yes, for compativness however I will list all the contendersm including the most notorious Cathaphract, with any arguments for and against them
-Cataphract
replaces- knight
projected stats- 5/3/2
The cataphract were the cream of the Byzantine military for most of its history (more on that later), and sometimes entire battles were fought by them, instaces like this take place in Belisarius' reconquest of Italy, more over, the bulk of the Byzantine elite military core, the Tagmata, which numberd some where around 20,000 troops, and functioned as the Imperial guard. This noted, it should also be said that the Tagmata was initially the "roll over" infantry and cavalry from the late roman era, and in thire time were furnished with some of the best armor and wepons available in the world, that elite equipping often rolled over those Cataphractii units not in the tagmata core
-Fire galley
replaces- good question, good choice for a stand alone addition to some early medieval tech for the Byzantines, ala the precedent set by the spanish UU
stats- another good question, should it replace a standerd sea unit it should have at least 1 more, if not two points added to offense, and perhaps defense as well
well, this one is pretty simple, the Byzantines gained access to the technology required to create greek fire after an inventor, who was refused by an arab army besieging Constantinople, sold this incredible invention to the Byzantines, who then used it to promptlly rout the invaders, sending them packing
It should be noted that I am stronglly against this as a Byzantine UU, for the simple fact that it is a naval unit, and as such, while I like the Civ3 navey, and wish to see imporvments made upon it, this unit simply dose not fit the Byzantines
-Varangian Guard
replaces- Medieval Infantry or long bowmen
projected stats- 4/3/1
well needless to say, I'm opposed to this unit even more then the galley, first off just because a unit with the knights stats, but with out the benifit of two movement is still worth less then a knight, even if horses are not needed
now then, a little history....
after the 11th century the Byzantine army had grown but inefficient and disaffected, as the mighty Byzantine army had become a victim of its own success: how? because by then there was so much reliance on the Tagmata, that the "provincial" standerd armies, made out of part timer farmers, who had been trained (a return to the day of Citizen soldiring as those of the Greek, and Italian city states in many respects) began to be regarded as mere "surplus", and thus had started to loes emphisis, and so when this type of an army sufferd a heavey defeat at the hands of the Seljuk Turks the army, as a whole was ill equipped to deal with it, and while still large on paper, the army was just to strained to deal with everything from Normans in the west, and turks in the east. and so the period of real Byzantine troops ended, as the empire started to use merceaires, the most elite of which were the Viking Varangian Guard, who were recruited from vikings, and (the officers) equipped in Byzantine fashion (the uniforms, while byzantine made, were styled more in viking tastes however, and ofter, the empire didnt even provide the equipment, only offerd repaires and such to what they brought) now this dosent mean that there were no Byzantine citizens in the army, but the mainstay in the declain of the empire, were mercenaries
it is because the the Varangian Guard, represents the troops used during the fall of Byzantium that I am opposed to using them as the Byzantine UU as well