Byzantine Faction Guide: Medieval 2 Total War

[@marny3559]

Historian here. Just to clear a couple of things up, the Byzantines never referred to themselves as Byzantine, only as Romans, or in the Greek language, Rhomaioi. They called their empire the Roman Empire, or in Greek, Basileia ton Rhomaion: Empire of the Romans. They didn't view Roman as a race, but rather a way of life, or a culture, so to speak, even calling Byzantium as a whole, Romania, which is confusing enough. As far as pronunciation, the correct pronunciation is Byz-an-teen, not Bye-zan-tyne, as many have been led to believe, but then again, given that Byzantium no longer exists as an empire, I don't think that it really matters truly. The names of the Byzantine cities are a mixture of Latin and Greek, with a little bit of Jewish and Persian influence depending on the area. For instance, Caesarea (Modern day Kayseri in Turkey) was obviously a Roman Latin name, whereas Antioch would be the name of an ancient Greek city that preceded the Byzantines and Romans as a whole. It should be taken into account that ironically, the newest city in Byzantium was Byzantium itself, in the form of Constantinople. Every other city in the Empire bar Dara was older than it, Alexandria, Memphis, Edessa, Tarsus, Thessaloniki, you name it. Pro tip for Medieval 2 players playing Byzantium, I recommend that you autoresolve as much as you can when you're playing against ranged factions like the Turks. Byzantine ranged units are good compared to their western European counterparts such as Venice, but the Turkish horse archers are much faster than anything you can possibly throw at them, and they will end up causing even your most seasoned armies a great deal of damage over time, similar to attrition. Autoresolve often. As far as the Egyptians go, they're no big deal, but they also have very strong skirmisher units like the Turks, and good light cavalry, so again, maybe autoresolving will help you. When it comes to Venice, they rely extensively on fighting offensively with defensive units. Outmaneuvre them if you can, and use overwhelming force to bear down on them, Byzantine cataphracts are absolutely amazing for that in late game. As for the Mongols and Timurids, copy and paste the Turkish strategy, use Night Attacks to divide and conquer their forces, and you should do extremely well as the Byzantines. That's the tactic I've used, and it's just as effective in SS 6.4 as it is in Medieval 2 and the Crusades campaign. Enjoy :P

[@ungabunga1496]

i cant believe i read all of this.. damn

[@marny3559]

@@ungabunga1496 Can't believe I wrote all this.

[@vicentgalvan70]

I hope one day we can get over this "Byzantine" stuff. Rome is rome. Also, great video, dude! :)

[@marny3559]

@@vicentgalvan70 I wasn't the one who made it lawl

[@vicentgalvan70]

@@marny3559 I'm on your side. XD

[@alexanderthegreat445]

I think the roster is more of a reflection of history. Historically, the Byzantines relied heavily on multi-role troops towards the fall of Constantinople. There also seems to an emphasis on quality, not quantity.

[@willc1294]

Stainless steel Byzantine roster is more histotical tbh

[@triskeliosthelastcelt1303]

In my campaign. I usually find myself relying heavily on Mercenary units. Usually about 20-30%, of each army being Made up of Mercenaries.

[@willc1294]

@@triskeliosthelastcelt1303 always need to have plenty of stratiotae or other fast horse when fighting hungarians or turks. Either that or plenty of foot archer units. Otherwise you'll go mad trying to chase their horse archers about with slow athanatoi 😁 Crusader states always turn on me fairly early so I use the reverse on their armies, generally fielding lots of horse archers or skirmish cav myself, similar to how I deal wih italian factions (although sicilians do tend to have better and more heavy cav)

@@willc1294 SS roster is not much different from vanilla. Skoutatoi and Skoutatoi swordsmen are simple Byzantine Lancers and Byzantine Infantry. The only unit that truly changes the roster are the Akritae

[@damianthebeholder6775]

S

[@billys1912]

The thing that makes Byzantines vs Western armies really effective is the MISSLE CAVALRY... Heavy knights and gunpowder units can do little if you have 4 or 5 units of Vardariotai.. ;-)

[@williamslater-vf5ym]

Vardariotai are one of my favorite units in the game. They are the only "heavy" horse archers who keep the fast moving trait, and they are even good at charging and melee. A full stack can beat anything in a field battle, except mongolians. I always struggle against Mongols as the Byzantines. They just come too early in the game.

[@billys1912]

@@williamslater-vf5ym Best tactic against Mongolians as Byzantines, for me is to take off the field and garrison all the armies in cities and citadels with fortifications maxed out, build lots of varangian guards and guard archers and just wait them. They will keep coming and I just keep slaughtering .. until they eventually run out of armies and some other factions take them out in the north. ;) don't know if you agree..

[@williamslater-vf5ym]

@@billys1912 I do agree. But in my last few campaigns ive just been building four or five armies, preferably with generals, in the area, and keep pumping out troops for the duration of the invasion. I fight the first 5 armies and can usually destroy them before the second 5 shows up. Then repeat. I try to isolate 2 of their armies with 3 of mine if possible. I try to make sure the generals i send are night fighters so the mongols cant pick off individual armies, and i can exclude their captain led armies. I learned to use the withdraw button too for strategic retreats. And of course once they're gone I can send those armies wherever I want. I dont have to do this for the timurids because I have cannon towers by then.

[@CaelanCromwell]

My strategy with mongols is to build forts on chokepoints to seperate each of their army from the horde. Then i amass like 12 archer infantry in each of my army with spearmen guarding them. I enable fire arrows. Place your troops on a very narrow place so you're well defended on flanks. Manage to defeat 3 full stacks of mongols this way on the battlefield.

[@IAmTheStig32]

Byzantines teach you the usefulness of upgrades and veterancy. You really need to hang on to experienced units and not throw their lives away, as they're the only ones who can make up for the technology deficit - having to recruit fresh units will hurt you a lot more than any other faction.

[@rasplez9889]

The byzantines, especially in stainless steel, have some VERY heavy, and VERY high quality troops. They also carry traditional Roman units such as Imperial guard, javelins, and experimental units like the sappers which are essentially flame troopers. They are DEADLY in ANY combat engagement. Lacking gunpowder isn't even that much of a big deal. Playing as the byzantines is east when you build up your trade economy and exploit weak Muslim settlements. Maybe expand north-west into Europe, maybe Hungary if you're careful. Just don't overextend your reach. You'll want to establish regional capitals like turkey, Greece, Egypt etc to make sure you don't have to rely on Constantinople to supply professional soldiers. I also found that cavalry works WONDERS against Muslim light infantry, especially heavy cav. I once lost 39 to 1,021. Yes, 4 stacks of heavy Cavalry plus generals is THAT good. You'll also need to be careful not to piss off the Muslims too much with weak settlements either, because their jihads can be DEVASTATING. Build slowly, and spend the majority of the early game building up your super weak army. A navy could be a good idea too, if you plan on attacking Italy early. Just be careful of their spears and pikemen, because European units are VERY different to some Nubian spearmen in rags. But seriously, 2 stacks of flame troops is a damn good defence. If you can't hold the walls, then put them in the streets to create killzones. On the walls to instantly destroy wooden siege equipment. Mangonels are a good tool too, but be careful of friendly fire if the target is too close. Not a big deal if you can afford to repair damaged buildings. Catapults and trebuchets I wouldn't recommend since they're really only useful for long-range peppering in field battles when you have the high ground, or knocking out defences. Ballistas can be effective in your last stand at the city Square. Have a line of spears to the side, and ballistas covering the other side with a couple swords at the rear. If they go for the ballistas, then charge your swords and flank with spears. If they charge the spears, flame shot them from the side but keep your swords for elastic defence only. If you have cavalry, then charge them around and slam into the rear of the streets. If you don't want to risk them intercepting siege equipment, then keep them in reserve. Sometimes, luring your enemy in can be a better way of cutting them off and slaughtering them. The byzantines weakness is its lack of unprofessional troops, like archers, so make use of its crossbow merchants and artillery. You want to hit hard and think smart.

[@chalsfo]

ITs just a shame the mood is unstable.

[@SteelFlesher]

I just auto resolve and win against any facttion

[@kevincho1187]

I hate when people reccomend that mod. Its not fun at all, its spending 9 turns building a stack then half your enemies charge in with 3 full stacks each. You think i canbeat them in combat? Then watch as your "high quality" melee troops get evicerated by the enemy and your cavalry rout after charging into the enemy archers.

[@Joker-yw9hl]

My favourite faction and one of the only campaigns I ever completed in full. There's something not quite right about a faction like England owning all of Europe, but re-establishing the Roman makes perfect sense;)

[@bry756]

agree 100%. A carolingian rebirth as the french is fun as well tho

[@omicroneridani7456]

Oh sure, it DOES make sense!

[@murderbus]

Cool strategy I learned for this faction is if you combine all your armies and sack the two closest Turkish settlements you tend to kill their Sultan and Prince. This destroys the faction and you can conquer Anatolia in peace.

[@EduardoGlass8]

So true. Always blitz those right away with as many troops as you can muster from Nicaea + Capital. Then even on VH/VH, Egypt will take a few turns on Jerusalem and you can sail those troops + Cyprus reinforcements to Gaza and take it while Egypt is distracted on Jerusalem. They will usually lift the siege and come down. If you can beat them at that chokepoint, you can push them back and destroy them in a few turns and the whole East is up for grabs.

[@kormkor6390]

The lack of gunpowder seems bad on paper but in reality it doesn't really matter; arquebusiers and riflemen in general reload slowly, they can't shoot people most of the time since your own melee units are on the way and are just a pain to micro around. On top of that they are inaccurate and super vulnerable to cavalry so any attempts to flank and shoot are just too tedious to get to work in practise. Cannons are nice but siege equipment in general just seem a huge drag when you keep them in your armies and suddenly your advance is reduced to a crawl.

[@vicentgalvan70]

Yeah. Vanilla gunpowder is terrible.

[@VVeremoose]

I tried and tried and tried to get pike and shot to work with the Spanish. If there's one civ that should be able to pike and shot, it's Spain, right? Nah. Gunpowder sucks. Edit: especially because by the time I got up to tercio pikemen and musketmen, all of the heavy armor civs were dead. Gunpowder especially sucks against eastern armies.

[@kormkor6390]

@@VVeremoose It's sad that cannons are so inaccurate as well. I was planning to go and fight the Timurids with a bunch of stacks and command one full of Serpentines and just unleash hell upon them. I have a feeling that would fail miserably in most circumstances, though, but on bridge/from atop a mountain it could work.

[@Hafer_]

Imo the only worthwhile gunpowder units are Reiters because of their mobility and Cossack musketeers because of their ridiculous range

[@machaiping]

@@VVeremoose To be fair, even if gunpowder works, cavalry or infantry charge will wreck your pike line and your musket regardless thanks to the pike bug in the vanilla Medieval 2. In simple term, the bug make every pikemen drop their pike as soon as the cavalry or melee infantry hits their line and switch to their puny sword, which will result in a massacre of your pike formation for obvious reason. The pike will only inflict damage during the initial charge and after that they switch to sword for the rest of the fight. This pike bug was the result of CA seeing Rome 1 phalanx as too overpowered, so when pike in Medieval 2 used the same core mechanic as Rome 1 phalanx, they tried to fix it to balance the game, and the fix resulted in this bug. TLDR: Just don't use pike in vanilla Medieval 2, period, unless you know how to edit the txt file to fix the bug yourself, or install mod that fixed this bug like Stainless Steel.

[@elgostine]

i remember checking and the varderotoi are THE highest stat horse archers in the game, period.

[@ivanvoloder8114]

No, that title goes to Dvor Cavalary but Vards are deffinitly in the top 3.

[@timothyernst8812]

@@ivanvoloder8114 Dvor have 10 missile attack; Vards have 9. Dvor have 11 AP melee attack; Vards have 10 normal melee attack. Dvor have 16 defense while Vards have 17. Dvor have 9 morale while Vards have 11. Vards have the fastest mount speed while Dvor have the slowest. I consider speed of paramount importance with cav, especially missile cav, and Vards need much less development than Dvor to recruit, so I'd consider Vards far superior even if their attack is one point lower.

[@ivanvoloder8114]

@@timothyernst8812 Yeah, but muh Dvors are tanks with AP. Btw I love Vards.

[@robertfisher8359]

After Lugotrix was baffled for Scots Guards in the French Army, I wonder how he'd react to learning the Varangian Guard were vikings (and later Anglo-Saxons) fighting in the Byzantine army.

[@lugotorix6173]

wow thats interesting, didn't know that

[@robertfisher8359]

@@lugotorix6173 if you check out my comment on your video for France, I left you some information on the mercenaries and foreigners in the medieval and renaissance periods. In the case of the Varangian Guard, hiring foreign mercenaries as bodyguards goes back to before the fall of Rome. Roman emperors got tired of being killed by their personal securities like the Praetorian Guard (this was an issue with the Janissaries the Ottoman Turks used, though that came up well after the scope of this game) and realized that foreigners are far less likely to get involved in court politics. Consequently, the Romans (and later Byzantines) took to hiring groups like the Varangian Guard.

[@epicmickey2351]

They’re only loyal if you pay them.

[@peterongan9655]

@@epicmickey2351 They are 10x more loyal than the (goddamn) pr*etorian. The pr*etorian were just bunch of coward, money hungry, backstabbing emperor. Their purpose is for an """elite""" guard of the emperor. It was an ""elite"" unit but doesn't have any quality even if you bribe them they still wants more, Scholae Palatina I think is better than those two.

[@DaDunge]

They were when they were first formed but this is aroudn 1080 sometime and tey're now filled with Rus and Saxons not vikings. Oh and Normans. If you have gold the normans have swords and lances.

[@briancline7349]

Seems like Athens should be on the map... I’ve always thought the density of cities in the game was a little too sparse

[@ioeuropaganymedkallisto7204]

Athens was absolutely unimportant at that period. But generally I agree.

[@mrremoveyoureyes1924]

Athens was kinda worthless by this period. A city like larissa would be much better

[@bry756]

no no he has a point.

[@dart763]

athens was never “not important”. It was the center of greek culture, greek not greco-roman like constantinople. Larissa would be good to

[@torikeqi8710]

@@dart763 the so called " greek" culture had disappeared by that time. Constantinople was only Roman and never " greco- roman" which has never existed as an entity. Athens was a village at that time.

[@Mundiz_]

23:49 *Durazzo is in Albania, and Zagreb is in Croatia. Good video, Byzantium is a lot of fun!

[@lugotorix6173]

_mundiz_ Thanks. Yeah I think I got Durazzo and Ragusa (modern day Dubrovnik I think) confused.

[@dunamoose3446]

@@lugotorix6173 durazzo is modern day durres I believe

[@davidwickman7543]

0:25 of course “Byzantine” is englicised. It was a name made up by either the pope or Western Europeans under the pope in order to deromanize the Romans (for a multitude of reasons that require a multiple-page paper to discuss). They called themselves Romans, and their non-European allies/enemies called them either Romans or Eastern Romans.

[@iamcleaver6854]

They called themselves Romans, but I would argue that even Romanians are more deserving of that title. At least they speak a romance languages. The Byzantine empire was ethnically and linguistically greek. They did inherit Roman institutions, but in all other sense they had little to do with the italic tribes of old. Would it be proper to call Guiana France if mainland France were annexed by Germany when most of its citizens are ethnically non-French?

[@laszlobencebari8677]

@@iamcleaver6854 The names of medieval 'nations' (it would be more proper to say 'state populations') did not really refer to their ethnicity or language, especially since there was no compulsory education nor standardised languages. Thus, language and national culture are factors much more in modern nationalism. In this period, loyalty to the king/country decided the national belonging of people. Since the state in this case was called 'Rhomania' as a heir to the Roman Empire, the inhabitants naturally called themselves 'Rhomanians'.

[@iamcleaver6854]

@@laszlobencebari8677 I know that. All I am saying is that even if they called themselves Romans, doesn't mean we should call the that as well.

[@laszlobencebari8677]

​@@iamcleaver6854 If you know that, then you also realise that calling them anything else is actually anachronistic, confusing and follows certain agendas. If you call them "Greek", you connect them to modern Greek nationalism, while the idea of being Roman was quite different. Similarly, "Byzantine" started as a term to emphasize the "decayed" nature of this society. (Which is a quite debatable viewpoint throughout most of its history.) It is the best to call peoples as they called themselves, while clarifying the context of these concepts. Then it becomes clear that they belonged to another age, to which we have to adapt if we wish to truly understand them.

[@iamcleaver6854]

@@laszlobencebari8677 What is wrong with connecting them to modern Greek nationalism? I find it a pretty obvious and logical connection.

[@Dover939]

Anyone else extremely depressed about what happened to the romans in the end? Stripped of their homeland, surrounded on all sides by enemies, a shadow of their former selves. Still holding on to the glory days. It's just so sad what happened to one of the greatest empires of the world. Makes me wonder what will happen to our modern day empires. America, Britain, etc. We may see the same fate.

[@daytonasixty-eight1354]

The Jews destroyed Rome and they will destroy the West today.

[@hyper_5pace902]

@@daytonasixty-eight1354 I'm surprised you haven't got an electric shock from a power line with a tin foil hat that large

[@iplyrunescape305]

As a Greek Orthodox... It only makes it sadder.

[@Deambulo-solo]

@@iplyrunescape305 CONSTANTINPLA ALGUN DIA SERA RECUPERADA

[@iplyrunescape305]

@@Deambulo-solo Si Dios quiere.

[@МатвейСипенятов]

Ah, yeah, this charge without order thingy. Can remember a moment when my single unit of fanatics charged a Mongolian horde of heavy cavalry. Through the town's gates. That were closed for a reason. Say goodbye to Jerusalem that survived through 2 jihads before. Priceless!

[@willlastnameguy8329]

Vardariotai are the best missile cav in the game aside from Mongolians. They're also available very early from any castle. I don't know why it says high period, but they are early, and they dominate the open field.

[@matthewneuendorf5763]

M2 does a number of things that frustrate me. First is giving AP to longbows. If longbows get it, then all the composite recurves should get it too, which would mean pretty much all the Byzantine archer units except the peasant and militia archers. Second is undervaluing the defensive capability of a full Byzantine armor suite (there is textual evidence that their armor was good enough to stand up to repeated couched lance hits with minimal injury to the wearer). Any unit that gets lamellar should have another 2-4 points of armor. Third is the lack of high-end spearmen. If nothing else, the dismounted lancers should have been an armored spear unit, but more properly there should be a spear version (and for good measure a mace version) of each sword infantry unit. Finally, Byzantine hand cannoneers and Byzantine arquebusiers could be justified, especially if you assume that it's a player faction. The Byzantines had (limited) access to gunpowder, the same as everyone else, except they had almost no funds to buy it in large quantities. If they were as successful IRL as they typically are as the player faction in M2, they'd have been rocking gunpowder at least as enthusiastically as everyone else. Personally, I like to do a full stat revision of every unit in the game when I play M2, rebalancing bows and armor especially. Even just adding AP to recurve bow users (not Turkic or Arabic archers, though, as they use a different style of archery that sacrifices power for rate of fire) can go a long way toward making things more reasonable. IIRC, the Kingdoms add-on adds handgunners and fire throwers (the latter being surprisingly realistic and very effective as a second line unit firing between gaps in your shield wall). I've never been able to get those integrated into the grand campaign, though, which is a shame.

[@SavageHenry777]

Playing the Byzantines in vanilla I really, really miss the pronoia infantry you get in the crusades campaign. Not to mention the flammenwerfers.

[@alexkerr5804]

If you play the vanilla beyond mod you can get those units as well as some more added by the mod

[@malekiththeeternityking5433]

Thanks man my favourite faction even though they're roster is probably one of the worst

[@davidquezada50]

Guess they are good high and early They basically have all categories. But they still historical have way more units

[@Wolfogre]

I've never done well as Byzantines and this little vid gave me several ideas to change my track record. :)

[@dixonsider873]

How convenient that as soon as I started a new campaign this guide came up the same day. Excellent guide my friend!

[@lugotorix6173]

Dixon Sider Happy I can help! Good choice of campaign it's a very interesting one

[@arazeth5562]

I notice you get many things wrong about the units in this game. You should start the campaign and look when you get certain units, because the period in the custom battle setup is wrong. For example, vardariotai are one of the first units you get in der game and guard archers are on the same level as pavise crossbowmen. Also kataphractoi are their latest cavalry unit, same level as for example royal mamluks or gothic knights. If you need any help, you can ask me if you want. I'm modding the vanilla units and buildings and know almost everything about this game and it's units stats in the files.

[@lugotorix6173]

Arazeth yeah the custom battle set up is sometimes a bit wrong, which is kinda stupid. I'll take your advice into account but in general the general points of what I'm saying are accurate, it's just the time periods are a bit messed up. Thanks for feedback!

[@arazeth5562]

Lugotorix glad to help. Yes your guides are defenetly helpful for new comers to the game and maybe some veterans too and they would learn the deep stuff anyways. Keep it up!

[@briancline7349]

FYI: What we call the Byzantines did not call themselves that at all, that was a term only used later on by other European states and by historians. They called themselves the Romans or Eastern Roman Empire, as they emphasized their role as the successor to the “true” Roman Empire. To downgrade their status and not acknowledge them as the heirs to the Romans (and certainly not the current true Romans) other societies called them the Byzantines based on the original name of Constantinople.

[@EricTheActor805]

Id say this is the Nicene Empire

[@RocketHarry865]

Actually Byzantine only came about during the late renaissance in Germany a century after the Ottomans conquered Constantinople. During the medieval peroid Western Europeans called the Eastern Roman empire as the Kingdom of the Greeks, because they preferred seeing the Frankish Carolingian kingdom and later the German Holy Roman Empire as the true successor of the Roman Empire

[@briancline7349]

Tess Stickles actually there was a state known as the Nicene Empire (although calling such a small state an “empire” certainly involves some irony). It was on the northwestern coast of Anatolia and was one of the small states that splintered off after the Crusaders captured Constantinople and was ruled by a powerful Byzantine family from Constantinople that fled there. During the times it also was not called the name we use for it today but as it still claimed to legitimately continue the Roman Empire they still referred to their state as that.

[@aristophanes5261]

Revisited the game recently and I have to say...what kind of "guide" is this? Watched the video and now asking myself, if this guy has ever played the Byzantines. Getting Katapracts at the start? Well, that's not possible. You get them at the last step of your castle building tree. Vardariotai as a later unit? You can train them from the start and they are the best unit the Byzantines have - Imho the best in the whole game. Their stats are insane, they are fast and they have an extreme high morale. Only thing is, that they lack ammunition. If the council of nobles reward you with 4 of them for taking a settlement at the beginning (Smyrna, Durazzo) then you have already an army no one of your opponents can match. Till the firts gunpowder units appear, you have already a veteran (gold) army of them. Now to the campaign: Waiting till the Mongols appear before attacking the Turks? What? In the east lie the most valuable settlements. And again, if you get 4 Vardariotai at the beginning you can finish the Turks off very easy. Not only because you have the better army, but also because their family members are concentrated at their western settlements. If you take Iconium and Caesarea, then the Turks are gone. Get your hands on Antioch, which is one of the richest cities in the game (yes, you have build some stuff there) and with the income (sea trade!) of your three cities around the Aegais (Constaninople, Thessalonici, Nicäa) you shouldn't have any money problems anymore. Kll Egypt (Vardariotai just wreck them!), build up your economy and do whatever you want. And Off course you should take Iraklion early, because Venice will use it as a base from where they will land troops and block your harbours (=crippling your economy). The Byzantines have to take this town EARLY. Stay defensive in the west and conquer the east. Venice is strong, but they have to come a long way, when they want to attack you (Durazzo has no streets for a pretty long time), unless they come by the sea like Sicily, but you should be able to match them in the early game. Spend some money on fire ships, or whatever they are called, which you can build on your advanced harbour in Constaninople. And if the east is secured, you can move your army to the west. Your only problem is Hungary. They have an early access to really good horse archers and Knights (with and without horses), because Bran is at start of the game already very populous. Leave Sofia to them (serious, don't take this castle!) and marry your princess to their heir, then they should agree without any problems to be your ally - and even more important honoring it. At least, till you are strong enough to face them. Even with the broken diplomatic system off Medieval 2 and on "very hard difficulty" this is possible. I tried it multiple times.

[@Michael-qp7wu]

this is the perfect guide, the video should have been this instead (well thought out)

[@merlball8520]

I do exactly the opposite of what you're suggesting. I use Sofia and Thessalonika as a bulwark against attacks from the west and only expand slowly in that direction while blitzing eastward. I take out the Turks completely by the end of the early game. They're weak and vulnerable and the lands you conquer in that direction give you few borders early on, allowing very light defenses so that you can develop your economy nicely. By the time the Mongols invade you should have a well built fortresses or citadels in Mosul, Aleppo, etc, which allows you to churn out armies that can chew up the Mongols - Byzantine Guard archers paired with fully upgraded Byzantine Spearmen and Vardariotai (bonus if you're able to get a few Varangians mixed in). Your fortifications should have ballista towers in cities and citadels by that point, and making use of them in sieges can lead to horrific losses for the Mongols. You may lose one or two cities/castles by the time you deplete them, but they'll lose so much of their force that the AI will struggle to figure out what to do afterwards - allowing you to pick off a stack that strays from the pack here and there until nothing is left. The east is the natural move for Byzantium. It allows for a huge booming economy, which allows for upgrades to elite units and swarms of cheap units. No faction in the game is as well set up to get a booming early game economy as Byzantium. Circle clockwise in conquest around the eastern Mediterranean and expand opportunistically/efficiently and carefully to the west from Sofia and Thessalonika. This is a solid meta-strategy that has served me well every time. An early game blitz westward is possible and can work, especially if you start churning out horse archers - the early game army compositions of western factions are very vulnerable to horse archers and the AI can't seem to adjust for it. However, getting a solid economy going is more difficult to the west and harder to defend against invasion. Meanwhile you allow the Turks and Egyptians to take the east and build up formidable and more advanced armies than the early game allows them. Moreover, the cities and castles won't be as developed as they would if you took them and thus more vulnerable to Mongols and Timurids should you ever decide to expand east.

[@slavkoostojic2514]

I am pretty sure that this is the best way to play them.

[@biggtom1999]

I always take as much troops and mercs as possible and march to take Iconium and Cesarea from the Turks. Taking these 2 regions usually kills off all the Turkish Royal family and the faction is destroyed in the 1st few turns.

[@lugotorix6173]

Rochel Boniel yes that's another way of looking at it. There isn't a 'wrong method' per se, so your method sounds very viable. I tend to focus on the west first because I like to eliminate the strongest factions early on, but that's just personal preference

[@fonusen4792]

They didn’t even call them Byzantine they called themselves Romans

[@undrgrnd734]

I disliked just for his pronunciation of byzantine.

[@pophose]

Another thing you might've missed is that the units trained from castles can get more armor upgrades than their city-trained counterparts, at least in the case of the spearmen and the byz infantry/dismounted lancers. The militia units can only get 1 upgrade while most non-skirmisher infantry from castles can get 2.

[@jonrod21]

Good Overview, I really like your suggestion to blitz the Italian States first. It is very focused on obtaining the most valuable provinces first which is smart. Rather than bothering with fighting wars on all sides. My problem with the Byzantines is that i always have to wait to get decent units and then I attack. Maybe i should spam spearmen and sythicon and attack? Also, Durrazo is not in Coratia it is in modern-day Albania.

[@lugotorix6173]

Yes, I would recommend being more aggressive (spamming spears and scythicons like you said), especially for the Byzantines. If you wait too long for decent units, the factions around you will get technologically stronger and you'll fall behind.

[@ivanvoloder8114]

Ragusa( aka Dubrovnik ) and Zagreb are Croatian cities.

[@herroberbesserwisser7331]

I kinda disagree with the turks. I rushed them in the beginning because their lordsare all in the west. So basically i only fought 2-3 battles and they had no generals and died. Then i fastly used all my troops to steamroll venice. The downside you can easily fail because you are always broke in the beginning. And if one army fails you are in a unlucky position. But with this i was at turn 20 almost destroyed egypt venice is dead and i have 26 settlements.

[@bleed7378]

There’s only one trick and one trick only to playing Byzantines: fill up on Vardariotai, auto-resolve, and never be the defending party in a siege battle.

[@epicmickey2351]

Gunpowder? A simple cavalry flanks attack can render those cannon useless.

[@tenchimuyo69]

If only vanilla MTW2 gave them that Crusders flamethrower unit. That alone would make their unit roster more dangerous in certain contexts. Not sure how many units in Total War could get 500 kills in a single battle lol

[@hannibalburgers477]

If only Vanilla Med2 gave Russians Ak-47, that would make the game playable

[@tenchimuyo69]

@@hannibalburgers477 No doubt. I have not played Russia much.

[@hernanreipp6983]

@@hannibalburgers477 the russians have one of the best archers you can get. The Dvor. I beat the world campaign (beat the mongols and timurids) with them. I never even use gunpowder units.

[@ivanvoloder8114]

@@hannibalburgers477 Russia is my favorite faction and with no doubt have the best cavalary rooster in the game.

[@hammer3721]

The thing is that in this game being close to the Mediteranean is not such a massive economic boost as in Rome Total War. There, being in the Mediteranean, especially in Greece and Anatolia, meant that you could become rich very quickly. Now, despite the Eastern Romans starting in Greece, they are poorer than they were in Barbarian Invasion. Like, their starting economy is complete crap despite being once the most prosperous region in Europe. And the thing is, not only the Mediteranean evolved during the Middle Ages, but so did England, so did Germany, so did France. These once poor countries have become much richer over time, despite not being in the proximity in the Mediteranean. Some things did not change, yes, like Russia still being the poorest region in the game, but otherwise, Medieval 2 is not so ' Mediteranean-centered ' like the Ancient World was during Rome Total War. In this game, Western Europe, particularly Engalnd, France, Spain and Germany are the focus points in economic terms.

[@Royinszki]

Thanx man, i really like your guides, i really cant wait for the Danish one

[@lugotorix6173]

Thanks, Danish one should be right after Holy Roman Empire!

[@davidquezada50]

It's pronounced... " ROMAN EMPIRE" B) Lame how ca hates Byzantium. They don't have any of their main army And Rome did have mucket men glad in slik robes And cretan guards with spears and a bow It's lame how weak they are in this game :/ Even in the art of war by byzantines they claimed their army was always more organized

[@lugotorix6173]

Haha yeah I suppose it should really be pronounced that way... I agree its a shame how weak the Byzantines are, particularly in the late game. At least it makes for a challenging campaign

[@lyonvensa]

bro, byzantines are FAR from weak. Their cavalry are pretty good, byzantine infantry basically have no equal until the mid game, and Varangian guards are arguably the most hard hitting unit in the game. They're only weak if you had a bad start.

[@danielolsson7134]

In my opinion, Schiltrom is not at all like the Phalanx formation, Rome Total War had the sheild-wall formation available for some factions in that game like the Franks and that formation is closer to a Phalanx formation. To bad there is no such thing as a Sheild-wall formation in Medieval II total war at all.

[@schinderhannesbartelsi9192]

Open the txt file export_descr_units and replace shiltrom with shield_wall on the unit you want to. Also add , 0.2, 1.8 at the end of the formation line. Now you got a proper shield_wall unit.

[@borodedic8378]

I usually immediately throw myself on the Turks. The catch is, if you defeat their armies in Anatolia and kill their generals, the faction is immediately destroyed without you having to go all the way to Armenia. That leaves you a lot of rebel settlements to take and expand. As for the Mongols, just try and get long range Trebizond archers before Mongols arrive and ballista towers and you'll be all good.

[@hernanreipp6983]

This will sound weird, or even stupid, but my best unit against the mongols in sieges are the byzantine spearmen, yes the guys with the same stats with the spear militia. I put 4 in the front gate in schiltron mode and when the mongols charge they stupidly die against them. Yes I have casualties but seriously the AI is too rushy and literally all the family members (the whole horde) die in Erevan against 4 spearmen (they win golden chevrons and even win a men of the moment with great stats). I defeat them once in open field using nights attacks and the family members as a bait, but always in bottle necks with high elevations in my side.

[@Pek363]

Started my M2 Total War carrear 3 years ago and the first faction I played as is England on easiest difficulty and bet the world. I found Byzantine Empire the best faction in my own opinion but they are trash when controled by the AI. Their early period troops are worthy of upgrading and show why is this game political and ecomomical, cultural and intresting in many ways, not just war-side of it.

[@georgiosagapitos4472]

You didnt refer Sicily. At least at very high difficulty Venice and are attacking you at early game. What should you do then ?

[@tigershanty1217]

When you think that the Byzantines called them selves some thing other than romans

[@edddoubled3534]

Would you be willing to do a video on the Crusades version of the Byzantines?

[@lugotorix6173]

yeah quite possibly. I'm focusing on rtw barbarian invasion at the moment, but I may do similar things for crusades at some point :)

[@edddoubled3534]

Speaking of which, which game mode in Rtw do you prefer? The standard Campaign, or the Barbarian Invasion? And thank you for the response btw!

[@flaviusbelisarius7517]

They weren't called byzantine until more than 250 years after their fall by a German who coverted the title Roman. He wanted to separate the eastern empire from roman so the Germans would be seen as true Romans in the common perception

[@bitcodelabs4660]

Are you playing Darth mod medieval 2 because I can't play as the byzantine empire in the vanilla version?

[@lugotorix6173]

You can change the data files (very easy to do) so that you can play all the factions in vanilla :)

[@DettmersNate]

My favorite faction, I prefer the gunpowder handicap if I haven’t won already by turn 150 or so when gunpowder becomes available, the infantry combination is probably the best in the game, Byzantine spears are the only weakness they really have, and with two armor upgrades and some exp they combined with fantastic axe and sword options and two very capable archer units one of which is available from the beginning add in excellent horse archers and really good heavy (kataphracts/Latinkon) medium (byz lancers) and light (Alan) cav, what’s not to love about the unit roster?

[@Montechristoss]

You have some good points but l don't like the historical inaccuracy of the units first where is your elite spears ( Byzantine spearman are spear militia stat wise ) second where is your elite native troops ( Byzantine infantry and dismounted Byzantine lancers are mediocre and must used with Varangian guard or lantikon against western European infantry ) most of the tagmata regiments where dispand at this time period 1080 ( when the alexios took the throne and started the komnenoi dynasty ) which focus on the pronoia system but still retained some native elite troops your archers are ok but the Byzantines also had javelin troops and crossbows now for the cavalry head to head against other elite cavalry the lantikon and the cataphractoi are average and must support it by Varangian guard which are cav killers despite having the two hand glitch or support it from you excellent horse archers . Last l don't like seeing lantikon and dismounted lantikon ( foreign troops ) being your elite . l mean the eastern Romans where a major power until the 13th century

[@DettmersNate]

@@Montechristoss I’m not super happy about all the inaccuracies either, but it is a game, and if the byzantines had everything you, me, and others would prefer they would be overpowered, and then you have to think about the game engine limitations, it is a game from 2004ish so the amount of units, territories, etc had to be limited because of it, my best guess is that the byzantines if made more historically accurate would have needed many more units. That being said there is one problem I have and that is the names of the units, which is easily fixed, why they call them Byzantine spearman/swordsman/lancers instead of a more defined/historically actuate name, it does feel a little generic, but it just takes a little effort to either mod the files, or imagine them being named properly!

[@Montechristoss]

@@DettmersNate Agree with you futhermore l get it that an old game like medieval 2 has limitations but the roster of the Byzantines is smaller in comparison with Spain or England and of course the stats are identical for many units dismounted Byzantine lancers and Byzantine infantry spear milita and Byzantine spearmen as for being overpowered if they had create a more elite Byzantine roster price and diversity could play a role. l didn't want the Byzantines to be overpowered but strong inaf for competitive battles

[@stannisbaratheon5580]

Does having a general with really high command cancel out the “May charge without orders” flaw that some units have?

[@emzee1148]

Quick question... have you actually played the game? You get Vardariotai in the early game and you have to tech up considerably to get Catas.

[@lucashampton6269]

The term "Byzantine" emerged in the late 1400s as a slur. Nowadays it, and it's various forms, gets used as an admittedly helpful descriptor term. However, the Byzantine Empire didn't ever call itself that. The name in Greek was Basileia Rhomaion. Which translates to Empire of the Romans. They called themselves Romans all the way through their existence and even held onto that identity as Greece became an independent country from the Ottomans centuries later. They almost kept calling themselves Romans if it weren't for a vote that decided to call their people Greeks instead. It's absolutely fascinating that the Roman Empire not only lasted until 1453 but the Roman identity carried on into the mid 1800s. In a sense, we are only some 200ish years removed from when the Romans stopped ceased to exist.

[@diadokhoi5722]

byzantium was also an old greek city

[@lucashampton6269]

@@diadokhoi5722 well yeah, I know that. But you clearly didn't read my comment. The Greek people still called themselves Romans all the way through til after they got their independence from the Turks. Doesn't matter what the history of their capital city was, they called themselves Romans and the term Byzantine started as a slur and is an inaccurate yet useful descriptor for the lay man when it comes to historical topics.

[@dariusgreysun]

False. It was in the mid 16th century.

[@SteelFlesher]

I blitz to the hungarians and basically removed them from the map lol

[@salgarcia8021]

Being playing this game for about since it came out...i always marry my princess to Hungaria. Venice is your main antagonist. I have three strategies. Gather your a full stack n sail... #1take out the Turks n Egypt first. Upside: you can get a big economy quickly. Downside: if Venice invades you sooner. #2 invade Sicily. Upside: it's easy n give you soild beachhead into the West. Downside: war with Venice can spread you thin if you don't move fast up Italy. #3 invade Venice. Upside: you take them out before they get too big. Downside: they are spread out so eliminate them takes a little time, n their armies are better than yours early game. As well if you don't turn bolg into a Castle it's hard to get reinforcements into Northern Italy. P.s fk you Venice is somthing you will say at one point playing as the biz.

[@majorbowie776]

The faction should be called the eastern Roman Empire.

[@panospanagopoulos2894]

No it shouldn’t cause the Empire was Greek

[@iamcleaver6854]

@@panospanagopoulos2894 They though of themselves as Romans.

[@kettlehead8994]

@@panospanagopoulos2894 Not only Italians can be considered romans, rome was an empire scatter around the Mediterranean, and later split into eastern and western roman empire, since the western is destroyed, makes the eastern roman empire the legitimate succession because it is the remaining of roman empire, doesn't matter where it is located nor who lives there

[@iamcleaver6854]

@@kettlehead8994 That is a bad argument. That is like saying that if Russia would fall, Chechnya can be considered the successor state.

[@kettlehead8994]

@@iamcleaver6854 If Chechnya fully adapt Russian culture, remain the same Russian government structure, rest of Russia gets conquered by Americans, keeps the Russian national anthem and national flag and declares orthodox as its national religion, but most importantly votes the offspring of Vladimir Putin as their president, then yes.

[@karelspinka3031]

So, do you basically say that Byzantium is one of the hardest factions to play? Lack of endgame units, low variety of troops, bad starting position (surrounded by hungry neighbors ready to invade you - Turks, Venice, Hungary (they go south a lot of times), Sicily) including long distances from one side of the Empire to the other?

[@Dover939]

I would absolutely say they're one of the hardest. Especially for someone like me who hates horse archers.

[@niallreid7664]

They can also get crusaded AND jihaded.

[@borodedic8378]

I usually blitz the Turks, and it is so easy to destroy them, you just need to capture the two settlements in Asia Minor and their faction is automatically destroyed, leaving you with vast territories in Asia to conquer. As for Mongols and timurids, just build Balista towers, garrison the cities with archers, so once they besiege you, just confront them before they assault your city, they will be running around city walls and will be killed of by your balista towers and archers, and you'll suffer minimum casualties.

[@godemperorofmankind3.091]

probably the best faction in terms of roleplay, as you have the chance to rebuild your old empire

[@ak47crete39]

The best in my opinion is to do a alliance with hungary then take durazzo and sofia first and take a defensive position in these regions and then rush to the turks who are weak in early game , conguer them and then you will make a good economy and then take a aggressive stance and conquer the venetian teritories as well as the sicily

[@michaelaburns734]

I just call them the Eastern Roman Empire. The Last of the Romans.

[@cosmincostinescu8386]

It is actually Accurate that they did not have gunpowder,, actually they could not afford them. As a matter of fact Orban, wanted to offer them his bombards but they had no money for them, and they had fate in the Theodosian Walls, Who although ancient they did do their job in 1453, so he offerd his cannons to the Turks,. After the reconquest of Constantinopole, they had economic problems. When they recaptured the city in 1261, it was so pillaged that the Blachernae Palace was lacking a roof. Fun fact is that the horse archers were still the go to in Eastern Europe, cavalry wise, they are much more efficent than heavy cavalry. Sadly, in game, they are in a disadvantage due to lack of armour piercing. Still the roster has quite a flvaour with the late Roman/ Byzantine theme making them unique. Anyway great guide keep it up the great work. By the way, Durazzo is in Albania, not Croatia :)

[@RocketHarry865]

I wonder what happen had the Empire of Nicea instead of trying to retake Constantinople and Greece from the Latins they instead should have focused on consolidating their position in Anatolia against the Sultanate of Rum until the Turkish threat had been permanently neutered.

[@Manouil_III]

Wrong. It's not accurate that they had not gunpowder units. In 14th century, the Byzantine Empire began to accumulate its own cannons to face the Ottomans, starting with medium-sized cannons, 3 feet (0.91 m) long and of 10 inches caliber. The earliest reliable recorded use of artillery in the region was against the Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1396, forcing the Ottomans to withdraw. They also had hand-cannons.

[@cosmincostinescu8386]

@@Manouil_III operated by mercenaries

[@Manouil_III]

@@cosmincostinescu8386 that can not be 100% accurate. Even if it is... so what? Don't they count as cannons in the service of the empire/emperor?

[@cosmincostinescu8386]

@@Manouil_III Wow a year since the initial post how time goes by :))). Yes the Romans did employ their own artillery even during the 1453 siege which was ineffective. As a mater of fact even the great bombard used by the Ottomans was not that effective either. The main thing that i wished to emphasize back then was that they didn't have the economic power to afford a proper a proper gunpowder military. Although they were first offered the bombards they refused them because of the lack and finances and they belived in their sturdy walls, so the turks took them instead, and long story short became one of the islamic gunpowder empires.

[@onestupidboi9320]

You pronounced varangian almost perfectly

[@CommanderTavos99]

I think the main reason for their roaster is (historical ofc) but also, they dont really fight highly armoured factions. The turks? Not really, Hungary? Maybe one unit, the Mongols? You know what I mean? And since you pointed out that the Byzantines dont have gunpowder (except for a little cannon) and the turks get MASSIV gunpowder units in the late (bombards, their main infantery etc) wouldnt it be better to got for them first actually? So that they wont get that powerful?

[@jaystrickland4151]

I have won so many combats by putting a Schiltron of spears in front of my opponents may charge without orders knights.

[@hernanreipp6983]

Recently win a campaign and the whole mongol horde was beated by 4 Byzantine Spearmen in schiltron in the front gates of Erevan.

[@leestewart72]

Attack from turn 1. Send the Emperor with a force to take Sophia, Send the Prince with a force to take Smyrna. Begin building spearmen in Cyprus and Constantinople. Put forces from Constantinople on ship sail south to pick up the prince and sail to Alexandria, then take the city. Move on to Cairo. Put the spearmen from Cyprus on a ship and lay seige to Antioch. Those three cities will bring in tons of gold for your coffers.

[@DaDunge]

Its' weird the byzantines who had greek fire don't have any gunpowder units. Atleast we could have gotten greek fire throwing grenadiers or something.

[@hernanreipp6983]

In the Expansion Crusader they have it. They are like portatil flamethrower, called chierosyphon and are a beast if you know how use them.

[@badatfootball9]

This isn’t a particularly good strategic analysis I’m afraid. Durazzo is modern day Durres in Albania, not Croatia, but that’s a minor point. You advise not to rush the Turks or the Hungarians and instead to focus on the Venetians. In reality you have to rush all three and fight some very hard battles with very limited resources in the early game, otherwise Hungary will attack Sofia, the Turks will attack Smyrna and Nicaea, and the Venetians will go for Thessaloniki, and will continue to do so with increasingly better units and larger armies. Ultimately if you try to play defensively in any area then you will have to put a large amount of resources into that and you will run out of time and money to complete your objectives. In the very early game your objectives should be to capture Iasi, Bran, Budapest (convert to castle), Zagreb, Ragusa, Dyrrachium, Sofia and Bucharest in the Balkans, so that you’ve got a good natural border of the Carpathian Mountains and the Dniester River. In the Aegean you want to get Rhodes and Crete pretty quickly, and convert Rhodes to a town, so that by the mid-game they will both be earning you a large amount of money. Also capture Smyrna, Caesarea, Trebizond and Adana at the very least in Anatolia. It sounds impossible but the trick is just to constantly expand and leave the absolute minimum garrison in every settlement to capitalise on the AI factions’ very early game weakness. From there you have a really strong fortified base to actually build a good army and continue conquering into the period when the AI is actually decent. Also the other thing to say is don’t leave non-frontier settlements as castles once you’ve expanded way beyond them. I usually convert Corinth, Smyrna and Sofia to towns pretty early on, then by the mid-game they’re earning about double what they otherwise would be, with no real risk to public order because of how close they are to the capital. Edit: Also I forgot to say that I take a great deal of issue with your unit analysis as well. The Byzantine Guard archers are incredibly useful throughout the entire period when they are available not as a battlefield unit but as a garrison for frontier castles. Once you get to the high-late period and everyone starts to have better technology than you the only feasible strategy becomes absorbing large AI attacks with as few resources as possible and then countering whilst they’re weakened, and Byzantine Guard Archers are absolutely essential to this because they combine a decent missile attack with good melee to make walls basically impossible to attack. If you garrison a citadel with Ballista or Cannon Towers with about 4 units of BGA and maybe 2 of spears you should be able to hold off a full army quite comfortably. Then you simply need a general, a few spears, few trebizond archers and a few horse archers to be certain of taking the largely empty settlement that the AI army left.

[@matheusteodoro7606]

What I do: Alliance with Hungary, Milan and Turks, I conquer Sofia, Esmina, Nicea, Adana, Trepisbond and Aleppo. And war against Venice, the Hungarians and Milan will even help in the war

[@matheusteodoro7606]

Oh, and also alliance with Poland, chaos Hungary betray me

[@ITSMRFOXY]

​@@matheusteodoro7606personally i always rush the turks and hungarians first, then secure venetian balkans or south italy, and then take out the egyptians, use those pallets of cash from cairo and alexandria to take out the venetians and conquer rome.

[@joea5212]

How do I unlock all the factions

[@lifadfe]

win with all the other factions you already have unlocked

[@joea5212]

@@lifadfe thanks I usually play with Spain so I'll have to switch it up I guess

[@VehicleDigest]

England is my favourite faction tbh, great vid man

[@lugotorix6173]

CAF Thanks for the support!

[@Cybernaut76]

One very big bonus about playing with this faction is the pope will not be messing with your business like you were his slave. You will be a sovereign faction FOR REAL.

[@justindehart4121]

Please do medival 2 kingdoms faction guides

[@juliusbelisarius753]

Great job keep it up

[@lugotorix6173]

Julius Beer Thank you!

[@RocketHarry865]

There are several mods that give far better rosters for the medieval Eastern Roman Empire both native greek and foreign mercenaries I think the Eastern Roman Empire should have gotten unique building chain that serves as a recruitment building for special mercenaries. These foreign mercenaries are dependent on which factions you have entered an alliance with allowing you to recruit unit types you normally would not be able to get. This is to reflect that the Eastern Roman Empire became increasingly more reliant on mercenaries following the decline in their native military systems.

[@bosscourage]

I love Vardariotai, good stats, good ability

[@patmcgroin6916]

A couple of corrections regarding units... 1. Vardariatoi are available from the very earliest part of the game in castles. As such, they are all around the best heavy missile cav available to the player in the game, rivaled by the Egyptian Mamluks, Turkish Sipahis and Hungarian Nobles. And they are effective units throughout the campaign. 2. Kataphractoi are actually available AFTER Latinkon... Irritating considering how they are presented in their description, but require a stables a step above what Latinkon require. Go figger... A few other comments... Guard archers are really good units, available LONG before the late game if you even moderately manage your castles. Sure, less effective late game, but what you going to do as the Byzantines (hire mercs!)? Great heavy foot archers, can slug it out in melee with most. Much better than presented. Militia cav are actually moderately superior to merchant cav, and available in any city with the proper barracks. Solid emergency mounted troops. Alan merc cav are the BEST light melee cav in the game, almost as tough as mailed knights, fast AND good stamina, great general chasers and capable of mixing it up in melee. Any cav with the "fast" descriptor is valuable as a general chaser, by the way...

[@marcello3218]

You totally forgot the sicilian will come Immediately to attack you and that change everything

[@alew1133]

He who is wise shall not venture too far east

[@davidquezada50]

Can you make a contexts list in your info for the video?

[@lugotorix6173]

What do you mean by a contexts list?

[@davidquezada50]

@@lugotorix6173 like on a book where you see a list of content so you can just go to that page So when someone wants help on a certain topic your video can get more viewers for new gents :) If you understand since I suck at English

[@AB-ww6kw]

In SS6.4 they have som gunpowder units does that mean that their other units are weaker?

[@gronndar]

Nah, but their units just become obsolete over time. They just don't have armor piercing units. Gonna have hard time when western nations get their plate armor.

[@realtalunkarku]

Stainless steel improves them so much

[@Geshiko-GuP]

1 thing, RENOVATIO IMPERII

[@FumblsTheSniper]

Just don’t say Caesar like “sees her” and I won’t start winding back the scorpion.

[@SavageHenry777]

Having no pronoia infantry in vanilla fuckin hurts. Also nice in kingdoms when the varangians are somewhat useful.

[@josevelezjr.9922]

Byzantine GOD archers. I don't believe you've actually used them as the Byzantines, my friend. They're really good.

[@Nevarden]

I am playing an enhancement vanilla mod, had a nasty war with Venice and managed to peace them once I took their capital but then Rus and HRE attacked me, peaced Rus with all my stacks piled up on their land before I could even set up a siege so from there I flanked the Germans from their NE and took 3/4 of their land I am trying to kill their faction leader who refuses to peace me, I accidentally killed his heir who wanted me to kill their leader so they could peace with me. Milan tried to war me but I peaced them quickly and now I have Turkey and Egypt about to attack Constantinople as a Jihad but thankfully I have like 2-3 stacks in the city to protect it.

[@gm2407]

The people that used to have Phalanx have no spearmen effective against heavy cavalry in this period. Must be a 'Knightmare' against Catholic factions as they have Templar and Hospitaler Knights. The spearmen they do have struggle against Mailed Knights one on one.

[@torgomaghanyan7633]

In custom mode there is 3-4 more inf units top notch ones

[@vicentgalvan70]

It is funny bacause you pronounced all the named right. XD I think the only mistake was the Skytikon.

[@SavageHenry777]

Also in a skirmish fight trebizond archers will kill just about any gunmen. Gunpowder units are difficult to use well and easy to defeat, almost as bad as pikes. At least, in my experience.

[@hernanreipp6983]

Call me primitive. But for some reason I never use gunpowder units, even if I can trained.

[@SavageHenry777]

@@hernanreipp6983 It'd be great if we got a medieval 3 which kept the strong aspects of old total war games but fixed the mechanics for firearms, pikes etc.

[@malice9830]

I don't know why they called byzins now instead of rome

[@matheusteodoro7606]

I usually make an alliance with the Turks, using them as a "shield" against the Mongols and Timurius.

[@basiliimakedonas1109]

On the next episode of everyone hates the Byzantines

[@Gremlin_Wizard]

This video should have been named “why I don’t like byzantines” imo.

[@lugotorix6173]

I do like the Byzantine's, I just think they're armies become inferior as the game progresses

[@Gremlin_Wizard]

@@lugotorix6173 yeah, they fall behind quite a bit in the late game. Who would be your favourite faction though, considering every advantage and disadvantage they have?

[@UltyAdv]

Ka - ta - Fra - k'tea and Va - "th"a - riyo - tess

[@NobleKorhedron]

I would argue that the Eastern Romans/Byzantines have it easier, even with having to take Rome. After all, they can easily gradually take Italy as part of your 45 Regions...

[@Cba409]

U didnt go over artillery because "they are all the same" yet u went into detail on every factions peasants and town militia. Anyway, the bee-zantines suck in vanilla, probably the worst faction after scotland.

[@davidquezada50]

Hope Byzantine gets more love on medieval 3 Ca hate Byzantine

[@thebenevolentsun6575]

How do you know so little about history?

[@kkhang8617]

I sweep Turk and Egypt in 60 turns and wair Mongol.

[@КурсыиностранныхязыковвМоскве]

This nation definitely deserves nafta throwers

[@corneliu-mihaimagureanu6626]

They were the Eastern Roman Empire Ανατολική Ρωμαϊκή Αυτοκρατορία

[@corneliu-mihaimagureanu6626]

@Palace4Life EagleArmy it's the same thing

[@corneliu-mihaimagureanu6626]

@Palace4Life EagleArmy so when the split happened they always called themselves the Eastern Roman Empire they were called the byzantine empire after they were annexed by the ottomans I didn't say they were Latin the whole of the Eastern Roman Empire was helenic

[@corneliu-mihaimagureanu6626]

@Palace4Life EagleArmy that is the western roman empire

[@RocketHarry865]

​@Palace4Life EagleArmy Look we have a sycophant of that Frankish petender

[@ironknights7196]

Hello I am the Roman’s (Byzantines) I conquered Rome and Constantinople never fell so yeah change of history also I conquered the world in including the americas.

[@archer8849]

somehow cataphracts have worse defense then vardariotai horse archers. really nerfed hard compared to Rome BI.

[@thorulf4086]

I like to play them super agresive and upgrade the stables so i can get somme of the better horse artchers and then blitz the turks an venice