Hi there,
My very first post here. Awesome mod btw.
Played with the
Byzantines on Paragon in the 600 AD scenario a little bit.
5000 Gold
There is afaik only one way of getting 5000 gold in time on this difficulty - sending 3 Great Merchants to Jerusalem, where they net 1800 gold each. Neither China nor India nor any other place on the map bring in that much gold, so this is absolutely mandatory. (also, for the first few turns, it's only 1400 gold, don't know exactly why, but you can use the time to explore the Middle East with your first one before bringing him to Jerusalem). While this does nicely represent the extensive relations between the Empire and the Fatimids, I feel like having to get your Great Merchants through the Silk Road is a much more rewarding and interesting gameplay (compared to moving them for 2 turns from Constantinople/Alexandria), which nicely evokes the smuggling of silk worms under Justinian I or the embassies of the 7th, 8th and 11th centuries, and lets the player roleplay as a sort of byzantine Marco Polo. Maybe one idea would be to give byzantine GMs a boost for trade in China/India prior to the Medieval/Renaissance era, or a behind-the-scenes boost to trade missions to Chinese cities by European GMs overall?
Relations with Arabia
Given the need to do trade missions to Jerusalem, conquering Arabia is off the table anyway. However, it's entirely possible, with some luck and careful planning, to re-conquer Egypt in 2-3 turns, peace out with them and prevent any sort of Arab conquest in the Mediterranean if you move quickly, which feels incredibly rewarding if you pull it off. However, I feel like being able to just avoid the Byzantine-Arab Wars like that is counterproductive (only once in many playthroughs did they declare war on me, when a galley of mine was exposed), and at least a little bit of conflict should be had - maybe one or two small batches of "conquerors" spawned outside Constantinople soon after their expansion, similarly to how the Seljuks are handled, to represent the massively important Arab sieges of Constantinople, before the player can settle into peace with Arabia until he's strong enough to steamroll them?
Blitzing Egypt and the super-early game
Since your cities switch to the Arabs and your units get yeeted to your nearest remaining city if they’re too close, you must walk a tightrope to make this work.
Pre-requisites: The Arab army spawns in Baghdad instead of Memphis and their navy anywhere other than outside Alexandria. If they do, simply re-load. Also, for this whole strategy to work, you need to not lose any units while attacking them for them to agree to peace, so be careful.
Your two galleys need to be right north-east of Euryspides, in range of Alexandria, when war starts:
- The first galley loads up your Cataphract, then goes next to Athens. You start building a second Cataphract in Constantinople focusing on production, then hurry it with gold the next turn (and switch two pops to Merchants), and then (making sure not to upgrade it yet!) move it by road into the galley, which then sails into position.
- Your second galley sails directly towards Alexandria, where it loads up two units – the Spearman upgraded the turn before into Heavy Spearman, and a Swordsman produced in Alexandria for which you hurry production on the second turn, and then sails west, joining the other galley in time for your cities to switch.
- Your other two units in Egypt (a spearman and an archer) need to be moved directly south of Euryspides asap, with one of them potentially used to attack the town if the odds for one of the following battles need to be changed.
After your cities have switched and you declared war, your galley with the infantry (and only it!) moves next to Alexandria and beats the two Arab archers spawned there. If you wait even one turn they get a 25% fortification boost (and sometimes a third archer), so this has to be done immediately. Afterwards, your second galley with the cavalry moves directly into Alexandria, from where the cataphracts move and take Cairo on the same turn (feel free to rename it back into Memphis). Also, take Euryspides on the same turn, even if you have to sacrifice the archer.
During their turn, the Arabs sometime counterattack Cairo with an archer, sometimes hurry a third archer in Diosopolis Megale (which will delay your conquest of it by 1 turn) and sometimes do nothing.
Using the upgrades to partially heal your cataphracts if and when necessary (never pick retreat, as they’re already immune to first strikes), immediately take Diosopolis Megale before the main Arab army has a chance to get to Egypt and peace out with them before they have a chance to wreck your fishing boats in the Aegean. Afterwards heal them up, invade Nubia, take out three of their four unique archers, wait 1 turn and then vassalize them for that sweet +1 happiness and periodic luxury goods which you can squeeze out of them.
Meanwhile, your swordsman and heavy spearman get the city attack upgrade, heal up, and then conquer the city in Libya (which you should raze, as it’s a terrible spot for a city and only drags down your economy) and Carthage (which you can keep) before the Arabs do, while your other galley immediately ferries over units from Greece with which to garrison Egypt and then brings your Cataphracts back north.
Regarding the other cities that flip to the Arabs, you can use them to hurry a lot of things – fishing boats, a scout with which to reach the Asian civs via the Silk Road, skirmishers, even a swordsman in Damascus, but I have yet to figure out a way to retake Antioch in this timeframe, but you don’t need it anyway.
Odds and ends
- Having to defend the Balkans is really cool, and presents a constant challenge to the player, preventing them from steamrolling too easily. Having to sometimes defend your lands can be really fun. My only gripe is that, at one point, “Bulgarian armies invading your lands” spawned on the other side of the Bosphorus.
- You need to move pretty quickly toward Rome with catapults (and infantry to protect them) to start sieging down their defences before bringing the Cataphracts to finish them off. Make sure to leave a blocking force further north at the choke point, to prevent Milan from reinforcing the city.
- The Norse invade and conquer Aghmat (which they promptly lose to Morocco spawning) and then do absolutely nothing else of interest. Once saw Viking raider barbarians spawned in coastal Algeria, which was cool, but underwhelming. Maybe some Norse conquerors, to simulate the Norman conquests which influenced the whole Mediterranean for centuries, or at least some barbarians?
- With its two scientists from the Great Library, Alexandria is a major headache in your quest to generate Great Merchants. Hurry a hippodrome (to keep it happy, as the abundance of religions and lingering Arabian culture pisses them off) and then a market before switching to Monarchy and Monasticism.
- The Europeans appear pretty passive towards each other.
- Dealing with the Mongol bombard doomstack is super hard, a massive inconvenience, as nothing you can possible have does flanking damage to them.
from working camps and pastures, high 
tiles, thus making you hit your 
capacity sooner rather than later, so Elective kinda works against itself there.in all cities.
to push a city into revolt.
