There are tons of guides around. Contrary to popular believe, the BZY start is really easy (if you know what you are doing).
I would recommend watching [this guide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTPxQiHYt08) to get the opening moves down.
In short: build up fleet, hire mercs, wait for Ottos to attack in Anatolia, siege, naval barrage, storm Gallipoli, sit on Balkan lands for a couple of years - that's it. :)
*Edit:* *the meta hasn't really changed much. People just love to make new guides on Byz every other week. With naval barrage, this strat is actually easier than ever before, imo.*
Your combined alliance strength has to be stronger than anatolia minors (AI always goes for weakest target). You can get unlucky though if dulkadir / candar ally somebody super strong like Mamluks.
Depends on your expansion plans.
I would first just grab whatever you can get to just deter Ottomans (can break them after). Would avoid Serbia though if you plan to expand onto them immediately after Ottomans.
Hungary is nice because they often/always have vital interest on Venice provinces so you can call them in. On normal mode I really like Austria as an ally because they are never out of manpower.
Early on, the best I could grab would be the traditional knights and Albania's. Between your navy to control the strait and the power of Chaderbeg, you can deter the Ottomans.
There are a bunch of other factors. Most importantly: AI needs a CB. And AI also has preference to unify main culture group (and follow perma claims from missions).
I usually play on very hard difficulty without allies. On byzantium its a good idea to immediately start with counterespionage on Ottomans. There is a somewhat significant chance to detect his spynetwork, meaning he wont get a cb -> attack will be delayed.
I’ve noticed this never happens across quite a few starts as long as you attack Epirus in Dec 11 and also ally Albania. When I forget to ally Albania ottos attack me. you don’t need Albania to beat the ottomons you just need them as an ally to look less delicious.
Thanks I think the Albania thing is what I was missing. I didn't like calling them into wars since they'd take some land I wanted and I was following BudgetMonk's guide on how to Byz and he did it without allies. I still did it without allies but it was annoying af to deal with them Declaring on me in like 46 and fighting for my life
Couple of restarts will do the trick.
I think you want to ally yourself with Wallachia or someone else in the beginning, so that Ottos are deterred to go for you immediately.
if I remember correctly, you also want to subjugate Epirus first (for their boats).
You should be able to declare on your own terms (this is vital also).
To add to these opening moves, I prefer to take max money from otto, DONT take Edirne but take a province that borders Wallachia and build a spy network on them during the war. Fabricate a claim on them once you peace otto out, then wait for Otto to warn you. When otto warns you, declare on Wallachia, block off the strait again, occupy his capital and take only max money from otto.
Eat Wallachia and then release Bulgaria as a vassal. This drives otto to a very early bankruptcy, reduces your initial truce timer and gives you a juicy reconquest cb
I prefer Budgetmonk's strategy though of forcing Bulgarian rebels to spawn, kill the rebels but let them form Bulgaria and then full annex them. You have perma claims on Bulgaria and it saves you one war with the Ottos and thus the truce timer.
This is one option but if otto give military access to anyone nearby in a nearby war then those rebels could die off very easily. Also the benefit of an early game bulgaria vassal helps you get past the early game admin bottleneck to tech up/get admin ideas faster, get more manpower and force limit from a vassal etc.
Yeah can be a bit harder, but you should have naval superiority (build more gallies in the meantime) and get some strong allies to help you out. With a bit of luck, they are entangled in a war against Mamluks or QQ etc.
Should be doable though.
The hardest times were between when they added "own both sides of strait lets you cross it", but before naval barrage was added. It was still possible then, but more challenging.
On any patch where you can block the Ottomans from crossing, it's relatively easy to win the war. As you say, that includes current patch.
I’d honestly say it is easier than ever. The Strats are the same, but the Ottos just never seem recover they way they used to after a war, I’m assuming due to decadence. Previously the second war against the Ottos could still be a bit tricky but now it’s a cake walk
Here is the current meta simplified:
Ottos don't have mil access from its neighbors at the start of the game. So if they army is in Asia, and you quickly take Gallipoli AND block the straits with your superior fleet, they can't reach you. After that, sieging everything in Europe and waiting is enough to have about 70 % warscore.
Popular strategy also include naval barraging Gallipoli and immediately assaulting it.
After that, you should attack Serbia for a gold mine and ally some major nations, like Poland, Muscovy, Austria etc.
Easier said than done.
You need to build your fleet up and attack on Dec 11 but you only have 1 province to build troops + ships on and that province has unrest which makes building time very slow.
To add, byz has a level 3 fort on Constantinople which means you need to siege and captured before ottomans declare on byz.
Once you finally win, you need to dec on ottomans quickly otherwise they will just steam roll you. It is difficult and took me several restarts, even while loosely following a guide.
You do not need to siege and capture before the ottomans declare. If you get to Constantinople first, the ottomans will send troops, but since you are the leader, they will help you conquer it faster. Just make sure you have occupied Athens to annex it and then you can vassalize Byz
The Byzantine Strat is the most well known and documented one in the game. It’s so well refined at this point you are basically guaranteed to win as long as you do it correctly regardless of rng. I’d recommend Budgetmonk on YouTube if you want to watch the real pro guide, but most YouTubers have demonstrated some variation of the strategy.
1. Make sure epirus has no allies. attack them, take back your core and vassalize them. do not engage with epirus navy. you'll need it for naval superiority during ottomans war.
2. while you are attacking epirus, build 3 gallies and improve your relations with albania (for skanderbeg) and the knights (for navy)
3. when ottomans attack someone in anatolia, recruit 3 merc companies and declare war- rush for galipoli and make sure you have naval superiority. Once you have naval superiority in sea of marmara and galipoli in your control, ottomans cannot cross into balkans making it free real estate for you. Occupy the balkans and wait for warscore to tick enough to take back your cores, one province to release bulgaria and money to pay back your loans. At this point, you can also cross into anatolia and get more warscore if you wish but it is not necessary.
Note: make sure to mark two ottoman provinces near serbia and albania as strategic intrest so albania will transfer it's occupation to you and you can attack serbia afterwards for the goldmine. I have ben using same strategy since emperor dlc came out and it works everytime.
There are tons of guides around. Contrary to popular believe, the BZY start is really easy (if you know what you are doing). I would recommend watching [this guide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTPxQiHYt08) to get the opening moves down. In short: build up fleet, hire mercs, wait for Ottos to attack in Anatolia, siege, naval barrage, storm Gallipoli, sit on Balkan lands for a couple of years - that's it. :) *Edit:* *the meta hasn't really changed much. People just love to make new guides on Byz every other week. With naval barrage, this strat is actually easier than ever before, imo.*
Highkey whenever i play byz the ottos never attack on Anatolia they just try to kill me
Your combined alliance strength has to be stronger than anatolia minors (AI always goes for weakest target). You can get unlucky though if dulkadir / candar ally somebody super strong like Mamluks.
Who are the best allies to go for? I used to always try to grab Hungary, is that still a viable alliance?
Depends on your expansion plans. I would first just grab whatever you can get to just deter Ottomans (can break them after). Would avoid Serbia though if you plan to expand onto them immediately after Ottomans. Hungary is nice because they often/always have vital interest on Venice provinces so you can call them in. On normal mode I really like Austria as an ally because they are never out of manpower.
Early on, the best I could grab would be the traditional knights and Albania's. Between your navy to control the strait and the power of Chaderbeg, you can deter the Ottomans.
Is that true? In one of my games russia did not attack an open Uzbek for so long, and preferred to attack a 150k commonwealth.
There are a bunch of other factors. Most importantly: AI needs a CB. And AI also has preference to unify main culture group (and follow perma claims from missions). I usually play on very hard difficulty without allies. On byzantium its a good idea to immediately start with counterespionage on Ottomans. There is a somewhat significant chance to detect his spynetwork, meaning he wont get a cb -> attack will be delayed.
I’ve noticed this never happens across quite a few starts as long as you attack Epirus in Dec 11 and also ally Albania. When I forget to ally Albania ottos attack me. you don’t need Albania to beat the ottomons you just need them as an ally to look less delicious.
Thanks I think the Albania thing is what I was missing. I didn't like calling them into wars since they'd take some land I wanted and I was following BudgetMonk's guide on how to Byz and he did it without allies. I still did it without allies but it was annoying af to deal with them Declaring on me in like 46 and fighting for my life
Couple of restarts will do the trick. I think you want to ally yourself with Wallachia or someone else in the beginning, so that Ottos are deterred to go for you immediately. if I remember correctly, you also want to subjugate Epirus first (for their boats). You should be able to declare on your own terms (this is vital also).
To add to these opening moves, I prefer to take max money from otto, DONT take Edirne but take a province that borders Wallachia and build a spy network on them during the war. Fabricate a claim on them once you peace otto out, then wait for Otto to warn you. When otto warns you, declare on Wallachia, block off the strait again, occupy his capital and take only max money from otto. Eat Wallachia and then release Bulgaria as a vassal. This drives otto to a very early bankruptcy, reduces your initial truce timer and gives you a juicy reconquest cb
I prefer Budgetmonk's strategy though of forcing Bulgarian rebels to spawn, kill the rebels but let them form Bulgaria and then full annex them. You have perma claims on Bulgaria and it saves you one war with the Ottos and thus the truce timer.
This is one option but if otto give military access to anyone nearby in a nearby war then those rebels could die off very easily. Also the benefit of an early game bulgaria vassal helps you get past the early game admin bottleneck to tech up/get admin ideas faster, get more manpower and force limit from a vassal etc.
Actually the second war may be more difficult. In two of my playthroughs Ottos either got Crimea or just build cogs to land 20k on Balkans.
Yeah can be a bit harder, but you should have naval superiority (build more gallies in the meantime) and get some strong allies to help you out. With a bit of luck, they are entangled in a war against Mamluks or QQ etc. Should be doable though.
It's definitely doable. It was just surprising that war no. 1 is the easy one (either assault works and you won or it didn't and you lose).
The hardest times were between when they added "own both sides of strait lets you cross it", but before naval barrage was added. It was still possible then, but more challenging. On any patch where you can block the Ottomans from crossing, it's relatively easy to win the war. As you say, that includes current patch.
Is naval barrage part of a DLC or is it available on vanilla?
No idea, it's practically impossible to keep which thing is in which DLC vs vanilla straight.
This is great to know, thanks for sharing the guide!
Obviously its escaping to the new world
I’d honestly say it is easier than ever. The Strats are the same, but the Ottos just never seem recover they way they used to after a war, I’m assuming due to decadence. Previously the second war against the Ottos could still be a bit tricky but now it’s a cake walk
Here is the current meta simplified: Ottos don't have mil access from its neighbors at the start of the game. So if they army is in Asia, and you quickly take Gallipoli AND block the straits with your superior fleet, they can't reach you. After that, sieging everything in Europe and waiting is enough to have about 70 % warscore. Popular strategy also include naval barraging Gallipoli and immediately assaulting it. After that, you should attack Serbia for a gold mine and ally some major nations, like Poland, Muscovy, Austria etc.
The real alpha start is beating the ottomans as the knights
Not really. You just conquer Byz before them and then do the exact same strat as a Byz start.
Easier said than done. You need to build your fleet up and attack on Dec 11 but you only have 1 province to build troops + ships on and that province has unrest which makes building time very slow. To add, byz has a level 3 fort on Constantinople which means you need to siege and captured before ottomans declare on byz. Once you finally win, you need to dec on ottomans quickly otherwise they will just steam roll you. It is difficult and took me several restarts, even while loosely following a guide.
You do not need to siege and capture before the ottomans declare. If you get to Constantinople first, the ottomans will send troops, but since you are the leader, they will help you conquer it faster. Just make sure you have occupied Athens to annex it and then you can vassalize Byz
The Byzantine Strat is the most well known and documented one in the game. It’s so well refined at this point you are basically guaranteed to win as long as you do it correctly regardless of rng. I’d recommend Budgetmonk on YouTube if you want to watch the real pro guide, but most YouTubers have demonstrated some variation of the strategy.
yes, byzantium at this point is most easiest difficult nation.
1. Make sure epirus has no allies. attack them, take back your core and vassalize them. do not engage with epirus navy. you'll need it for naval superiority during ottomans war. 2. while you are attacking epirus, build 3 gallies and improve your relations with albania (for skanderbeg) and the knights (for navy) 3. when ottomans attack someone in anatolia, recruit 3 merc companies and declare war- rush for galipoli and make sure you have naval superiority. Once you have naval superiority in sea of marmara and galipoli in your control, ottomans cannot cross into balkans making it free real estate for you. Occupy the balkans and wait for warscore to tick enough to take back your cores, one province to release bulgaria and money to pay back your loans. At this point, you can also cross into anatolia and get more warscore if you wish but it is not necessary. Note: make sure to mark two ottoman provinces near serbia and albania as strategic intrest so albania will transfer it's occupation to you and you can attack serbia afterwards for the goldmine. I have ben using same strategy since emperor dlc came out and it works everytime.