EU4 1.34 Byzantium Guide - The EASIEST Way To ALWAYS WIN

[@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!

[@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.

[@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

[@epicarcher999]

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.

[@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.

[@apurvkanth]

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

[@ramp597]

yes

[@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.

[@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.

[@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 🤙🤝

[@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!

[@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

[@christovanderwalt1485]

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

[@Aerozona23]

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

[@belisarius1453]

same!

[@camilocarena]

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

[@bassdasdwadsasdasw]

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

[@ThePumpkinRot]

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

[@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

[@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).

[@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👊🏻

[@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.

[@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

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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).

[@ATemplarIGuess]

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

[@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.

[@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,

[@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

[@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.

[@patnewbie2177]

Can't wait for your guide on The Knights!

[@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.

[@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 )

[@W1llbam]

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

[@Pah276]

venice didnt attacked you?

[@W1llbam]

@@Pah276 They did haha, but that was after my comment 😄

[@TheSamwise61]

*chef kiss* always love a touch of Future Hawk

[@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.

[@deuschess816]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@bololollek9245]

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

[@iamherenet1569]

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

[@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.

[@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...

[@joanserrano9086]

Thank you, I had a lot of fun playing Byz

[@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

[@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...

[@GwainSagaFanChannel]

Red Hawk you plan to do another big collab challenge

[@TheRedHawk]

Nothing planned right now!

[@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).

[@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...

[@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

[@derekskelton4187]

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

[@tromedlovdrolmai]

The Bulgaria strategy doesn't work if the Ottomans capital is still in Edirne. But I've played a lot of Byzantium over the years and have a 100% success rate with the Bulgaria strategy if I take Edirne, Silistre, Tolcu, and the Albanian core province the Ottomans have, a 40% success rate if i take all those except Tolcu, and a 0% success if i don't take Edirne or if i don't take the Albanian core

[@cyfix7295]

This video is just what i needed 🥳🥳🥳

[@TheRedHawk]

Enjoy!

[@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!

[@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.

[@coper2098]

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

[@Justin-oy6es]

Incredible Guide! Thank you for that! ^_^

[@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

[@SebHaarfagre]

If you manage to siege down Gelibolu AND beat their navy before their army arrives, you don't need any mercenaries at all. If you do NOT build boats, you can go the mercenary way, place a bait in Gelibolu or Konstantinopel and wait until they're locked in before reinforcing. Iirc both are grassland, but you should get the -2 crossing penalty, and the fort should give -1 regardless whether this works or not, been a while. Navy route is safer, because their manpower/recovery is just ridiculous and you don't have the morale to stackwipe early game.

[@axnar9261]

Everuthing went good according the guide, but Ottomans attacked me, not Candar.

[@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 :(

[@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.

[@corneliussteel1406]

I'm not sure if this approach is out of date already (which I know can happen with EU4 since the rules change like every other week), but the main problem with this strategy that I can see is that the Ottoman AI isn't stupid enough to ignore Byzantium besieging Gallipoli long enough for the siege to succeed. Once they notice that you're besieging the most crucial fort in the region, they just split their army and come for you. Half the Ottoman army at start is more than enough to squash the combined armies of Byzantium, Albania, Athens, Epirus and the Knights combined. (I know - I tried and restarted a bunch of times.) So the war almost always goes 1) Ottomans declare on Candar, 2) Byzantine coalition declares on Ottomans, 3) Ottomans turn around and attack Byzantine coalition, 4) Ottomans cross the Dardanelles at Gallipoli before coalition finishes first siege cycle (still deep in negative percent progress), 5) Ottoman victory. So the naval dominance is never really relevant because the siege can't complete, and the siege pips aren't relevant because the army can't even finish one siege cycle. Back to the drawing board I guess :/

[@corneliussteel1406]

Addendum - after reviewing carefully, it appears this strategy ONLY works with the "Golden Century" DLC, due to the centrality of the "Naval Barrage" mechanic in the strategy. Pay to win I guess😞

[@thunderwplf1078]

I don't have the dlc but it worked you need to scare them off with a big army BUT the worst part of doing this without the dlc is that it depends on your luck

[@MrGreen3244]

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.

[@ClaudeSpeed32]

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

[@Bogeyed]

This isnt working for me. I always go bankrupt nearly immediately after the war with ottmans. I've taken every method and followed it to a Tee :(

[@d00gyplays17]

great video. A theodoro guid would be nice :)

[@testudo2203]

What if you start as Montferrat and form Catholic Byzantium, then restore the Pentarchy. Will Orthodox counties convert to Catholicism after that? Going to try it

[@thedanelord2329]

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

[@smoolensko1672]

The most scary feeling is when you are trying to siege Arta and the Ottomans finished their claim on you, before you can make any alliance.

[@jolleh]

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

[@the1NOnlyJavierAlonzO]

Genoa always ally Epirus in my game - (PS - Just playing the game again after a long time)

[@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

[@malchelo-7627]

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

[@tzimisce1753]

I just do this: 1. Start as Ottomans. 2. Release all vassals. 3. Release Byzantium last & choose to play as Byzantium. 4. Ally other vassals. 5. Independence war. 6. Win. 7. Feta Cheese.

[@baseplate7566]

have you no shame

[@Veloxyll]

F - forgot to set rivals twice. Second try the Ottoman decided to mass 32k troops and declared on me

[@AOkana-rd1im]

unlucky, try again man , i succed at the first time, you can do it

[@Veloxyll]

@@AOkana-rd1im Bonus round - beat the otto man. Got a bloody regency council for a 2 year old before I could nab Kosovo. RNJesus hates me

[@Neknadeg]

"you will have no problems conquering these small balkans guys..." I followed the guide (almost went bancrupt btw), and when I attacked Serbia, Venice declared on me. Meanwhile, my hungaray alliance was ended when Austria PU'ed them.

[@Neknadeg]

So now, a few hours later, I almost made it to the point. Except, I have about 30 loans -.-

[@thunderwplf1078]

Did you take the ducats from ottomans? It's very important

[@Neknadeg]

@@thunderwplf1078 I took what I could :) Managed to get rid of debt much later, but I did ;D

[@cyberduck0]

Great guide!

[@thirdeyefocus6255]

As of Leviathan, Ottos always have half of their army in the Balkans in the beginning.

[@332DeathEater]

how the fuck do you "repay most of your loans" you end up with 60+ and 200 ducats, and we cant take as much as you show!?

[@Laetwo]

Anyone else having issues with the Knights raiding your coast during your war with Epirus, and causing it so that your relations with them are harmed, and you can't ally with them?

[@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.

[@JarNO_WAY]

Me thinking I can now never lose as byzantium Ottomans declaring war on Athens, thus fighting me too, in october 1445 :)

[@2009worstyearever]

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

[@antonioauto1407]

When a EU IV player says "beginner player", or 'begginer guide", he means someone with 250 h of game that understend all the 20+ mechaniics of the game. When he says" you should be able to", he meant that it is trivial to him at this point.

[@Nickl1610]

Athens keeps getting a claim in Anatolia, so my ticking war score goes down.

[@davidrichards8793]

It's March of 1446, I just managed to siege Epirus and I'm about to be bankrupt, great guide. Edit:Yay I did some stuff, but I guess your "trial runs" weren't very accurate because none of the Ottoman's troops are in Eastern Anatolia, they're just in Izmir and Western Thrace, sitting there.

[@GAarcher]

the fall of constantinople was skill issue, make more galleys and make more friends (call the hungarians again and hope for the habsburgs crusaders and the winged hussars arrive with the pope holy power helping the city from the beggining affter sending supply and mercenaries to "the city") make more money after hearing the seashells rap and understanding the capitalism to get money for troops (and make loans too)

[@finnpeterson4335]

A Mongolia guide would be very fun.

[@frizoyt5599]

I tried this 13 times... Epirus keeps getting an ally... Kill me...

[@youssefkabab5593]

Just invade 11 dec directly they won’t have time to make Allies

[@archiciuu8271]

Yo , ngl kinda usefull guide for newbies but not for experienced players better strategy is BudgetMonk strategy where is first war you take all coastal ottoman provinces in balkans and then not release bulgaria but you let bulgarian separatist wake up cross to ottomans and then after (around)5 years bulgaria pops up and you attack it immediately and fully annex after month (capital starts with 100 garrison so it falls in first siege tick but only in first month if they get second reinforcement its gonna last much longer).Thats how to get this land faster + directly.

[@Zoem007]

well Knights often raid my coasts and then cant ally them.. i have no clue on how they didn't raid your coasts giving u a -78 modifier

[@angeliek460]

What graphic mod do you use? love the content btw

[@ohNojames]

Ottomans moved their capital from edirne in my run. I couldn’t bait them into crossing. Screwed me over because I couldn’t cross to get more warscore without getting wiped out. They never did that in 1.33

[@Bruh-ff2tw]

You should Make a part 2. Keep going until you form Rome and get clean borders.

[@legacyadrian2.047]

Give me KOCAELLI Ottomans: No Byzantium: Please? Ottomans: ok take it