Tips for Byzant

[Surt]

Any tips on how to survive the first 100 turns in 1.01 on difficult?

Scarp all buildings that can't be supplied with goods?
Edict despite being negative?

[deadtorius]

I used to go through and scrap every building that was costing the local economy money due to needing to trade for its necessary good. Move all freemen to revenue regardless of food production, then pray it all holds together. i haven't tried it with the latest build so my ideas may be out of date.

[nightleaf]

I am playing on difficult but did not have time to play 1.01.

In start cede some regions I like to sell 17 regions when I start campaign and fatimids (war can happen in second turn) have 1500 gold and spoleto and rus principality have 500 gold so you can get good amount of gold from them. They will accept even if regions are on some distance and riot can happen so you can take regions later without war.

I like to destroy pecheneg horde early because they can destroy your structures with raids. If you cede regions early that have slow developing and low income you can destroy pecheng horde and not start civil war. I almost conquered all regions but they played decision to become vassal or to force peace(maybe they start game with that decision) but once they are out of game you can sell regions you took from them. Hungary can attack so maybe you will need to defend north borders.

Instead of selling regions now Im trying to gift them to small orthodox factions like dioclea, georgia and there are few more near georgia so you can chose who you want to be vassal. With dioclea chances are good in first turn if its not changed.

You need to remove almost all buildings that are making negative gold and manage all regions every turn in order to improve economy and on difficult level my gold income did jump from -4 to +600 in first turn after I checked every region without population working in commerce.

I keep one army in antioch and one army in constantinople so I can protect both sides.

If you have regional decision recruit local unit use it in rascia because there you will get strong cavalry and its very expensive to buy it. Other provinces have archers or slingers and atioch have good and cheap cavalry and 3 provinces have armenian foot for low cost and instead of archers early I think its better to buy slingers until you develop your economy.

If you are new with byzantine maybe you should look for campaign where you start with 10 generals I think it can happen to start with less.

[SuitedQueens]

Pretty much what nightleaf said. Strategically give away regions to wall off or create strays running through your territory. Prioritize distant regions with lower local authroity and loyalty first. The reason is that you gearing up for the long game of 150 turns, so you have to dedicate most initial slots to food and health. Less revolts, character betrayals, war declarations, dictating actions on your own pace. Make sure to conquer regions that share religion and ethnicity, stay at Adcending whole game for Legacy bonuses. Even your initial size us good enough for the passive Legacy output. On Suicidal prepare to take out for Humilition about 4 major nations. The goal is to specialize regions into Gold (Commerce) and Metal (Infrastructure) and Legacy (all those specific costly low economy yeild buildings). Ofc every region must have all gateway buildings for Authority, especially Castles. More details on the must have economy buildings and Court Expenses deep dive in the last few messages of "Tips for the new players".

[Pocus]

I consider the neutral region corridor an exploit but I don't see an obvious answer to this ...

[Surt]

Well you could give an extra loyalty penalty per none owned neighbour a region has beyond 2, that will also stop what the current Rus player is my MP does!

[nightleaf]

I consider the neutral region corridor an exploit but I don't see an obvious answer to this ...

Does that mean letting regions revolt and not conquering them and creating wall of neutral regions?
I am still beginner so I do not understand this.

[deadtorius]

Does that mean letting regions revolt and not conquering them and creating wall of neutral regions?
I am still beginner so I do not understand this.

That is pretty much the idea in a nutshell. The revolting regions might eventually become a new nation which will prevent others from just walking through them. Neutrals can be invaded without a declaration of war, named nations you can't enter unless you declare war, have passage right agreement or they are your vassal or ally. Downside is that nations ruler might decide to expand and declare war in your direction.

[vaalen]

I consider the neutral region corridor an exploit but I don't see an obvious answer to this ...

I also consider it an exploit. An emperor who did this would lose authority. Would it be possible to impose an authority penalty on the Byzantines for each region that revolts and becomes independent? Or maybe have a certain number of successful revolts start a civil war?

[Patrat]

I consider the neutral region corridor an exploit but I don't see an obvious answer to this ...

I also consider it an exploit. An emperor who did this would lose authority. Would it be possible to impose an authority penalty on the Byzantines for each region that revolts and becomes independent? Or maybe have a certain number of successful revolts start a civil war?

Agreed. And those are good ideas.

[Pocus]

The problem is that a clever (and devious) player will donate regions to a third-party nation to form a snake-like corridor. Perhaps the AI should be less interested in acquiring a region, not only based on the distance but also factoring in how many neighboring regions it owns. But in any case, if it's a gift, it might be accepted.

As I said, it's nearly impossible to differentiate between a valid gift and the intent of forming a corridor. In multiplayer games, some people will try to exploit the system. It's like chasing a wild goose; even if you manage to find a viable fix, they will find another. In the meantime, you'll have spent many hours not developing more legitimate and interesting features.

I still think house rules, agreed upon from the start, are the easier way to prevent exploits because they are based on intent. It's the spirit that counts, in the same way a judge must remain human and not a machine.