KillingMeSoftly
Warlord
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2011
- Messages
- 279
I'm trying to figure out the best ways to play Byzantium, and there seems to be a lot of ways to go. I'm curious about everyone else's methods and experiences with Theodora so far.
Has anyone discovered some really sweet belief combos? I notice that the Extra Belief slot can literally be anything, even Pantheon beliefs.
Cataphracts in my experience are very nice. Their strength is misleading due to not only gaining terrain defense but also being able to fortify. They stand up very well as a front line unit and are essentially harder hitting, faster moving swordsmen. The best use for them I've found is soaking city attacks, especially backed up by a unit with Medic (usually one of my early warriors). I regret upgrading them to Knights.
Dromon is the only early game ranged ship which makes it very unique, and it upgrades to Galleass. Much like the Cataphract, the upgrade is so/so because it loses its bonus against naval and becomes slower. I've not had much use out of the Dromon because every time I've played Byzantium I get land-locked starts.
Anyway, my strategies so far have been to abuse the Cataphract in wars either against neighboring Civs or puppeting a few city states. Thus the key techs we need is Mathematics for Catapults and Horseback Riding for Cataphract. Both of these are in the middle of the tech tree. Getting a religion in a timely manner is also a must if we want to cherry pick the beliefs, which as Theodora is something you really need. So we also need to focus heavily on the top half, at least so we can build Temples or try and grab Stonehenge. Spearmen and Swordsmen aren't needed at all due to the Cataphract, so the bottom half can be mostly ignored. Composite Bowmen are really nice, though.
Getting a Pantheon quickly comes down to a little luck. A shrine alone isn't enough, at least on Emperor, even when building it as early as possible (picking up Pottery first). So scouting and hoping to find Religious city-states is a must, and maybe finding a faith-giving ancient ruin (not sure if I've even found one of these yet)? Building Stonehenge, if it isn't stolen by an AI first, comes across as the most sure fire way to get a religion early. This also depends a lot on your opponents-- get the Celts, Ethiopia, Mayans, etc in your game, and good luck getting a Pantheon or Religion first or even in a timely manner.
Social policies are also something I've been playing with. At first blush, Honor seems the obvious choice if I'm going to push hard with Cataphracts. I'm not entirely sold on Honor, though. It seems the slowest to me, but the military benefits are very nice. Not entirely sure if it's worth it, honesty. However I noticed the Dromon is a great Culture farmer! If you start on the coast and build an early Dromon, you can explore and wipe out all the barbarians on the coast and islands very easy. The dromon is very safe due to its bonus vs. naval and ranged attack, and after a few vs. land promotions, I was wiping out barbarians in one attack.
Tradition is much better now, though. Instead of warmongering early, Byzantine can go for a typical tall strategy with emphasis on religion. Her early UUs make the expansion period safe (getting up to 4 cities). Liberty, while weakened, still comes across as very good and can facilitate just about any play style you want. The real kicker is the finisher letting you pick a Great Prophet, which gives you a ticket to a religion if you happen to be behind.
The Byzantines come across as very versatile on playstyle due to Theodora's unique ability, an infantry-like mounted unit, and a powerful ranged ship. And both come quite early. What are some belief combos you use, what do you feel is the best policy tree, and what kind of play style do you perfer?
Has anyone discovered some really sweet belief combos? I notice that the Extra Belief slot can literally be anything, even Pantheon beliefs.
Cataphracts in my experience are very nice. Their strength is misleading due to not only gaining terrain defense but also being able to fortify. They stand up very well as a front line unit and are essentially harder hitting, faster moving swordsmen. The best use for them I've found is soaking city attacks, especially backed up by a unit with Medic (usually one of my early warriors). I regret upgrading them to Knights.
Dromon is the only early game ranged ship which makes it very unique, and it upgrades to Galleass. Much like the Cataphract, the upgrade is so/so because it loses its bonus against naval and becomes slower. I've not had much use out of the Dromon because every time I've played Byzantium I get land-locked starts.
Anyway, my strategies so far have been to abuse the Cataphract in wars either against neighboring Civs or puppeting a few city states. Thus the key techs we need is Mathematics for Catapults and Horseback Riding for Cataphract. Both of these are in the middle of the tech tree. Getting a religion in a timely manner is also a must if we want to cherry pick the beliefs, which as Theodora is something you really need. So we also need to focus heavily on the top half, at least so we can build Temples or try and grab Stonehenge. Spearmen and Swordsmen aren't needed at all due to the Cataphract, so the bottom half can be mostly ignored. Composite Bowmen are really nice, though.
Getting a Pantheon quickly comes down to a little luck. A shrine alone isn't enough, at least on Emperor, even when building it as early as possible (picking up Pottery first). So scouting and hoping to find Religious city-states is a must, and maybe finding a faith-giving ancient ruin (not sure if I've even found one of these yet)? Building Stonehenge, if it isn't stolen by an AI first, comes across as the most sure fire way to get a religion early. This also depends a lot on your opponents-- get the Celts, Ethiopia, Mayans, etc in your game, and good luck getting a Pantheon or Religion first or even in a timely manner.
Social policies are also something I've been playing with. At first blush, Honor seems the obvious choice if I'm going to push hard with Cataphracts. I'm not entirely sold on Honor, though. It seems the slowest to me, but the military benefits are very nice. Not entirely sure if it's worth it, honesty. However I noticed the Dromon is a great Culture farmer! If you start on the coast and build an early Dromon, you can explore and wipe out all the barbarians on the coast and islands very easy. The dromon is very safe due to its bonus vs. naval and ranged attack, and after a few vs. land promotions, I was wiping out barbarians in one attack.
Tradition is much better now, though. Instead of warmongering early, Byzantine can go for a typical tall strategy with emphasis on religion. Her early UUs make the expansion period safe (getting up to 4 cities). Liberty, while weakened, still comes across as very good and can facilitate just about any play style you want. The real kicker is the finisher letting you pick a Great Prophet, which gives you a ticket to a religion if you happen to be behind.
The Byzantines come across as very versatile on playstyle due to Theodora's unique ability, an infantry-like mounted unit, and a powerful ranged ship. And both come quite early. What are some belief combos you use, what do you feel is the best policy tree, and what kind of play style do you perfer?
