Byzantine Overview AoE2 

AoE2 is where I first discovered the Byzantines. 15 years later I am doing a Master's in history with an emphasis on Byzantine history. I definitely credit this game with planting the seed of my long-time fascination with the history of the latter-day Roman Empire.

town watch and town patrol being free is very historically accurate considering the amount of advaced signaling stations that they had to provide info about the raids and attacks

So many of the intro clips are just so satisfying to watch, the spinning vil dodge, goth game plan, and lightsaber duel are probably my favorite however.

"For a historically orthodox civilisation~" I saw what you did there, Spirit!

I honestly had the Byzantines as my favorite when I was younger because they had the least red Xs in the tech tree of any civ. At least, back in age of kings they did. I had no clue what upgrades did what, but I did know they were good

Those cataphracts pack quite a punch!

Byzantines are the perfect example of “Jack of all trades, master of none” while simultaneously showing how important it is for a civ to have a clear intended gameplan to be *most* competitive.

Not enough people are talking about SotL's sponsor messages. So far, he has come up with these hilarious website names: Spirit of the Lawn Spirit of the Draw Spirit of the Paw Spirit of the Jaw

I've been waiting for this for 5 years. Always has been my favourite civ. Always will be! Even as a veteran player.

I remember in AoK they were the only civilization that lacked blast furnace. I didn't like them, but after the introduction of a second unique technology (Greek fire, in their case) I really started liking them.

Last time I was this early the Theodosian Walls were standing

I love the Byzantines, as a newcomer to AOE2 (discovered it last week) they were the first civ I beat the moderate AI with. Playing defensively early on and massing halberdiers and arbalists to survive, only to overwhelm the AI with trebuchets later on. This game is fantastic and videos like this are such a pleasant add-on, what a great community this game has. So much to learn, so much content on RU-vid and so many campaigns to play. Oh and the in-game tutorials are splendid too! I've already played for so many hours and I haven't even touched online matchmaking yet. The first game I played was with my girlfriend and me vs the easy AI, it took 3 hours until we finally decided to attack this poor AI with hundreds upon hundreds of units and we were surprised it hadn't amassed a legendary army for itself. I love this game so much, it's my first time giving a RTS game a chance and MAN did I start out with the best possible one.

I love that the byzantines don't have regular units, just counters and counter-counters

13:43 This point has always stuck with me. In Age of Kings, every civilization was designated as either an Offensive or Defensive civ, but only 2 (Byzantines and Teutons) were actually considered Defensive. Then came The Conquerors, where each civilization was given a different title to correlate with their strengths. But while Teutons became the Infantry Civilization, Byzantines stayed as the Defensive Civilisation. And I always found that impressive.

Dude I love your vids so much they were a big reason I started playing the game. (Also side note I really miss your old intro video/music)

Spirit of the Law talking about the Byzantines is the most perfect RU-vid video.

I am always surprised when they are suggested to beginners. They actually require a lot of experience to make best use of. It's their flexibility to react and counter that makes them a good defensive civ, the building HP is only a small defensive boost in comparison. But that's exactly what new players are probably not going to do well. Give a new player the Mayans and tell them how good their eagle warriors and archers are, and they'll probably execute something of a useful strategy. Give them Byzantines and they'll have a hard time choosing a good plan out of many options, especially as it'll be much more variable what a good plan will be for any given game.

Wow first time I see someone mention Byzantine fast gunpowder. I love that strategy

They should really add Berserkers in their Barracks (like the Condottieri of the Italians) and name them Varangian Guard

Here's something I think you need to do, Spirit: Add in an "S rank" for civs that are #1 in a category. For instance, Celts would have the S-rank at Siege, Goths would be S-rank at Infantry, and so forth. This would allow you to give more A+'s out, while still retaining a category for best-in-category that doesn't confuse people.

Always saw Byzantines as an excellent trainer civilization. Not saying Byzantines are the best civilization, but when you are a newer player, their virtues really start to shine. You learn good generic play skills while having a lot of bonuses that help you do that, rather than bonuses that encourage you to play in very specific and/or different ways from other civilizations. 1.) No unusual economic bonuses that push for a different build order at start like Chinese or Huns. Your economic bonuses are later savings, not immediate boosts to production, so you are encouraged to focus on a generic build order that will work with most other civilizations. 2.) Increased HP for buildings for free gives players more time to react to attacks on buildings, especially their starting town center if rushed. 3.) Cheaper basic counter-units means players are more likely to be able to afford the counters as needed, making common rushes against Byzantines more difficult. When archers, scouts, and knights are the main threat, having four skirmishers or spearmen instead of three, or being able to afford one a moment faster while waiting for resources to come in helps a lot. 4.) Fireships are very effective in feudal and castle age, so a boost to fireships for Byzantines translates to better ability to contest water against most civilizations. This allows players to devote fewer resources to water while contesting it, making it easier to find a balance of water/land economy. 5.) Free town watch/patrol gives players early warning of trouble, but also gives new players better opportunity to learn maps, as they can more quickly see the differences in resource placement around town center and such. 6.) Cataphracts are excellent for practicing micromanagement of cavalry, because they are punished less for bad management. Failure to pull your horsemen back from that enemy spear counterattack hurts less than doing the same with knights or scouts. 7.) Lower cost for advancing to Imperial Age means more likelihood of advancing to Imperial Age, meaning more experience with Imperial Age technologies that some players may not see often because the battle is over in castle age. 8.) A broad range of technologies means experience with those technologies. 9.) Monk heal won't win you the game, but will help you recover from mistakes. Get your cataphracts beaten up, you can heal them back rather than panicking over seeing all those red bars. Really takes the stress off the newer player while they learn how expendable units really are and become more comfortable letting units get killed.

One thing you didn't mention about team games is their defensive boosts helping out, offsetting some of the short comings of them or their teammates. 3 Parts come to mind: 1: If you can get the frontline spawn as a byzantine you can buy alot of extra boom time for the backline player(s) due to your extra building health and cheap counter units meaning you can hold out with less support for longer, buying more time for the backline to boom and enter the fight as a bigger threat instead of having to slow the boom inorder to save the teammate(s) who is under attack 2: Synergizing with teammates/covering their weakness's, for an example, the portuges are strong in long games as their fetoria's provide infinite stone to build/repair defenses and castles, infinite gold to allow for making siege engines, ships and even non trash troops but they get bullied in shorter games as that is 20 pop cap on a building that does not make up for its drain, at 200 pop cap it is 10% of your total pop per building, with a Byzantine teammate doing heavier lifting in the fight, the portugues can have some fetoria's and essentially play mob boss, funding their allies. One of my buddies plays them and builds almost max fetoria's possible and funds the 2-3 of us in our wars, this boost also helps offset the cost of cataphracts and lets the byzantine make the most of their extra tower and castle hp. 3: Fortifying/ saving a teammate, the cheap units allows the byzantine to throw a swarm of troops into a falling city in an attempt to beat the attackers back outside and the extra building hp helps them seal breaches in the original defenses or build a new defensive position that can hold. I once had a match of ages during a land party where my teammate has attacked by my dad who also plays byzantines, between using cheaper camel hordes to smash the trebuchets and my stronger defenses, I kept my ally alive while another teammate dropped my dad's allies and forced him to abandon the siege.

I find it so interesting that, such a flexible civ with so many powerfull bonuses, ultimatly is held back by lacking 2 techs. Bloodline and Blast Furnace. Lacking those two techs hurt this civ so much that its literaly those techs that are keeping them in check.

Byzantine more like Basedtine

An updated overview of my favorite civ Byzantines? Awesome! :D

I'm surprised they don't have Heavy Scorpion considering the Romans literally invented the Scorpio Ballista. I guess it would prove too strong to pair with Cataphracts but I would be curious to see what adding it would do to the balance of the civ.

A shame there isn’t anything to *tempt* you into champions for that full Roman feel, but given historically they moved to Spears/Pikes later on it makes sense

Whenever I have Byzanthines I forget about the Imp discount and still collect 1000 food and 800 gold before clicking up

It seems the level of success for a Byzantine player is measured by match-up knowledge; they can't outright overpower civs very well but they have a counter play for just about anything.

My best civ. Thank you for this video! Πάλι με χρόνια με καιρούς, πάλι δικά μας θα' ναι!

I'm so glad I stuck around for the sponsored segment lmao, one of the funniest I've heard in a while partially because it's so understated haha

Im so happy you added the into back, I've missed it so much!

As a Byzantine Pplayer, I am currently so happy because of the recent Byzantine attention. Amazing video!

Since you're redoing some of your older civ overviews, can we have a Persian civ overview next please?

YES YES YES THE INTRO IS BACK

Always nice to see sotl videos

Loved the video. I know you've made alot of great videos about eco upgradses and tcs in aoe2. I'd really enjoy a video about how to best invest resources into your economy, what order & what time to do it.

Love to see/hear your intro song again!

Always thoughtful and insightful.

They playpattern fo byzantines feels really nice. usually agressive civs try to either overpower defenders in the midgame which is hard due to the cheaper counterunits or they produce enough army to threaten and then follow it up with a faster imp tthan a kinda generic civ that just trades well on units. (The defender cant stop producing but the agressor can) But here the byzaninte fast imp comes in and usually means you are fester even with a weaker eco. Then your castles are laughably better than the opponents (which usually lack upgrades) and more HP also menas better and cheaper repairing. No civ really _likas_ facing byzantines even though they have hardly any extremely good matchups.

HELL to the FUCK YEA, i was waiting on an up to date Byzantines overview from you, one of my favorit civs in the game :D

Such an accurate statement to see they are every players favourite at some point.

YES THE INTRO TUNE IS BACK

I feel like the Byzantines not doing as well as they could on land maps is at least partly because their castle age UT doesn't do anything for them on maps where water isn't an option. You could argue this saves them a couple hundred food and gold to spend elsewhere, but maybe if Greek Fire gave some kind of additional gameplay-over-historical-accuracy bonus that applied to their land game, you might see them have a more even win rate on closed maps. Maybe it could give their defensive buildings 1 bonus damage vs. Siege? That'd certainly fit their theme.

Honestly, I think the discounted Skirms can help with a weak but effective Flush where you disrupt the enemy’s farming economy. Apparently damaging farms screws with the villagers harvesting on them. It’s not much, but it’s something.

Was about to skip to another video and then I heard Spirit of the Jaw and was howling with laughter. Thanks for another great video I love your clever humor

great overview! just wanted to point out koreans are also officially called a defensive civ, defensive and naval.

Yey another set of Obuch-view videos! Keep up, Spirit

nice to see the intro again missed that :D

Having Spirit talk about my favourite civ is always nice

Nice coincidence. Didnt play AoE2 much recent days but CK3 and I am Byzantine Emperor now (killed and slept my way there from duchess). It spiked an interesst and I think im doing a AoE2 match this weekend as well.

1:00 and just like that, everything was right with the world again!

I noticed the intro is back. Yay!

Byzantines might have been orthodox, but they were also youknow... byzantine. So having funky game plans is pretty much spot on.

Intro dopamine hit! Thanks SoTL

Historically, it's kind of weird that the Byzantines lacks Parthian tactics since they would be the most likely among European civs to adopt it, with them being mortal enemies. In the Gothic war, ERE horse archers posed quite a threat, and the Goths really couldn't deal with them due to their unfamiliarity with Eastern warfare.

Kind of funny how AoE1 was too early for the Romans and AoE2 was too late for them.

I just want to say that I love that you used purple for the byzantines. I play certain civs with certain colors, and in the case of Byzantines, I use purple. It just fits so well.

I love the Byzantines their history and their culture, especially how they evolved from the Eastern Roman Empire to the Byzantine Empire, how their architecture, dress, army and weapons evolved to be a mix of Western Greeks and eastern ME/North African cultures. What I would love to see for the Byzantines: Please give us regional/civ accurate unit skins for all the B,A,S units. Either as a purely visible mod/addition or as standard. Add Burning oil as a generic tech for most civs to the university. (Increases defensive arrow fire from castles + 4 attack against rams.) As well as add Tracking,and Cartography back into the game. (More techs and complexity adds more fun adds more small elements to learn and master.) I'd much rather have the Persians or Byzantines get Free HC and Free WB. To me, vast empires such as the Persian Empire and the Byzantine Empires (Bordering the Fertile Crescent) should have an eco focus since their administration of their vast empires were so good. Where ''lesser'' Empires and Kingdoms situated in cold , barren regions that focused more on raids like the Goths and Norse should have a unit focus such as Cheap infantry (Goths) and cheap trash + Beserks slowly generate gold when attacking buildings. (Vikings) Vikings. We need a completely new architecture set for the Vikings (That resemble their beautiful Norse church wonder) The main emphasis is on the long boats and their over use of Arbs, the rest are not to important and can be left as is. Have Vikings lose free hand cart + lose Arbalerster but instead they get Halbedier,(NB!) have their longboats be able to attack as well as transport units (Infantry/vils/monks/kings only) (loses transport ships but they have non attacking Longboats in feudal age.) and gift them cheap trash units Halbs + strong Angon Skirmishers.They could also give the berserkers a new trait that allows them to accumulate Food or Gold when damaging an enemy building thus aiding in their ecco in an accurate and interesting way. Castles cost change to 450 stone and 300 wood (Wood castles have lower HP) OR... Since they get Halbs change their unique tech Chieftains to allow Beserks to be made in TCs even after all castles have been lost. I’d enjoy raiding coastlines and rivers using longboats to transport infantry and Angon skirms to the shores of my enemies. I'd say give them other buffs to help in the late game, for instance to have their eco speciality exchanged with the Byzantines speciality. The Vikings came from a cold, barren mountainous/fjord covered boggy area, Norway,Sweden,Scandinavia where agriculture was highly difficult to maintain, thus their focus was on fishing, but as their culture and cities grew, it became a necessity to raid other shores/peoples in order to survive and thrive. Thus they started to use their brilliant longboats to conquer the northern seas and raid countless European and Mediterranean kingdoms. So I was wandering, why the devs gave the Vikings (Which literally mean Raiders) such a strong economy by means of free handcart and wheelbarrow? Where the Byzantines/Persians are famous for already having a well established society and Empire by the time of the Middle ages (They had wheelbarrow even before the Western Roman empire fell), with a professional standing army and immense economy and trade. (For such a strong wealthy Empire, why do they have to focus on Trash units in game?) For me, the two civs will be perfectly compensated to have those two traits switch. The Byzantines get an ecco upgrade like free wheelbarrow and the Vikings get cheap trash units. Now, combine that with Viking Wood architecture Castles: Castles cost change to 450 stone and 300 wood (Wood castles have lower HP but they can create a lot more of them due to less stone cost) OR... Since they get Halbs change their unique tech Chieftains to allow Beserks to be made in TCs even after all castles have been lost. That will always allow Vikings to create Beserkes in large numbers and have cheap Halbs and Angon/Frakka skirms to back them up throughout the game and into the late game. (Celt skirms also need a buff) No need for arbs. Then you take your Berserks+ trash , get onto your longboats and go Viking/Raid the enemy shores. (Without wasting wood nor pop space on Transport ships) They could also give the berserkers a new trait that allows them to accumulate Food or Gold when damaging an enemy building thus aiding in their ecco in an accurate and interesting way. Peasant:’’If Vikings lose arb they will be useless in imp. FALSE!!!!! Proof: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jDdgAdxDBXo.html Watch both the 1st and 2nd games. VIKINGS SHOULD LOSE ARBS!!! Byzantines. In turn have Byzantines lose Hand cannoneer, bombard cannon and bombard tower , [to have them not become intensely OP and these forms of warfare was much more used by their neighbours (Italy) and enemies (Turks)].(If WB+HC goes to Persia then no need for Byzantines to loose gunpowder) Trash becomes more expensive and Imp becomes more expensive but Civ gets free wheel burrow and free hand cart. (For even when they were still the Eastern Roman empire, they already had WB+HC)(If Persia gets Free HC+Free WB then Byzantines retain their cheap camels) Byzantines get a unique tech in the Feudal age barracks: Justinian Reforms - Sword line +1 Melee or Pierce armour from castle age. (Optional) Enables the technology of Varangian Guard from the Feudal age. In Feudal age , Byzanitne army (As well as Viking allies) gain access to a special unit in the Barracks called the Varangian Guard. - Expensive , slow moving but difficult to convert with a limited build amount. Since the Byzantines are a Defensive civ, the Varangian Guards can have a high attack boost when in the vicinity of a TC or Castle but outside a certain radius from these buildings the VG should lose the strong attack bonus and just be as strong as a normal Man at Arms/Long Sword/Champion. (Highly loyal guards of the Emperor) To defend against early rushes , but since they are expensive,slow and limited, you will have to think strategically as to when and where to deploy/station them. Unique Castle techs remain Logistica. Greek fire - Fireships damage adjacent ships. (Loses the useless+1 range buff) Please give Byzantines Camel trade carts and a proper architecture something like this will be perfect: [Steam Workshop::[IA] Catbarf's Byzantine Buildings V2 (WiP IA Version)] since 80% of their empire and trade stretched across the deserts of Anatolia, the Levant and North Africa. Byzantine ships should also acquire beautiful coloured Lateen sails.

I love these, and with most being 6 or 7 years old, ... never stop making them.

You're videos are so good at explaining the ins and outs of the game. Also, I think you're the ONLY youtuber who's got an intro so awesome I NEVER skip it.

in original version, the Byzantine buildings were designed in the Middle Eastern type with a mosque like structure as the monastery which is quite inaccurate. But now with the Mediterranean style coming up, the Byzantines, Italians, Spanish and Portuguese share the same architecture.

You should some more things like win rate in games lasting 20, 30, 40 minutes, win rate against different civilizations etc

Sending your cataphracts with cheap camels to deal with paladins looks a really good composition hard to counter.

Hearing the SOTL intro has made my day

The Byzantines are a civ that most people wouldn’t complain about it they got even more buffs... lol because as he said. We all loved them as kids. Because we loved how many options that had and who didn’t love building 100 bombard towers. Truthfully the romans could use a little push especially since some of the newer civs have been power crept a little. That Greek fire tech is useless. Have it buff something. Maybe boost trash units armor or attack for a cost. You can even further decrease the cost of cataphracts. Or give them some kind of eco bonus. Besides just the discounts.

I'm not convince by the replacement of your Economy rating by a Thrash unit rating, and I'm wondering if you could do without any of those or find another rating because, as was the case with the eco, you already cover in some way the thrash units when looking at each military building...

My favourit civ gers a remade guide :D Finally!

omg the intro, YEAAAHHH

I watch ur video to sleep. And ur end music woke me everytime🥲

hey SOTL, do you stream on twitch ever? or do you have plans to?

Idea for an extra intro clip: a castle falls to trebuchet fire followed by paladins charging into the economy. Defending player panics and rings the town bell

Disagree on B+ Archer rating. The civ has FU arbalest and cheaper FU skirms as well. CA isn’t that common anyways. IMO it should have been atleast A- Otherwise good video

THE INTRO IS BACKKKKKK

Intro!! love it

Today I noticed Karambitcoin's value is going down in the DE intro reflecting either Malay and/or Bitcoin struggles whereas it was going up in the pre DE intro.

Anti Anti-Cavalry Infantry Cavalry will be my new way of describing the Cataphracts to new players for sure.

It's a historical nod that byzantines has a counter to anything as they had the book strategikan as a guide to how to counter any known enemy by noting their weaknesses and strengths and strategies to defeat them. The book was published in 5th century A.D. so it was as eastern Roman as it could be. Western half fall at 476 A.D like a century before. It's a civilization which can't overpower any other in any field but also can counter them all. I love them.

Seeing this release of the new Byzantine overview made me go back and watch the old one, and my my, how far you've come since 2500 subscribers. I remember discovering you and T90 back in mid-late 2015 while I was in college, and actually copying your style in early 2017 when making my own tutorials for a browser game called Dominus. I only ever made a half dozen tutorials before I stopped playing when I graduated and went into a full-time job, but I enjoyed doing it. And I've been a longtime sub and fan of your content. I love your mathematical analyses of this 20+ year old game. Keep it up, man!

love the suqarespace Spirit Of The [ ]aw series!

intro => instant like.

I think it would be worth seeing what happens if you tell your fireships to move right up next to byzantine fireships and then start firing. Obviously the extra time getting into position is a loss and it's a useful bonus, but it's better than fireships blocking each other from interacting with byzantine fireships for the whole fight.

So when I was little I always figured "more hp?? That's the best stat cause units die when it goes to zero!" But now it seems that a cheaper unit is more valuable cause it cost less to create whether it dies or not. I'd love to see a video comparing something like Berber cheaper Cavaliers vs Frank better HP cav or Teuton more armored cavalry and see what ultimately wins in the end

Oooh a sponsor Congratz man!

Spirit of the Jaw! :D I'm still waiting on your other website Spirit of the Draw

When I was a child, the Byzantines were my favourite civ.

I have been playing since age of kings, still a very fun civ and likely the one I play the most.

I love these videos

For more historical accuracy Byzantine should start in Castle Age.

It is weird how this is an Age of Kings civilization. I discovered them as I read up on Rome and wanted to know more about the later eras. I have a whole shelf of history books on only the Roman empire in its two millenia of existence. So I turned to them as a first civilization to learn properly in adulthood. These days I love them, like how they were historically I can build swift cavalry armies, heavy cavalry, legions of swordsmen, and fantastic combined arms forces. If I were to update them I would change the unit bonus a little and have a castle age tech that boosted their cavalry archers, their knights and their swordsmen. The tech would be called Hetairo, to represent their mercenary institution. PS. I love that DE made swordsmen viable.

Its a Friday and Spirit made a civ overview of my second favorite civ of all time. Pinch me I'm dreaming

Omg the intro!!!!! I missed it

Curious how popular they are among new players. At least the ones I talked too. They were my favorites and my cousins liked them too. I know this does not have any statistic value, though

YES YES YES YES YES YES YESBYES YES YES. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!.

dear god...that website SOTL made at the end is killin' me xD

Do you by any chance do analysis or casting on some pro games? I'd like to watch that. Or do you recommend a channel for that? Thanks

great vid again. Can you make a vid. about Scorpions and E-Scorpion? What's the best civ to use it etc.

Such a flexible civ that is being kept in check by missing some late game tech. It's actually 3 techs that keeps them in check. Blast Furnace, Bloodlines and Siege Engineers. Giving Byzantines Blast Furnace will give them FU Champion and FU discounted Halberdier and also allow Elite Cataphract to two shot FU Halberdier. Giving them Bloodlines will open up all their stable option and you can also use their paladin and discounted camel with Bloodlines in TG. And giving them Siege Engineers, will get them to have Onager with SE which is pretty solid against massed arbalester in early imp and Bombard Cannon with SE is again pretty solid lategame unit.

i love the byz civ. wish we could get the legionary in the barracs..... we need more roman thems :)

healing is very strong. Even pros use their monk recovering from a conversion to gain a bit of health back on knights or camels, it can make the difference. But yes, conversion are much scarier and much more effective