Excuse the exagerated title, I am still a bit high off of how potent byzantium is now. I always love the byzantium start, it was challenging with a good opportunity to steal the number 1 spot within a century and blob well. Part of that has changed with Art of War. They may need an actual direct nerf, not just a buff to thier neighbors.
With the changes to lithuania, the caucuses (excuse spelling please), and Qara, the good old mass galley start works again. Now you have to be clever, the ottos actually build a navy now, but if you have a good chance of blockading the sea of Marmara and taking most of greece and bulgaria in the first 15 years of the game. First 15 years since you want to wait for call for peace to make the ottos suffer the war exhaustion. BUT WAIT! There is more!
The next massive buff to byzantium is the new imperial buffs and how unrest works. If you go religious idea first, you can get 9% true faith tolerance, which basically means that no orthodox province will ever revolt. Period. its about 20% reduction in unrest with 2 stability, which isnt hard to have the religious idea stab reduction and the byzantium national idea. This means you can spam reduce autonomy, which ties well with the natural imperial bonus of -10 autonomy. Your basically making ramping new provinces to full production within 2 decades, max.
There is even more though! This may not be new, but there is presently a psudo bug where if you conquer a sunni province that is your core, you can get orthodox rebels that, if you accept thier demands, give you another missionary strength. you can easily get 7% missionary strength by 1480 without taking act of uniformity, which you should take because unrest doesnt mean squat to Byzantium.
Another massive bonus is the new trade. Yes this made everyone bloody rich, but byzantium lives and dies on it's trade, and now if you take quantity you can sport armies that rival France by the 1500s.
To conclude, I think Byzantium is the new Eastern France. The Ottos simply can not handle your navy if you take thier northern lands, and none of your other neighbors can challenge you unless you decide to mess with Austria. I am curious to see if anyone else has had similar experiences, or noticed new emerging op powers.
With the changes to lithuania, the caucuses (excuse spelling please), and Qara, the good old mass galley start works again. Now you have to be clever, the ottos actually build a navy now, but if you have a good chance of blockading the sea of Marmara and taking most of greece and bulgaria in the first 15 years of the game. First 15 years since you want to wait for call for peace to make the ottos suffer the war exhaustion. BUT WAIT! There is more!
The next massive buff to byzantium is the new imperial buffs and how unrest works. If you go religious idea first, you can get 9% true faith tolerance, which basically means that no orthodox province will ever revolt. Period. its about 20% reduction in unrest with 2 stability, which isnt hard to have the religious idea stab reduction and the byzantium national idea. This means you can spam reduce autonomy, which ties well with the natural imperial bonus of -10 autonomy. Your basically making ramping new provinces to full production within 2 decades, max.
There is even more though! This may not be new, but there is presently a psudo bug where if you conquer a sunni province that is your core, you can get orthodox rebels that, if you accept thier demands, give you another missionary strength. you can easily get 7% missionary strength by 1480 without taking act of uniformity, which you should take because unrest doesnt mean squat to Byzantium.
Another massive bonus is the new trade. Yes this made everyone bloody rich, but byzantium lives and dies on it's trade, and now if you take quantity you can sport armies that rival France by the 1500s.
To conclude, I think Byzantium is the new Eastern France. The Ottos simply can not handle your navy if you take thier northern lands, and none of your other neighbors can challenge you unless you decide to mess with Austria. I am curious to see if anyone else has had similar experiences, or noticed new emerging op powers.
