Byzantium and the neighbors

[fr-rein]

I need an advice as a ruler of Byzantine.
Backstory: I played as a strategos on 769 start for a while (200 years, with a decade accidentally being Basileus until I was replaced). My personal vassals were fine, a fine income (+40 without Constantinople), we got most of Balkans and half of Black Sea Coast, no factions no, 6 bloodlines with 7th in heir, bloodline forged (wanted to be a church builder but won too many wars). If I remove lustful I could become a Saint, second in family after one of my old characters (who was quite a slut in youth, but never mind that). I survived Black Death and despite a chunk of my dynasty being dead, a lot of titles are held by my family and it is hugely present thanks to marriages and many titles I gave as I externally expanded before as a Strategos.

Now, I rule it. I am ERE and I my position is solid internally.
But Africa is still there, which took Sicily and Apulia. They are not too big,but obviously a pain.
Umayyads are alive and healthy, they ate Corsica(!) and a whole France, barely stopped in Germania. What is worse, they got Anatolia... which did remove the last opponents from me though. East of Anatolia we lost all, except for Trebizond.
Abassids died.... and were replaced by Tengri Mongol Empire. Part of the former Empire revolted. As a Tengri.
Catholics are in a weakened Italy and in Bohemia, along with a sphere in borders of HRE.

The Muslims are superstable and powerful. Catholics are a valid target, but they have stop Umayyads and hopefully crusade them. Tengri Arabs are less stable, but still horrifically strong.
As an Orthodox, I am not sure how to invade kingdoms, so war for Anatolia seems unlikely to me.
So, I can Holy War for duchies and I could fight with money and troops. But how to effectively cripple and be done with my neighbors in a reasonable time? And is there any reasonable alternative to Holy War until I beat them enough to get Imperial CB?

 

[Btdg]

If they swallowed kingdoms (France, Sicily, etc), there might be claimants you can invite, land and press claims for whole kingdoms. That speeds things up...

Otherwise, it's about being strategic with what you target to weaken and destabilise the blobs. Take their capital duchies and leave the rulers with basically nothing and their vassals will get busy internally - then you can attack revolts, etc.

Or, convert to Catholic and wait for crusades? Convert to Tengri, ally with Mongols, get invasion CBS? Plenty of options.

F you want to stay Orthodox, I'd start by targeting Sicily and anything on the islands - much easier to defend if they come back at you. Then... pick your spots - maybe Alexandria/Cairo? Wait for a crusade and simultaneously hit Anitoch, then press for Baghdad? As couple of strategic moves is all you need to swing the balance your way....

 

[TheDungen]

Set up exachates on their border and the exarchs will holy war them for you. You may want to start with one of your own to weaken them, after that your exarchs will pretty much keep them in a constant state of war.

Beware though when the exarchs start snowballing they generally don't stop if you want them to not take certain provinces say ones that will trigger renewed jihad, you have to ensure they can't.

 

[fr-rein]

Gonna share maps to see the whole picture.

Surprisingly, Germanics were reformed.

Correction about bloodlines: 5 actually in characters, a few traits (Vortingern, Attila, "Valiant" and another "Conqueror" ones are not united yet) are still disunited and vary among different dynastic lines. I kind of ran to get that achievment... but since I am ERE, I have to do it.

If they swallowed kingdoms (France, Sicily, etc), there might be claimants you can invite, land and press claims for whole kingdoms. That speeds things up...

Sicily was just 2 duchies and the claimant isn't a person I liked...

Otherwise, it's about being strategic with what you target to weaken and destabilise the blobs. Take their capital duchies and leave the rulers with basically nothing and their vassals will get busy internally - then you can attack revolts, etc.

I do consider it and taking Sicily, I am simply not sure to face both Umayyads and Africa at once. It became better with Mongols crushing Abbasids, but now East is a rather scary place. So, another option is only taking Apulia... for starters.

F you want to stay Orthodox, I'd start by targeting Sicily and anything on the islands - much easier to defend if they come back at you. Then... pick your spots - maybe Alexandria/Cairo? Wait for a crusade and simultaneously hit Anitoch, then press for Baghdad? As couple of strategic moves is all you need to swing the balance your way....

I did consider it as a strategos with 10 counties until France was fully lost. About 60 years ago Bulgaria was a thing and controlled most of Balkans as a Tengri-Catholic Horde, leaving Byzantium very weak and surviving only because it was not targeted with a crushing jihad. After it imploded, I did a lot to take the remnants, other used the opportunity too.
Right now switching to it seems less interesting than finishing Italy and trying to be the Roman Empire yourself if I survive the blobs.
I just hope to deal with Tengri and Sunni without being at war with all of them too much. And, of course, win the wars I'll wage and finally hope to stop being a lustful grandpa.

Set up exachates on their border and the exarchs will holy war them for you. You may want to start with one of your own to weaken them, after that your exarchs will pretty much keep them in a constant state of war.

Beware though when the exarchs start snowballing they generally don't stop if you want them to not take certain provinces say ones that will trigger renewed jihad, you have to ensure they can't.

How to do that? I never really played Byzantine itself, except for one abandoned Georgian run against Steppe, so I don't know.

 

[TheDungen]

How to do that? I never really played Byzantine itself, except for one abandoned Georgian run against Steppe, so I don't know.

Exarchs are king level viceroys. Just create a kingdom and hand it of in a way so that once given the holder borders someone they can holy war and they will holy war... a lot.

 

[fr-rein]

Exarchs are king level viceroys. Just create a kingdom and hand it of in a way so that once given the holder borders someone they can holy war and they will holy war... a lot.

Will they win those wars or tank down moral authority for the faith though?
I can't join their wars, so will they be able to do it?

 

[josefrees]

I would say try to get an heir in power that has raiding culture so you can destabilize those realms without having a full blown war but that might take 100 years

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

Save up, buy favors, force marry a claim from a title you know you can take. Anatolia for example has a small enough blob.

If the enemy is larger, force marry princess of another large blob. For example get a claim on Hispania (Umayyads) via force marriage and then force marry your heir produced from Umayyad princess with the Arabian blob. Pay him some more money so he agrees to ally, then when it comes time to press your claim he'll help you out. Bam, all of Western Europe, all at once, with no outside interference (unlike with holy wars.)

 

[Kazanov]

I find that Islam in this patch its very weak, at least compared with before HF. On my last game, the only muslim nations that survived into the end date were the persian Abbasids, who controlled half of Persia, as a Crusade made half of these lands properly christian.

You can join any war, or create one inviting people with powerful claims to your court. Its easy to make christianity great again if you know how to play your cards.

 

[Rags17]

Your mission is simple - Defend Christendom ! You might not agree with Catholicism, but just becasue they are misguided Papist fools does not mean that you should abandon them.

Attack the Ummies and drive them from Europe. After you have beaten them cross the Gates of Hercules and chase them down to their filthy holes. Convert them all to the One True Faith, mend the schism and declare a reborn Roman Empire.

Wat else could you do ?

 

[TheRealRemus]

Do you have alexanders bloodline? that one you could use to take a unlimited big chunk of either muslmim blobs, perhaps use it to unite north afrika`?
you would have to win enough battles to get super high war score and then ocupy the capital holding of each county you want. you would get everything ocupied.
Alternativly you could use the chinese to shatter your enemies, though I do regret that I did it because, I couldnt use GHW for hole kingdoms anymore. However that way your duchy level holy wars would be as effecient as ever, even your king tier vassals could win that.
If you are affraid of you vassals losing their own wars, you could try giving loyal king vassals 2 viceroys, that way they should easly wield 10k troops and beat most enemies.

Looking at your map, I would probably deffenitly shatter the yellow blob, and try winning normaly against the arabian empire, ideally with a invasion cb.


Edit: damn what cultural portrait does your character have, I am so glad that after 300 years my male direct decendants are still greece ^^

 

[Rokh]

The Muslims are superstable and powerful.

Wait until the inevitable decadence revolts and they won't be stable or powerful anymore.

 

[TheDungen]

Will they win those wars or tank down moral authority for the faith though?
I can't join their wars, so will they be able to do it?

They will usually only declare war when the enemy is otherwise occupied, and if one declare on them a whole bunch usually do.

 

[treb]

I need an advice as a ruler of Byzantine.
Backstory: I played as a strategos on 769 start for a while (200 years, with a decade accidentally being Basileus until I was replaced). My personal vassals were fine, a fine income (+40 without Constantinople), we got most of Balkans and half of Black Sea Coast, no factions no, 6 bloodlines with 7th in heir, bloodline forged (wanted to be a church builder but won too many wars). If I remove lustful I could become a Saint, second in family after one of my old characters (who was quite a slut in youth, but never mind that). I survived Black Death and despite a chunk of my dynasty being dead, a lot of titles are held by my family and it is hugely present thanks to marriages and many titles I gave as I externally expanded before as a Strategos.

Now, I rule it. I am ERE and I my position is solid internally.
But Africa is still there, which took Sicily and Apulia. They are not too big,but obviously a pain.
Umayyads are alive and healthy, they ate Corsica(!) and a whole France, barely stopped in Germania. What is worse, they got Anatolia... which did remove the last opponents from me though. East of Anatolia we lost all, except for Trebizond.
Abassids died.... and were replaced by Tengri Mongol Empire. Part of the former Empire revolted. As a Tengri.
Catholics are in a weakened Italy and in Bohemia, along with a sphere in borders of HRE.

The Muslims are superstable and powerful. Catholics are a valid target, but they have stop Umayyads and hopefully crusade them. Tengri Arabs are less stable, but still horrifically strong.
As an Orthodox, I am not sure how to invade kingdoms, so war for Anatolia seems unlikely to me.
So, I can Holy War for duchies and I could fight with money and troops. But how to effectively cripple and be done with my neighbors in a reasonable time? And is there any reasonable alternative to Holy War until I beat them enough to get Imperial CB?

great conquest cb is your friend paired with religious revocation you can tear out entire kingdoms from any state with 200+ holdings and free revocation of infidels lets you quickly set up more 'appreciative' vassals in your newly reconquered clay. Or you can do as i do and leave the Abbasids of Damascus intact so that muslim claimants flock to their court and land convert and press any claims that happen to be of intrest *cough*Umayyads*cough*

Also when you get Constantinople remember as Basileus you can hold cities without penalty so revoking the cities by excommunicating/imprisoning the mayors until they revolt

 

[fr-rein]

A small report:

I smashed Arabs&Umayyads, took Egypt, Anatolia, Syria, North Italy, Burgundy and need only Jerusalem now to finish the Empire. Great Conquests helped a lot.

Sadly, Islam Empires are still stable after all of it, with Arabs slowly falling. Indian Islam Empire is still there after being knocked by China few times.

But the new question grew up: how to get to India to get St. Thomas?

 

[Serenity84]

But the new question grew up: how to get to India to get St. Thomas?

It's more interesting to do that in its own game. Like starting in India and converting to Nestorianism

 

[eastcoastceojam]

But the new question grew up: how to get to India to get St. Thomas?

It's more interesting to do that in its own game. Like starting in India and converting to Nestorianism

If you're gunning for the achivement, I agree with Serenity84. You can start as the duke of Pandya in 769. He is in southern India, and has a Nestorian county in his realm. You only need to conquer the Maldives to form his 2nd duchy, and then his de jure KIngdom. Then move your capital to the Nestorian county, and convert.