Anyone know a good Byzantium strategy for 1.30.4 on Very Hard?

[Mindel]

That -20 to ally penalty on VH completely blocks me from ever getting an alliance with Hungary or other major powers. In the best cases, I've been able to get Serbia (12k), Wallachia (8k), Albania (3k + Skanderberg), and Herzegovina (6k) on my side. Maybe with enough tactical finesse, those odds aren't completely impossible.

But I was wondering whether anyone had a more clever idea than just going head-to-head against Ottomans with about half the numbers, especially with AI controlling most of your side.

 

[RedArmy]

Vassalize Epirus to get their navy, ally Genoa or Venice or the Knights to get their navy too. Block the strait and siege down Gelibolu before they cross. The fort is not garnisoned if there is no army in Constantinople, put your soldiers in a boat instead.

 

[Mindel]

Vassalize Epirus to get their navy, ally Genoa or Venice or the Knights to get their navy too. Block the strait and siege down Gelibolu before they cross. The fort is not garnisoned if there is no army in Constantinople, put your soldiers in a boat instead.

Ottomans DOWs after already moving their entire army to the Greek side. In fact, they're usually standing around Constantinople in three stacks. Also, Venice seems to hate Byzantium every time.

 

[RedArmy]

You can siege down the other side of the strait. You just need to hope Constantinople holds long enough to get the warscore. Use the edict in Thrace to help the defenses. Take loans and recruit mercenaries to sieges several forts at the same time.

 

[Mindel]

You can siege down the other side of the strait. You just need to hope Constantinople holds long enough to get the warscore. Use the edict in Thrace to help the defenses. Take loans and recruit mercenaries to sieges several forts at the same time.

How do you get to the other side of the strait? And, assuming you do, how do you get back? What stops the Ottomans from simply walking back over to kill your stacks?

 

[RedArmy]

Cross the strait through Constantinople, take the ungarnisoned fort. Occupy the province in face of Gelibolu. Then block the strait with your navy. I tried like twenty times before winning my first war lol. It is annoying if Ottos are allied with a big Muslim nation, you need to fight their armies.

 

[Mindel]

Cross the strait through Constantinople, take the ungarnisoned fort. Occupy the province in face of Gelibolu. Then block the strait with your navy. I tried like twenty times before winning my first war lol. It is annoying if Ottos are allied with a big Muslim nation, you need to fight their armies.

But this whole strategy depends on you having a large enough navy to fend off the Ottoman fleet. If you can't get allies with enough ships, how do you pull this off?

 

[RedArmy]

Navy is key. You can’t do anything without it. Build ships over your force limit, take loans. Do whatever necessary to win at sea.

You can still try to take loans, recruit many mercenaries, and beat Ottos in the field. But you will likely be quickly bankrupted.

 

[Mindel]

Navy is key. You can’t do anything without it. Build ships over your force limit, take loans. Do whatever necessary to win at sea.

You can still try to take loans, recruit many mercenaries, and beat Ottos in the field. But you will likely be quickly bankrupted.

I see Ottomans with 1 carrack and 13 galleys. Epirus +Byzantium + Greece gives a total of 11 galleys. How do you make up the difference? Loans?

 

[RedArmy]

Yes, take loans and build heavy ships up to the force limit.

 

[Mindel]

Yes, take loans and build heavy ships up to the force limit.

Sorry, Ottomans actually has 5 heavy ships. I don't see how this could possibly be feasible for Byzantium to match.

 

[Alyosha]

Sorry, Ottomans actually has 5 heavy ships. I don't see how this could possibly be feasible for Byzantium to match.

You don’t always have to have outright superiority. The AI is reluctant to engage in naval battles at close numbers. I’d say skip the heavy ships and go for galleys only - they’re cheaper and dole out much more damage in inland seas.

 

[ImAdrian]

Sorry, Ottomans actually has 5 heavy ships. I don't see how this could possibly be feasible for Byzantium to match.

It is possible to "beat" them at sea! I have managed to do it in multiple tries. The point here is not to engage his ships, but to place your whole navy in the strait when the war starts, and they will be too afraid to engage you (since they get -2 crossing penalty). You need to be building ships non-stop as soon as you start the game (with loans). I would also hire an admiral

 

[Mindel]

It is possible to "beat" them at sea! I have managed to do it in multiple tries. The point here is not to engage his ships, but to place your whole navy in the strait when the war starts, and they will be too afraid to engage you (since they get -2 crossing penalty). You need to be building ships non-stop as soon as you start the game (with loans). I would also hire an admiral

How large of a fleet of galleys do you estimate is needed to deal with the Ottomans' opening fleet?

 

[Deliberus]

Hope the AI act like idiots and let you siege down their forts easily and not fight you while stacking their whole army on a single tile...

 

[Methuen of Melnibone]

Is it possible to share iron man saves, so that one of you geniuses could get me past the first war ? Cheap I know, but 'death by RNG' is boring after the 33rd attempt.

I do miss playing Stainless Steel, where a couple of companies of oven-wearers would be enough to sort out the early fights

 

[Palaiologos]

Considering I have 2000 hours with Byzantium on very hard, I thought I should share some hints. Dont vassalize Epirus, they are disloyal 10/10 by the time the Turks declare. Your best odds are getting Albania, Wallachia and Theodoro. Dont try to ally Serbia as that would rule out Albania and Wallachia, their usual rivals. If you can get Herzegovina too then good. These are the best odds you get to fight the Great Satan with, it sucks.


You can NOT beat them at sea, whoever is saying it hasnt played the game on very hard, really. You can build 4,5 galleys per year(counting Athens). You have what, 2 maybe 3 years tops before they attack? They have 5 heavies(in previous versions they didnt) and around 25 galleys. No you cant beat them. What you CAN do though is draw their fleets away from the City, so they dont bombard the walls. Play cat and mouse in the Ionian, dont engage and keep their fleet away from the City.


On land, you need to capture the mothballed fortress of Salonika ASAP. Avoid the troops that they bring outside Athens and run for the fort. join with the Albanians and Vlachs and fight ONLY the small Ottoman armies. Pray that the City holds long enough to muster all for a final showdown (after you wipe out their 4-5 smaller armies) to break the siege. Focus to mil from day one and hopefully you will get to mil tech 4 before the Ottos.

 

[Mindel]

Considering I have 2000 hours with Byzantium on very hard, I thought I should share some hints. Dont vassalize Epirus, they are disloyal 10/10 by the time the Turks declare. Your best odds are getting Albania, Wallachia and Theodoro. Dont try to ally Serbia as that would rule out Albania and Wallachia, their usual rivals. If you can get Herzegovina too then good. These are the best odds you get to fight the Great Satan with, it sucks.


You can NOT beat them at sea, whoever is saying it hasnt played the game on very hard, really. You can build 4,5 galleys per year(counting Athens). You have what, 2 maybe 3 years tops before they attack? They have 5 heavies(in previous versions they didnt) and around 25 galleys. No you cant beat them. What you CAN do though is draw their fleets away from the City, so they dont bombard the walls. Play cat and mouse in the Ionian, dont engage and keep their fleet away from the City.


On land, you need to capture the mothballed fortress of Salonika ASAP. Avoid the troops that they bring outside Athens and run for the fort. join with the Albanians and Vlachs and fight ONLY the small Ottoman armies. Pray that the City holds long enough to muster all for a final showdown (after you wipe out their 4-5 smaller armies) to break the siege. Focus to mil from day one and hopefully you will get to mil tech 4 before the Ottos.

This sounds pretty close to my experience. 5 heavies makes it impossible to contest the Ottomans at sea. None of the naval strategies I've seen successfully implemented were done on very hard.

But how do you make a run on Selanik? I can't quite manage to walk to the fort from Athens before it gets manned at the end of the month. And once my army (+ allies) is sitting there sieging, there isn't anything stopping the Ottomans from gathering a large stack to come kill it.

 

[Palaiologos]

This sounds pretty close to my experience. 5 heavies makes it impossible to contest the Ottomans at sea. None of the naval strategies I've seen successfully implemented were done on very hard.

But how do you make a run on Selanik? I can't quite manage to walk to the fort from Athens before it gets manned at the end of the month. And once my army (+ allies) is sitting there sieging, there isn't anything stopping the Ottomans from gathering a large stack to come kill it.

if the Satan declares until the 7th or 8th of the month you can make the run. Keep the highest manuevre general to a single regiment and your good general to the rest of thearmy. Also drill your troops to gain some speed bonus. The truth is that in the newest version you dont 100% need the fort- you can link up with the Wallachians with Thessalonika. If you link up, Selank or not, dont waste time sieging, but manuevre around and kill the Turkish troopsthat are the weakest. The AI uses many stacks and many dont have generals assigned.

 

[avalahn]

Ok, playing a game with byzantium atm, my opening was Building three heavies, killing epirus, get as many allies as possible, get a claim on naples and kill them the moment they go free from aragon (happen 9 out of 10 Times, at least in my games) . You can bait their army onto scicily, and with three heavies keep them there. Use the extra dev and force limit to fight the ottomans head on (though this will still be a though fight).

Took me five or so tries to figure out this strategy, but it seems to work fairly well.

Or Maybe rng just favored me