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Thread: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

  1. #161

    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    vae makuria is one of the easier factions due to its position... you can face enemies one at a time and in one direction. The ayyubids can be zerged quickly, until you hit that large city with the garrison script. Build cheap and expendable armies (makuria can do this with ease) made up of bows and javelins... recruit a few medium spearmen to hold the line... and then ensure that the ayyubids fight you in bridge battles (plenty of those on the nile). Rinse and repeat until you rule egypt... now decide whether to fight the koj or ally.

    get some merchants and an assassin on the resources near damascus too


  2. #162
    zburanuki's Avatar Ducenarius
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    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    thanks for your answer,but i'm only about to choose one of these 3 factions,khwarezm,abbasids and kypchaks

  3. #163

    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    khwarezm - before doing anything grab a free alliance and trade rights with the ghurids. now blitz and blitz and blitz... wipe out the seljuks of iraq before they grow large. Get ready for mongol rapeage... try exchanging a settlement for an alliance with them, well worth it... or fight them and get ready for tough times

    tip: cavalry centric forces are best for blitz strategy, make them sally and then crush them with a pure cavalry force. Expect your economy to suck for awhile as you have poor access to cheap levy troops needed to garrison conquered regions inexpensively

    abbasids - not too hard... no serious enemies until later on aka the romans and maybe koj. Baghdad is a powehouse of wealth so spend your dosh on economic buildings. ally with the egyptians quickly before expanding, aid them too I guess OR eradicate the seljuks of iraq whilst they are weak

    sacking is a great way to get cash but lowers your rep

    kypchaks - boring really, would not bother.


  4. #164

    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    Sorry but I have to add the best fighting army is rebels in the game all empires with AI are having kind of self-destruction model strategy even you are playing on the hardest in 20-25 turns you can both destroy East Rome and Armania with Seljuks of Rum in hardest (in my last game east rome's last leader was in Trabzon so he was killed then his empire became total a rebel cities in turn 20 or 19 i can't remember maybe less,Armenia was a piece of cake). I hope in 3.0 A.I will be harder

  5. #165

    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies



    Armenia

    Okay this is my first contribution to the forum so a little patience would be much appreciated. After having played this excellent mod extensively I feel I'm in a position to offer some detailed advice on how to succeed with the Kingdom of Armenia, one of the harder factions to play in Broken Crescent.

    Starting Position:

    Probably the one major weakness of Armenia is the fact that it's starting positions doesn't exactly lend itself to a huge expansion. With the Romans and Seljuk of Rum to the west (Rum in particular being quite expansionist) Jerusalem to the south west and often finding the Ayyubids make their way up Syria very quickly means that you will likely be hemmed in early on and quickly making your way up through the Cicilian mountains often puts you at odds with Rum.

    Army:

    Being a Christian army you can expect quite a few heavy units here backed up by lighter levies or natives and it's an army that is quite well balanced, if expensive. Your spearmen are capable and a core of your army should be made up of the very capable Sahmnapah Spearmen. Archery is also decent enough, although I find myself using archers as a backup rather than the crux of my armies, having an advantage over horse archer (they have more to aim at after all) and able to niggle and pepper other units. The big advantage to your archers is that most of them are also very capable in combat and a well timed charge from them can lead to lines and units being broken.

    However it is in the sword and mace armed infantry that I find Armenia shines. Your mountaineer axemen can be brutal provided they get to charge and not the other way around and Azat Swordsmen will do an excellent job as a simple sword armed unit. I don't need to espouse the virtue of the Dismounte Nakharar Knights either, they have maces and will smash armoured units asunder. My favourite unit however is the Vishap Infantry. Armoured to a degree, they have light javelins to pepper units and break up formation and then rush in with swords to finish the job. Cost effective and with a punch to back things up.

    Their cavalry is useful enough. I can't say I've been too impressed with the light and missile cavalry as it seems they are actually better when chasing down and attacking rear units (archers, siege weapons) or coming in for a rear charge on a unit already pinned. The shock cavalry however is good and the Aspet Cavalry and Nakharar Knights will wreak bloody havoc should they be allowed to charge.

    Tactic:

    So where do you start? I find that you have two options, differing in risk. The easy option is to move north through the valley and take Vakha which gives you a well protected northern barrier. I advocate however taking Antioch early on. With the right buildings in Antioch, Tarsus and Adana, Armenia can become an economic powerhouse (relative to it's size anyway) and this economy will naturally help fuel further conquests. Beyond that, unless you play a blitzkrieg game it's unlikely there will be many other rebel held territory and your next moves will be against a neighbouring faction.

    The byword here is to be opportunistic. With the ERE, Rum, KoJ and Ayyubids all swimming about there will be mighty clashes and you'll be poised to effectively exploit the woes of a particular faction by nicking a couple of towns for yourself. I've found the easiest target to be the ERE, as they often get battered by Rum and the Fourth Crusade and Cyprus gives an excellent opportunity, before moving along the Turkish coast. The Ayyubids also present a target, especially since you would likely be able to count on KoJ aid but I've found them to be a tougher nut to crack so be wary of taking them on. Rum could be taken but really it would need batterings by the ERE and Georgia for them to really be weak enough.

    The possibilities are endless but Armenia is a chess game I've found and every move must be weighed up accordingly.


    Naturally this is not a comprehensive 'one size fits all' guide and any and all criticism is very much welcome.

  6. #166
    TMK's Avatar BC Local Moderator
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    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    Very nice faction tutorial! + rep

    Are you planning on making more?




  7. #167

    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    As I play more and more, if I get to grips enough with a faction to be confident writing one then I will

  8. #168
    zburanuki's Avatar Ducenarius
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    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    once i find some time i will write a tutorial for the byzantines, as i have played many campaigns.
    Last edited by zburanuki; June 24, 2012 at 09:47 AM.

  9. #169
    wudang_clown's Avatar Fire Is Inspirational
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    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    A fine guide, ByzantineByron.

    Under the patronage of m_1512

  10. #170

    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies



    Makouria

    Right so since my last little bit on Armenia, I've stuck with Christian factions and played a good solid couple of days with Makouria, here are my thoughts.

    Starting Position:

    Now looking at the Campaign map the first thought would probably be 'Christ, hemmed into the bottom of the map by the Ayyubids' and it's true that your disadvantage comes with being at war with one of the early game powerhouses. However the other way to look at it is that for a large portion of the early to mid-game you will only be fighting one enemy and the way that the provinces are arranged means that you have a stable path up the Nile, provided you move quickly and methodically.

    Army:

    A staple of Christian armies always seems to be that they are primarily made up of heavy infantry and heavy cavalry backed up by lighter levies. The Kingdom of Makouria turns this on it's head somewhat, with few truly heavy units in the army.

    The Makourian spearmen are units I like personally. You'll start of with the Beja Tribesmen most likely who fill the role of cheap disposable men, decent at taking on cavalry (although expect heavy casualties in doing so) and perfect in later games for the role of militia and town guard along with the Tigrayan Levies. Your core later on however should be made up of a combination of either the Makurian Spearmen or the Abid' Al-Shira Spearmen. The Abid' are slightly better, due to being able to form a shieldwall and having slightly better attributes but they are more expensive so a combination of the two is what I recommend. Your skirmishers are also handy with the Sudanese Tribal Warband and Amhara Skirmishers having a nice javelin attack and stats which make them capable of backing up the main line in melee when necessary. Your heavier units are restricted to two again, with the Beja Tribal Warband giving a very capable sword armed unit and should form your main offensive line. The Abyssinian Champions are the stuff of legend, armoured to high heaven and armed with a crushing two handed sword, they are expensive but should be at the forefront of any charge, to use them any other way would be criminal.

    But by the sands of Ethiopia I love the archers that Makuria can employ. They only have two units in the Sudanese and Makurian longbowmen but their range enables them to cause some damage and pin units in place or beak up battle lines if needs be. Both can be used in a pinch in combat as well if needs be. Now the Makurian longbowmen are better by a reasonable distance as they have a far better defence but are also a lot more expensive. Again, a tandem of the two is probably advised.

    Cavalry wise you have the Omoro Raiders, one of my favourite units. Javelin armed again they pack a punch at a close range distance and I have used them for archer hunting, crashing into rear units where their steeds can break up units, before pulling out to prowl again with javelins. Your Camel Chargers are also useful but will be more so the late game as you encounter more and more horse riders. Your Makurian Knights give you respite with a heavy armed cavalry unit in the likeness of traditional Christian Knights. Like the Abyssinian Champions, use them carefully and use them at the front of your offensive, to break up units and formations and create holes for your infantry to swarm through.

    Tactic:

    Like Armenia, you have two options here. Firstly you need to move east and sweep up the rebel held settlements near you to give you a good starting economy and the option for sea trade. After that you have two directions to expand, the first being across the sea, into Yemen and Oman. It staves off war with the Ayyubids for a little longer and does enable you to control trade with the Middle East into India.

    The other option is to simply move north and take Egypt. The way these territories are laid out does make it easier than you might think, as barring rapid expansion by the Ayyubids down the coast, you'll only have to deal with one settlement at a time and taking Ibrim means that you'll have cut off the option for a quick Ayyubid response, since right up to the coast it'll just be town after town.

    My recommendation? I don't like making cast-iron recommendations as everyone's game will develop differently. However in the campaigns I have played with Makouria I prefer moving straight up the Nile. Capturing the Egyptian coast gives you coastal towns rip for trade and frankly, why fanny about with the foot when you can cut off the head? You can likely enter into an alliance with Jerusalem to help you, as they end up at war with the Ayyubids eventually and having a two pronged Christian offensive can stop the Ayyubid war machine before it fully rolls into place.



    Again, any criticism or advice you may have on this is very welcome.

  11. #171
    TMK's Avatar BC Local Moderator
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    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    Another great guide ByzantineByron!
    Well done!




  12. #172

    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    the armenian guide is outdated. They are an easy faction if you know that the koj will gladly ally with you for free. After that you simply blitz the levant and take as much as you can before turning on the seljuks of rum. No-one will attack you from personal experience, and although the ayyubids have been upgraded in the latest version (they will seize alot of the levant unlike before where the koj dominated it) they can still be forced back with human ingenuity. Basically crush the ayyubids out of the levant and then fight the rum seljuks, antioch is a vital region to conquer for economical reasons.


  13. #173
    Julio85's Avatar Biarchus
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    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    Hello! Thanks everybodies for those advices! I played once in BC with Abbassand Caliphate, and I really enjoyed....now i'm in ERE campain and Next I will try others factions

    Are the Mongols Playable If they will be destroyed in the game?

  14. #174

    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    it's not like vanilla, all playable factions are already available. The mongols are an emergent faction and cannot be played


  15. #175

    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    Quote Originally Posted by nein View Post
    the armenian guide is outdated. They are an easy faction if you know that the koj will gladly ally with you for free. After that you simply blitz the levant and take as much as you can before turning on the seljuks of rum. No-one will attack you from personal experience, and although the ayyubids have been upgraded in the latest version (they will seize alot of the levant unlike before where the koj dominated it) they can still be forced back with human ingenuity. Basically crush the ayyubids out of the levant and then fight the rum seljuks, antioch is a vital region to conquer for economical reasons.
    Hello there nein thanks for the comments. In my personal experience I find that making an alliance with KoJ is obviously useful but breaking that alliance to conquer the Levant could very much harm your standing in the world. The Ayyubids are aggressive as are Rum and on the campaigns I played with them I had to work to keep them in check (as they did attack me several times), after all left unmolested Rum will likely dominate Anatolia. Naturally you'll want to conquer the Levant anyway but my opinion would be that the priorities lie with your Muslim neighbours first before then looking at the Levant.

  16. #176
    zburanuki's Avatar Ducenarius
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    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE


    I decided to write that ''tutorial'' after reading those that wrote ''ByzantineByron'',and as a result I used his style of presentation, and also because i have played numerous byzantine campaigns and i believe that I know this faction better than any other (faction of course not member )

    STARTING POSITION
    :


    You share borders on with 2 future enemies (seljuks of rum on the east and amenia on the south east),so there is a great possibility to face them from the first turns,especially the seljuks.As the game advances, the kypchaks on the north are on your doorstep,the georgians on the north east say hello to you and of course the crusaders along with the ayyubids welcome you on the levant.so you can see that even if you are on the beggining of the campign map,you are surrounded by enemies (well, except the georgians).

    ARMY:

    The byzantines posses 2 of the most powerfull and devastating units of the game,the pelekyphorous axemen (aka varangian guard) and the royal kataphraktous.To have the best of these units you have to pay a little attention to them during the battle and of course keep them safe before their charge.In field battlets these units are your keys to win as they can flee the majority of the units of BC just with their charge.The kataphracts also can also harrass the enemy units with their javelins,but i don't recommend that due to their lack of speed.In sieges you have to use them,especially the varangians,as your driving force to weak the defensive forces.One last thing for the varangians,keep the away from units that use halbreds.
    Except for pelekyphorous and kataphracts,the byzantine army contains also 3 remarkable units.These are the pronoiarious (heavy cavalry),the spatharioi emperor's guard (spearmen) and the vestiarious swordsmen (heavy infantry).Make sure you have many units of these soldiers,because they hold the line for your 2 key-winning units.Vestiarioi are also very good in sieges just like the varangians.The imperial guards have also have as secondary weapon the sword and in combination with their attribute to inspire the nearby troops(just like pelekyphoroi) they can be used as charging heavy infantry and aid other units that losing the fight,especially in sieges.Also in constantinople region you can hire varangian warriors as mercenaries (more in number than pelekyphoroi) that can do the job of the vestiarious and pelekyphorous.
    The other byzantine units exist for only one reason, be baits.Kavalarioi lancers are a decent unit for a charge-withdraw-charge strategy,while kataphracts can annihilate the enemy's cavalry and spearmen and proniarioi can continue to slaughter the enemy's infantry after the initial charge.Stratatoi are good in nothing,anatolikoi eugeneis(available only in cyprus and maybe in ankara) are something between kavalarioi lancers and stratatoi.Thats for the cavalry units.There are also spathatoi swordsmen, that are good for carying siege towers and ladders(if you use siege equipment in sieges) and soft the defenders before the coming of your real heavy infantry.Skoutatoi are decent spearmen and attribute better as defenders and of course we have the unique pikemen of the game,kontaratous who are good in absorbing the initial charge of every unit.In melee, very gently, they suck .
    And finally we have the byzantine missile units,who are the real problem of the empire.You have the mediocre toxotai (aka archers), the trapezitai javelin cavalry,the hippotoxotai (aka horsearchers) and 2 very bad units of javeliners peltastoi and menavlatoi (well, menavlatoi are little better than peltastous).Different enemies need different armies.When you face the seljuks,the ayyubids or the abbasids and the kypchaks you need more horse archers (the mercenaries turkopoles are better than hippotoxotai) just to keep busy the enemy mounted archers,while against armenians and franks you need more heavy units.

    TACTIC:

    In the first 7-10 turns everyone does the same things.Conquer the 2 rebel settlements of Dorylaeum and Amorium, increase the taxes to recover as soon as possible from the debt.What i do to recover faster from it is to sell my map in other faction for 1000-2000 coins,and destroy some useless barracks on the beggining from varna rhodes and maybe leukosia.After that, there are 4 possible ways to follow.
    Firstly,you can do the obvious and attack iconium or ankara,each one is important to the seljuks.When i choose that, i also lead prince Alexius' army (amplified with some mercenaries) to sevasteia (aka sivas) and capture it.With that trick i encircle the seljuks in anatolia, and either they focus on me or try to find their way out against the armenians.
    After the turks are knocked out or unable to threat your empire,you have to prepare for the 4th Crusade in 1202-1204.In all my campaigns the detoured crusaders just lay siege on consantinople and wait 12 turns to surrender the city.In other campaigns the crusaders may assault rigth away with their trebuchets.Despite their appetites, i always attack them before they lay siege.Oh just to mention it for someone who doesn't know it,the detoured crusaders have 2 full stacks armies and it's easier to fight them with night fighters generals.
    The second way is to attack the armenians,BUT you have to secure you frontiers against the turks.The only way is to ally with them by giving worthless settlement (personaly i gave Varna) and some coins,as everyone has his price,even your fierce rival .Attacking the armenians means the crusaders will hate you,so be ready for them.
    The 3rd path you can follow is to ally both the crusaders and the armenians (their beloved settlements are leukosia and seleukeia or if you are lucky enough and have captured Vahka,the armenians will happily ally with you) and head for the Nile Delta.In that occasion you will have to break an alliance with either the turks,the crusaders or the armenians as muslim-christian war is possible.
    The 4th and final way you can choose is to go for the orthodox rebel settlements of the north steppe.That means that you prevent the kypchaks from uniting their hordes,but along with the georgians you can handle them easier.But there are 2 major reasons that i don't recommend that.The steppe settlements don't give any remarkable units and their income doesn't worth all that effort.In either script you have to choose carefully your allies, when will you ally with a faction,which faction will you betray ans when,and finally who of your allies will you follow when they are at war.

    Any criticism and comments are welcomed
    Last edited by zburanuki; July 02, 2012 at 03:00 PM.

  17. #177

    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    Is this thread dead? Its been like, 2-3 years since anyone posted anything! Hey, if someone IS here, can you tell me where to download RUS 2 total war for Medieval 2? Thanks.

    Also, a guide for the Armenian Cillician kingdom:

    First, you have two options, heading West to conquer the Romans, or heading East, to re-conquer your homelands.

    1) Conquering Romans: The ERE is very spread out at the start so its easy to pick off a lot of cities from them! Start by allying the Turks and gather all of your manpower (after conquering Vahakan) move west taking every roman city/castle you see, also build a navy to take roman island cities! And after that its quite easy, take control of the roman empire, build up a huge military power, and invade turkey (BETRAYED!) and after that its full-force back to our homelands!

    2) To Mount Ararat!: Rally your forces and start by taking Vahakan, after that move north-east to take all rebels settlements you see (avoid taking Edessia or Antioch until you can have two full stacks of army, as both cities will cost you the dead of ~80% of a full stack army! ) and after that ally the georgians and pull your forces to Anatolia and kill the turks then the romans! Easy!


    Also, use merchants, unlike vanilla M2TW, the AI avoids using merchants so you can easily move south to jerusalem and use all the nice valuable trade items!


    -Cheers from Armenia!

  18. #178

    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    I am relatively new to M2TW, having played it for a little over 2 months...so i recently downloaded Broken Crescent 2.02, and i found it to be a very enjoyable mod, however, its really hard teching my cities up or recruiting new units, since the costs are prohibitively high Perhaps im just not as good a player as most others, but i really dont like having to rely almost entirely on kipchak cavalry auxilia for the entire duration of my kipchak campaign lol...and after having captured 14 provinces after 56 turns on an M/M campaign, i suddenly found a 12k+ economy going to debt within a turn, for no apparent reason. Some tips for the broken crescent campaign in general would be much appreciated.

  19. #179

    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    Was your economy based on land or sea trade? If it was, maybe some of yours trade partners lost important economic regions, or either they got some of their ports blocked bt pirates/enemies.


  20. #180

    Default Re: BROKEN CRESCENT: Faction Tips and Strategies

    Quote Originally Posted by zburanuki View Post
    EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE


    I decided to write that ''tutorial'' after reading those that wrote ''ByzantineByron'',and as a result I used his style of presentation, and also because i have played numerous byzantine campaigns and i believe that I know this faction better than any other (faction of course not member )

    STARTING POSITION
    :


    You share borders on with 2 future enemies (seljuks of rum on the east and amenia on the south east),so there is a great possibility to face them from the first turns,especially the seljuks.As the game advances, the kypchaks on the north are on your doorstep,the georgians on the north east say hello to you and of course the crusaders along with the ayyubids welcome you on the levant.so you can see that even if you are on the beggining of the campign map,you are surrounded by enemies (well, except the georgians).

    ARMY:

    The byzantines posses 2 of the most powerfull and devastating units of the game,the pelekyphorous axemen (aka varangian guard) and the royal kataphraktous.To have the best of these units you have to pay a little attention to them during the battle and of course keep them safe before their charge.In field battlets these units are your keys to win as they can flee the majority of the units of BC just with their charge.The kataphracts also can also harrass the enemy units with their javelins,but i don't recommend that due to their lack of speed.In sieges you have to use them,especially the varangians,as your driving force to weak the defensive forces.One last thing for the varangians,keep the away from units that use halbreds.
    Except for pelekyphorous and kataphracts,the byzantine army contains also 3 remarkable units.These are the pronoiarious (heavy cavalry),the spatharioi emperor's guard (spearmen) and the vestiarious swordsmen (heavy infantry).Make sure you have many units of these soldiers,because they hold the line for your 2 key-winning units.Vestiarioi are also very good in sieges just like the varangians.The imperial guards have also have as secondary weapon the sword and in combination with their attribute to inspire the nearby troops(just like pelekyphoroi) they can be used as charging heavy infantry and aid other units that losing the fight,especially in sieges.Also in constantinople region you can hire varangian warriors as mercenaries (more in number than pelekyphoroi) that can do the job of the vestiarious and pelekyphorous.
    The other byzantine units exist for only one reason, be baits.Kavalarioi lancers are a decent unit for a charge-withdraw-charge strategy,while kataphracts can annihilate the enemy's cavalry and spearmen and proniarioi can continue to slaughter the enemy's infantry after the initial charge.Stratatoi are good in nothing,anatolikoi eugeneis(available only in cyprus and maybe in ankara) are something between kavalarioi lancers and stratatoi.Thats for the cavalry units.There are also spathatoi swordsmen, that are good for carying siege towers and ladders(if you use siege equipment in sieges) and soft the defenders before the coming of your real heavy infantry.Skoutatoi are decent spearmen and attribute better as defenders and of course we have the unique pikemen of the game,kontaratous who are good in absorbing the initial charge of every unit.In melee, very gently, they suck .
    And finally we have the byzantine missile units,who are the real problem of the empire.You have the mediocre toxotai (aka archers), the trapezitai javelin cavalry,the hippotoxotai (aka horsearchers) and 2 very bad units of javeliners peltastoi and menavlatoi (well, menavlatoi are little better than peltastous).Different enemies need different armies.When you face the seljuks,the ayyubids or the abbasids and the kypchaks you need more horse archers (the mercenaries turkopoles are better than hippotoxotai) just to keep busy the enemy mounted archers,while against armenians and franks you need more heavy units.

    TACTIC:

    In the first 7-10 turns everyone does the same things.Conquer the 2 rebel settlements of Dorylaeum and Amorium, increase the taxes to recover as soon as possible from the debt.What i do to recover faster from it is to sell my map in other faction for 1000-2000 coins,and destroy some useless barracks on the beggining from varna rhodes and maybe leukosia.After that, there are 4 possible ways to follow.
    Firstly,you can do the obvious and attack iconium or ankara,each one is important to the seljuks.When i choose that, i also lead prince Alexius' army (amplified with some mercenaries) to sevasteia (aka sivas) and capture it.With that trick i encircle the seljuks in anatolia, and either they focus on me or try to find their way out against the armenians.
    After the turks are knocked out or unable to threat your empire,you have to prepare for the 4th Crusade in 1202-1204.In all my campaigns the detoured crusaders just lay siege on consantinople and wait 12 turns to surrender the city.In other campaigns the crusaders may assault rigth away with their trebuchets.Despite their appetites, i always attack them before they lay siege.Oh just to mention it for someone who doesn't know it,the detoured crusaders have 2 full stacks armies and it's easier to fight them with night fighters generals.
    The second way is to attack the armenians,BUT you have to secure you frontiers against the turks.The only way is to ally with them by giving worthless settlement (personaly i gave Varna) and some coins,as everyone has his price,even your fierce rival .Attacking the armenians means the crusaders will hate you,so be ready for them.
    The 3rd path you can follow is to ally both the crusaders and the armenians (their beloved settlements are leukosia and seleukeia or if you are lucky enough and have captured Vahka,the armenians will happily ally with you) and head for the Nile Delta.In that occasion you will have to break an alliance with either the turks,the crusaders or the armenians as muslim-christian war is possible.
    The 4th and final way you can choose is to go for the orthodox rebel settlements of the north steppe.That means that you prevent the kypchaks from uniting their hordes,but along with the georgians you can handle them easier.But there are 2 major reasons that i don't recommend that.The steppe settlements don't give any remarkable units and their income doesn't worth all that effort.In either script you have to choose carefully your allies, when will you ally with a faction,which faction will you betray ans when,and finally who of your allies will you follow when they are at war.

    Any criticism and comments are welcomed
    Nice walkthrough. (+rep)

    But I am bit of a picky person:
    1) the writing style was good, to the point and concise. It shows that you've played as the ERE and know their strengths.
    2) However, if you can make clear paragraphs it would make reading the post much more enjoyable. example:
    Quote Originally Posted by Example#2.1
    The byzantines posses 2 of the most powerfull and devastating units of the game, the pelekyphorous axemen (aka varangian guard) and the royal kataphraktous. To have the best of these units you have to pay a little attention to them during the battle and of course keep them safe before their charge.
    In field battlets these units are your keys to win as they can flee the majority of the units of BC just with their charge. The kataphracts also can also harrass the enemy units with their javelins, but i don't recommend that due to their lack of speed.In sieges you have to use them, especially the varangians, as your driving force to weak the defensive forces. One last thing for the varangians, keep the away from units that use halbreds.

    Except for pelekyphorous and kataphracts, the byzantine army contains also 3 remarkable units: These are the pronoiarious (heavy cavalry), the spatharioi emperor's guard (spearmen) and the vestiarious swordsmen (heavy infantry). Make sure you have many units of these soldiers, because they hold the line for your 2 key-winning units. Vestiarioi are also very good in sieges just like the varangians.
    The imperial guards have also have as secondary weapon the sword and in combination with their attribute to inspire the nearby troops(just like pelekyphoroi) they can be used as charging heavy infantry and aid other units that losing the fight, especially in sieges. Also in constantinople region you can hire varangian warriors as mercenaries (more in number than pelekyphoroi) that can do the job of the vestiarious and pelekyphorous.

    The other byzantine units exist for only one reason, be baits.Kavalarioi lancers are a decent unit for a charge-withdraw-charge strategy,while kataphracts can annihilate the enemy's cavalry and spearmen and proniarioi can continue to slaughter the enemy's infantry after the initial charge.Stratatoi are good in nothing,anatolikoi eugeneis(available only in cyprus and maybe in ankara) are something between kavalarioi lancers and stratatoi.Thats for the cavalry units.There are also spathatoi swordsmen, that are good for carying siege towers and ladders(if you use siege equipment in sieges) and soft the defenders before the coming of your real heavy infantry.Skoutatoi are decent spearmen and attribute better as defenders and of course we have the unique pikemen of the game,kontaratous who are good in absorbing the initial charge of every unit.In melee, very gently, they suck .

    And finally we have the byzantine missile units,who are the real problem of the empire.You have the mediocre toxotai (aka archers), the trapezitai javelin cavalry,the hippotoxotai (aka horsearchers) and 2 very bad units of javeliners peltastoi and menavlatoi (well, menavlatoi are little better than peltastous).Different enemies need different armies.When you face the seljuks,the ayyubids or the abbasids and the kypchaks you need more horse archers (the mercenaries turkopoles are better than hippotoxotai) just to keep busy the enemy mounted archers,while against armenians and franks you need more heavy units.
    3) I noticed some spelling mistakes, which aren't bad. But it would nicer if they were correct.
    Quote Originally Posted by Example #3.1
    The other byzantine units exist for only one reason, be baits to be used as bait
    Quote Originally Posted by Example #3.2
    battles battles
    4) Run-on sentences:
    I've noticed some run on sentences as well. They can distracted and ruin the enjoyment of reading the post.
    Quote Originally Posted by Example #4.1

    I decided to write that ''tutorial'' after reading those that wrote ''ByzantineByron'',and as a result I used his style of presentation, and also because i have played numerous byzantine campaigns and i believe that I know this faction better than any other (faction of course not member )


    I decided to write that ''tutorial'' after reading those that wrote ''ByzantineByron'', and as a result I used his style of presentation. Another reason for writing this tutorial is also because i have played numerous byzantine campaigns and i believe that I know this faction better than any other (faction of course not member )



    Ελπίζω ότι αυτό βοηθά ( I used google translate lol)
    Last edited by Morbius Sire; October 28, 2014 at 09:58 AM.
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