View Full Version : Byzantium surviving into the 20th century


Theodorick
Oct 25, 2007, 09:38 PM
Has anyone ever had this happen before? I've had it happen to me twice, when I thought it was impossible.

The first was when I spawned as America. I eventually started getting maps of Europe in the early 1800's--a war ruined my chances of this happening earlier. I saw to my surprise Byzantium has only lost part of Anatolia and the holy land to Turkey, and all of Egypt to the Egyptian respawn, and other than that it was still powerful and intact. I at first thought the maps were old, so I peeked into world builder. Byzantium was still perfectly able to defend itself, with a large army in its capitol, and an advanced enough tech to keep up with Europe; it even had the Shwedagon Pagoda, Spiral thing--forgot how to spell it--and Notre dame! All in Constantinople of course.

I thought this was pretty unusual. I saw Byzantium frigates exploring the world, and they had a rather highly developed northern Africa left to them. When the year 1900 came around, they were STILL around. Eventually they collapsed when I went for my UHV, and started going to war with them to get the oil in northern africa in the 1920's. I conquered all of their territory there, and they still managed to live into the 1940's, until Europe FINALLY got to them. They even had infantry before they finally collapsed.

I found this really unusual, so I explored the game to figure out what events lead to Byzantium being a world power right into the 20th century. I figured out that early on, Europe itself plunged into a massive war. Spain and France went to war with each other, and Germany went to war with Russia. Another war broke out later on that was just as big, with England and Scandinavia involved too. These total European wars obviously kept Europe occupied, so all of Europe ignored the Byzantiums--though I did see a few Dutch troops attacking them now and then. Also England collapsed in 1300 AD, and then started up again in 1500 AD; not sure if this did anything, but it might of. As for in the middle east, Saladin did his usual turtling and did nothing much, and when Turkey spawned, it went on a military conquest to the east, even taking Delhi, but completely ignored the west. So it seems Byzantium was left pretty much to itself until the 20th century.

This happened a SECOND time with me when I played as China. But Byzantium collapsed in the late 19th century this time. And it happened due to the same reasons: everyone was too busy with something else to care about the large empire sitting in the middle of the world.

Anyone else have these unusual instances where the Byzantiums just seem to go on and on?

onedreamer
Oct 26, 2007, 09:56 AM
It does happen seldom when you don't play European/African/Middle Eastern civs (in your case America and China). But I often see a powerful Portugal in the 20th century that I can't find in my history books, so I'm not really concerned about it ;)

simakis
Oct 26, 2007, 02:28 PM
It does happen seldom when you don't play European/African/Middle Eastern civs (in your case America and China). But I often see a powerful Portugal in the 20th century that I can't find in my history books, so I'm not really concerned about it ;)

Portugal, awesome cities in south america, rarely has wars and does great with science so usually high in score and those feitories spelling is pretty awesome to. I´ve never seen the Byzantines up that long though.

sdLeo
Oct 26, 2007, 06:38 PM
Well, the OP felt more like a story than a question...

Nice story too!

Theodorick
Oct 26, 2007, 06:47 PM
Well, the OP felt more like a story than a question...

Nice story too!

Well it wasn't really a story. I really like to give long winded questions!

Zhuge_Liang
Oct 27, 2007, 09:15 AM
It's Spiral Minaret, man.

tariqari
Oct 27, 2007, 11:46 PM
..when Turkey spawned, it went on a military conquest to the east, even taking Delhi, but completely ignored the west.

This is off topic but I find it really funny how playing the middle east goes fine right until Turkey spawns and goes crazy on everybody. I know Turkey (Ottomans) was a huge Empire, but not that early in the game!!

If Rhye were to tweak anything, I'd ask for the Mediterranean to be looked at so that maybe around the time that Arabia spawns, Europe starts a crusade or something similar to RL rather than this Turkey conquest nonsense.

Jeppson
Oct 29, 2007, 09:13 AM
I usually dont play the 600ad start but how is it possible that byzantium can survive when Turkey spawns?

LukeUeda-Sarson
Oct 31, 2007, 10:04 PM
In my experience, Turkey spawns, and then does... nothing. Even whan Constantinople is defended by just 2 units, it doesn't attack it.

Thus if say, Germany, or you as the player, doesn't take out Byzantium, there's every chnace nobody does, since the Turks tend to sit around doing nothing - or else go east, rather than west. This combined with Arabia failing to attack Egypt means Byzantium often has a worthwhile empire for quite some time - Constantinople, Athens and Alexandria add up to a pretty good research base.

When playing the native American civilizations, it's not uncommon for the Byzantines to be the ones first appearing off your coasts, and they often have gunpowder before anybody else in Europe too.

Cheers, Luke

obliterate
Nov 01, 2007, 10:56 PM
Is it possible to play as the Byzantines? I haven't seen them. And why are they automatically at war with everyone inlcuding Russia. It doesn't make sense.

Lone Wolf
Nov 02, 2007, 02:48 AM
In my experience, Turkey spawns, and then does... nothing. Even whan Constantinople is defended by just 2 units, it doesn't attack it.

Yeah, in my Warlords games Turkey rarely takes Constantinople, even when it is Independent, Turkey is at war with the Independents, and has a large amount of Cannons and Janissaries in Sogut.

I've seen them taking Persia and Delhi, through.

AnotherPacifist
Nov 03, 2007, 04:47 PM
This might be a question for Rhye: maybe he's tweaked all the civs to make sure that the computer does not accidentally win a UHV before the human player. For example, Turkey might accidentally win a UHV (get Constantinople, colonize their historic areas and get 3 vassals) if it were to control the Bosphorus early.

Lone Wolf
Nov 04, 2007, 03:01 AM
I think it is the case of dumb Warlords AI.