Best way to get started with the byzantines?

**Arn** · December 12, 2008, 09:22 AM

I've had a campaign where I succeded to conquer the ottomans, the mamluks, tripoli, naples, sicily and iraq with the byzantines... It was the most enjoyable campaign I ever had but then I learned about something called inflation and I discoverd that my tech levels sucked

Anyway, I can't get started with them agian... The ottomans declare war right away and I'm a vassal or in a hopeless situation.
What is the best way to get started with them? what date is the easiest to start in?

**gobbothegreen** · December 12, 2008, 11:48 AM

I think 1409 is the easiest(if it was the year they have that place in central greece)
Then directly ally with serbia, athens and trebizbond(might be changed to something better) then wait one to two years building up an army then dow the ottomans all the small powers it has to fight will overwhelm it and the moment you can grab a territory or two(preferably adjacent to trace) make peace and take those territories.( all the time try to keep 5 merchants in thrace and maybe try to put a few more in Venice)

Then rush to take the knights, rhodes or naxos( take the one with least or worst allies) from that war, i managed to get a war with the knights and Genoa so i gained Rhodes, the southern part of crimea and that genoan territory in bulgaria or werever it is.

Then wait a few years increase your manpower and build a navy stronger than the ottoman.
When the treaty is over and you got an army of at least 8000 men(preferably around 12-15000 but 8 is enough if you manage to lock most of the ottoman army in anatolia.
So put if you see any rebelion(spies are great at this stage) in anatolia dow the ottomans and put your navy to block the passage to greece. then just take greece and if you feel strong enough then continue into anatolia.
From this war you can hopefully libereate all of greece.

From there its pretty easy to continue but watch out if the ottomans are allied to the Golden horde, you cannot handle their huge stacks in th e begining.
If they are dow a lesser ally of the ottomans that aint allied with the GH.

**ajm317** · December 12, 2008, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by Arn

I've had a campaign where I succeded to conquer the ottomans, the mamluks, tripoli, naples, sicily and iraq with the byzantines... It was the most enjoyable campaign I ever had but then I learned about something called inflation and I discoverd that my tech levels sucked

Anyway, I can't get started with them agian... The ottomans declare war right away and I'm a vassal or in a hopeless situation.
What is the best way to get started with them? what date is the easiest to start in?

Huh. When I started my game the OE left me alone. They started off in 1399 fighting the Timurids (either that or the Timurids attacked right at the start).

I took Cyprus right of the bat. It's fairly rich and like just about everything around you it starts with a Byzantine core. Then I built about 15 galleys and took on the OE with my 3 regiment army.

Since all their troops were trapped in Asia Minor they were powerless to stop my invasion of Greece. Then I built my army up to about 10 regiments, and let their armies into Greece one at a time to destroy them.

Then they gave me 2 Greek provinces. Repeat that process a couple times and you're pretty much on your way. You can use spies to incite nationalist (or patriot? I get them confused) revolts in land around you and there's a good chance it'll flip to you. Quick and easy territory with no war.

Don't worry about taking a little inflation in the beginning. In 3.1 slider moves towards free subjects (which are good moves anyway) have a 33% chance to reduce inflation by 2, and since you start with cores on, well, everything, once you get going you won't have to mint much.

Once you westernize you'll get some huge neighbor bonuses to tech and you'll catch up fast.

**Arn** · December 12, 2008, 12:22 PM

Thanks for the advice!
just one question. I haven't played euII for very long, how do you westernize the faction you're playing?

**gobbothegreen** · December 12, 2008, 12:30 PM

You need to become neighbour with an western faction (when you take greece from the ottomans you will neighbour venices island there and being innovative and centralized enough then you make a national desicion that enables you to westernise.

**Arn** · December 12, 2008, 12:59 PM

Great. thanks mate

**John I Tzimisces** · December 13, 2008, 08:45 AM

If you start patriot rebellions in the one province lombard states (like naxos, athens, corfu, cyprus, the knights, and achaea) their entire (one province) country will be given to you with no reputation loss. Usually a decent chance of success but you will need about 100 ducats each time.

If you're playing divide et impera from the earliest start date it is absolutely critical you keep your fleet in the marmara sea at all times. The ottomans are scripted to attack you and each time they do so the game spawns 6000 ottomans in gallipoli, even if you hold it.

Of course maintaining a good fleet is also very important in vanilla EUIII, as the ottoman european provinces are all unruly and that's easy to exploit.

**Arn** · December 13, 2008, 10:44 AM

I played for a short time with the byzantines yesturday and I first conquer cyprus then spammed the marmar sea with galleys. I went to war with the ottomans and gained Salonica and Albania. Also naxos and Rhodos revolted and I gained their provinces.
I'll need a couple of more years for building up my army/economy so I can take on the ottomans 11000 man army in macedonia and their 3000 men in Janina.