done doing that, attack Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia . Now that you have completed this task, you have completed your goal, restoring the empire to its original size. But don’t think this is easy to do, just to take over the Turks will take you a little less than a hundred years, and to do the rest about the same time, so when you finally restore it to its original size, it will probably be near 1453, and your dreams of becoming the great Houdini that single-handedly defeated the world with the Byzantines, will fade away. The same happens in the late campaign where you are just left with Constantinople, Nicaea, and Rhodes. In conclusion, if you follow those easy steps which are, to build your economy by farming, mining, raiding, and commerce, and create defensible territories, preferably composed of only two or less provinces that the enemy can attack, and stack those provinces with a big army that will be able to withstand many forces, you will have eternal glory!