Byzantium (Roman Empire) questions

[Glade]

Yes to those who might have noticed ive abandoned anougher campaing and started a new one. Ive tried out Portugals gunpowder units in a custom battle and i was not impressed. Ive also tried out the Greek flamethrowers and those guys are monsters. Im not trilled on the RE's infantry but i can probably make this faction work. My question is what castle to town ration should i keep? The RE has a bunch of coastal castles that i want to convert into towns for the cash but im playing with the RC/RR mod. Am i setting myself up for a critical manpower shortage? Is it dumb to only have inland castles?

Id gladly listen to any Roman Empire tips you guys have. I also notice that there have been some changes with the faction.

[k/t]

I don't know who they have to destroy to win (my guess is Sicily, Venice and Turks), but having all those castles in the west is pretty pointless, unless they will be your border. By the time they grow enough to be useful, your borders will have left them far behind. If you grab Bari, you can convert Arta and Corinth without worries. Once you take Ragusa, there's no point in having Durazzo and Scopia as castles (leave Belgrade and Bucharest to Hungary). Conversely, you can leave Scopia and convert Sofia, that way you alternate castle-city-castle-city. I think Canakkale could also be converted, and you could rely on Adrianople and Isparta to protect Constantinople from jihads. When you take Venice, Ancona and Innsbruck will keep it safe (or you could just give it to the Pope and retreat to Ragusa). Island- or near the water-castles are good because you can pop the troops on a ship and quickly export them to where they are needed. Rhodes could be converted, but I would keep Nicosia, as the enemy will find it even harder to attack a castle if it's on an island. Also, from Nicosia you can attack anywhere in the Eastern Mediterranean then retreat without the enemy (Egypt, since the Crusaders always get crushed) being able to follow you or retaliate.

[Ichon]

k/t made good comments- only thing I would add is simply divide up the regions of the world and assign at least 1 castle each region. Everything else can be cities.

Greece = Ragusa, rest cities.
Thrace= Adrianople, maybe Isparta while Turks are strong and jihads common, can also help guard Bulgaria/eastern Greece- between Constantinople and Adrianople probably ok with occasional reinforcements so Isparta could be city.
Anatolia = Caesera, central location and near area where incursions likely to happen.
Syria = Nicosia, can reach rest of E Med in 2-3 turns by ship and protect coastal Syria.
Egypt = Gaza, 1.5 turns by ship from Nicosia or 3-4 turns from Greece.
Interior Syria = Aleppo, can defend Edessa, Damascus, and coastal Syria.
Italy = Ancona or Innsbruch- not both, just pick one unless its too late to switch.
Black Sea = castle just east of Caffa, forget name right now, but it needs good defenses and can reach rest of Black sea in 1-2 turns by ship.

Usually when enter a new region make capturing a castle the first stop so you can retrain some there and get access to new AOR troops, plus usually easier to manage vs riots if your religion is low.

[Liandro]

I never keep Aleppo, I push so far East it gets left behind and it's always a backwater, I use Diyarbakir or even Mosul if it's worth anything.
Sofia/Bulgaria stay as a castle, I use them to punish the Hungarians for existing.
Thrace/Adrianople stays as well, just because I blast back the Turks, Hungarians, Russians, Crusaders, Jihadists and anyone else crazy enough to try and take Constantinople from me.
The only Italian castle I leave standing is Palermo, and that's because the Sicillians get it up to speed and everything else on that peninsula is lacking, almost always. Ragusa takes too long for me to get everyone around the bend and then up into Genoa and Frances face if I think they have some temerity.
Egypt gets nothing for a castle, I wipe them out so quickly and take their stuff along with, it all gets converted, no one makes it on down to Mecca to take it back, and, if they do, it's not like they'll back it up. I'll just go get it back... but my games are set by stupid rules of never losing a city, otherwise it's time to restart all over again.
Turkey- Caesara goes on a for a while then gets converted, it's just a hassle to throw units around the mountains and expect them to be useful for when I really need to whallop someone, and that someone is usually the Mongolians. When they come I give it to them, and send them and their yurts packing into mapless region beyond Khwarezm.

[Glade]

Thanks for the tips guys. Im planing on expanding up into hungary/venice as far as the rebel settlements can take me while i build farms and ports in my settlements and move my generals around. Im gambling on the Turks leaving me alone while i get my economy up and running. Do you guys know if the Byzantines can build military academies in cities? Im planning on making Constantinople the place i train my young generals. If i cant get a military academy in there im gonna have to keep andrapone a castle in case i get a military minded general.

[Liandro]

They do not get an academy sadly. You would think though they'd get at least a "Great library" of sorts, because where else would the Strategikon come from? I understand the Egyptians getting Sun Tzu's book but the Strategikon too? It's kinda lousy that the Romans don't get it unless they take Alexandria or Baghdad with the great library built by the CPU (which is more rare than cold day in Texas).

[Kulgan]

I would advise against expanding into Hungary and Venice. The main reason being that once you conquer these lands, your new neighbours ( Poland, Cumand Khanate, HRE, Pisa&Genoa, Sicily ) will be waging war on you sooner or later. Unless you also want to destroy them which takes you very long, and this will lead to you being at war against the rest of western europe, it's far easier to hold a defensive border against both Hungary and Venice.

About the Castles : I always keep The central Greek Castle on the Peloponessos, the name escapes me. It's a great base to start naval invasions against the Fatamid homelands, any of the Italian states capitals, etc. Also it gets attacked by Venice or Sicily frequently so defense wise it's also good being a Fortress or Citadel with bad boys inside.


Good luck!

[Graeme]

About the Castles : I always keep The central Greek Castle on the Peloponessos, the name escapes me.

Corinth.

k/t's comments are good but I disagree about converting Corinth to a city. At the start of the game(early campaign) its already pretty well developed as a level 3 castle(Stone) with a few recruitment buildings(Stable & some barracks) so its useful, plus your already halfway to being able to recruit better units so you should keep building upgrades and invest in it. Bari will be under developed unless Sicily get in there early and upgrade it. They dont always do and Ive took it a few times as a wooden castle after Ive consolidated Greece(about 20 turns in).

[Delvecchio1975]

Anything that has a port becomes a city, anything that's inland becomes a castle - it's a great rule of thumb for byzantium, as you're so close to the coast anywhere in your empire. Once you drive on into the middle east or beyond the balkans you need to adjust though, or you'll end up with too many castles ...

[roman glory]

I usually turn every settlement on greece, crete and rhodes into a town, except for corinth.When i'm expanding into anatolia, i only have castles in Isparta, Cannakale and Cesarea and trenizond. From there i could expand to all the east and north east.
With my castle in Cyprus i invade all the middle eastern and egypt

[AnthoniusII]

Have you try to find some tips in CBUR thread?

Relative historical infos
There you can find info's ,tactics and formations (formed with the game's units) and battle examples that could give you an idea how to hundle your opponets.
This early era AAR aims to give you some advises of how Romans hundled their foreign afairs and how they faught.
This late era AAR (unfortunatly incomplete) has the same task .

A simple advice: Cavalry charges and infantry defends.

[Glade]

How do i get the flamethrower guys?

[bɑne]

One of the buildings in Constantinople should allow the recruitment, the name of which escapes me at the moment.

[Grouchio]

Scholae Barracks after 1224, you mean?

[Glade]

I cant get it before 1224? Odd, i can build fire ships before then. They use the same tech.

[Grouchio]

Greek fire started being used by the army AFTER the navy started using it!

[merlinuscdxx]

Greek fire started being used by the army AFTER the navy started using it!

Yep, reason being is that it took a while to design a man-portable syphon and fuel tank assembly. The system used aboard ship was bulky and wouldn't have been able to be lifted by a single man, much less used in combat.

[Caesar Clivus]

Just to clarify: you can't RECRUIT more Siphonatores (that's the firethrowers ) until 1224. But you can still retrain the unit you start with in Constantinople from the beginning

[Glade]

Thanks for telling me. I was worried about using them.

[Sebastos Abdes Pantera]

Focus on one front, Balkans or Asia minor. Block the land bridges with armies or the navy.