Best Byzantine Army?

[Iustinianos]

First of all let me introduce myself. I am Iustinianos, checking this forums since I started playing Rome Total War but never registered. Been playing Medieval Total War for over a year and SS for about 4 months(it's great!) And cannot wait to play SS 6.0

Well my question is this: what kind of armies do you use when you're in the high period of the Byzantine empire?

You see, I am playing a Byzantine campaign(SS 5.1, vh/vh, year 1236), i've defeated the Selcuks and the Fatamids. My empire stretches from Durazzo to Baghdad and from Astrakhan to Mecca. I am making about 30.000 profit per turn and am experimenting with all the new available units. I have won most of my battles with a basic army consisting of:
6 Byzantine Spearmen
2 Dizmounted Byzantine Lancers
2 Trebizond Archers
1 General
3 Byantine Lancers
6 Byzantine Cavalry
This army costs about 3500 florins per turn.
However, now i've destroyed my eastern enemies money is coming in very fast. This allows me to make better armies, so what kind of armies do you use when you're in the high period of the Byzantine empire?

Side note: I do not own any Huge Cities or Citadels.

Thanks in advance.

[Naked Emperor]

I personally am a big fan of Alamanoi, I love Zweihander units. But then again I´m a big infantry fan. Why not cut down on the horsies, include some Guard Archers, Pronomoi infantry and Alamanoi in your army.

[delra]

Who are you fighting against? What are their armies like? What are their best units? Which of your units counter those best?

[AnthoniusII]

Who are you fighting against? What are their armies like? What are their best units? Which of your units counter those best?

A wise question....

[Bacon!]

could upload a screenshot of the map?

that would help...

[Iustinianos]

could upload a screenshot of the map?

that would help...

Ok, this is my empire now + turn report:



And with these armies I conquered the Egypt:

Who are you fighting against? What are their armies like? What are their best units? Which of your units counter those best?

At the moment im not fighting anyone, but war with the Hungarians or the Sicilians can break out soon enough. If I ever choose to break my alliance with Novgorod i'll probably fight them with armies consisting of mostly Byzantine Cavalry.

[AnthoniusII]

Basic byzantine army...
Center:2 byz spearmen,4 byz infantry,3 byz guard archers,1 general.
Flanks(x2)2 byz cavalry,2 byz lancers
Reservs:1 cataphractoi or Latinicon,1 varangians
Total:20 units...
It the most realistic byzantine army you could have with the vanilla units!

[Iustinianos]

The reason why I have so much cavalry is that I needed them against the armies of the Selcuks and the Fatamids which consisted mostly out of cavalry. At the moment my empire is in peace but should it come to war, it is most likely that Hungary or Sicily wil attack me. So what would be the best option against them? And how's the Varangian Guard?, are they capable to hold the line?

[spanish_emperor]

And how's the Varangian Guard?, are they capable to hold the line?

Varangian guard.....trust me they will hold the line perfectly, they are one of the best infantry in the game and the best the byzantines can get if im not mistaken, so to answer your question yes

[Sorime]

I really don't like your army composed of only spearman and cavalry


I don't know very well ERE armies but I'm sure you can make a more equilibrate army, and trust me, it's WAY more funny to play with those armies than with the cav/HA "ruler of the world" army

[Iustinianos]

I really don't like your army composed of only spearman and cavalry


I don't know very well ERE armies but I'm sure you can make a more equilibrate army, and trust me, it's WAY more funny to play with those armies than with the cav/HA "ruler of the world" army

Yeah well, that's why I wanted to compose a different army. I don't like a full cavalry army either because you can win any battle with them. But I really needed those horse archers to destroy the Fatamids.

[AnthoniusII]

I really don't like your army composed of only spearman and cavalry


I don't know very well ERE armies but I'm sure you can make a more equilibrate army, and trust me, it's WAY more funny to play with those armies than with the cav/HA "ruler of the world" army

This is NOT my composition it WAS the basic army formation for the byzantines for some centuries (we like it or not)....

[Sorime]

This is NOT my composition it WAS the basic army formation for the byzantines for some centuries (we like it or not)....

I wasn't speaking specifically of "yours" . Even if i think there is too much horses (i would say 6 max counting HA) but most eastern faction are horses oriented (especially horse archer) and you are right we like it or not, that's why i prefer to play western faction

[Wolfgrin]

I like your army composition for the most part. I always have a center of spears with two Byz Cav on either flank. I'd go with Byz inf, Varangians or Latikon for your heavy inf, as the lancers don't seem to perform well. Also upgrade to Guard Archers. They're not only better missile troops, they are good melee troops in a pinch. If you move west, throw in some Latinkon cav or Kats to counter their knights. IMHO, there is no better selection of troops than with the Byz. So what if you don't have gunpowder. Nothing is going to stop you short of a panzer division.

[gr33kp1mp777]

20 units

Center:
5-Byzantine Infantry (These are your standard troops used for all purposes;can be replaced with lancers at higher levels)
4-Guard archers (Excellent archers and fantastic infantry all in one, my favorite unit)
1-General (Moral and can help against a rear attack in a pinch)

Flanks
6 (3 per flank)-Cataphracts (all powerful heavy cavalry, interchangable w/ latinikon or other heavy cavalry)
4 (2 per line flank)-Varangians (can be placed to guard the vital ends of the line)

[Iustinianos]

20 units

Center:
5-Byzantine Infantry (These are your standard troops used for all purposes;can be replaced with lancers at higher levels)
4-Guard archers (Excellent archers and fantastic infantry all in one, my favorite unit)
1-General (Moral and can help against a rear attack in a pinch)

Flanks
6 (3 per flank)-Cataphracts (all powerful heavy cavalry, interchangable w/ latinikon or other heavy cavalry)
4 (2 per line flank)-Varangians (can be placed to guard the vital ends of the line)

Looking good gr33kp1mp777 . Unfortunatly I can't make Cataphracts yet, but the Latinkon did the job

So, I decided to try a new formation trough custom battle. I used this:
9 Varangian Guard
4 Latinkon
1 General
4 Guard Archers
2 Alamanoi

I used the Varangians as my main battle line, the guard archers planted the stakes on the end of the line. The archers where supported by the Alamanoi, on the left flank positioned my Latinkon cavalry. As enemy I choose my most likely enemy: Hungaria. Their army consisted of 9 Dismounted Feudal Knights, 4 Dismounted Chivalric Knight, 5 Chivalric Knights and 2 Pavise Crossbowmen. This was the result(vh/vh, no upgrades):



Went quite good as you can see. Varangians are indeed very much able to hold a line. And I am also very much impressed with the Guard Archers. I think I am gonna try this type of army against the Hungarians.

[MightyMak]

Pretty nice lineup. No Horse Archers for Hungary? Those guys will ruin your day if you don't have any fast cavalry (Byzantine or Skythion) or archers with longer range. Pretty sure Guard archers have long enough range to match Hungarian Nobles.

[delra]

Your foot archers decimate any horse archer unit they can field... Especially with sharpened stakes that disallow any charge.

[obbob]

man your making enough money that it really shouldn't matter getting an ultimate money. Look how big you are compared to the other empires.

Trust me, its really alot more fun to just make a bunch of weak swords men and charge them en masse at the largest and most powerful army the ai can muster (usually the pope has a massive veteran army made up entirely of papal and swiss guard all in the silver chevrons)

and see how many people you lose.

[stefano89]

Most of time, I always have a standarized army too, but I never played with the ERE, the color just annoys me, purple, BLEGH!

As England, my army is mostly composed of:

4-5 Units of dismounted feudal knights plus armoured seargents
1-2 units of dismounted english knights
1-2 units of halberd units
1-2 units of light swordsmen
6-8 archer units
2-3 units of cavalry inc. general

and in rare occasions, I use artillery, and replace some of the units with an arquebusier unit.