1.8 Byzantium

[unmerged(768374)]

1.8 seems easy for Byz
I have started below without galley strategy as I forgot about it but simply waiting for right opportunity when Ottos went into war with Venice and they blocked the pass.
http://imgur.com/zw2IZas

 

[Viperswhip]

Did you inherit any of those lands in the west? My family is presently on the thrones of France and Castile in my longest Byz game (1580 or so). Just waiting for a good claim throne time or for it to happen naturally.

 

[FrosT37]

1.8 seems easy for Byz
I have started below without galley strategy as I forgot about it but simply waiting for right opportunity when Ottos went into war with Venice and they blocked the pass.
http://imgur.com/zw2IZas

I love those borders.

 

[unmerged(768374)]

Did you inherit any of those lands in the west? My family is presently on the thrones of France and Castile in my longest Byz game (1580 or so). Just waiting for a good claim throne time or for it to happen naturally.

I have conquered everything. I have used vassal feeding strategy. The only vassal I could not absorb was Palatinate as I could not force them to like me. It was the only mistake by force vassalizing member of HRE and not releasing them. With empire mode you can conquer whole europe but I wanted to limit myself to shown borders although sometimes it was tempting to take more. I thought that there will be a problem with France but I have left them at the very end and destroy, divide them in two quick wars.

 

[Galrion]

I'm having an awful time against the Ottomans. The initial war went well and the one after that, but since then I get annihilated every time I go up against them. They've been allied with the Timurids, Golden Horde, Crimea and host of vassal states. I'm being hammered by 100k stacks with 3 star leaders. I'm certain I could handle the Ottomans if it were just them versus me, but they appear to have a bottomless pit of troops in addition to amazing leaders. I don't know if I just got unlucky or if I should have been more aggressive out the gate. It seems their leaders get better the longer the Ottomans are around and this huge alliance of theirs has lasted for well over a hundred years.

Just bad luck it looks like. Took the Ottomans apart very quickly in a new start. It was definitely that alliance they'd put together. That and the fact that the Timurids were also much more massive in that first game.

 

[Ixor779]

Not as large as some, no lucky PUs. 1571.

Allied to Poland, Aragon, and Trebizond who has crimea as a vassal. Syria is my vassal.

 

[Pilot00]

Not as large as some, no lucky PUs. 1571.

Allied to Poland, Aragon, and Trebizond who has crimea as a vassal. Syria is my vassal.

How did Trebizond vassalise Crimea? Pretty impressive m8 GJ.

 

[Ixor779]

As you can see they lost a province to Lithuania, no union this game. This, along with no ottoman alliance allowed them to vassalise them. When our royal marriage is up I'm breaking the alliance though. Need the province for the theme system decision.

 

[Pilot00]

As you can see they lost a province to Lithuania, no union this game. This, along with no ottoman alliance allowed them to vassalise them. When our royal marriage is up I'm breaking the alliance though. Need the province for the theme system decision.

Seems....Odd non the less, well played I guess

In my game QQ had vassal absorbed Trebizond and after they got beat up by the Timies, they forced them to return it to me.

 

[Ixor779]

Oh they were in my game too. Then released in a peace deal, got Kaffa from rebels and beat Crimea. Quite the adventure.
Made some progress, 1587. Just waiting out a few coalition members in Europe so I can go for the Ottos again. Meanwhile the league war in Europe is massive, France, Poland, Lithuania, Castile, Aragon, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Scotland, Tuscany and all the german states.

 

[Pilot00]

Dat Tuscany though.... How do you guys fare with AE, and coalitions? I snagged a large part of Italy and now I have all of the HRE on my heels

 

[Lundgreen]

Alexius would be proud!
What map mod is that?

 

[Lapsed Pacifist]

To be honest I don't see the appeal in absorbing Hungary in all these Byzantium games. It just seems like a lot of effort to take mostly poor provinces with high coring costs and a hostile culture.

 

[AlphaSonic]

Hungary doesn't have Hostile core creation since 1.4 or 1.5 (I don't remember now)

 

[hajutze]

Not to mention at some point the goal of the game becomes - have some pretty borders.

 

[Cwalk121]

Well here's my Byzantium ironman so far. Ramazan and Naples are both vassals, and Syria should soon be welcomed into the fold. Not really sure what to do about the Mamlukes though, since I don't feel like wasting any more monarch points on provinces that are distant overseas. I'm also trying to find a way to PU Austria, since they have Palaiologos on their throne. They were in a regency, but I wasn't allowed to claim their throne for some reason. Also, not doing so well on tech and ideas since I just spent about 70 years with a 1-1-2 Empress who absolutely refused to die, and had a 6-3-3 heir to boot.

 

[Pilot00]

Well heres were I am at:

Honestly I rue the day I didn't take quantity. It seems expanding without it and humanism is way hard now. I have a relatively big manpower pool but it never seems to recover. Guess I have to rectify that.

Beat 3 coalitions in this game consisting by pretty much whatever you see east of me Plus Lithuania+Poland and the Orders. Seems like the best way to deal with a coalition though is preemptive strike: Find the nearest OPM that joins it, DOW 100% it peace out.

Anyway Circasia,Ottoderps,Georgia and Urbino are vassals. And yes thats the Pope a bit south of Denmark, Aragon at a time took over Rome, so they relocated and started Blobbing Inside the HRE. Dont remember who gave them Rome back though.

Westernize or not?

 

[Viperswhip]

Well heres were I am at:

Honestly I rue the day I didn't take quantity. It seems expanding without it and humanism is way hard now. I have a relatively big manpower pool but it never seems to recover. Guess I have to rectify that.

Beat 3 coalitions in this game consisting by pretty much whatever you see east of me Plus Lithuania+Poland and the Orders. Seems like the best way to deal with a coalition though is preemptive strike: Find the nearest OPM that joins it, DOW 100% it peace out.

Anyway Circasia,Ottoderps,Georgia and Urbino are vassals. And yes thats the Pope a bit south of Denmark, Aragon at a time took over Rome, so they relocated and started Blobbing Inside the HRE. Dont remember who gave them Rome back though.

Westernize or not?

I think you are supposed to Westernize when you are small.

 

[Fyras]

Well here's my Byzantium ironman so far. Ramazan and Naples are both vassals, and Syria should soon be welcomed into the fold. Not really sure what to do about the Mamlukes though, since I don't feel like wasting any more monarch points on provinces that are distant overseas.

As soon as you have direct landline connection between egypt (id est: a province connection through the syrian coast) and Constantinople (or your new capital) all those prior Mameluk lands won't be distant oversea anymore. So annex Ramazan and Syria and you are good to go! Alternatively you could move your capital to Cyprus, that did the trick in my Venice game in 1.8 (you can't move Venice's capital anymore in 1.9...).

 

[Grifen88]

Here's mine. Gone for early westernisation, so I'm just starting to catch up with blobbing.

Oh and vassals. Gotta love vassals.