Bulgarian UHV impossible

[Pavel Chichikov]

I've been trying for hours and I can't get close to taking Constantinople, fighting off barbs, and settling Albania/Serbia at the same time.
While the Greek cities are easy to take, how do you crank out an army while managing to get tech for siege? What to do about the stack of barbs in Serbia?
Is it worth converting to Orthodoxy in the early game? Getting the civics and religion collapses my empire half the time, so it seems no.

 

[3Miro]

It's been some time since I have done that, but basically the idea is to capture Adrianopolis and Thessaloniki in the very beginning with the starting units, then get peace with the Byzantines. Settle Preslav, Dobritch/Varna and Sofia. Get a Catapult tech quickly and just pump Catapults and Konninks (maybe occasional Barracks and Stables and a worker or two). Build a stack of 5-6 Cars and several Konniks, then go for Constantinople with a single large stack.

The barbarians should be no match for the Konniks.