You don't need a diplo advisor, it just makes it a bit quicker to get the relations you need, but a 25% faster guy helps a lot, and the diplo guy really helps with absorbing vassals, like helps a lot.
1.8 Byzantium
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You don't need a diplo advisor, it just makes it a bit quicker to get the relations you need, but a 25% faster guy helps a lot, and the diplo guy really helps with absorbing vassals, like helps a lot.
With my strategy I needed humanism to accept small nations early on to avoid unrest, since Ottos were waaaaay too powerful for me until 1550, this is why I carved my way to power through Hungary (release Transylvania and vassalize, then feed with Hungarian territories step by step). France was very weak in my game: England did surprisingly well first 100 years.
I guess religious ideas are needed if you want to rush for Asia Minor and Anatolia asap, but when you have enough patriarch authority and Defender of the Faith, you will be able to convert even Rome or Mecca without Religious ideas (since the only left Orthodox country is Russia\Muscovy and Poland-Lithuania alliance is vital), you won't be called into any war.
After taking out Caucasus and Ottomans I found myself a bit too weak to fight huge European alliances, this is why easiest way was to take on AQ, QQ, Persia and Mamlukes, since they were 3-4 mil. techs lower than me. Arabs/Bedouins were taken mostly because I wanted Mecca for +1 missionary and I wanted their accepted culture in my empire. At some point I had Greek, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Syrian and Egyptan accepted cultures. That set of military Ideas is taken because I'm actually a bit bad at fair warfare, and I need some serious steroids for my troops could fight French, Austrian and Sweden armies 1:1 ratio.
I westernized quite early on (around 1520) because I was severely lagging in adm tech and slightly in dip. Was the easiest westernization ever, which was finished in 9 years.
If you want to expand and play that way throughout the game then you have to crush Muscovy, Ottos, France, Austria, England and Castile at some point or another, unless you inherit them heh
Why did it take you so long to attack the Ottos that they became too strong? Once you are allied to Poland and they have Lithuana in the bag you can destroy them.
I will note one (good) change is that the AI won't just put up with your one stack looting their country and will try to kill it, but you can still loot Anatolia while siegeing Greece, just make it a merc because you may have to delete it every once in a while. Still even as a value neutral for you it hurts them badly.
I would have gone for the Otto's first but Venice allied Genoa and Austria was willing to join that war, still, it was Otto's right after that. I don't think letting them get strong is too helpful.
I didn't have accepted cultures and did not face even one rebellion after annexing Serbia and Bulgaria, I also took Dalmatia or whatever that province is and no rebellions there. My income has been huge right from the start, focus on Mil allows for war taxes to be used at will, huge money for you. Now in 1490ish, Serbia is at 0 revolt and 0 autonomy, Bulgaria is very low in autonomy with 0 revolt except for the one Sunni province.
I think Humanism is good when you go a conquering huge tracts of land, like the Golden Horde, but the non accepted culture thing shouldn't be that big of a deal. I never had any revolts except one I purposely got out of the way in Crimea.
My main point is that you shouldn't have money trouble and you don't get revolt risk unless you have wrong culture and wrong religion with nationalism.
I am way behind in diplo tech, on par for admin and way ahead in mil, so I may try to fall behind in admin a little bit to Westernize.
You don't need to be great at Warfare if you are two tech levels ahead of France. Also, you should be hiring 100 tradition generals by 1490ish depending on how active you've been. Don't be afraid of mercs if you want to protect your manpower, but don't hire them if they are a tech level behind troops you can hire, unless they will only be used for sieges.
I did get a huge, huge, huge break in my latest game when at war with Venice (first war), I got an event giving me a 100 tradition general. He lasted until I was at 60 tradition and could hire a decent replacement.
I got lucky - in my first start the Otts got into a war with Karaman and co in the first three years despite having the mission on Constantinople. I spammed up to around16 galleys, took my chance, narrowly beat the main Ottoman fleet, and it was a straight forward occupation fest from there.
Having said that, the long truce times mean that all i've done is claim back the Greek holdings. Bulgaria etc is intact (they narrowly avoided a defection post peace) and they're now blobbing in Asia Minor. So plenty of interest in the years to come. I'm now allied with Poland and a blobbed Serbia which is helpful though.
Having said that, the long truce times mean that all i've done is claim back the Greek holdings. Bulgaria etc is intact (they narrowly avoided a defection post peace) and they're now blobbing in Asia Minor. So plenty of interest in the years to come. I'm now allied with Poland and a blobbed Serbia which is helpful though.
alliance with serbia then dow on albania(this is the hard part),first day embark 3 troop and move near zeta after serbia accept alliance dow albania and disembark on zeta sometimes albania troop go to kosovo and ottoman chase them so u have time to disembark to zeta and go down to albania and start the siege before them.
fabricate claim on ragusa,dow ragusa,fabricate claim bosnia/serbia and attak the weakest when they start a war,vassalizze one of them u will take the leadership of one of them give all territory u can to serbia/bosnia(change the occupy by and give to them)so when u made peace u can give them to your vassal,after that u just need to be lucky,i got the ottomans without galley and manpower they was at war against mamluks and other so just with 1 war i retaked almost all from them after that is easy crush them on every war
fabricate claim on ragusa,dow ragusa,fabricate claim bosnia/serbia and attak the weakest when they start a war,vassalizze one of them u will take the leadership of one of them give all territory u can to serbia/bosnia(change the occupy by and give to them)so when u made peace u can give them to your vassal,after that u just need to be lucky,i got the ottomans without galley and manpower they was at war against mamluks and other so just with 1 war i retaked almost all from them after that is easy crush them on every war
This works fine as long as Ottomans do not warn you.
In my game I was warned just after annexing Albania. At that point, I played the opportunistic game. I attacked Knights+Venice while they were at war with Austria. I attacked Serbia when the Ottomans warning expired. I attacked the Ottomans when they were fighting against the Mamlukes.
At the beginning, the best allies in my game were Poland, Austria and Aragon.
Aye and that's the key.Byzantium needs nothing else than common sense in 1.8.Also the new trade node + extra provinces pretty much allow you to dominate the seas quite early on.And by seas i don't mean only the med.With the exception of a drunken ninja British navy coming to say hello,you got noone to fear.
Why didn't you force vassalize Serbia? 10 years to annex, and relations are easy to fix, if you want to annex them. You can do that all in one go and they surely have a claim on Bosnia you can declare with. It's really, really hard to diplo vassalize people unless you spam the tax buildings.
Wow lots of people having good time playing Byzantium. Honestly I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I take albania, I get alliance with Austria and vassalise Ragusa and then this:
I mean it happens all the time, one time I got alliance with Austria and Poland/Lithunia i get attacked and only Serbia helps me. What am I doing wrong?
I mean it happens all the time, one time I got alliance with Austria and Poland/Lithunia i get attacked and only Serbia helps me. What am I doing wrong?
Austria can have a hard time getting access early game. So Poland is in the war? I see you can scroll down. Austria obviously called their allies, it sucks you can't separate peace anyone there.
In this case, you should have the navy to kill theirs, if they are on Greece, you go to Anatolia. You should be able to kill any Crimeans that make their way to you by yourself and the loot...oh, that loot, oh...Get over their quick, travel around the country, you can stop them from getting any men by strategically moving 1 man troops around making them cancel their troops a few days before they are made. The best thing you can do in this war is make them go bankrupt. Yes, losing your capital will hurt, but them losing every land on the other side hurts them more I think. You might be screwed because you don't have much money and I can't see your fleet, but you got a little unlucky.
So, Crimea declared on Genoa? Why would you vassalize a one province minor with no claims to anymore territory? Annex that bad boy.
In this case, you should have the navy to kill theirs, if they are on Greece, you go to Anatolia. You should be able to kill any Crimeans that make their way to you by yourself and the loot...oh, that loot, oh...Get over their quick, travel around the country, you can stop them from getting any men by strategically moving 1 man troops around making them cancel their troops a few days before they are made. The best thing you can do in this war is make them go bankrupt. Yes, losing your capital will hurt, but them losing every land on the other side hurts them more I think. You might be screwed because you don't have much money and I can't see your fleet, but you got a little unlucky.
So, Crimea declared on Genoa? Why would you vassalize a one province minor with no claims to anymore territory? Annex that bad boy.
I hoped to get into its war with Sebia and to kill two proverbial birds with one stone, unfortunately Serbia somehow called BOSNIA as an ally so I had to end that war sooner than I wanted.
Joining that war was wrong.Even if it meant sacrificing your alliance with Austria you should have stayed out.This war,even if you win,is only bad news for you cause Genoa who will sign the peace deal will never give land to you and on your own you wont have enough warscore to demand anything from the Ottos. When you restart the game just get Poland or Lithuania or you side.You dont need them to defeat the Ottos,you can solo them easily if you attack on your own terms.What you need from them is the guarantee that they will not give mil access.Oh and waiting for Genoa/Austria to lose this first war is also advised before you attack.Ottos usually snatch up Chios,so more free cores for you when you declare.
I don't understand. Does that mean that Austria was set as a co-belligerent by Crimea when they declared war on Genoa?Wow lots of people having good time playing Byzantium. Honestly I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I take albania, I get alliance with Austria and vassalise Ragusa and then this:
I mean it happens all the time, one time I got alliance with Austria and Poland/Lithunia i get attacked and only Serbia helps me. What am I doing wrong?
How else could you be called to arms?
Seriously, none of this cheese is needed. Spam galleys and attack directly after they finish the war with Albania as soon as their troops are back in Europe - worked several times for me.
The Alliance serbia dow albania doesn't seem to work anymore.
'If' and that's a big 1 out of 20 if, Ottomans choose to chase the Albanians into Serbia- they only do so with half their forces. Leaving the other half to siege.
And to you above, I swear every time I've tried that I've had 25 galleys to the Ottomans 50-70. With that sorta number divide and conquer navalwise stops working. With the latest patch Ottomans spams galleys and they have a far better economy for it than you.
'If' and that's a big 1 out of 20 if, Ottomans choose to chase the Albanians into Serbia- they only do so with half their forces. Leaving the other half to siege.
And to you above, I swear every time I've tried that I've had 25 galleys to the Ottomans 50-70. With that sorta number divide and conquer navalwise stops working. With the latest patch Ottomans spams galleys and they have a far better economy for it than you.
Yes but how did Austria call to arms Byzantium if they are not the war leader?
Because co-belligerents can also call allies. The emperor is automatically a co-belligerent if the empire is attacked and they accept the call to arms.
I'm playing ironman with AI bonuses. Make sure you have statesman and aragon and austria have rivaled venice. Secure those alliances and then get alliance with poland-lithuania. Spam galleys. You can go for venice first and get 3-4 easy provinces. Ottos will dow you at some point but your allies should be able to secure win for you. This strat will fail if ottos dow you soon after annexing albania. You shouldn't need allies for the second war.