Thinking of starting a Byzantine campaign

[Arcinatus]

ok, title says it all. now, the few times i have experimented with byzantine i am ALWAYS getting attacked by venice, basically every turn. what i try to do early on is take sofia quickly, turn my southeast castle into a city, and my island castle near the turkish lands into a city as well. also, i turn the city southeast of Constantinople (sorry i can never remember these names) into a castle, making it my bulwark against any turkish invasion while i deal with venice.

anyway, what are your world domination strategies for byzantine? like, where to focus on your conquests first, how to maximize Constantinople's trade potential, etc.

[Angrychris]

byz campaign started real easy for me, i expanded way fast accross the islands/eastern lands. so fast that venice got pushed back to italy and the turks were destroyed before turn 15. i had egypt by the throat when the mongols came in with mass hordes and i was spread out so thin that i was in debt every turn and eventualy gave up on the campaign. Make sure u have plenty of citys (islands) and try to use the egyptians/turks as buffers from the mongols. other then that have fun and try not to upset hungry/poland, they can help hold germany/venice at bay.

[Sparkshot]

I played with them a couple times as well but I usually cut it short. I want to love them so badly but I just get frustrated with their campaign. The last time I was doing well but quit after the Mongols overwhelmed me. Now I'm not an expert but I hope my strategy will get you on the right footing. The key to the Byzees' survival is to build up your economy and eliminate you greatest single threat in the beginning of the game, Venice. I know my strategy will differ compared to many others, primarily being that I don't think you should blitz The Turks. The reason behind this is because they act as an important buffer between you and the Mongols later on. Secondly, if you are not experienced with defeating the Mongols, what's the point of wasting time and money capturing cities that will soon be conquered anyway? Capture the provinces you know can be defendable and don't burn money to upkeep (Eastern rebel provinces). There’s no need to spreading yourself thin for it will lead to your quick demise. Although they can be potential cash cows, I don't think the provinces are worth the effort unless you are a Muslim faction.

• First and foremost, make alliances with Hungary, The Turks, and the Papacy.
• Send Emperor Alexius to take Sofia.
• Send Prince John to take Smyrna and convert it to a town. Then proceed to send him to Rhodes and convert that into a town as well. You can also convert Nicosia into a town but I think it would be safe to keep it as a castle in case you need to go on the defensive with The Turks early on.
• Next turtle for a while in order to build up your army and economy for probably the most important expedition; to take the city of Venice. In order to destroy the Venetians you must go for the head and the rest of the body will eventually die as they say.
• Take Emperor Alexius (if he is still alive, or another general) with a second general of your choosing and an army to Venice via ship. The Venetians most likely left it unattended so a siege should be somewhat hassle free.
• Exterminate the population and destroy any military and economic buildings (including ports). That way if Venice retaliates and recaptures the city, they will never be able to recover. If the city is taken or retaken, no biggy—better another faction than Venice.
• While this is happening, if you have the means, also take Iraklion with Prince John or an available general for it will be their largest money maker second to the city of Venice.
• Venice will probably send a large stack with their Councillor from Zagreb or Ragusa to retake Venice so be prepared.
• If Zagreb isn’t developed, forget it for time being and go straight for Ragusa.
• Next take Zagreb and the Venetians should be finished, though they could have been a pain and taken Tripoli southward, but by this time you can take it at your leisure
• Keep in mind you will need a large force without depriving your cities of adequate protection from a potential backstabbing ally.
• Probably the hardest part will be defeating the Councillor’s army.
• Once they are gone “the world is yours”, it’s up to you to decide where to go. Personally I would go for mainland Egypt and sack all of their provinces (Alexandria, Cairo, Gaza, and possible Jerusalem) so you have the money to further tech up and develop your economy. But most likely by this time Hungary and or The Turks will be getting antsy so choose your foes wisely. Entering the Italian Peninsula further than Venice will probably lead to a decay in relations with the Pope.

I hoped this strategy will work as it has for me, good luck

[Wheelchair]

Watch my video guides for a good way to play Byzantium.

[Strategie Gamer]

Watch my video guides for a good way to play Byzantium.

Butt you played as a steel campaign (or something like) with new lands very nice man

[Bones40]

I'm in the middle of my first Byz campaign right now. I did almost the same thing as Robert the Kingmaker.

Alliances with Turkey and Hungary right away along with a gift of 100 Florens per turn for 20 turns to each. I let Hungary take Sofia because I really don't need it at the beginning and it seems to keep them from betraying the alliance. Also, if Poland is beating Hungary back, send an army up there to take a settlement or two from Poland and gift it to Hungary. Trust me, an alliance with them is key to being able to focus on Venice early, the Jihads middle and the Mongols late. You want to keep that alliance at all costs.

I took all the rebel settlements in the general area (except Sofia of course) and converted them all to cities aside from Corinth. It was my only castle at the beginning. From there I took Crete and blitzed up the Balkan coast, catching the large Venetian stacks in the open where their Italian Spear Militia can't hurt me and I can shoot them to pieces with my Horse Archers. Avoid large siege battles because you simply can't win them with your week early game infantry against Italian Spear Militia without taking major losses and slowing your advance up the coast to Venice.

From there I took out Sicily in Naples, Sicily, Cagliari and Ajjacio(sp?). Sorry I forget some of these names. At this point my only castles were Corinth, Ragusa and Cagliari. This is also about the point the muslims will Jihad against Constantinople. I'm using the retrofit mod with the grand unit add on, not sure what the differences are but I was able to recruit competent infantry in Constantinople and peasant archers. I raised an army of elite soldiers in Corinth and easily beat back the Jihad.

Of course now you are at war with Turkey but if you take a city and then Caesarea you can get them to accept peace and possibly another alliance. Caesarea gives you a nice staging point to take on the Mongols and you still have a bit of a buffer with Turkey. Your economy should be going strong at this point. Especially once you go to war with most probably Milan taking Bologna, Genoa, and Milan. You can even risk going to war with the Pope and taking Rome and Florence which gives you all of Italy. Now you're rolling in money and can throw armies at the Mongols and Timurids and if they beat you back to Constantinople your fine because your main economy is coming from far away in Italy. And you are in the perfect position to launch a war against all of Europe or North Africa if you choose.

That's what I did, and it's worked nicely.

[Wheelchair]

Go right into your MTW Folder and find LAUNCH STAINLESS STEEL.

its a MSDOS Icon

[Arcinatus]

*looks at video guide*

pretty cool, although i don't have stainless steel, does that make a big difference? :o


oh, and by the way..... cheesecake + ants = not good :p

[Wheelchair]

Lol yeaah... Way to mention food... now I'm hungry.

I reccomend you get Stainless Steel, its easy to Download and install and the mod rocks my socks.

[Arcinatus]

wheres a good link to stainless steel? i've noticed that there are like...3 versions or something... and i need one that is compatable without kingdoms (dont have that yet)

[Musthavename]

wheres a good link to stainless steel? i've noticed that there are like...3 versions or something... and i need one that is compatable without kingdoms (dont have that yet)

Version 4 is the one you want, as thats the latest SS that doesn't require Kingdoms. You can find it as a sticky in the SS subforum, under Kingdoms Hosted Modifcations (4 doesn't need Kingdoms, but its there, but 5 & 6 need it).

Back ontopic. Robert the Kingmaker's strategy is pretty sound. I always ally with Hungary, and then either the Turks or the Venetians and then war with the other. Try and take all the rebels around you ASAP though. Its also a good idea if you can spare some men to take a ship across the Black Sea and take Caffa (or even Kiev if Poland / Novgorod hasn't taken it.)

[Xamt]

i would not recommend ss mod if you dont consider yourself well acquainted with the game.

as for strategies... pick either west or east and focus expanding there

[Sparkshot]

Version 4 is the one you want, as thats the latest SS that doesn't require Kingdoms. You can find it as a sticky in the SS subforum, under Kingdoms Hosted Modifcations (4 doesn't need Kingdoms, but its there, but 5 & 6 need it).

Back ontopic. Robert the Kingmaker's strategy is pretty sound. I always ally with Hungary, and then either the Turks or the Venetians and then war with the other. Try and take all the rebels around you ASAP though. Its also a good idea if you can spare some men to take a ship across the Black Sea and take Caffa (or even Kiev if Poland / Novgorod hasn't taken it.)

I knew I was forgeting something in my post. Musthavename is right, Caffa has the potential to be a great money maker as well. They contributed greatly to my income in my Hungarian campaign. I also forgot to tell you to capture Durazzo, probably because its population takes so long to grow that its not really a priority. When you take it, don't waste men protecting it until it is well developed.

[Arcinatus]

erm, downloaded SS 4.0 and installed (i think) how do i play it? i went to stainless steel through my programs but theres no "play" thing or whatever, only un-install SS. (i'm used to dawn of war and accessing mods through the main game) :o


back on topic:
i never though about going across the sea into southern russia....might have to do that.

[Xamt]

there should be a shortcut in your desktop (there was in mine anyway)

also if you run mtw there should be an option as u click the play button which version u wanna play (normal or ss)

if this doesnt work for u, ask in the corresponding mod )

[Arcinatus]

hmmm....no desktop icon and when i start it up there isnt any option to play SS...

... *goes back to mod section*

[The Noble Lord]

Download SS 6.1 and try the Byzantine campaign there. Its awesome.


CHEERS

[Arcinatus]

but 6.1 needs kingdoms, and i dont have kingdoms!!!!

[The Noble Lord]

but 6.1 needs kingdoms, and i dont have kingdoms!!!!

I see, get the kingdoms first then. You have it for $19.95 at the moment.
Then immediately install SS 6.1 and you will see, you never gonna look back.


CHEERS

[Arcinatus]

o btw... do i need patch 1.2 for SS 4.0?

caffa and durazzo....ok *makes mental note*