Byzantine Campaign...are you kidding me?

[General Store]

Firstly, GREAT MOD!!!! Gotta love the templars and the KOJ!

I am playing it on h/vh and there are things happening that I think are strange

Let me explain:
1) I had very good relations with the Fatimids and yet they declare jihad on me!
2) Moors and Turks join, fair enough, and then the Moors who are at war with the entire Iberian peninsula casually march 3 full stacks right through everyones territory to attack Constantinople????
3) I am allied and on outstanding relations with the Venitians, the Papal States and quite a few other christian factions and yet the Venetians still send a pathetically small force to try and capture Rhodes!
4) Show me the florins!!! Before the jihads I was cash rich, after that I went through 50K in 4 turns and I have only 2 full stacks (1 at Constantinople and the other on Nicosea (which the Fatimids just love). So where is the cash going? In the finance breakdown its showing mostly as loss in trade

I know the Byz. had a tough time of it in real life, but having played a few factions on h/vh, they are not only by far the hardest faction, but I think unrealistically so. The Irish, Norwegians are all a breeze on the same setting

What do other people think? Am I missing something here?

Cheers
GS

[KozaK101]

i think some factions could be made stronger to balance the factions that should not become strong (eg ireland)

u seem to be hangin on though

[Tzuridis]

I love the Byzantine too, and really any other non-orthodox religion country will never truly stay allied with you, Im not saying that someone will, (especially with lovely gifts made of golden goodness) so I strongly suggest you ally with the Rus... even if you dont see them to late game. The Byz are very hard to play if you stay in the middle east, particularly in now a day turkey, those areas are very hard to control with constant rebellions and angry fanatics with their Jihads, so i found it easier to leave and reoccupy those areas, (remember your friend the exterminator) and left Constantinople as my last defence, it gave me a nice steady economy coming from trading in the west (make sure you build ports in Greece) Greece is very profitable try and stay allied with the west, let their crusades pass and maintain trading.

With that little very basic info I didnt find them that hard, just make sure you hold the line at Constantinople. Hope this strategy helped!

[Firebat11]

I never have problems playing as the Byzantines, they are actually quite easy.

Are you playing late campaign or early?

[suntaiguy23]

the byzies are either really really hard or somwhat easy unlike other factions where u don't do much early game, the byz early game is crucial to success, focus on trade with as many ppl as possible ally with venice and turks early game(u kno there both going to betray u but they serve as a good temporary bumper) ally with all ur orthodox friends whether u expand east or west choose one, never fight a two front war as the romans ally wit the pope if possible u never want to be victim of both crusade n jihad. don't expand if ur playin early campaign untill u get at least byz infantry, and use slythicon for rebels early on

[delra]

You should wait for Mongol jihad before you start complaining... :-)

[Sidmen]

1) I had very good relations with the Fatimids and yet they declare jihad on me!

Yeah, they'll do that. After all, you are an infidel. Try taking their port cities and sacking them, tear down everything - then leave, they should leave you alone for a little while.

2) Moors and Turks join, fair enough, and then the Moors who are at war with the entire Iberian peninsula casually march 3 full stacks right through everyones territory to attack Constantinople????

Would you attack 3 full stacks crossing your territory? Especially when you know that they arn't going to threaten you?

3) I am allied and on outstanding relations with the Venitians, the Papal States and quite a few other christian factions and yet the Venetians still send a pathetically small force to try and capture Rhodes!

Venice will NEVER be your friend. Your best bet is to allign yourself with one of the other Italian factions (Milan is best, Sicily will betray you 50% of the time) and try to stir up trouble between them.

4) Show me the florins!!! Before the jihads I was cash rich, after that I went through 50K in 4 turns and I have only 2 full stacks (1 at Constantinople and the other on Nicosea (which the Fatimids just love). So where is the cash going? In the finance breakdown its showing mostly as loss in trade

Yep, trade is your best friend. You need to open up more trade rights, and try to become self sufficient, don't rely on that hefty trade income, especially when you notice that most of it is comming from the muslims.

[General Store]

Thanks for the replies. So it seems that alot of the stuff that is going on is actually hardcoded into the AI? The Venitian love affair and the Fatimid's obsession being prime examples.
This was on an early campaign, last night I started a late campaign (again on h/vh) to test the difference. I am about 30 turns in and I only took Arta and then just built up trade rights and alliances, I have had no Jihads declared on me, in fact I have only been attacked twice by KOJ and both times they paid me 10K for a ceasefire. My relations seem to be good with everyone, even the Turks (and they had startted out as terrible)

So I am wondering what the difference is?

The only thing I am doing differently is not expanding quickly as there are no rebel territories around me and I dont want to declare war yet, the other thing is that every now and again I give some gold to KOJ to keep them fighting their war with the Turks and the Fatimids.

So:
1) Why would my relations with the Turks just increase without me having any interactions with them?
2) Why would there be no Jihads declared on me in the late campaign?

[Sidmen]

Its not hard-coded, but it is intentional. the Muslim factions almost always declare a jihad on Constantinople (as the most advanced city in the world, and because its a victory condition for them).

Venice starts the game with a grudge against the byzantines, and sharing a border with them sets them off (If you have a buffer they usually leave you alone). Its also because you had a crusade against you, they thought you were weak and ready to be conquered.

In your late game things are different, Jerusalem is their main target, not constantanople - so you'll see jihads against it more and more often.

[delra]

1. They start liking you more the more time you spend not killing them but doing something else.
2. Those will happen sooner or later.