The Byzantine Empire (M2TW:K Faction)

Starting Position

They are at the corner northwest of the map, in a rather secluded area for the most part but nearly engulfing the turkish area there. They start with several areas outreaching east on the northern shore and two islands. They have numerous settlements and constantinople is among the richest in the game . And starts better then most other settlements can aspire to only late in the game!

Overall enlarged picture of the map

Victory Contion and starting agents

Units

Unit Summary

The Byzantine empire features a powerful roster with especially powerful late game infantry , ranged cavalry and the greek firethrowers. However they lack a really powerful consistent and easy-to-get ranged foot unit and greek firethrowers are hard to use . Their cavalry is very good as well , usually the best Toe-to-Toe cavalry there is. They do however, have poor gunpowder artillery to smash down walls and the byzantine gunners are a poor excuse for a ranged gunpowder unit. Overall its a amazing roster, but hard to reach the buildings needed for even average potential in every aspect of the game, However full horse-archer armies can be used, and they have plenty of those.

Infantry

Ranged Infantry

Cavalry

Ranged Cavalry

Artillery

Tactical Strategies

On the uses of Greek Firethrowers

Standard Formation:How to deal with a very mixed force or one composed mostly of infantry Try and have a powerful Defensive stack in the front, this is preferably done right to the back of the map so that your not easy to flank. Do this on a hill if possible. a extremely steep hill is a giant advantage As the AI charges you , Hold firm and flank with your greek flamethrowers and begin the process i call Fryin em like they were mcdonalds happy meals

Checkered Formation : How to deal with a force of cavalry charging first . The idea here is to open small gaps between some spearmen (Preferaly medium-power) and put between those greek firethrowers behind them. This is again, best done at a hill.

Make sure the gaps arent large enough to allow cavalry to charge through too much, but units of fodder spearmen may be a waste as powerful cavalry will mince meat out of them without actually penetrating , which means youll find it difficult to fire before being attacked

Ambush !: How to deal with Ranged units coming toward you and you want them to suffer from third degree burns To use this strategy, you must have a large forest at your disposal. and it must be at the center of the map . Anything less then this and the strategy is difficult to use. and it already is! Positioning is an important factor here, If you position a unit incorrenctly is gets spotted which can ruin your entire strategy. Position two melee units between the center path of the forest, keep them well hidden! Then put your generals unit which cant be hidden far behind them, doesnt have to be in a forest. Then place your flamethrower unit a bit behind the melee units

Wait until the enemy reach nearly past your melee units and then attack!

Then Dont let them escape! Holding them is vital

2 Templar crossbowen with 1 silver chevron have been routed and defeated by 3 peasents and one greek flamethrower Obviously. This tactic is extremely conditional. But if you have an army mostly of crappy melee units and some flamethrowers then retreat into a forest nearby and try it out. But be careful! You only have one try

On the uses of the Mangonel

A mongonel should be used mainly at choke points, and nearby. Use some heavy units (in this case, varangian guard) to stop enemy units from reaching past the choke point

Then only fire when the enemies get close, Also always fire BEHIND the attacking line near your troops if possible, your mangonels can cause serious misfires that are definatly not negligile! Mangonels can explode in two ways, either vastly inaccurate pieces of burning shrapnel fall from the sky after the barrel explodes in midair, or the barrek explodes directly causing a large explosion. You usually want the latter , The latter will happen more often when close to the enemy, far away and the barrles explode into the shrapnel (and generally rarely kill much)

Overall Strategy

Your overall strategy is to decimate the turks near you, and to prepare for venice, after that you should preferably capture some shore towns like jerusalem and Antioch so you can finish your objectives. You must hold them for some turns so send large forces! Overall your virtually impossible to destroy early on .

Manuel Commenus

Manuel commenus is the byzantine empires hero and is available from the start (and therefore, kinda old) He begins in constantinople. His abilitiy is to once per battle incapicate some random units the enemy have, this lasts about 5-10 seconds before disappearing, therefore its highly random. Its recommended to try it when your horses are near charging (especially if the enemy use a lot of spearmen!)

Hansome Old guy isnt he?

Battle Pinxiety , They wont attack , Pink banners means they have been disabled by the ability

Unique Christian Trait

Hero of christendom +2 Piety +2 command +3 Authority +2 Troopmorale (I have not found the trigger as of now, I assume it must be unique to Richard/Philipp but i may be wrong)

Byzantine Reinforcement

When Constantinople is taken, Some reinforcements will arrive. This can only happen 5 times and may or may not be limited by the number of turns and settlements you have ( The campaign script suggest so, but ive heard otherwise) If so you can only recieve reinforcements in this order Turn 20>/30>/40>/50>/60> and less then 5/6/7/8/9 settlements. Of course you could lose constantinople 5 times past turn 60 and they would all appear as its taken .

First Wave -

2 byzantine Cavalry 2 peasents 2 peasent archers 2 Town militia 2 Pronoia infantry

Second Wave

2 Byzantine cavalry 2 peasents 2 Skythlion 2 trebizond archers 2 pronoia infantry

Third Wave

2 Byzantine cavalry 2 peasents 2 Byzantine Spearmen 2 trebizond archers 2 pronoia infantry

Fourth Wave

2 Latinkon 2 peasents 2 Byzantine Guard Archers 2 Byzantine Spearmen 2 Poronoia infantry

Fifth Wave

2 Latinkon 2 Alamanoi 2 Byzantine Guard Archers 2 Byzantine Spearmen 2 Poronoia infantry

The Fourth Crusade

At some point in the game (turn 17)venice will appear as a horde with a large stack poised to attack constantinople. Their armies will consist of

3 generals

3 mailed Knights

3 Dismounted feudal knights

2 ballistea

5 Mounted crossbowmen

2 Pavise crossbow militia

2 Italian spear militia

2 armoured sergeants

2 catapults

2 Trebuchets

3 dismounted crusader knights

3 Pavise Crossbow Militia

2 crusader sergeants

2 crusader knights