Guide to the Byzantine Roster

[teks]

I'm a big fan of the Byzantine unit roster. It has a bit of everything, yet is wholly unique. With such a dangerous late game position its perfection means the difference between the successful re-emergence of the roman empire, and the historical downfall of the byzantine empire.

Strengths
Powerful professional soldiers.
good mix of units.
Good armor.
Great spears.
Powerful heavy cavalry.

Weaknesses
Lack of progression.
Weak militias.
Slow recruitment.

Melee
Byzantine foot soldiers consist of a large and powerful force of professional soldiers which is reinforced with small packs of elite mercenaries.

The scoutatoi make up the bulk of the foot soldiers, and they are good. Scoutatoi are some of, if not the best spearmen in the game. They take 3 turns to train and have a good pool size/regeneration, but they are not cheap to recruit nor maintain, at least when compared to other spearmen. Their performance is quite a lot higher then traditional spearmen so this cost is worth every penny. Just don't mistake them for the cannon fodder the other empires employ. Scoutatoi can hold the line against any infantry in the game in a frontal attack for a long time. They have great defence against ranged attacks as well. Only the heaviest horses will be able to break them and not without losses. However, Scoutatoi suffer immensely when flanked, especially if flanked by AP units.

Spathatoi are the sword equivalents used for more specialized roles such as assaulting/defending walls or fighting enemy AP units. They are reliable but outclassed by more foot knights and other equivalent opponents. Kastrophylakes, and Sapharioi also fill this role with about the same efficiency in general, but may perform slightly better or worse in specific situations. Kastrophylakes, for example, are good urban fighters who have a higher defense skill and a lower shield rating. They suffer a penalty fighting outside of cities and castles but can be trained in cities. Sapharioi are elite soldiers who come in smaller numbers. They can defend walls extremely well and are very space-efficient flankers.

The rest of the Byzantine melee roster is made up of professional mercenaries, and poorly-trained peasants known as kontaratoi. The later is nothing more then a cheap garrison unit, but the former, the mercenaries, are exceptionally powerful in the right circumstances. The Varangian Guard is the most well-known of these mercenaries. They are powerful shock troops which should be used to flank enemy heavy infantry/cavalry. The Alammanoi are german foot knights who can help fill the need for heavy infantry in the late game. Both soldiers are very expensive to maintain, and have low recruitment pools, so care should be taken to ensure they are used to their maximum potential. They are best held in reserve to fill a weakpoint in the line, or punch a hole into the enemies to cause a rout.

Ranged

The Byzantine archers are made up of borderguards, poor militias, and professional foreign troops who are later reinforced by latin soldiers.

The byzantine empire has good archers called Mouratoi. These are armored superior archers armed with a composite bow and a sword. Large numbers of these soldiers are essential as they are one of the few true counters to horse archers. They have a reduced unit size, likely because they are foreign soldiers. As a result, many of the eastern factions will field slightly better archers just by virtue of numbers. Mouratoi are good at melee so long as they aren't fighting heavily-armored infantry. In desperate situations pulling the mouratoi into melee to prevent a break in the line can be an effective strategy. Mouratoi can be hard to train in large numbers at one location, but don't require a general (gryms mod) to be trained elsewhere.

Toxotae are the militia archers, and they are terrible. These are skirmisher archers armed with a simple bow, so they must get close to the enemy. On the plus side they are decently accurate at this range. They can help burn siege buildings at the walls, but aren't capable of much more.

Akritae and their lessor peasent levy are essential ranged soldiers against western forces. Javelins counter heavy armor at a low cost, and Akritae are excellent javelins. Rare to skirmishers of this form, Akritae have light armor as well as a shield, so they can withstand some arrows and hold up decently in the front lines against enemy militias, but their best use is on walls, on hills, and on the flanks. They fire faster then crossbows with about the same lethality often decimating even foot knights before then can even reach them.

Later on the byzantine empire fills her ranks with latin soldiers to help compensate for the changes in the battlefield. The Gasmuli are greek/italian sons armed with crossbows, and make the best militia force the byzantine empire can train for a very long time. They don't have pavise shields, so they are vulnerable to enemy fire, but they have good crossbows and come in large numbers. Gasmuli are the rare byzantine militia unit which should be sent into the field. In the very late game latin handgunners can also be used. Practically obsolete before entering the field, they can still be useful taking up the role once unique to javelins.

Horses

The real strength of the Byzantine roster, and the only saving grace in the late game. They aren't the knights of the west, nor the archers of the east. They are really a beast of their own and their use is the action which will win or lose the battle.

Lets start strong, the Scholarii. Scholarii must be trained en masse. They take FOREVER to train, and are only available on one place, constantinople. Their pool is good enough that they can be continuously pumped out, and they should be for the entirety of the game. As the enemy rosters advance this will be the one unit which will continue to be strong. Scholarii are famous for three things.
1. Armor, Scholarii wear three layers of armor on top of their horse armor.
2. Maces, Scholarii have powerful maces which wreck even the best cavalry in the game.
3. Unit size. Scholarii are professional soldiers, not noble knights. A unit of Scholarii tends to be much larger then enemy heavy cavalry.
These advantages come at cost, besides their recruitment problems scholarii are absurdly SLOW. Scholarii should not stray from the infantry line. They should hardly even be considered cavalry at all. Use them as shock troops. Hit the enemy flanks and disrupt their lines then follwo through with an infantry charge to allow the scholarii to withdraw. Against enemy knights let the spears absorb the charge, then counter charge and just keep wailing on them. Scholarii are not the best knights in a charge, but in an extended fight they will win against anything.

Stratiotae are the flanking cavalry. They are like super mounted seagents with greater numbers and equipment. They are fast enough to chase down heavy horse archers, and avoid enemy knights. They are also cheap to train and maintain. Stratiotae are better-suited to the role of flankers then the scholarii and their numbers can make up for their other weaknesses. Field large numbers of these against infantry-heavy armies, or those with lots of horse archers. They will gobble up both pretty quickly given an advantagous position. In the late game pronoiarii mercenaries can be used as heavier flankers against armies with lots of knights.

Byzantine horse archers come in two flavors. Skirmishers and archers. The more traditional, reliable, and nationalized horse archers, the byzantine cavalry, are long-ranged archers with light armor, shields, and composite bows. They rely on keeping a distance from more numerous and powerful horse archers the byzantine empire usually faces. They are also decent in melee if the opportunity to charge light units comes to fruition. Make no mistake that they are outclassed by many horse archers fielded by surrounding factions, and they have a slow recruitment pool. If the need for large numbers of horse archers arises local forces are often the best bet, espesially the maygar cavalry who are cheap and numerous.

Finally the Ippoakritae, the general slayers. Great skirmishers, and the mounted version of the border troops. They are good mounted javelins with light armor and shields to protect them from light enemy fire. Against enemies with low numbers of archers, and high numbers of heavy units the Ippoakritae can be deadly effecient. They can slay kings in a few volleys if left to their own devices. Without horse enemy horse archers to put them down, these soldiers can decimate key soldiers before the battle even begins. They are best used without skirmish mode so they can be placed as close to their target as possible. After using their munitions they can be used as flankers to help cause an enemy route, or to take out stray archers/siege units.

Misc
Siphonatores, These guys deserve their own place. Its easy, EASY, to get 600+ kills with this small contingent of soldiers. But they are men of great strength and weakness. You will never be able to amass an army of them, and they are terrible hard to replace. Mounted units will hit them before they have a chance to fire, arrows will wipe them out in no time. Moving towards an enemy tends to jumble them up, and sometimes it takes them forever to fire as they readjust their equipment. Finally, they are prone to inflict more friendly-fire then even mangonels.

Hold siphonatores in the flanks, let them slowly sneak up the sides, and they will completely decimate entire units in seconds. Let then enemy infantry charge them and watch them all burn mements before they strike. Set them up on the sides beside the gate and watch entire armies of elite soldiers burn and run. Try not to move these soldiers too much. One good strategy is to have skirmishers in front of them to take the arrows, have the skirmishers move out of the way as they line up their shots. Be extremely careful not to let them stray, because the AI will use any opportunity to charge them with cavalry.

I like to put at least one of these guys in every border fortress. Their presense ensures that my garrison can take out a far larger enemy force every single time. I could care less if some militia spears die in the process anyway.

Wrap up

Well thats all, I hope you someone finds this useful. I've spent a lot of time with the byzantine roster, but still have a lot to learn as well. Later I plan to return to this with battle formations, an army compositions. With the byzantines its all about making wins with little losses. Byzantine armies can't handle losses.

[jurcek1987]

Excellent guide