How to Byzantium in Iron Century?

[Byzantium2000]

I’ve started my first Byzantine-proper game with Iron Century, I was very excited to play as Constantine VII. I don’t consider myself to be that great of a player so it seems very challenging (in a fun way).

What’s a good way to keep your Strategoi from becoming too powerful? I understand I can revoke Theme’s, but then whom do I give them too? Is it bad to give someone 2 Theme titles? That’s not something i would usually do with hereditary Dukedoms.
Same question when I create the Viceroyal King titles, who should they go to?

Nikephoros is the main rival it seems (makes sense), and the Strategos of Trebizond is also very strong, I think he has all the Count titles in his Theme. Is it as simple as revoking the Themes, thus disallowing them Commander titles and cutting their voting power?

Also, I never played before the new Imperial Elective system but I really like it. Makes the Empire feel very unique and different, as it should.

Honestly a guy owning 2 Viceroys isn’t that bad but it is a risk. Usually you want to replace too wieldy Vassals with Content and high Martial Vassals. But if theirs no open counties to replace them then I just say fabricate or hope they revolt.

A good way to lower a rival’s Elector score is to Excommunicate him. Though Nikephoros tends to get it lifted if you do it too soon. A Excommunicated vassal can be instantly imprisioned and if he revolts his titles revoked.

 

[Dragatus]

I started a game as the emperor in 936 and I can see a few reasons for problem. One is that you're Armenian instead of Greek, so there's an opinion malus right there. But more importantly I found that none of the powerful vassals was on the council and I didn't have enough Piety to create any kingdoms.

I could stabilize thing by appointing my powerful vassals to the council and by granting the council the power to vote on war declarations. I then created Anatolia because that's where most of the remaining factioning vassals were from and gave it to my son as a viceroyalty. That took care of the factions. After that I just created a kingdom whenever I had 200 Piety.

I also excommunicated the Makedon guy and imprisoned and blinded him. That made people stop voting for him.

 

[MightyEvilDoom]

I also excommunicated the Makedon guy and imprisoned and blinded him. That made people stop voting for him.

Like a true Emperor

 

[GundamMerc]

Like a true Emperor

Makedon is merely the protagonist of another story.

 

[Byzantium2000]

Like a true Emperor

But Not like Romanos Lekapenos who loved Constantine Makedon like a son.

 

[MightyEvilDoom]

But Not like Romanos Lekapenos who loved Constantine Makedon like a son.

Correct. Neither did Constantine’s Uncle in the brief time he was Emperor. It’s what many others would have done. It’s a very interesting story.

 

[Dragatus]

Makedon is merely the protagonist of another story.

A rather short one in this case.

But Not like Romanos Lekapenos who loved Constantine Makedon like a son.

I would've been perfectly happy to let him be if my vassals weren't choosing him over my actual son.

 

[BeyondExpectation]

I know some people will tell you that you can prevent anyone else to access the throne, but by doing that you would just avoid what makes the Byzantine empire different from all other empires.

That's not completely true for much of the game. Between 820 and 1041, there was constantly an Emperor who was either the brother or the child of a prior one, to the extent that Zoë Porphyrogenita who reigned from 1028 to 1041 and again from 1042 to 1050, was the daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter, ect. all the way up to 5*great-granddaughter of different emperors.

 

[Karlington]

Honestly a guy owning 2 Viceroys isn’t that bad but it is a risk. Usually you want to replace too wieldy Vassals with Content and high Martial Vassals. But if theirs no open counties to replace them then I just say fabricate or hope they revolt.

I'd recommend against ever giving anyone two viceroyalties unless there's a specific reason: perhaps they are highly loyal (Content or ideally even a loyal servant), or you are hitting your vassal limit and have no choice.

I started a game as the emperor in 936 and I can see a few reasons for problem. One is that you're Armenian instead of Greek, so there's an opinion malus right there. But more importantly I found that none of the powerful vassals was on the council and I didn't have enough Piety to create any kingdoms.

If you have Rajas of India you can convert to the local Greek culture by right-clicking yourself. It costs 500 Prestige, but that shouldn't be a big deal for the emperor. It's only +2.5 worth of Prestige opinion bonus, while being Armenian is -4 opinion with Greeks, so it's a net gain with all Greek vassals (though not with the non-Greek ones), and the Prestige will be earned back soon enough.

 

[Dragatus]

You start off with less than 100 Prestige, so you have to wait a bit before you can use that decision.

 

[STABBY5]

Start the civil war on your terms. You've got free title revocation, get rid of those who don't like you and stack titles on the content. Try to do the ones that say yes, save up money for mercenaries. Assassinate who you can. Raise all your men at the start of the game and crush disorganized rebels. During the rebellion remember that executing viceroys takes their land out of the rebellion and gives it to you. A brutal consolidation of power is risky but you should only need to do it once in a game.

 

[MightyEvilDoom]

I have a non-purple born son oldest son and a purple born younger son, and it seems like the game is forcing the younger purple born son on me as my heir. (Younger son is designated as my heir. They’re both children, for what it’s worth).
Is this normal? Does the game favor purple born over oldest?
What’s odd is that I can’t give my oldest son the Despot title. It just doesn’t come up as allowable. I can give it to me three purple born children though. I don’t know if it’s a bug or what.

 

[UrsusAtlanticus]

I have a non-purple born son oldest son and a purple born younger son, and it seems like the game is forcing the younger purple born son on me as my heir. (Younger son is designated as my heir. They’re both children, for what it’s worth).
Is this normal? Does the game favor purple born over oldest?
What’s odd is that I can’t give my oldest son the Despot title. It just doesn’t come up as allowable. I can give it to me three purple born children though. I don’t know if it’s a bug or what.

The despot title is mutually exclusive with the kouropalates and caesar titles, check out if you gave him either, retreat the minor title and give him the despot title. At any rate if your youngest son appears as your heir it means that you're losing the election to emperor currently, check out the election screen and if your sons are minors nominate someone else from your dynasty, if it's possible.

 

[MightyEvilDoom]

The despot title is mutually exclusive with the kouropalates and caesar titles, check out if you gave him either, retreat the minor title and give him the despot title. At any rate if your youngest son appears as your heir it means that you're losing the election to emperor currently, check out the election screen and if your sons are minors nominate someone else from your dynasty, if it's possible.

He was Sebastos (and cup bearer :/) and when I removed those I was able to give him Despot. Unfortunate because I’ve already started grooming my purple-born son to be the heir and betrothed him to a German Princess. It would be nice if the titles told you what other titles they disallow.

I am losing the election, all my children are kids, the oldest being 7. I am Konstantinos Makedon so I have no other family members (my Uncle having died very early in game). So I’m just waiting, numbers wise once the massive penalty from being a child goes away they’ll all support my heir.

 

[Byzantium2000]

He was Sebastos (and cup bearer :/) and when I removed those I was able to give him Despot. Unfortunate because I’ve already started grooming my purple-born son to be the heir and betrothed him to a German Princess. It would be nice if the titles told you what other titles they disallow.

I am losing the election, all my children are kids, the oldest being 7. I am Konstantinos Makedon so I have no other family members (my Uncle having died very early in game). So I’m just waiting, numbers wise once the massive penalty from being a child goes away they’ll all support my heir.

Tis a Shame. The New Byzantine Honorary titles are actually unfinished and them making it into this Update was shocking to me. But their there and here’s how they fair.

In total theirs 4, Hypatos, Patrikos, Sebastos And Augusta.

Hypatos(Consul) can be given to anyone but Family Members And Anthypatos(Proconsuls)
Sebastos(Most Serene one) only given to family members. Though it should work alongside Despot or Sebasokrator.
Patrikos(Patrician) can be given to anyone.
Augusta(Augusta) only your wife or Daughter.

Those are all the restrictions i think made it in.

 

[UrsusAtlanticus]

He was Sebastos (and cup bearer :/) and when I removed those I was able to give him Despot. Unfortunate because I’ve already started grooming my purple-born son to be the heir and betrothed him to a German Princess. It would be nice if the titles told you what other titles they disallow.

I am losing the election, all my children are kids, the oldest being 7. I am Konstantinos Makedon so I have no other family members (my Uncle having died very early in game). So I’m just waiting, numbers wise once the massive penalty from being a child goes away they’ll all support my heir.

Tis a Shame. The New Byzantine Honorary titles are actually unfinished and them making it into this Update was shocking to me. But their there and here’s how they fair.

In total theirs 4, Hypatos, Patrikos, Sebastos And Augusta.

Hypatos(Consul) can be given to anyone but Family Members And Anthypatos(Proconsuls)
Sebastos(Most Serene one) only given to family members. Though it should work alongside Despot or Sebasokrator.
Patrikos(Patrician) can be given to anyone.
Augusta(Augusta) only your wife or Daughter.

Those are all the restrictions i think made it in.

Oh, I've immediately rolled back to 3.1.1 because of the save compatibility issue, so I didn't see all the work that they've done with the minor titles, it's pretty nice, they've also expanded the usage of the titles to somewhat more historical values; let's hope that they're going to add the Symbasileus as well next time. Anyway it's kind of weird that you had to remove the Sebastos title first, from the code it's not a unique title now and it doesn't disqualify from receiving the Despot title, as far as I can see.

 

[Byzantium2000]

Oh, I've immediately rolled back to 3.1.1 because of the save compatibility issue, so I didn't see all the work that they've done with the minor titles, it's pretty nice, they've also expanded the usage of the titles to somewhat more historical values; let's hope that they're going to add the Symbasileus as well next time. Anyway it's kind of weird that you had to remove the Sebastos title first, from the code it's not a unique title now and it doesn't disqualify from receiving the Despot title, as far as I can see.

I doubt that saying as how I made the titles and descriptions. Again even being in the game was surprising to me as I expected them to be scrapped.

 

[UrsusAtlanticus]

I doubt that saying as how I made the titles and descriptions. Again even being in the game was surprising to me as I expected them to be scrapped.

Do you doubt the part about the Sebastos title preventing MightyEvilDoom from giving the Despot title to his first son or do you doubt that we're going to see the Symbasileus title, sooner or later? You've quoted the whole post and I'm not sure about the subject here, sorry.

 

[Byzantium2000]

Do you doubt the part about the Sebastos title preventing MightyEvilDoom from giving the Despot title to his first son or do you doubt that we're going to see the Symbasileus title, sooner or later? You've quoted the whole post and I'm not sure about the subject here, sorry.

Sorry should have been more specific. I doubt we will see a Symbasileus title. I didn’t add it cause mechanically I didn’t want it to just be Despot.

Sebastos shouldn’t prevent any unique titles from being given though sebastoskrator originally was gonna be prevented.

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

I haven't tried any internal starts, but personally I'd say it's one of the best starts for the ERE. Internationally it's very secure. The entirety of k_Sicily can be brought back into the fold very quickly. The Serbs and Croats are both weak, Christian, and feudal, so they can easily be captured as long as Italy or Bulgaria don't get grab them first (which is doubtful, because they're relatively poor and the CBs to capture them are more expensive than they're worth.)

But that brings us to the elephant in the room: Bulgaria. Bulgaria holds a LOT of the Balkans and has a lot of your De Jure territory. You can just ignore them. IIRC none of the duchies they hold are required to reform Rome. From what I've seen in my various games in 936, Bulgaria will not declare war either, so just ignore them. They can even be an ally against Hungary and Germany, if you so choose. Let's turn east.

The Abbasids and Egyptians both start as weak, and will remain so unless you leave them to their own devices. The Fatimids don't always invade, and you should try to make sure they don't. If they get Egypt it'll be much more hard, so just make sure they don't. If they do, try to check their power by eating up Crete and any kingdoms in Syria.

The Abbasids will try to push into Armenia and Persia. You can't do much to stop them from getting into Persia, but if you can secure Armenia then you're probably set. You can always push into Mesopotamia and completely break their back if you need.

The main problem seems to be the vassal situation, and I can't speak for that. I don't know the entire internal political situation. A solution for this is to just start as a vassal. The ideal position would be to be near Armenia. Armenia starts as a fractured group of duchies/kingdoms/emirates and you can probably annex it as a vassal and have a good powerbase from there. Then you just need to become emperor, turn south and west, and you should be good.