Late Campaign Byzantines help

[Irishpsycho]

I'm starting a late campaign on SS6.3 VH/VH with savage AI and no BGR. I was wondering If anyone had any tips for me? I haven't made any serious moves beyond building economic buildings and transporting my extra units towards Nicea. Any advice on which settlements to go for first? Would It make more sense to attack krete and roads first instead? And are there any units I should be striving to get at this point?

[kebo]

In my campaing Seljuks went "all in", they emptied their cities in Anatolia and attacked Trebizond and Nicea. Hold them off and use spies to see which cities are lightly guarded(a general with few spearmen/javelins). Capture those and you're pretty much set

[Silver Legionary]

If you're going for any settlements right now, your priorities should be, IMO:
- Crete
- Isparta
- Iconium
and the settlement west of Trebizond.
Basically, retake Asia Minor.

[Ichon]

It is fairly complicated but not hard if you do correct things... disband expensive units (units too far away or cost alot) and focus on centering your empire where religion is Orthodox. BGR will eat your finances quite harshly especially the early turns. Make capturing Constantinople a priority because it will produce cash you need and serve as a defensive center against Turks.

If you are lucky Turks might agree to peace early on but often they won't. They start out with quite many armies available so you will just have to hunker in cities and weather the storm for about 5-8 turns.

When I played it in 6.2 with Byz and BGR I focused on Constantinople and securing the Aegean as far west as Crete and all the other islands as they can be defended more easily. You should be able to do that quite fast with small armies- meanwhile your mainland cities are most likely under assault by Turks everywhere else.

If you managed to grab Constantinople by turn 10 that helps hugely and worth taking more time capturing the Aegean but unless you have peace with Turks don't attack Constantinople if it contains full stack of rebels. Simply too expensive when you need those units to defend against Turks. I let Trebizond fall, not worth the money to defend it as a poor castle outpost and it drew 3 Turk armies before it fell which was useful.

Once either Constantinople is secure or the Aegean islands(Create, Rhodes) then focus on retaking Greece/Bulgaria. Athens, Thessalanki, and Adrianople probably the most important. If you don't go for Constantinople early on make sure to keep Nicaea defended as it is your most important city otherwise and will draw Turk armies heavily.

Trade with Italians, Egypt, and Hungary helps the money situation but until Constantinople and Athens etc are secure your money will be low and barely enough to cover the fighting against Turks. I wouldn't build anything except- churches, cost effective soldiers, and ships to defend islands once they are captured).

The biggest challenges are getting your soldiers organized and money. Early peace with Turks makes things hugely more easy and peace with Hungary while they assault rebel regions and lose letting you pick up the pieces with few losses works well too. BUT- in my game Turks simply would not accept peace early on... and why should they? They had much larger army and their empire is broken up by Byzantine lands like Trebizond.

Defending sieges with Byzantine units is easy and relatively cheap while armies that can win field battles will take awhile to recruit if you want to win with low losses vs Turks. So defend as much as possible... for instance if you take Constantinople even if at peace with Turks I'd guess they will attack soon and leave Adrianopolis undefended so be thinking aggressively after every Turkish attack to land a counter blow somewhere. Don't venture too far into Anatolia early on... in BGR there is little profit there as the religion is against you. Stick to the coast, Ispara, etc. You can sack and raze Turkish cities inland once you have an army but that army is better spent securing Greece/Bulgaria which will take some time.

Italy is usually easier to get peace with than Turks but will always break that peace eventually I think. However they have poor siege units for a long time and you can relatively easily defend in sieges against them though it is distracting from Turks(or eventually Egypt) who are your main enemy.

The main reason though that Byzantines even in late era campaign are quite easy at least in my opinion is their generals. Your generals move slightly slower than other heavy cavalry but there is nothing that can stand against them on 1 v 1 terms. Averages kills per battle they should get between 100 and 500 depending on the size of the battle. I remember a couple battle that 2 generals working together with 1 mounted acritae wiped out over 2,500 Venetians. Turks are actually only a problem when they are on a hill or have lots of Fari cavalry. If your generals are facing the Turks horse archers they take maybe 1 loss every other volley if that. To the rear they are more vulnerable of course and since they are slower than average no point even chasing the Turkish horses, but the Turk Ottoman infantry die en masse and Byzantines have plenty of other options to deal with the Turks horse archers relatively cheaply.

[Irishpsycho]

Update: It's now turn 10 and the rebels have mostly left the balkans. I retook constantinople pretty quickly so now finances aren't so tight, but both the turks and the venetians have declared war. The turks seiged trebizond with about 8 units of spearmen and archers, but I sallied forth and used my general to full advantage, leaving only about 100 men alive. I've defeated the venetian navy and I have three awsome spies hastening my balkan/greek reconquest. Lastly I'm training Assassins to send against the turks, since bodygaurds can take a big chunk out of your army If your not careful (like me).

All in all I can see My situation Improving allot as greece comes under my rule, but now I want to know, do mongols eat byzantines in late game

[Silver Legionary]

Good question.
In my opinion, the Byzantines have the unit roster power to hold their
own against the Mongols.
An army of theirs will consist mostly of archers, foot and mounted,
heavy cavalry, some line infantry, and siege equipment.

Based on that, you will need LOTS of heavily armoured and armed
spearmen, like Scoutatoi, lots of long-range, decently armoured archers(Mourtatoi),
infantry that can annihilate their line(Varangians, Spartharii tou Vasilieos, etc),
heavy cavalry on par with theirs(Scholarii) and, perhaps, heavy horse archers of your own
(Skythikon, Cavalarii).
Siphonatores can help defend your cities, if the Mongols get that far.

[Lordinquisitor]

Turn 1 Send your princess to the turks and ask for a trade agreement and an alliance.

Wait some turns, build up a fullstack in nicea (by shipping units from greece to nicea) and wait. If you are lucky the rebels leave constantinople and leave only a small garrison there. Take it. Or alternatively storm the city with your fullstack.