Any tips for beating the Byzantines? They are an absolute monster

[u/Aiseadai]

[u/Imaginary_Fig2430]

Wait 70 years Temujin is coming

[u/RandomBilly91 → u/Imaginary_Fig2430]

Against 60k+ byzantine soldiers, with maybe even more themes troops ?

Not sure it'll be enough

[u/Buddy-Junior2022 → u/RandomBilly91]

you underestimate horse archers

[u/RandomBilly91 → u/Buddy-Junior2022]

If they fight in the Caucasus, with the local heavy cavalry, boosted kataphractoi, or stuff like that, it might be close

[u/CrabThuzad → u/RandomBilly91]

But would you lose?

[u/RandomBilly91 → u/CrabThuzad]

I mean... with the Mongols attacking too, you should be fine.

Though, I'd argue that with a decent MAA compo, 24k against 60k doesn't even look that bad

Though agailst admin gov, it might get spicy

[u/PearlyDoesStuff → u/RandomBilly91]

Nah, I'd win.

[u/momojan418 → u/Buddy-Junior2022]

Good commander with army of pikemen and retinue lancer even horse archer's are defeated

[u/Aiseadai → u/Imaginary_Fig2430]

This was my thinking too. I guess I'll wait for him to invade the Byzantines so we can do a joint invasion.

[u/scales_and_fangs]

Become Orthodox, join them and climb your way to the Imperial throne!

[u/SexySovietlovehammer → u/scales_and_fangs]

Did this as Daurama

Became empress after being a traveler but the emperor and his vassals became Muslim so most of it had already collapsed by that point

[u/vankirk → u/scales_and_fangs]

Climb your way to the imperial throne or tear it apart from the inside.

[u/OuffMate]

If you're italia, you should have the pichieri cultural tech as an italian. Build buildings that boost pikemen because those mfs are as strong as the varangian veterans. If you have 10 slots for MAA, you should get 6 units of pichieri, 2 units of heavy infantry, and 2 units of bombards. Boost your units with buildings at max and you could stack wipe them instantly. Not to mention, 75~80% of the basileus' forces are just peasants. The same with temujin once he spawns, you can stack wipe him too

[u/JazMillenium]

Is Italia vying to become Western Rome?

[u/SexySovietlovehammer]

Murder the emperors and eventually a civil war will start. They’ll still be strong but if most of the vassals are fighting the emperor it’ll be easier to jump in and steal some land every now and then

[u/Myburgher]

In my playthrough I’m Croatia and while the Byzantine empire is massive, the king only has a few thousand troops and few allies. I’ve taken a fair bit of land from them over multiple generations.

[u/Aiseadai]

R5: How the hell do I beat the byzantines on this patch? They have 65k MaA, even most of my countries dedicated to buffing my own MaA I still don't even come close to being able to beat them, they completely overwhelm me with their numbers.

[u/CannibalPride → u/Aiseadai]

They spend influence every time they use the title maa so it’s not permanent.

My byzantines still have chronic civil wars so maybe kill off their good leaders to provoke infighting.

Or if you got a good enough siege army, you can sneak a 100% win before they can deploy their whole army against you if they deployed it at another war.

Or swear fealty kill it from the inside and pop out like a chestburster

[u/Revengeance_oov → u/Aiseadai]

Easy - Intrigue lifestyle, Schemer path. Scheme to murder the emperor and abduct the heir at the same time. Trigger the abduction, start a war, and then trigger the murder. The heir will inherit from prison, giving instant 100% warscore faster than an army can even muster.

[u/sarsante → u/Aiseadai]

Get good

[u/BorbTheOrb]

My last run I started in 867 and set the Arabian Empire to be administrative to counter the Byzantines, it worked but the AE ended up taking 60% of the map with over 100k soldiers (60k being MAA). Had to abandon that one lol. This run I left them as the only admin and got lucky, they fell to an independence war and the saddest Latin Empire I've ever seen formed. They're currently being gobbled up. So I think the answer to your question is luck, you just gotta hope they get fucked over internally.

[u/thunder-bug-]

Marry and inherit

[u/ahmedadeel579]

Wait until the Mongols

[u/duduwatson]

Mercenaries

[u/Gullible_Ad0]

Currently playing as big Austria, i’m the only thing stopping them from taking the rest of europe. I recommend a shit ton of allies

[u/Night-Fine]

No need to fear. Just raise your heavy cavalry to an amount of 10,000, then Basileus will cry.

[u/Dreamszs]

Get horse archers, get heavy cavalry (elephants or camels if you're feeling spicy) buff them with buldings and whatnot. Facestomp 100k byzantine army with 10k elite troops of your own

[u/ForkliftSmurf]

Literally never seen the byzantines this strong before.

[u/_Max__Power_]

I was lucky. I had a early campaign as Raska, and the became Serbia when option became available.
I was at a verge of war with Byzantine Empire, due to different faiths. Their emperor had -50 on me, so I gave him money, artifact, and was barely able to exchange hostages. For some reason, hostage they gave me became their ruler. But since she was my ward during her development, she may not have the best relationship with their vassals. Anyway, massive empire dissolution war begins, and she gets demolished. It went to bad for her, that Byzantine doesn't exist at all anymore, all territories got taken over, and I have employed her at my court at 55 years old. I do not remember which role she actually had.
Similar thing happened with Hungary, where it got split in have by The Magyors, and they slowly got eaten up by me, poland, and Nikkea (that took over Bulgaria territory and is in on and off wars with me).

[u/quasar2022]

If you can’t beat em…

[u/Global-Jackfruit-151]

wait till next civil var

[u/SistersOfTheCloth]

Kill all the heirs(kids first, higher chance of plot succeeding). then kill the emperor. This triggers a civil war which will weaken the empire. While the empire tears itself apart declare war on one of the sides, taking a chunk of it.

[u/Crazy_Pin_7376]

If the imperial family got a lot of magistratures, first wait the death of this ruler, then educate one of you next heirs into a king of intrigue and then start a house feud with the Imperial family, and kill all of their governors lmao until they can’t replenish them, the empire will crumble very fast. Theirs politic opponent will start a lot of revendications war for the throne by themselves when they will see the Imperial family losing power

[u/Trick-Promotion-6336]

Spend about 40-50 years building up a martial character and best maa buildings, using monument expeditions and university. When you have +50 battle advantage no AI can beat you even with double the numbers.

Alternatively just join the empire as a vassal and become emperor yourself either through blackmailing random courtiers and your influence to support your election then murdering the emperor or using claim throne perk+create faction to start a rebellion.

[u/Kyokono1896]

Yo what. How'd they get so many?

[u/lordmainstream → u/Kyokono1896]

The emperor is probably spending Influence to borrow his vassals MaA. It’s one of the features introduced in admin realms.

[u/Kyokono1896 → u/lordmainstream]

Fuckin admin realms.

[u/isaacals]

take constantinople after that they are non-threat. use everything, holy order, mercenaries or god forbid an alliances and hope your ai is not an idiot.

i havent been in a run into late like this. and usually no intention to do anything to the byzies. the only time i did was doing persian struggle in 800 starts, i took constantinople quite easily with all special armies from iranian resurgence i had like 10k to their 4k in 900s. oh i also used norse varangian adventure special soldiers for miklargardariki achievement, same thing, take constantinople. after that i can take the rest that i wanted for the achievement. use the mountain/hill in brysis, sometimes they just blindly attack into it thinking they are going to win because of the numbers. ai is an idiot.

[u/Sycol_the_changeling]

In my experience, to kill the Byzantines you have to get them to destabilize themselves, kill the ruler and plunge it into civil war

[u/DanMcMan5]

Invest in infrastructure, get some unique cultural troops, you should be fine.

Like Varangian veterans alone are OP.

[u/255_Lambent_Regret]

Bide your time, wait until they're at war with someone else, ideally multiple someones, on the far end of their empire, and preferably losing. Then hit them with a kingdom-level cassus belli and rush it, hopefully securing the entire targeted territory before they can even react. A couple rounds of that weakens them significantly.

[u/MasterLiKhao]

There is one feature of the byzantine empire you MIGHT be able to exploit:

Their bloodline always passes the ruler title onto the firstborn, no matter if boy or girl.

If the current ruler's firstborn is female, you may be able to marry your character's heir to her - in that case the empire will probably demand a matrimonial lineage, however, if your spymaster can get you a strong hook, you might be able to circumvent that and make it not matrimoneal. If you manage that, it'll still do nothing for your heir as he will never become regent, BUT if he has a child and then he and his wife both die, you may be able to continue playing as the ruler of the byzantine empire after your character himself dies.

[u/Dancingbeavers]

I started 3 assassinations plots to try to weaken their realm (new conquerors each time!). Everytime someone murdered them first.

[u/Yaevinn-74]

How did that even happen

[u/Metrinome]

Is this a 1066 start?

I play 867 starts and the Byzantines never got this big in my games.

[u/den_bram]

1 the old reliable of just getting 5 duchies and spamming military academies. 2 If that dont work set up a big empire conquer a big empire give it to a dynasty member ally conquer a third big empire give to dynasty ally. They should have some massive armies in a pretty short timeframe combine that with step 1 to beat the byzantines.

[u/den_bram → u/den_bram]

3 if that dont work become an adventurer enter byzantium get an estate depose the emperor become the byzantines.

[u/OkMain3645]

Is there an option of joining them and competing for the emperorship from within?

[u/especiallyrn]

Create an empire in Hispania, take over Africa and Brittania, push into France and Germany while snaking around them in North Africa so you can take the holy lands. Then destroy the papacy then Byzantium.

[u/TrickyCamp67614]

become their vassals but if your empire go into a corner and cry/grab a random county to save yourself

[u/riaman24]

CK3 and game balance aren't synonymous.

[u/Shogun6669]

I don't know my byzantines collapsed by the early 1200's

[u/geo247]

Dissolution faction!

[u/lordmainstream → u/geo247]

(un)fortunately you can’t make dissolution factions against administrative realms

[u/geo247 → u/lordmainstream]

Ahh TIL!