[NFP] Byzantium First Look

[blackcatatonic]

Seems a bit Spain 2.0. Basically completely dependent on founding a religion, but no tools to actually get one

Except the bonus Great Prophet points from Holy Sites...?

 

[Tinker]

Seems a bit Spain 2.0. Basically completely dependent on founding a religion, but no tools to actually get one

They get extra Great Prophet points for each Holy Site, so there's a small boost.

 

[iammaxhailme]

The extra great prophet point per holy site will add up to a lot of faith over teh course of a whole game, since unusable prophet points give faith. That could be cool.

Dromon has additional range; a 2 range naval unit in the classical era could be game changing in the right situation.

Overall though, far too war focused for me. Hopefully Gaul is more infrastructure based

 

[Vilvatiktan]

Byzantium First Look First Impression:
- This Civ music is a 100/10
- That is a really powerful religious Civ, their strategy basically will just be snowballing and trampling any other adherents or non-adherents civs of their religion. This will be fun to see them against the Ottomans in the TSL map
- Two UU, naval and cavalry, dang it!!
-A UD with free units, yep, I'm just gonna stay away from this civ like what I do to Monty. They literally have fun killing others

 

[tedhebert]

Seems a bit Spain 2.0. Basically completely dependent on founding a religion, but no tools to actually get one

Well.. there's the extra GP point for Holy Sites... not much, but not nothing either

 

[Noble Zarkon]

At 1:58, the cavalry unit is called varangian guard ?

It's got 3 promotions so maybe they named it??

 

[Kupe Navigator]

Seems a bit Spain 2.0. Basically completely dependent on founding a religion, but no tools to actually get one

errrm extra Great prophet points?

 

[tedhebert]

It's got 3 promotions so maybe they named it??

yeah well... maybe, but then the question becomes WHY mess with us that way ?

 

[Arianrhod]

soooo Byzantium is anti-Spain in terms of gameplay or am I understanding things wrong here? Spain also has a religious/military gameplay.

Byzantium seems to have a decently functional design, so that's one difference at least.

 

[MrRadar]

Seems a bit Spain 2.0. Basically completely dependent on founding a religion, but no tools to actually get one

If they had those tools, they would be insta-bannable from MP
Now there's at least some brakes for them not to go berserk from turn 1. They'll have to work to get a religion, but then they're loose and unleashed upon the world.

 

[iammaxhailme]

Interesting that Brazil got a water park district patched in for them when that district was released, but Basil only has the land version.

So now I"m wondering... who could have ONLY a unique water park, but not a land version? Maybe something like Dubai...

 

[Xandinho]

Woow, these domination civs included in NFP have been monstrous, first Gran Colombia and now Byzantine basically on the same level. It makes me think that the old ones deserve some kind of balance.

Also, I loved the Hippodrome, very beautiful on the map.

 

[bite]

Okay I have updated the Features Thread with everything I saw in the first Look, please let me know if I missed anything

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

At 1:58, the cavalry unit is called varangian guard ? guess they must have changed it later on to tagma and forgot to change the video ?

Wasn't that a regular horseman icon? It was probably just promoted twice and they named it that way.

 

[Leucarum]

Ooh. I am pleasantly surprised. I wasn't looking forward to Byzantium much but I do enjoy hybrid Religion/X civs like Spain, Mali, Ethiopia and now Byzantium. The faith economy is a lot of fun but micromanaging religious units is not, so I'm a sucker for anyone who gives you an alternative way to play a religious game.

They do seem pretty strong overall but maybe a little slower to get moving than your average Dom Civ since neither Quads nor Knights are super-fast and you'll want some sort of religion either yours or borrowed going on?

 

[Kimiimaro]

I am not a militarist player, but I do like the interconnected Byzantine design. And the fact that Basil II Bulgaroktonos was really chosen as the Byzantine leader. And their music. Might this be the Civ to dethrone Gran Colombia's briliant theme as the most OP theme of the pack?

 

[Kupe Navigator]

wait a minute..
crusade belief is a MUST when you play as Byzantium,,,
VERY fitting.

 

[Basileus Rhomaion]

Interesting. It's the first time I've heard of the Tagma. The most famous group of Tagma though were the Varangian Guard apparently so it's like they combined the Varangian Guard and Cataphract unit all into one.

I mean, Tagma was (and still is in the Greek military) a military unit; the closest I could compare it with is a battalion, but there are differences. So a Tagma could be anything from cavalry to Varangians to just a bunch of spear-wielding peasants. Kind of a weird choice to go for, but I guess their line of thinking was what you said, having to reconcile both the cataphract and the Varangians as they are both popular, but also making room for the dromon.

At 1:58, the cavalry unit is called varangian guard ? guess they must have changed it later on to tagma and forgot to change the video ?

They named it, most likely as a tonge-in-cheek reference for those who know about Basil's history. They did a similar think when they had janissaries named "new soldiers" in the Ottoman first look (which is what their Turkish name equivalent translates to).

 

[tedhebert]

honestly though... Let's say you play a Byz game and decide to make full use of the Unique District and build one in every city with all the buildings (let's say 3 buildings)... If you have a civ with 8 cities, to be conservative. That still amounts to 32 free resource free heavy cavalry units. That's just insane to me.

 

[iammaxhailme]

errrm extra Great prophet points?

Yeah, +1 gpp per holy site is pretty big, that's a 100% bonus. I have no doubt I'll get a religion as Byzantium.

Spain really should get something similar. Perhaps +1 gpp from trade routes, but only until you form a religion so you don't get a ridiculous amount of excess GPP faith all game?