EU4 1.34 Byzantium Guide - The EASIEST Way To ALWAYS WIN

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In this video titled EU4 1.34 Byzantium Guide - The EASIEST Way To ALWAYS WIN I make an EU4 Guide for Byzantium for Europa Universalis 4 1.34 Lions of The North. With EU4 1.34 Lions of The North releasing the meta and the starting moves for many nations on the map has changed, so of course new and up to date guides are needed. This EU4 Byzantium starting moves guide or EU4 Byzantium starting moves tutorial will ensure that you get a great start for yourself playing as the nation of Byzantium. This guide covers the opening moves, diplomacy, estates, alliances, subjects, missions, national ideas, and more! Byzantium is one of the best nations for playing wide, dominating trade, having an overpowered army, trading, forming The Roman Empire, doing a world conquest and more. After watching this EU4 Byzantium guide you will ensure a great start for yourself, and you will have an easy and fun campaign. The save file is available for all Tier 1 and above KZbin members in the save-games Discord channel.
#eu4 #europauniversalis4

[@TheRedHawk]

What is the next nation that I should do a guide about? Leave a comment here and join The Discord to chat with me and get the save-game if you're a KZbin Member: discord.gg/ksDjjUhKHd Check out more nation guides here: kzbin.info/aero/PLsO8A6cTBgguX6W3b2j-9IlbSHn2nR8wO

[@rayroanmccreary1981]

Poland

[@dvtch]

Mamluks

[@maximilienmyre2172]

Karaman

[@simonmalund]

Poland plz

[@GwainSagaFanChannel]

Polen

[@BobBlevin]

Byzantium got so many guides, I think it's one of the easiest "hard" nations in the game. But your Byzantium guides have always been my favorite, due to not being too tryhardy and not leading my nation into bankruptcy when I try them. I'm a seasoned player, but I hold little to no actual skill, so watching guides like this really helps me learn new tricks and tactics. Take care, brother!

[@Kris-lu1rs]

Agreed. Its crazy how informative these guides are. But I also think its funny how you can "only" have 1000 hours into it and not be a good player

[@frad.a5854]

@@Kris-lu1rs yeah, I almost have 800 yet I play on very easy because I’d be weak on normal and hard

[@treekangaroo.7691]

The fact that I have over 500 hours but still suck pains me

[@John_1-1_in_Japanese]

These nerds have it down to a science. I remember a fabled Era before the invention of such things as "states" where the Byzantine strategy was "No CB someone far away" kek

[@Imper1um__]

@@John_1-1_in_Japanese back in my day Ireland was 4 provinces!

[@SuperJJAlexander]

The Kocaeli event does not change the province name twice, it changes the province name to Optimatoi and the city name to Nikomedia.

[@Eluno91]

Before 1.30ish Byzantium had no dynamic province names in Anatolia until you've finished Reestablish Theme System which was changing province names to Byzantime/Roman ones, and Nikomedia Reclaimed! event the was the only exception to this

[@CJC90909]

I know someone was asking about lesser known nations guides - why not do one for Mongolia! There’s so many achievements for them and the start is super interesting and it will definitely be more successful than a Bahmanis or Kilwa guide.

[@zeahoughtaling7912]

Honestly would love to see that. Great idea

[@rsabinioan]

Mongolia is pretty easy once you start bullying Ming and make bank from them by attacking their tributaries that they always defend

[@rileywilsonepicarcher9995]

Mongolia isn’t too far away on A to Z though, it’s only a few letters away

[@jasonlange9637]

Mongolia is actually hilariously easy to form with the new Teutonic Order now, as silly as that sounds.

[@CJC90909]

@@jasonlange9637 oh I know trust me, I was just speaking about actual Mongolia.

[@danakil1]

At the start of the video you build 3 infantry units, but it is more efficient to hire the free company, you can make them siege down forts for you to save some manpower and they cost you less upkeep compared to your 3 infantry units. Once you've taken arta and epirus as a vassal your force limit will go to 12, so you won't be over your unit cap either. When you've finished the war against Epirus you can then keep the free company and use them again against the ottomans, while the years pass the free company size will increase and you basically get free units with lower upkeep who cost you no manpower. Made it even easier when I used this guide. Great guide, worked well.

[@apurvkanth]

I would really like to see a guide for the Mongols maybe, I think that would be really cool to see

[@ramp597]

yes

[@camilocarena]

Spectacular content as always. Just Yesterday i got basileus following your previous guide! That detail about clicking order in peace deals is huge.

[@paka8411]

Loving the vids man, keep up the good work. Love the A to Z Videos aswell

[@TheRedHawk]

Appreciate it!

[@oversecus833]

@@TheRedHawk But why the facecam?

[@paka8411]

@@TheRedHawk 🤙🤝

[@im_b_ran]

been waiting for a 1.34 byzantium guide for a while since i’ve only got 200 hours in the game… this was the best channel i could have asked a guide for!

[@balazskicska3187]

I know it's RNG so it is not the guide's fault, I just wanted to share with you my runs: First two - Epirus got an ally. Third: Rhodos raided me so I could not ally them, Skander beg died instantly, and an 18k Otto army stayed in the Balkans with a 3/3/3/1 leader. Pain :D

[@kaiserwilhelm1914]

you can still do it without the knights but if they start raiding they become annoying so just try to get rid of them as fast as possible

[@nantucketsleighrider7983]

Guarantee the Knights from the start, as well as Albania, get a diplo rep guy right away, and hire 2 Mercs and make sure they are hired in th provinces they will spawn the quickest. On the next month tick as your army size increases to 16 you will be able to ally Albania, and on 31 dec you will be able to ally the Knights, provided they did not ally any of your rivals. Give it a go.

[@spudzzy0373]

I love your guides since they're the best ones to follow even for new (1k hours) players such as myself. Adding chapters to them (i.e. Starting Moves, First War, Interwar, etc) would be great and would help people find what part they're on if they need to come back to them later. Keep up the good work

[@dominicbyrd2302]

How is 1K hours new? I’ve been playing for over a year and only have a couple hundred.

[@spudzzy0373]

@@dominicbyrd2302 With most games, 1000 hours is enough to have learned just about everything in the game. With EU4 you are constantly learning/finding out new ways of doing things, what you're doing wrong, etc. Plus its just funny to call yourself new to the game despite having thousands of hours in it

[@lonenation1828]

@@dominicbyrd2302 it’s a meme

[@lilbucky19]

Of course Hawk makes a 1.34 Byzantium guide just days after I finally had my own successful Byzantium game; your timing is impeccable, man!

[@patnewbie2177]

Can't wait for your guide on The Knights!

[@clearlypellucid]

I like Admin ideas as an opener for Byz. The Merc bonuses stack up nicely with Byz's NIs and with the coring cost reduction combined with all the free claims you save a lot of ADM.

[@Imper1um__]

my general rule of thumb is don't take an admin idea as first idea group, so that you can quickly rush tech 7 and get the second idea group, then take an admin idea

[@SebHaarfagre]

You won't use any admin to core for a long, long time though, except The Balkans - everything else is vassals or already cores

[@CharlieKellyEsq]

Ur mom likes admin ideas. She hires a lot of "mercs"

[@cyrusol]

Also, it's not much but admin tech is getting cheaper from having an admin idea group 2% per idea, 14% for a full group. Another 10% from the finisher of _the_ admin ideas. So it doesn't only save admin mana on coring. Also I think Red Hawk is wrong on this: Always focus on admin from Nov 11th 1444. The only really bad downside is that you can't take Religious before the 3rd group then. And Deus Vult = -25% less AE and no "do you have a claim?" issue.

[@Justin-oy6es]

Incredible Guide! Thank you for that! ^_^

[@TheSamwise61]

*chef kiss* always love a touch of Future Hawk

[@joanserrano9086]

Thank you, I had a lot of fun playing Byz

[@triploshadow]

1 Thing I have noticed is as soon as 1454 hits you should immediately integrate Athens, You have a core on Athens thus integrating it takes about 1 month. As soon as im done with the ottomans I put them on Scuttage mode and integrate them asap so I can free that diplo slot. I have been liking as of late Defensive ideas, the policy with humanist that gives -25% attrition + 0.05 war exhaustion is absolutely insane that attrition reduction will save you obscene quantities of manpower and the early morale boost is very nice as well.

[@SebHaarfagre]

Manpower is not that important in single player but I agree the morale is nice and the +def coupled with proper fort placement makes you impregnable and it combos well with basically all other ideas. It's always my 2nd mil idea if not earlier. Why integrate Athens at once? It's free soldiers and free galleys there's no rush? Edit: I guess I should rather say +manpower modifiers is useless in SP, to be precise, but I'm so used to always having defensive ever since 2-2,5k games - it's not only the attrition reduction but said "fort defense" also makes you able to _not_ stretch your armies thin and thus only ever need to focus on one front. And the enemy will always lose. Given you go for some +siege bonuses as well and get forced march early - it all just snowballs up. Stackwipes and total control everywhere. Quicker wars, less attrition, more damage to enemies, ignore enemy in your own country.

[@lukekelly3900]

Your guides are spot on, been trying as Byzantium for years and can never do much. I’m not a great player but your guides are helping me out massively. Cheers my guy👊🏻

[@vicheaify]

Always loved your Byzantium guides. Best EU4 channel by far

[@jorgovan-ni9kz]

check budget monk channel or some others, there are better than this... taking religious diplomats when there is no other country thats ortodox besides byz is stupid... he did the same thing when playing muscovy which is stupid as well... gives u lot of influences for nothing... check zlewikk or florry they are both amazing... i like watching laith from social streamers or red hawk but they both got nothing on others...

[@lefe7444]

Great guide!

[@jorispoels3183]

wow thanks! i didn't think i'd ever make it to the point where i recover all of greece and edrine. is was easier then i expected especialy with this tutorial

[@cyfix7295]

This video is just what i needed 🥳🥳🥳

[@TheRedHawk]

Enjoy!

[@christovanderwalt1485]

When you talk about what you're doing and giving a reason why, it makes it much easier to follow along.

[@r_angel_ov]

Could you add like a bonus clip at the end where you show us the map modes and point out interesting stuff ( Naples on their way to unite Italy for example :D )

[@bassdasdwadsasdasw]

18:40 "Once you siege down their capital, they will become sad" Yeah, that's understandable

[@d00gyplays17]

great video. A theodoro guid would be nice :)

[@TheJamToasty]

Very good guide

[@malchelo-7627]

Your Byz guides are the best to follow. Can you do Knights too?

[@aseray9394]

Thanks for this video.

[@Aerozona23]

i already have the byzantium achievements but i love playing them over and over

[@belisarius1453]

same!

[@blagerthorpnonersense1894]

One thing you can usually do after the first war against the Ottomans and you build up to force limit is ally the Maluks. Allying them lets you call them into your subsequent wars against Ottomans which keeps them from expanding into Anatolia. You get more land and limit them making them easier to beat when you chose to start fighting them.

[@thegeneral1583]

Great guide

[@shawnb1649]

I take 2 galleys in the beginning and put them to stopping the raiding of Tunis and the Knights in Ragusa trade node and Constantinople trade node. This way you won't lose opinion of the Knights, which can slow allying them( and of course no debuffs).

[@jarleisenfaust570]

And i thought you are going to release Germiyan in Anatolia for the memories of this painful Releasables campaign! 🤣😂 Anyway great guide again and very helpful!

[@Fertro]

Oooh this one was a big help. I'm still newish to the game, and holding out against the Ottomans felt impossible. I didn't even think about beefing up my navy and using them to stop the Ottomans from crossing...

[@jeune_turc9404]

But they still pass? How do I stop them?

[@Fertro]

@@jeune_turc9404 If I'm not mistaken, if you haven't occupied one side of the crossing (Gelibolu in this case) they can still cross even with your navy blockading. That's why you want to bombard and assault the fort. You'll take heavy losses if you assault it, but you'll occupy the province pretty quickly, and then you're set as long as you keep your navy blockading.

[@hum4noid989]

@@Fertro Yes, you might be set until Venice arrives to the party uninvited and messes the whole thing up...

[@scottkrafft6830]

What an excellent guide! The only thing somewhat inaccurate was the difficulty in fighting Venice at their peak. Their navy is exceptionally strong and basically impossible to take head-on before 1500. Everything else worked out perfectly no restarts, I DID manage to fight (and win) against Hungary,

[@taylorwhite3636]

Awesome thanks

[@azarothy5144]

great guide

[@brandonbarrett6730]

I always have the absolutely worst possible luck when I try to follow these guides. All of the things that rarely should ever happen, will 100% happen to me. LIke Epirus always having allies, or if not, the Ottomans declaring on me instead of Candar or somebody.

[@brandonbarrett6730]

I am trying to follow this guide exactly, but the Ottomans declare on me every time even if I have Albania and the Knights as allies. I just tried once more and then hired some mercs WHILE I was waiting for Ottomans to declare on somebody else, but then they just simply didn't declare on anybody while I hemorrhaged money keeping the mercs raised. Once I disbanded them, the Ottomans declared. Oh well.

[@SebHaarfagre]

@@brandonbarrett6730 You guys know the AI considers your strength when choosing who to go for right? If you have no army they will DoW you and vice versa. This goes for your allies too by extent. You don't need an army to win just navy, but it sucks to not use the reconquest CB. I can't remember if "return territory" works as well but at least it's better than just clicking the provinces in a defensive peace deal

[@diluca1977]

better than all of budgetmonks byzantium guides and that’s the real accomplishment, good job!

[@diluca1977]

@Sugarz partially true, i play exclusively on very hard myself and this guide does in fact work on that difficulty too.

[@diluca1977]

@Sugarz idk, that island strat of budgetmonk, for me at least, is very rng. this one tho is straight forward and troop-numbers dont matter in this case cause ottomans will stay in their harbor with all the ships of your allies + your ships over forcelimit

[@coper2098]

was finally able to pull a byz game off thanks to this

[@cobbil]

I absolutely love playing Byz, though I've always failed to reform the Roman Empire with them. Italy just drags on for so long.

[@guyburgess7832]

I have the same problem, played it loads, no problem with the Asian, African and Balkan stuff, often no problem with Italy either if you crack into it early. But by that point Spain and France are insane beasts and I can never do better than a stalemate war.

[@ATemplarIGuess]

@@guyburgess7832 the worst part about them is their colonies, Spain is so spread out that your unlikely to get more than 50% war score by occupying just Iberia

[@americankaiser2207]

My last game I conquered up to the land that Belisarius had reconquered just after taking Rome, and made the mistake of taking (I guess) one to many provinces in Northern Italy. Because the literally entirety of Europe declared a coalition war on me due to AE.

[@starlord7774]

"Just take their capital and they'll become sad" Red Hawk - 2022

[@KrexGamingTV]

thanks dude

[@MrMartin48705]

If damned Venice wouldn't attack Athens every time I tried to wait out the war with the Ottomans, maybe this would be possible. Will give a try once I mentally recover.

[@W1llbam]

I just tried it - Worked perfect, zero restarts. Brilliant.

[@ryzou4972]

venice didnt attacked you?

[@W1llbam]

@@ryzou4972 They did haha, but that was after my comment 😄

[@mynameisjack3404]

Nice video, btw is the focus tree from domination. I have the DLC but not the focus tree

[@copeandseethe9279]

You should do a guide on a SEA country like Ayutthaya or Majapahit. Both are super fun.

[@bomontius]

I recently played with majapahit and i agree it's super fun. But I think they forgot to change some mission awards, for example I recovered from -5 stab and made it up to +3 but still when i finish some missions it gives +1 stab which i cant get. they should add "+1 stab or +100 adm points" etc.

[@SebHaarfagre]

@@bomontius Just do a no CB or kill your leader or something if needed then regain +1. At +3 you get more negative stab events, I tend to lie at around +2 and not bother wasting admin for +3, that's what events are for. White Elephant is quite fun indeed. Pirate Malaya is also fun. No achievement with the latter, unfortunately

[@pilias]

0 for 4 on this one. The Ottomans always just declare war on me after the Epirus war.

[@pilias]

Finally got it to work on the 6th try. Very RNG though.

[@pilias]

Didn't last long. Ottomans allied Venice before the 1st truce ended. Can't hold the straits against Ottomans and Venice. Couldn't get alliances with Hungary, Poland, or Austria.

[@Andrew-pd6ey]

Good guide, it seems to be mostly doable everytime but there is only one thing I cannot do which you did, ally the knights. They always raid me giving me a negative opinion of them, unable to form alliances.

[@iamherenet1569]

For some reason this wasnt the one Google gave me when I searched but last years plan still worked

[@yeetmcskeet6872]

I love guides like these, the only problem is that I only resort to them after smashing my head into a brick wall for the 1000th time.

[@r_angel_ov]

If you guys make mistake when releasing subjects check whether you can take the land from them and still release the other ones (like in this video, you could take the province from Karaman and still release Eretna)

[@SebHaarfagre]

That does not always work if they share cores; it'll say it will release two but only release one, who get the core/s of the other. Or, if you meant double checking both ways then that works too but it's easier to just see on the map what's highlighted and remember it. He didn' necessarily make a mistake either, except he released them in the wrong order.

[@r_angel_ov]

@@SebHaarfagre Umm, I don't think you understood my comment. If you make the mistake which he made (releasing them in wrong order) you can take land from the bigger one (Karaman in this case) from the subject interactions tab. Then (once you own the province again) you can release other subjects (Eretna in this case).

[@deuschess816]

that's an ideal 1456 start date, all cores + the crossing fort

[@rimanpele]

6:00 you can also get as many aliance as you can (even going above the limit). it may convince the AI to not attack you and save a lot of your time. After they declare on someone you can get rid of your aliances to save points I like keeping big vassals in the balkans until the mid game so i can rush influence + admin (make it easier to annex + core cost reduction) and eat anatolia in the meantime. This way you can trade culture to turkish easier (no need to unstate all your provinces) and enjoy being in one of the most relevant culture groups in the game (dont need to accept cultures + get more core cost reduction). Having extra admin points is also pretty good. Not having religious ideas is not that bad, you can get to 100 authority without it, also you get cores on everyone with mission tree, so the deus vult cb is not needed. Its also fun to get diplo in third so you can stack with the age ability and eat massive chunks of the middle east and coring it pretty cheap and pretty fast (cost reduction impacts on coring time).

[@GarkKahn]

I can't wait for 1.35 guide Also have you made one for colonizing america as one the big european nations?

[@thomasj3421]

I agree with most in this guide

[@flyinghighinthebluesky7445]

My favorite thing to do is to solo the Ottomans and baiting them over the straits and then blocking the straits as soon as they cross over. You can stackwipe their armies multiple times, cross over into Anatolia and get 100% war score in the first war :)

[@mikev4135]

I love that strat, it's so satisfying haha

[@thedanelord2329]

Arhh yes byzantium my fav. Nation in the game thank you for the guide😅😂❤

[@MrBattlecharge]

Would love to see an Aragon guide!

[@GwainSagaFanChannel]

Red Hawk you plan to do another big collab challenge

[@TheRedHawk]

Nothing planned right now!

[@JordanTheRabbitMonkey]

The Knights next maybe, sometimes the AI makes it rise up and defeat mamluks but I don't really know how to do it as a player

[@derekskelton4187]

Japan would be pretty cool. It's not one of the big ones, but still probably interesting enough to make a fun guide

[@ThePumpkinRot]

The knights always raid my coast shooting the chance to ally with thim in the back of the head.

[@nathantamplin3244]

Right after that first war with the ottomans you said it wasn’t necessary to keep the alliance with The Knights and Serbia. I would say it’s a good idea for the time being to keep an alliance with The knights until you have some free time to conquer them. this is because they have the ability to raid costs of people from another religion at the start unless you are their alley (They are catholic, you are not, so they will raid you). Staying allied to them until you have some free time to conquer them will help you stay stable economically a bit more for a bit longer.

[@erusean8492]

Always like guides. Beloozero guide when?

[@angeliek460]

What graphic mod do you use? love the content btw

[@omnipotentfrog7956]

I did Byzantium recently with a very similar strategy, the only exceptions being that I did not declare on Epirus at all before fighting the Ottomans, I only allies Albania, and I sold all my non-galley ships and built up to 18 galleys. I had naval dominance even with the Ottomans allying Tunis, and Epirus eventually allied Genoa allowing me to take their islands when I declared war on them. Would recommend.

[@quemserei]

Followed this guide, almost step by step (no knights alliance) and won the war again Otto. Sadly was on the verge off bankruptcy, before I could get any strong alliances Venice declared war on me. Don't think I will recover. They will peace out if I give them Athens...

[@user-zg4bk6rv1q]

Hope you do Dali somitime

[@weinhel2996]

Oh boy I love you :)

[@Balian977]

guide for granada would be perfect !

[@is0lated]

One potentially very annoying thing that might cause a restart is if the knights raid your coasts causing you to be unable to ally them due to a negative opinion malus.

[@eveei]

yes, but u don’t really need knights tbh, u can still win the naval battle fairly easily and ally after

[@mikev4135]

I love your guides! If I didnt have really terrible luck (rnjesus hates me) I would play these nations more. Seriously though last time I tried byz I got every worst event you could imagine, ottomans naval invading the Balkans, ruler and heir died which spawned 14k pretender rebels and lowered my stab to -3, starting a peasants war. And of course skanderbeg was killed when he for some reason invaded anatolia with 2k troops. Just why haha

[@TheLucasdoze]

One problem I had in trying to follow this guide was allying the Knights. Not that they didn't want to ally me, but their raids reduced my opinion of them by so much that it became impossible to form an alliance. Somebody here gave the idea of using two galleys at the start in the Ragusa node to avoid this initial bombardment of raids. I will check it later. The rest of the guide usually worked, with some exceptions, like Albania attacking and annexing Serbia before I could attack them (and they were allied with Venice) and the ottomans going around the black sea due to the access they gained through a war involving the great horde.

[@d.h.graeff5177]

I have the same thing rn, restarted a couple of times as some things didn’t go to plan, but never did the knights not raid me

[@GarkKahn]

Same here Ended up allying serbia instead and it actually worked perfectly as alongside albania and myself we took the entire european territory from the ottomans

[@hum4noid989]

Same problem with the Knights. Went ahead anyway and didn't really need them to handle Otto. Their first war was on Theodoro so one of their stacks made its way to our side of the sea afterwards, but we managed to take care of it with Skanderbeg for additional warscore. The whole thing fell apart at the last minute though, as just before reaching max warscore, Venice declared on Athens out of the blue and came around to beat up our navy. It was all downhill from there.

[@ATemplarIGuess]

Anyone else think that byz looks really pretty when it has all of the balkans and Anatolia and nothing else?

[@bretthuff8971]

Ever think about making a part2/3 and forming Rome?

[@md_studios9819]

I was following this guide when i found out that I could make an extra 3 ducats per month by lending out money. I saw that I could lend money to Mecklenburg, about 56 ducats at 5.65% interest most recently, and they paid back 59 ducats just a few days later.

[@carltonleboss]

I'd love a Novgorod guide.

[@yummyananas]

I love these guides but they are getting mildly repetitive (Byzantium, England, France, Florence all have multiple guides). Would love to see more varied guides for flavorful countries outside Europe like Kilwa, Orissa, Dai Viet, etc

[@TheRedHawk]

I appreciate your suggestion however the reality is that those videos would not perform well at all

[@yummyananas]

@@TheRedHawk Understandable, if this is what keeps the lights on, so be it. EUIV fans really love repeating the same campaigns (Tall Florence, Prussia Space Marines, France Elan, Mughals WC, Austria OF), which is a shame because there is so much more under-used flavour. Anyway, keep up the amazing A-Z and Releasable series and look forward to your future guides as well!

[@akternal]

@@TheRedHawk For the views or for the viewers?

[@AngelGarcia-kk4eo]

@@akternal Views

[@akternal]

@@AngelGarcia-kk4eo based

[@johnnicholas1657]

Great video, but the mamluks are looking nasty by the end. In my experience since the Levant dlc mamluks are probably tougher by the late 1500s. I think any guide should include a plan of how to hamstring them early

[@stire8418]

In my runs it is usually Poland / Commonwealth who messes everything around mid 1500-s.

[@SebHaarfagre]

I would recommend vassalizing The Knights or Cyprus. It would be best for them to be catholic. Give them galleys up to fleet limit for free and hope they recruit an admiral -> Bam, vassal permaclaims in the Middle East and it will just snowball from there. The bonuses they get is kinda nice too if you help them with their tree. PS: They *must* be independent for the first part of the tree to be done. So sell the ships as early as possible and wait as long as possible before forcing them under you. Check if they have claims on Aleppo and Palestine. If they do, you're good. Just as with the naval force limit part, you can annex Malta and sell it to them for free while they're independent for free early permaclaims in North Africa. Make sure to delete all buildings before giving away. Dev up if needed and build a shipyard there once they're your vassal. By the way they can form Jerusalem even as a vassal under you, and they can coastal raid your enemies. They're can be super useful for you. PPS: They have the same mission tree, but The Knights for one is focused on naval supremacy and disruption in the Mediterranean, while Jerusalem is the land March of the Levant. If you want to keep them as raider or for Mediterranean supremacy, just make sure they don't have any one of the 3 core provinces they need to form Jerusalem. Kingdom of Jerusalem has quite good combat modifiers when tallied up and can make a good March for a long campaign.

[@finnpeterson4335]

A Mongolia guide would be very fun.

[@joaoshiba2263]

can you make a part 2 where you fight a strong mamluks ?

[@bordonwork]

What DLC's do you have installed? Many of the things you do are not available in my game 😢

[@stacuu2222]

please do tall, colony oriented GB next

[@empyrean-jamelgreaves8034]

In mine the Ottos haven't declared by Feb 1448 and they're actually allied with Candar!

[@eurobeatboy6352]

yeah it happens, ive done this strat many times and its only like 50% consistent. good thing is its very early in the game so restating is not that big of a deal.

[@sexyalien806]

I did the first war just fine, but i had 2 other wars against the ottomans that were completely on the spot bc other people went to war with them

[@FL0W..]

I tried doin an MP Byzantium run with a friendly Austria. I did so badly that I had to bankrupt and kept getting stab hit events for the rest of the run meaning my stability was always negative and I was behind on admin tech. This strat seems better than the old one slightly so might try that, although not in MP this time :)

[@SebHaarfagre]

In MP you should be a hired pirate in The Knights or Mercenaries in later Jerusalem, sounds too fun to me. You can reform to Byzantium as the Knights either way, as you get an event to change culture if you move your capital to Greek land.

[@stire8418]

Great guide for early game. I followed it and reclaimed most of Anatolia and Balkans till Ragusa. Allied with Austria and Hungary. But after a Evangelical union war, things went crazy. Hungary dissolved the alliance and Poland attacked me. In a couple of years Hungary joined. Both wanted Bulgaria. Sacrificed it to get peace with Poland-Lithuania and defeated Hungary, but had to take tons of loans. Then got attacked by Two Sicilies, Mamluks and Spain at once. Game over.

[@ruffusgoodman4137]

Question, man, you think gobbling up and coreing all provinces is better, or you think a more vassal based strategy is better? I know we should make use of both, but (despite mistakes I sually do) their liberty desire keeps stacking after some "abuse" of piling up provinces to them.

[@SebHaarfagre]

How did you manage to keep the permaclaims after you released Bulgaria? From my playthroughs, I've always lost permaclaims when releasing vassals who has a core there.

[@2009worstyearever]

Now do one for Victoria 3 (which is actually really easy)

[@bololollek9245]

For me, ottoman never attack somebody else in beginning, and knights often raid me before we can be allies

[@joelcotten1065]

I’m on my 8th game, ottomans always declare on someone much earlier than in the video, usually 1445 or 1446, not giving the player enough time to prepare their fleet to declare war. I only have half the DLC so this might be effecting things

[@zantom5888]

Hey Red Hawk, problem for me, Ottomans keep declaring on me instead of Candar or Karaman, any reason why this might be the case?

[@jolleh]

18:40 Ah yes, the military strategy of "they'll become sad"

[@blagerthorpnonersense1894]

So one thing that you missed or didn’t bother with is Imereti. Imereti starts with a very old ruler with no heir. It is very easy to ally them fast and get an easy PU for another nice crown that lets you expand into the caucuses after conquering your cores back from the Ottomans. Georgia, Trebizond and Circassia are easy conquests that give you easy cash and prestige and territory.

[@DavidWillisSLS]

I followed your guide to exactly, but as soon as I started sieging Gallipoli, the ottomans crossed my blockade anyway and annihilated me. And this was while they were at war with a country in Asia :(