Alex Vance
Basil II's Junior Emperor
I'm beginning to wonder if Tagma are meant to be a unit capable of being consistently rushed.
1) I'm tried building around Culture, but Byzantium has zero ways of boosting their Culture output in any significant way except by building Theatre Squares next to Hippodrome -- yet you want to save your Hippodrome to pump out Tagmata AFTER you have them available. So that isn't a truly valid option.
2) You can rush Choral Music religious tenet, but since you'll basically never get 1st religion it's not a guarenteed move. Besides, the best building for Choral Music (Temples) isn't available until ONE tech away from getting Tagma anyway. That strategy seems weak unless you're going for a Culture victory -- in which case, why bother playing Byzantium?
3) You can build an early game army of warriors and archers and attempt to raid, but I find that Theatre Squares are rare at this period of the game, and since you don't have enough government slots to juggle increased raiding yields, increased unit production speed, and reduced gold upkeep for units... it's an iffy strategy at best. Getting burst yields is cool and all, but I find Tagma are much better at raiding than warriors and archers -- kinda putting the cart in front of the horse in this scenario.
4) Take over and/or build max amount of cities as humanly possible and build a +2 culture monument in each? Seems slow, unwieldly, and unsustainable across individual game scenarios. You can also rush Theatre Squares in each of these cities too, but I'm almost certain you can't produce enough Culture via this method to consistently get Tagma by Medieval era. Am I wrong?
5) Get lucky and spawn near a Wonder that has you rolling in enough culture to produce Tagmata on Medieval turn 1.
In any case, it seems like a struggle and a combination of intense effort plus luck.
Am I missing something? Am I thinking of Tagma in the wrong way? Am I playing Byzantium wrong?
There have been games in the past that I've absolutely dominated as Byzantium, but I can't seem to reproduce fast Tagma each game. By the time I get them, I'm nearing the renaissance.
Please help! I'm about to give up and just play Charizard Byzantium (I call Dromon "Charizard" because they have a dragon head, shoot fire arrows, and kick all kinds of ass) but I know that's a niche strategy for water maps. To paraphrase J.G. Wentworth: I want my Tagmata and I want them now!
Eternal love and loyalty for genuine help! Please...
1) I'm tried building around Culture, but Byzantium has zero ways of boosting their Culture output in any significant way except by building Theatre Squares next to Hippodrome -- yet you want to save your Hippodrome to pump out Tagmata AFTER you have them available. So that isn't a truly valid option.
2) You can rush Choral Music religious tenet, but since you'll basically never get 1st religion it's not a guarenteed move. Besides, the best building for Choral Music (Temples) isn't available until ONE tech away from getting Tagma anyway. That strategy seems weak unless you're going for a Culture victory -- in which case, why bother playing Byzantium?
3) You can build an early game army of warriors and archers and attempt to raid, but I find that Theatre Squares are rare at this period of the game, and since you don't have enough government slots to juggle increased raiding yields, increased unit production speed, and reduced gold upkeep for units... it's an iffy strategy at best. Getting burst yields is cool and all, but I find Tagma are much better at raiding than warriors and archers -- kinda putting the cart in front of the horse in this scenario.
4) Take over and/or build max amount of cities as humanly possible and build a +2 culture monument in each? Seems slow, unwieldly, and unsustainable across individual game scenarios. You can also rush Theatre Squares in each of these cities too, but I'm almost certain you can't produce enough Culture via this method to consistently get Tagma by Medieval era. Am I wrong?
5) Get lucky and spawn near a Wonder that has you rolling in enough culture to produce Tagmata on Medieval turn 1.
In any case, it seems like a struggle and a combination of intense effort plus luck.
Am I missing something? Am I thinking of Tagma in the wrong way? Am I playing Byzantium wrong?
There have been games in the past that I've absolutely dominated as Byzantium, but I can't seem to reproduce fast Tagma each game. By the time I get them, I'm nearing the renaissance.
Please help! I'm about to give up and just play Charizard Byzantium (I call Dromon "Charizard" because they have a dragon head, shoot fire arrows, and kick all kinds of ass) but I know that's a niche strategy for water maps. To paraphrase J.G. Wentworth: I want my Tagmata and I want them now!
Eternal love and loyalty for genuine help! Please...
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