yeah... I bled until bankruptcy, lost all the mercs, ottos took Constantinople... and stack wiped me, so I'll go with more allies and fewer mercs next time. LUL
1st try: Crimea joined and unsieged Selanik 2nd try: Ottomans wins in Constantinople with 7% 3rd try: Ottomans kills my navy and i don't take Kocaeli 4th try: 71% sieging Edirne for the 4th tick and go bankrupt 5th try: Already smashing my head against a wall, not even trying no more.
only 5 tries??? now it's my 48th time and that is only when I started counting. Before that I had at least 20 further tries.. no kidding... i want that damn achievement so much (granted I tried various different strategies over time)
THIS, every time, trying with Defensive edict and defensive advisor now, and they still constantly get it at 7% and 14% while I'm at 69% with a 3/4 siege pip general.
first try and i got basileus achievment. This strat is actually fool proof as he says, i think you dont need to truce break tho, but still, the first war start is perfect
"there is no way they will finish sieging Constantinople before you siege down Edirne" It seems as if I'm a one in a million, because that's exactly what happened on my first try. I was sitting on 49% and they got it at 21%. Couldn't believe my eyes tbh
If you want to be extra sure debase your currency once or twice and activate the fortifications edict on constantinopole and unless the Ottomans get a minimal % roll you should get it.
@@Shadow.24772 Lol that's exactly what I'll try next time. I'm currently finishing a game with Russia. Unfortunately I'll finish in second place as Spain managed to conquer like 40% of the world while I was fighting the Ottomans, Poland and Lithuania. And then they turned revolutionary lol it's 1800 already and I have 0 willpower to fight their 74679535847 colonies
I found a way to actually make this work every time, there are several things the video doesnt mention that reduce RNG 1. Check if there is a 3+ siege pip general in the mercenary tab THAT YOU CAN RECRUIT. Do this before anything else. If not just restart 2. I see a lot of people complaining about not getting to Constantinople first, what you should do is embark your 2 stack in the aegean sea before you declare war, and time it so that the fleet arrives in the sea of marmara on the first of the month (the same day you declare war, usually may 1, 1445 for me). Having the fleet arrive earlier triggers the fort, later and you might not get there in time. If done correctly you will have enough time to cross even if you are delayed a few days by the trade ship. 3. Buy an admiral for your 13k fleet. I had problems with the ottoman fleet coming out of port and beating my fleet. This led to a ~20ish war score penalty because constantinople was blockaded. The admiral will scare them off 4. Enact the local defensiveness edict in constantinople. It REALLY helps you siege faster then them 5. Only buy 4 mercenary companies not 5. If you are doing this right you wont be using your main stack in any battles and the smaller army greatly reduces the chances of going bankrupt 6. Dont peace out on the first war until you can get the two provinces AND the max gold (I think its 825). You can pay off all your loans with this 7. If possible, dont disband your mercs until you have an alliance with Hungary. The extra army strength makes a big difference
This is an excellent addition, thank you. Just did it. Destroyed the Ottomans in 2 wars, punching out over 1500 pieces of gold from them on top of all the land. I used a lot of estate interactions to minimise my loans too. Thanks again.
"Check if there is a 3+ siege pip general in the mercenary tab THAT YOU CAN RECRUIT. Do this before anything else. If not just restart" So basically, you will restart until you get a 3 siege pip general? Do you realize restarting is cheating and is solely relies on RNG? You might as well restart until Ottomans get into a war with Albania+Venice and Mamluks at the same time. That's just bullshit. Did not even bother with reading the rest of your suggestions lol.
@@dorylaions There is a 3 pip general command one of the merc companies like half the time, its not some crazy rarity that you need to spend all day trying to get. That being said you dont need one, it just reduces the RNG from the race to siege before the ottomans.
i don't know how he's able to do that effortlessly. when i do, my navy always get obliterated and my 2 company always get stack wiped at constantinople or kocaeli.
Gonna point out for those of you who tried this strategy, when you move the 2k to con, do it around the 23rd, figure out when they will LAND on the 1st. if not when you declare on the first, you might get stopped by a small 2 navy from ottomans, slows you down then you get hit by their armies before you get a chance to move to kocaeli. Tried it 5 times before doing this way, each time i got stalled by that small navy. Annoying as hell.
If you win, you punch money out of ottomans, if you lose, it's not like you're getting back in the game anyway. It's a debt strat, but it's not, you know, an advanced debt strat with bankruptcy and stuff
@@pretentious_melancholic I think being comfortable with taking loans and having loans longterm is one of the first major steps most players take towards being good EUIV players, I used to be terrified of running a deficit in my empire, now most games I renew loans over and over because inflation isn't really as scary as it seems at first.
You're so cocky with your truce breaks! I love it! I have my Byz 1 Faith attempt coming soon so I'll let you know whether I use your strat or Budget Monks :) Great stuff Res!
Radio Res: *clearly explains all of the steps to win as Byzantium* BudgetMonk: *speaks so quickly and has his footage sped up so that no one can understand what he is doing unless you pause every 1.2 seconds*
if you have the pop up for bankruptcy just debase your currency and set root out corruption to 0 for a bit. actually, a little corruption might be helpful for rebels
@@massimobirardi1379 And don't forget, you should declare bankruptcy after the war is over. You will be protected by truce and this way your economy can recover without having to repay all the loans and pay the massive amount of interest. This is an essential part that should be included imo
At least you got to the second war. I cant go around gumulcine and I didnt siege It down with 49%, Ottomans sieged down Constantinople with the first 7%. Good job game.
I saw this and was very excited. Playing as Byzantium has always been a favorite, but I nearly always end up crushed. I tried this strategy click by click 5 different times, and each time I end up destroyed by the Ottomans. For one, my 2 stack in Constantinople ends up getting caught every single time, so I am unable to cross the strait and cannot benefit from that. Then, The Ottoman re-siege Selenik before I can take Edirne. Then when I take Edirne and go back to Selenik, they are able to finish their siege of Constantinople and un-siege Edirne before I can finish my siege on Selenik agian. I made sure to follow this strategy click by click, and even made sure my dates matched every single click you did.
For a no RNG guide I find the location of the Otto navy is total RNG, total luck if their trade ships are in a position to stop you or not, hell even had them prevent my troops crossing the strait once
Radio Res to be clear the guide is excellent and I’m not trying to bring it down - every other aspect worked perfectly - you did an awesome job, but the title does say no RNG and there kind of is - as you can’t time the fleet movement of the enemy if your following your “move the fleet on the first of June” section, also as a side note I always delete the Greek fort (can’t mind the province name) do you find it makes any difference?
this is fantastic. Manage to beat the ottomans to ashes. four mecs are enough. five mercs might cause bankruptcy. Also sometimes Ottomans troops just stay in its capital, which is annoying. anyway, this guide is awesome
For those 3 Ottoman light ships, load your 2k stack onto transports in Corinth using the "a" hotkey. On the 23rd of the month before you declare the war, check where those 3 light ships are(if you declare on June 1st, check on 23rd May). You should have that 2k stack depart Corinth on the 23rd of the month BEFORE you declare the war(they usually reach by the 6th of the next month). Those lights ships are a bit random in where they end up, so see if declaring on the 2nd or even 3rd helps to avoid those pesky light ships.
@@ahmerjadoon7680 Ottomans could afford 100K soldiers in the battlefield, in EU4 they could keep the numbers close, the problem?? the AI is dumb and never increase their navies at early stage, so the Ottomans have always both of her forces divided, also that any nation in this game could afford "infinite" loans...
I've tried other strategies before but i've always messed them up one way or another. This seems a lot more relaxed and simple, gonna give it a go soon. Thank you!
My tips and additions. I've been able to easily win these wars with just 3 merc armies. 22k troops total. The first one you shouldn't have any battles. While you are seiging down their capital with the mercs, have your 8k troops break into 2k groups and swarm the countryside. This will make the war end with you getting more money. Your 2k in anatolia should just run circles, they will eventually die. I finish the first war with 300+ Ducats each time(after repaying loans). Depending on how greedy I want to be with the second war (and how nice to the allies) I can end even or with positive 200D. If you are nice you can keep Albania as an ally. I also recommend putting a spy in Serbia and then taking uskup from the ottomans. You can use your spy to claim and take the Serbian gold mine. Or, annex them entirely as they are orthodox.(so no one in the area really cares..)
Follow up. Time it so your units arrive in constatinope on the 2nd of the month. Still declare on the 1st. Koeceli will still not have any garrison. Hunt their 3 ships that are sailing around. Keeping your ships out after that depends on their allies. Often, even if they are stronger, having your fleet sitting outside constantinope will dissuade them and prevent them from getting the blockade bonus.
Just tried it. The millisecond my troops finished up their capital, the Ottomans rushed it down and unsieged it, and I couldn't take it back because they just parked half their army there, and the other half in Constantinople. Gonna try again - I think I was just too greedy. I'm gonna try peacing out as soon as I can get the two provinces in the peace deal, will edit if that works or not. Also, it appears some of the Estate interactions are DLC locked - specifically, "Supremacy Over The Crown" and "Expansionist Zealotry." EDIT: Second attempt failed before I could even try it. As soon as I left Selanik, they rushed it down. They literally ignored Constantinople to do it, too. I'm super confused. I realized that, in both attempts, I DOWed the Ottomans a month later than in the video, I think because I recruited the mercs in an different order. I'ma try following the order EXACTLY to see if there's any difference. EDIT 2: I was wrong about the "too late war" theory, I had a brainfart and thought he DOW'd in February. Derp. I think the 2k infantry bit is RNG, I've tried it 3 times and it only worked the first time; every other time they've been wiped, even though I've Scorched Earth each time. I guess this is just the game's way of telling me that Byzantium is off-limits for me lol
You need a 3 star maneuver general minimum to survive. also, I've tried sending them from Athens, to ensure they arrive. They can barely make it, so if you miss 1day you're done there
Have you tried to send the 2k troops to Constantinople before declaring? You can make them arrive there one the 2nd day of the month, so that youll be already there in advance without them realising it, so the fort will still be mothballed
Thanks guys, I tried it a couple more times and I got the first war done! The only weird thing I've noticed is that it's kinda hard to ally the Knights because they literally won't stop raiding me until I get -100 opinion. I assume I can finish the second war with someone like Serbia, but I feel like it should be mentioned. EDIT: Bankruptcy even though I payed off most my loans with Otto money, all of my mercs were deleted, and for some reason Otto troops could move through the strait between Biga and Gelibolu even though I had my ships in the Sea of Marmara, which I'm pretty sure was just a weird glitch.
@@justanothershitpostinglose8800 If a country, in this case Ottomans, control both provinces of a strait, Gelibolu and Biga, you cannot block their movement with a naval blockade. It's why forts on those type of provinces are good and annoying. Even late game on the off chance you face a naval power, like Great Britain or Spain, being blocked from half your country or having to take a detour around the black sea is a pain. The capital fort and the fort in Kocaeli can easily and cheaply secure the strait for Byzantium/Ottomans, depending who you play as.
Couple things I did to improve this: it requires the Ottomans to ally AQ Sell Crown land and give all possible monopolies to estates State Edict: defensive focus on Constantinople Once you siege Edirne, engage the small ottoman stack on Macedonia. You should beat them before the 30k stack arrives You will have enough warscore to get Gallipoli now too. In the second war. Engage the ottoman army stuck in the Balkans (they will split their armies into Anatolian and Balkan) You should be able to get 100% war score easily in this war.
gets to the point where I've taken all my core feeling good, then 60k france allies ottomans, guess I'll waait ages until france is too busy, fighting the ottomans is soooo frustrating dude
Very cool just what I need to relax and enjoy a quick thrashing of a massively strong opponent after a heartbreaking disaster ending to a lick of the Irish campaign from the other day.
Succeded on my second try, the strategy works wonders, you only need to time your ships and army arrivals right so that the forts have 0 garrison. The only reason I needed to savescum and do a second try was because, somehow (bug?) the ottomans managed to take Edirne with a -28% change. Maybe it was because the garrison became 0 after a bad roll, but still, made me quite salty.
"It's fool-proof" My game: Ottoman army was able to catch my 2-stack even with a maneuver general and scorched earth. Albania didn't want to fight Ottomans and wouldn't fight even if promised land. Took a lot more than a handful of loans to get 5 merc companies. "Bled money" so fast I went bankrupt at the start of the second war. Well okay. EDIT: Literally every time I try this, the ottomans get a stack on Constantinople before my 2 stack can get onto it (if there's a naval battle) or get off it onto the mothballed Ottoman fort before getting stack-wiped by the Ottomans. Every time. I don't get this guide, apparently.
Ganet I got it down after a while and aside from some hiccups, this really is a good guide. What I eventually figured out was to send the 2-stack over towards Constantinople just before declaring. You could do this before the start of the month, but I just sent them over and waited 5 days before declaring. As long as they aren’t in Constantinople, I think it’s fine. Other than that, you just need to make the first 2 wars begin and end fast enough that you don’t drown in debt. I ended up taking most of the cores during second war. During the third war, my navy got destroyed by the Ottomans, but they still were easy to beat as my vassals and Serbia occupied all of the balkans because I used mercs to scare the Ottomans from crossing either strait and the AI doesn’t attempt naval landings. Just move fast and take what you can before you lose control. All my wars were only at around 50% warscore and medium Ottoman enthusiasm. Balancing debt and all that is harder than the wars. Edit: Oh and I purposefully didn’t take the Ottoman capital in the Balkans so I can easily have access to it. They don’t keep a stack there to protect it and it’s an easy boost to WS.
If you don’t play perfectly, RNG is more of a factor (first game Otto allies karaman who are close enough to take out my 2k before the first siege tick, second game ottomans got a tick one wall break on Constantinople) but after those two early restarts it worked perfectly. Despite having 1200 hours I’ve never actually sat down and done a proper Byzantium campaign in single player, so this’ll make a good start for sure.
If you're going bankrupt all the time, you can sell titles for 10% crownlands but you will maybe be forced to not take the 1 mil point from nobility. At least it's what saved me from going bankrupt. with the monopolies on glass and wine, you should get around 250 ducats just from the start, which you can use to recruit all the needed mercs and even some galleys. with that you will only need loans to pay the maintenance.
Just an update for those considering this strat. First try worked no problem. Hit a little snag with that truce break 2nd war when Venice declared on me just as I was wrapping up the war with the Ottomans but managed to win that too and got some free land. All in all, this is a much more simpler and easier strat than BudgetMonk's and way less RNG. Thank you Radio Res for a great strat.
Yeah my ottomans dont play the same as yours for some reason lmao they split 50 50 on constantine edidne and bee line for my navy immediately, 2k can never get there before they get there
nvm guys on my 5th try i got everything to work perfectly, and then i rolled 5 1s in a row on the seige while they broke my walls and killed my fort at 7%(while being blockaded btw)
For me, I cant go to selanik, only through gumulcine, which I have no tinme to siege down. I didnt siege It down with 49% and Ottomans sieged down Constantinople with the first 7%. Fckin bullshit. Also They allied tunis and have total navy superiority, because of this.
Thank you for this! That truce breaking is great too, something which I never did before in EU4. I was really sceptical when I first gave Byzantium a shot last night, it kept being recommended as a fun nation to play but I couldn't really see a way to make it work. My first run I tried to ally one of the Ottoman major rivals but it didn't work. Then I watched some other vids, but they are laughably reliant on RNG. I did give your strat a twist, tanking crown land to zero to get the estate statutory event to fire and geteting a few 100s by selling land right before accepting. Meanwhile improving relations with all potential neighboring allies and get them to join by promising land. Only the knights and Albania ended up willing to do that though. I also took loans from the merchants estate. Between that and the estate statutory cash, I didn't need any regular loans until into the war.
I tried it and it worked! I am a medium skilled player. A few notes: My fleet got murdered along the way to koceli, so I never got it. 2 of the estate interactions you mentioned are emporor only, but they are not required. Austria never allied me. Still worked like a charm!
@@kymourdarkmyth799 your loan size will increase when you get more dev, you can take bigger loans to pay off the smaller ones, if bankruptcy is an issue you'll keep the same debt or a little more, but wont go bankrupt at least
@@kymourdarkmyth799 Take money from the ottomans in the first war, and you can disband mercs once you've blocked got them locked out of the balkans in the second war.
Tried a few other guides over and over. Got attacked by Venice, my allies got ambushed, skanderbeg didn't attach or I ran out of manpower. Thank you for this guide 🙏. Your accent is like butter to my ears, where are you from? 👂🥰
Really good strategy, you have a lot of freedoms! I struggled hours with other takes, this one was just one take. There are some things which really can enhance the gain of the first war so you don't need a second war: 1. Build the said 2k in Athens, build 4 Light Ships in the remaining provinces. 2. prioritize getting Knights and Albania into an alliance with you, you should be able to get it before 1446 3. take burgher loans beforehand and boost stability right when you are peacing out, then take loans out with the 800 you got from the Ottomans. You can get half of the remaining loans away by just taking the now more expensive loans (50 ducats instead of 20) and repaying them with the expensive loans 4. scorch earth in Constantinople, go to the fort on the other side and scorch earth there while doing so, take the fort of Selanik too like said, but instead of going to Edirne, go with the 28k into Gallipoli so one stack is sieging Constantinople with the defensive edict and if you want to make sure a 20% Fort defense advisor and the other is sieging Kocaeli, but keeping Kocaeli isn't that important. 5. With the other stack still stuck on Anatolia you can also split a good siege pip general (2-3 Pips on Siege at least) off of the Gallipoli siege and do Edirne simultaneously so they both finish soon enough 6. Now Constantinople is probably somewhere between -7 to 21% and you can engage the about 15k with your 28k while blocking all routes with your fleet and the occupied forts and stack wipe them there fairly easily. 7. To get to 80+% now just re-siege Kocaeli with your army but prepare a bit of morale boosts like prestige, advisor for the case of the Ottomans desperately engaging With these changes or tweaks, I was able to make it in one take without any big preparation time, thanks for the heads up Radio Res :).
The troops landing in Constantinople always get hit by the Ottoman stack. I timed it perfectly to match timing in your vid, and they're hit every time before crossing to Kocaeli. The transport keeps getting engaged. I can never get enough war score on the Byzantium side of the strait for the 1st war.
For anyone who's having a problem with the 2k troops crossing the strait, you can choose not to do that. You can still win against the Ottomans without taking the mothballed fort in Anatolia. Don't engage the Ottoman army and just siege their Capital. You will have enough war score to take the provinces and money that you need.
Do you guys play a different game? You cant siege their capital. Gumulcine stands in the way, You have to siege that level 2 forst first. Right now, 49% didnt siege and Ottomans sieged Constantinople with the first 7% tick. Yeh not rng.
I meant for those who's trying and having problems with the 2k troops strat by crossing the strait. Of course you cannot win against the Ottomans if you don't siege their capital.
After third try, I did suprisingly well. Was a bit worried for my third war (me, and Austro-Hungary union vs Otto-Crimea) almost lost. Preparing for a fourth with help from Mamalukes.
Some thoughts and happenings from my first test run -The knights raided my coast and my opinion of them is -47 as I finish my first war and could not ally them. -The Ottoman navy took down mine. Perhaps it is because Athens ships did not reinforce or something, I have to fight the whole war without naval superiority. -My 2k army got hit by a small force of 3-4k and retreated back to the Balkans. It baited the Ottoman army with the general to engage onto Sinoz and I beat the Ottoman land force in my first war. -If the Ottoman stacks are separated, you might be able to take down them one by one. Just don't fight both of them at all. I managed to secure higher morale and General Pips and same Discipline(from Ruler personality) and still got wrecked in a 31k vs 28k fight. My run was still dead even though I managed to win both wars, since I lost naval superiority I got blockade and ended up with 13 war exhaustion and bankruptcy.
I cant believe how well this worked. I have never won a war against the ottomans as byzantium before. This is amazing. Finally my dream of rebuilding the roman empire can begin!
Strat didnt work. Followed your instructions exactly, managed to archieve everything you said but the peace deal is too expensive. Also considering that here are so many guys not making it , you really should not have sold it as a guaranteed win...
Just tried this strategy, won from first time. Hell, I even felt lucky so I stack wiped Ottoman forces sieging Konstantinopol, and after that ones who were trying to get Selenik back. Mercs and their leaders make all the difference in the world.
NO RNG.... proceedes to present a strategy 100% dependant on RNG. General with at least 2 point is siege. Dice rolls at siege. etc all depending completely on rng
My favorite Byzantine game was when I allied basically everyone in the Balkans, Trezibond, and Theodoro, and created a Balkan coalition against the Ottomans, we beat the Ottomans so hard that they never recovered
This worked great, next 30 years are a bit rough though. Couldn't get Austria as my ally. Ended up with Hungary. Wedged in with a super strong Venice. Ended up having to take Corsica from Genoa, and then some of Sicily from Aragon and then making space for myself in Tunis. Been a really fun playthrough.
Not sure if things have just changed since this guide came out but this entire strat revolves around RNG. If the Ottoman trade fleet intercepts your transports you’ll always end up in Constantinople too late. And it’s extremely common that they do.
Tip: Athens has a fort defense bonus. Give them occupation of forts that you take to lengthen sieges and make your vassal pay for fort maintenance. Switch occupation back to Byzantium when you make peace.
So doing this on hard I have a few things to add. You don't need 5 groups of mercs you can do it with 4. Watch out for Ottoman ships when declaring for the first time. The strategy is sort of foolproof, when I lose during the first war it's because there were some Ottoman ships that intercepted my 2 stack, and slowed me down enough I couldn't siege Kocaeli fast enough. Getting alliances after the second war can be very difficult. I've gotten there 6-7 times, and I only had good alliances once, usually on Hard difficulty it wasn't possible to get Hungary, Austria or Poland. The issue I run into is loans. Since I want to declare on Ottomans the moment the peace is up every time to either limit their snowballing or take advantage of them, I've had a very hard time managing money. A key part of beating the Ottomans is allowing half of their army across and then wiping them, which requires a decent navy. Maintaining that navy and paying back loans from the initial wars is really tough.
Did you sell the titles? it gives you around 150 ducats at the start, it can save you for a few bad modifiers that you will be able to remove later on.
Excellent guide thanks Res! Advice for others, definitely try to take the gold rather than maxing out on provinces (like Res indicates). I made the mistake a few times and it’s much easier in the long term to just have zero loans after the first few wars rather than more provinces and but more debt.
Did it! Works like a charm, had to start 1st war in different month due to Ottoman fleets trade interfering with transport. In second I declared with Ottos still having one stack of 13k in Balkans, took fort then stackwiped it with Albania. Then entered Anatolia as they were weakened, steamrolled all their armies and peaced out at 95% warscore :D
Much of the game, if technical, boils down to how effecient you spend the (in-game) time. This way seems very effecient in that regard. While I don't like to _not_ play that way, going for 100% war score isn't really nescessary (nor worth it) most often. Only few exceptions (break stronger enemies and specific cruicial wargoals; i.e. vassalizing someone you need before they grow too big etc)
Great tactic but some things to look at for: Sometimes there is 2 ottoman ships patroling so when you declare war and fight them, your 2 stack army will arrive late Also don't have shit luck like me and lose twice bcs of terrible rolls at sieges ex: he takes fort at 7%
Another thing not mentioned here is that you can put defensive edict (not sure if DLC required) on the state Constantinople is in. This will give the fort +33% defensiveness. (Technically meaning dicerolls have to be much higher to progress one siege stage/give offensive modifier on tick - *simply said will lengthen the siege considerably*)
Gonna leave some tips here: 1. Do build to force limit 2. Get 250 ducats, but only get 2 mercenaries, the important part is getting a 3 siege pip general 3. Most of the time ottomans will try to unsiege edirne, if their stacks get apart, do engage the weak stack 4. Wait some months and you can get albania and the knights as allies, at least one will join and you will have naval supremacy 5. If you manage to siege edirne, selinak, and the fort in koseli and win a battle, you can get all your cores, probably 6. Do save scum if you want, save scum every siege tick if you need lol
@@abubnis4206 I have done this multiple times, you CANNOT call them in without the DLC that allows you to offer land. Unless maybe some good rng, but I don't think so
Another exception is if an Ottoman trade fleet runs into your transports on the way to Constantinople. It delays the troops long enough to not arrive on time.
Something that also works with the fort in Anatolia is to transport the 2 troops there to land on the 1st of the next month, start the war and immediately move them across the strait to a mothballed fort. I do that combined with Albania ally and it usually works fine. After that it's a siege battle and micro management I guess.
Radio Res:"Don't try to siege Gallipoli because it's hills and Ottomans will engage you there"
Britain: *visibly sweating*
*Sabaton starts playing in the distance*
More like Australia starts visibly sweating
As a Turk I love this comment
As a Kiwi? Not so much...
Thing is, game doesnt let me go for Edirne, It says I have to siege gumulcine first.
*hires 5 merc companies*
"We will be bleeding money for a bit"
Brilliant, florry would be proud.
yeah... I bled until bankruptcy, lost all the mercs, ottos took Constantinople... and stack wiped me, so I'll go with more allies and fewer mercs next time. LUL
Instructions unclear, formed Mughals.
sounds about right
@Walter White i thought you were dead
@Walter White true, true
@@jamiepach5845 thanks for the spoiler... you just broke my heart
1st try: Crimea joined and unsieged Selanik
2nd try: Ottomans wins in Constantinople with 7%
3rd try: Ottomans kills my navy and i don't take Kocaeli
4th try: 71% sieging Edirne for the 4th tick and go bankrupt
5th try: Already smashing my head against a wall, not even trying no more.
only 5 tries??? now it's my 48th time and that is only when I started counting. Before that I had at least 20 further tries.. no kidding... i want that damn achievement so much (granted I tried various different strategies over time)
THIS, every time, trying with Defensive edict and defensive advisor now, and they still constantly get it at 7% and 14% while I'm at 69% with a 3/4 siege pip general.
I tried it 8 times, won got land. Declared again, continued to gain land until Teke. Mamluks declare on me, wipes me out bcs none of my allies joined
Hilariously the Ottomans allied Karaman and they ran over my kocaeli guys lmao.
first try and i got basileus achievment. This strat is actually fool proof as he says, i think you dont need to truce break tho, but still, the first war start is perfect
The byzantines should have watched this in 1453
They tried the merc spam part
To be fair, ottos were broken irl lmao
The byzantine did watch it and had the same ending I keep getting!
Irl ottomans need a balance patch
Justin Teofilus they did but they got really shitty dice rolls
"there is no way they will finish sieging Constantinople before you siege down Edirne"
It seems as if I'm a one in a million, because that's exactly what happened on my first try. I was sitting on 49% and they got it at 21%. Couldn't believe my eyes tbh
Welcome to EU4.
If you want to be extra sure debase your currency once or twice and activate the fortifications edict on constantinopole and unless the Ottomans get a minimal % roll you should get it.
yea but thats how dice rolls work, sometimes you get fucked, i had a siege tick 10 times at 71%
can tweak it with defensive edict
Don't forget defensive edict in Constantinople. It substantially lengthens time between siege tick.
I never once in my almost 1000 hours broken a truce lol This will be difficult to me. Great strategy, though!
Yeah i feel you man.
did you even do a world conquest?
@@Shadow.24772 Nope 😂 that's too much work
@@NishiAAAddiction just get HRE and get them to conquer the world for you LUL
@@Shadow.24772 Lol that's exactly what I'll try next time. I'm currently finishing a game with Russia. Unfortunately I'll finish in second place as Spain managed to conquer like 40% of the world while I was fighting the Ottomans, Poland and Lithuania. And then they turned revolutionary lol it's 1800 already and I have 0 willpower to fight their 74679535847 colonies
I found a way to actually make this work every time, there are several things the video doesnt mention that reduce RNG
1. Check if there is a 3+ siege pip general in the mercenary tab THAT YOU CAN RECRUIT. Do this before anything else. If not just restart
2. I see a lot of people complaining about not getting to Constantinople first, what you should do is embark your 2 stack in the aegean sea before you declare war, and time it so that the fleet arrives in the sea of marmara on the first of the month (the same day you declare war, usually may 1, 1445 for me). Having the fleet arrive earlier triggers the fort, later and you might not get there in time. If done correctly you will have enough time to cross even if you are delayed a few days by the trade ship.
3. Buy an admiral for your 13k fleet. I had problems with the ottoman fleet coming out of port and beating my fleet. This led to a ~20ish war score penalty because constantinople was blockaded. The admiral will scare them off
4. Enact the local defensiveness edict in constantinople. It REALLY helps you siege faster then them
5. Only buy 4 mercenary companies not 5. If you are doing this right you wont be using your main stack in any battles and the smaller army greatly reduces the chances of going bankrupt
6. Dont peace out on the first war until you can get the two provinces AND the max gold (I think its 825). You can pay off all your loans with this
7. If possible, dont disband your mercs until you have an alliance with Hungary. The extra army strength makes a big difference
Good advice. Helped me, thanks
Very good advice but with my luck I’ll get a 3 Siege pip guy but hes from Novgorod so i cant recruit him. :q
This is an excellent addition, thank you. Just did it. Destroyed the Ottomans in 2 wars, punching out over 1500 pieces of gold from them on top of all the land. I used a lot of estate interactions to minimise my loans too. Thanks again.
"Check if there is a 3+ siege pip general in the mercenary tab THAT YOU CAN RECRUIT. Do this before anything else. If not just restart"
So basically, you will restart until you get a 3 siege pip general? Do you realize restarting is cheating and is solely relies on RNG? You might as well restart until Ottomans get into a war with Albania+Venice and Mamluks at the same time. That's just bullshit. Did not even bother with reading the rest of your suggestions lol.
@@dorylaions There is a 3 pip general command one of the merc companies like half the time, its not some crazy rarity that you need to spend all day trying to get. That being said you dont need one, it just reduces the RNG from the race to siege before the ottomans.
"Works 100% of the time" Sir, *SIR*, you doubt my incompetence. zero for two right now, let's go for three!
Edit: zero for three
zero for 8 here
how you doing?
i don't know how he's able to do that effortlessly. when i do, my navy always get obliterated and my 2 company always get stack wiped at constantinople or kocaeli.
@@dickyadhadyanto4986 lol same
*cries in same*
Gonna point out for those of you who tried this strategy, when you move the 2k to con, do it around the 23rd, figure out when they will LAND on the 1st. if not when you declare on the first, you might get stopped by a small 2 navy from ottomans, slows you down then you get hit by their armies before you get a chance to move to kocaeli. Tried it 5 times before doing this way, each time i got stalled by that small navy. Annoying as hell.
thanks, i didnt consider that haha
Or even better, keep them on the ships then just land in port on the 1st then cross
Does it work if you split them so 1k goes to occupy fort in Kocaeli and 1k goes to occupy fort in Gelibolu?
@@totalsyambles8308 the 2K is just to make sure the 1K stack doesnt transform into 999's by atrition (below 1k armies cant capture any land at all)
@@totalsyambles8308 If you manage to get them by without atrition you should be fine tough
"For Beginners"
*Proceeds to take a billion loans and absolutely destroys the byzantine economy before it's even a thing*
Idk about that
A true conqueror doesn't worry about numbers on a parchment!
It's the most Greek strategy ever.
It's perfect.
loans are somewhat manageable unless you are small for the most part
If you win, you punch money out of ottomans, if you lose, it's not like you're getting back in the game anyway.
It's a debt strat, but it's not, you know, an advanced debt strat with bankruptcy and stuff
@@pretentious_melancholic I think being comfortable with taking loans and having loans longterm is one of the first major steps most players take towards being good EUIV players, I used to be terrified of running a deficit in my empire, now most games I renew loans over and over because inflation isn't really as scary as it seems at first.
"You see, this is why I hate videogames, it appeals to the Male fantasy"
*The male fantasy:*
The male fantasy of Byzantium lol if only they knew the truth!
@@gr3y_eminence Every man fantasizes about getting their Theodora and reconquering Roman land.
This isn't my male fantasy.
What men doesn't fantasize about restoring the Glory of Rome?
@@nETbKaH Well the Romans treated women like shit, so it's still bad I guess, but hail Caesar!
Never would think to beat the Ottomans in this way. Thank you for the guide!
You're so cocky with your truce breaks! I love it! I have my Byz 1 Faith attempt coming soon so I'll let you know whether I use your strat or Budget Monks :)
Great stuff Res!
I didn't except to see you here, glad you saw this new strat!
@@zachjordan7608 Expect (it'z a new meme)
so this is where it all started
"there is no way they will finish sieging Constantinople before you siege down Edirne"
Me who just lost at 7%:
Radio Res: *clearly explains all of the steps to win as Byzantium*
BudgetMonk: *speaks so quickly and has his footage sped up so that no one can understand what he is doing unless you pause every 1.2 seconds*
Haaaaaaaaaaa yeah, that's why I am here - I had NFI what was going on in that video as a beginner!
true, I gotta set the speed to 0.5 to actually understand it
Agreed. As highly as i rate BudgetMonk, the speed at which he shows and explains things annoys me.
I tried this strat. I went bankrupt when the 2nd war started and all my mercs and soldiers disappeared.
That wasn't just little bleeding
if you have the pop up for bankruptcy just debase your currency and set root out corruption to 0 for a bit. actually, a little corruption might be helpful for rebels
@@massimobirardi1379 And don't forget, you should declare bankruptcy after the war is over. You will be protected by truce and this way your economy can recover without having to repay all the loans and pay the massive amount of interest. This is an essential part that should be included imo
@@sephikong8323 He didn't do that, and you don't have to do that for this strat to work.
At least you got to the second war. I cant go around gumulcine and I didnt siege It down with 49%, Ottomans sieged down Constantinople with the first 7%. Good job game.
I saw this and was very excited. Playing as Byzantium has always been a favorite, but I nearly always end up crushed. I tried this strategy click by click 5 different times, and each time I end up destroyed by the Ottomans. For one, my 2 stack in Constantinople ends up getting caught every single time, so I am unable to cross the strait and cannot benefit from that. Then, The Ottoman re-siege Selenik before I can take Edirne. Then when I take Edirne and go back to Selenik, they are able to finish their siege of Constantinople and un-siege Edirne before I can finish my siege on Selenik agian. I made sure to follow this strategy click by click, and even made sure my dates matched every single click you did.
you have to move immediatly when you arrive and immediatly send your troops to constantinople during the first. then it will work
Yep. Must have tried this 10 times. Second army always killed. Doesnt work.
@@notenoughpaper nope. Not even when you time it to arrive on the 1st, or 2nd
@@Liljeborgen it works if you actually follow the guide and scorch earth
For a no RNG guide I find the location of the Otto navy is total RNG, total luck if their trade ships are in a position to stop you or not, hell even had them prevent my troops crossing the strait once
Just time your fleet then. You are engaging into their trade fleet, you can control it
Radio Res to be clear the guide is excellent and I’m not trying to bring it down - every other aspect worked perfectly - you did an awesome job, but the title does say no RNG and there kind of is - as you can’t time the fleet movement of the enemy if your following your “move the fleet on the first of June” section, also as a side note I always delete the Greek fort (can’t mind the province name) do you find it makes any difference?
What i did to beat the timing was to put the fleet in the water before i declare the war
@@Scott-yl5gi yeah just put your fleet with troops on Aegean sea 1 day before declaring war
"No rng"
Also him in the siege of Edirne: "This is where the rng comes in."
No hate btw. Great vid!
"no rng, except the seiges"
@CageyBee yeah
Wait this isn't Budgetmonk!
He already made a 1.30 guide but it relies mainly on RNG and naval supremacy
@@aronszabo5246 Well if you have that little luck and skull it's better than this one
It's kinda RNG. Getting Albania to attach to you is up to luck but other than that it works pretty well.
@@aronszabo5246 he is overrated anyway
Sheputster that guide worked for me, but you have to get a bit of luck with the sieges and how the AI moves.
Nice guide as always, looking forward for more!
this is fantastic. Manage to beat the ottomans to ashes. four mecs are enough. five mercs might cause bankruptcy. Also sometimes Ottomans troops just stay in its capital, which is annoying. anyway, this guide is awesome
For those 3 Ottoman light ships, load your 2k stack onto transports in Corinth using the "a" hotkey. On the 23rd of the month before you declare the war, check where those 3 light ships are(if you declare on June 1st, check on 23rd May). You should have that 2k stack depart Corinth on the 23rd of the month BEFORE you declare the war(they usually reach by the 6th of the next month). Those lights ships are a bit random in where they end up, so see if declaring on the 2nd or even 3rd helps to avoid those pesky light ships.
Me on my 3rd try:
Hey things are finally going great !
*Poland wants to enforce peace*
RNG only works for youtubers, the rest of us will loose constantinople at 21%
Why did the byzantines just follow this guide in real life 🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦
Bcz Ottomans were not that much weak in real history
@@ahmerjadoon7680 Ottomans could afford 100K soldiers in the battlefield, in EU4 they could keep the numbers close, the problem?? the AI is dumb and never increase their navies at early stage, so the Ottomans have always both of her forces divided, also that any nation in this game could afford "infinite" loans...
byzantines were still paranoid of foreign mercenary troops since venice burned down their city
@@mariano98ify its his not her because they are the ottomans not the glorious nation of OttoWomans
@@mariano98ify In the 1444, Ottomans were way way way more stronger than in the game.
Dude you are awesome, I never managed a playthrough with byzantium and with this strat I took back all of greece and Bulgaria by 1470!!!
I've tried other strategies before but i've always messed them up one way or another. This seems a lot more relaxed and simple, gonna give it a go soon. Thank you!
My tips and additions.
I've been able to easily win these wars with just 3 merc armies. 22k troops total. The first one you shouldn't have any battles. While you are seiging down their capital with the mercs, have your 8k troops break into 2k groups and swarm the countryside. This will make the war end with you getting more money. Your 2k in anatolia should just run circles, they will eventually die.
I finish the first war with 300+ Ducats each time(after repaying loans). Depending on how greedy I want to be with the second war (and how nice to the allies) I can end even or with positive 200D. If you are nice you can keep Albania as an ally.
I also recommend putting a spy in Serbia and then taking uskup from the ottomans. You can use your spy to claim and take the Serbian gold mine. Or, annex them entirely as they are orthodox.(so no one in the area really cares..)
Follow up. Time it so your units arrive in constatinope on the 2nd of the month. Still declare on the 1st. Koeceli will still not have any garrison. Hunt their 3 ships that are sailing around. Keeping your ships out after that depends on their allies. Often, even if they are stronger, having your fleet sitting outside constantinope will dissuade them and prevent them from getting the blockade bonus.
With arriving on the 2nd I rarely (only if there was a naval battle) had to scorch my capital.
Thanks for this wonderful guide!I have never been able to play as byzantium successfully, but I know this is going to help me.
My first time beating the ottomans as Byzantium ever! Thanks, other guides didn’t work as well. Amazing!
Of course, a strat that relies on siege RNG so I immediately got Constantinople sieged down faster while I'm sitting at 35%. Typical.
And scientists say bad luck doesn't exist...
@@gabrielclark1425 MURPHY WILL FIND THEM
Me: *finally achieved victory*
One month later
Venice: *declares war*
title: no rng
radio res: so... here comes the rng element
Just tried it. The millisecond my troops finished up their capital, the Ottomans rushed it down and unsieged it, and I couldn't take it back because they just parked half their army there, and the other half in Constantinople. Gonna try again - I think I was just too greedy. I'm gonna try peacing out as soon as I can get the two provinces in the peace deal, will edit if that works or not. Also, it appears some of the Estate interactions are DLC locked - specifically, "Supremacy Over The Crown" and "Expansionist Zealotry."
EDIT: Second attempt failed before I could even try it. As soon as I left Selanik, they rushed it down. They literally ignored Constantinople to do it, too. I'm super confused. I realized that, in both attempts, I DOWed the Ottomans a month later than in the video, I think because I recruited the mercs in an different order. I'ma try following the order EXACTLY to see if there's any difference.
EDIT 2: I was wrong about the "too late war" theory, I had a brainfart and thought he DOW'd in February. Derp. I think the 2k infantry bit is RNG, I've tried it 3 times and it only worked the first time; every other time they've been wiped, even though I've Scorched Earth each time. I guess this is just the game's way of telling me that Byzantium is off-limits for me lol
You need a 3 star maneuver general minimum to survive. also, I've tried sending them from Athens, to ensure they arrive. They can barely make it, so if you miss 1day you're done there
You can still win against Ottomans and take what you NEED in the first war without getting the mothballed fort in Anatolia.
Have you tried to send the 2k troops to Constantinople before declaring? You can make them arrive there one the 2nd day of the month, so that youll be already there in advance without them realising it, so the fort will still be mothballed
Thanks guys, I tried it a couple more times and I got the first war done! The only weird thing I've noticed is that it's kinda hard to ally the Knights because they literally won't stop raiding me until I get -100 opinion. I assume I can finish the second war with someone like Serbia, but I feel like it should be mentioned.
EDIT: Bankruptcy even though I payed off most my loans with Otto money, all of my mercs were deleted, and for some reason Otto troops could move through the strait between Biga and Gelibolu even though I had my ships in the Sea of Marmara, which I'm pretty sure was just a weird glitch.
@@justanothershitpostinglose8800 If a country, in this case Ottomans, control both provinces of a strait, Gelibolu and Biga, you cannot block their movement with a naval blockade. It's why forts on those type of provinces are good and annoying. Even late game on the off chance you face a naval power, like Great Britain or Spain, being blocked from half your country or having to take a detour around the black sea is a pain. The capital fort and the fort in Kocaeli can easily and cheaply secure the strait for Byzantium/Ottomans, depending who you play as.
Couple things I did to improve this: it requires the Ottomans to ally AQ
Sell Crown land and give all possible monopolies to estates
State Edict: defensive focus on Constantinople
Once you siege Edirne, engage the small ottoman stack on Macedonia. You should beat them before the 30k stack arrives
You will have enough warscore to get Gallipoli now too.
In the second war. Engage the ottoman army stuck in the Balkans (they will split their armies into Anatolian and Balkan)
You should be able to get 100% war score easily in this war.
Aurelian would be proud of your ability to keep the empire alive.
gets to the point where I've taken all my core feeling good, then 60k france allies ottomans, guess I'll waait ages until france is too busy, fighting the ottomans is soooo frustrating dude
Very cool just what I need to relax and enjoy a quick thrashing of a massively strong opponent after a heartbreaking disaster ending to a lick of the Irish campaign from the other day.
Succeded on my second try, the strategy works wonders, you only need to time your ships and army arrivals right so that the forts have 0 garrison.
The only reason I needed to savescum and do a second try was because, somehow (bug?) the ottomans managed to take Edirne with a -28% change.
Maybe it was because the garrison became 0 after a bad roll, but still, made me quite salty.
Radio res thank you very much. I've been trying this fo so long and this strategy did the trick for me.
"It's fool-proof"
My game: Ottoman army was able to catch my 2-stack even with a maneuver general and scorched earth.
Albania didn't want to fight Ottomans and wouldn't fight even if promised land.
Took a lot more than a handful of loans to get 5 merc companies.
"Bled money" so fast I went bankrupt at the start of the second war.
Well okay.
EDIT: Literally every time I try this, the ottomans get a stack on Constantinople before my 2 stack can get onto it (if there's a naval battle) or get off it onto the mothballed Ottoman fort before getting stack-wiped by the Ottomans. Every time. I don't get this guide, apparently.
Yes the exact same thing happened to me res do you have a solution?
Ganet I got it down after a while and aside from some hiccups, this really is a good guide. What I eventually figured out was to send the 2-stack over towards Constantinople just before declaring. You could do this before the start of the month, but I just sent them over and waited 5 days before declaring. As long as they aren’t in Constantinople, I think it’s fine.
Other than that, you just need to make the first 2 wars begin and end fast enough that you don’t drown in debt. I ended up taking most of the cores during second war.
During the third war, my navy got destroyed by the Ottomans, but they still were easy to beat as my vassals and Serbia occupied all of the balkans because I used mercs to scare the Ottomans from crossing either strait and the AI doesn’t attempt naval landings.
Just move fast and take what you can before you lose control. All my wars were only at around 50% warscore and medium Ottoman enthusiasm. Balancing debt and all that is harder than the wars.
Edit: Oh and I purposefully didn’t take the Ottoman capital in the Balkans so I can easily have access to it. They don’t keep a stack there to protect it and it’s an easy boost to WS.
If you don’t play perfectly, RNG is more of a factor (first game Otto allies karaman who are close enough to take out my 2k before the first siege tick, second game ottomans got a tick one wall break on Constantinople) but after those two early restarts it worked perfectly. Despite having 1200 hours I’ve never actually sat down and done a proper Byzantium campaign in single player, so this’ll make a good start for sure.
I just cant do it man, Im losing sleep trying this over and over again. I keep going bankrupt after the war and everything immediately falling apart.
Try dropping to 4 regiments instead of 5
delete the fort in morea, it's just a waste of money.
If you're going bankrupt all the time, you can sell titles for 10% crownlands but you will maybe be forced to not take the 1 mil point from nobility. At least it's what saved me from going bankrupt. with the monopolies on glass and wine, you should get around 250 ducats just from the start, which you can use to recruit all the needed mercs and even some galleys. with that you will only need loans to pay the maintenance.
My problem is everytime I successfully complete the war Venice declares war on me and it's downhill from there.
Wow, this is a pretty different strat compared to some of the others floating around. Great work and I look forward to trying this out.
Just an update for those considering this strat. First try worked no problem. Hit a little snag with that truce break 2nd war when Venice declared on me just as I was wrapping up the war with the Ottomans but managed to win that too and got some free land. All in all, this is a much more simpler and easier strat than BudgetMonk's and way less RNG. Thank you Radio Res for a great strat.
Yeah my ottomans dont play the same as yours for some reason lmao they split 50 50 on constantine edidne and bee line for my navy immediately, 2k can never get there before they get there
nvm guys on my 5th try i got everything to work perfectly, and then i rolled 5 1s in a row on the seige while they broke my walls and killed my fort at 7%(while being blockaded btw)
For me, I cant go to selanik, only through gumulcine, which I have no tinme to siege down. I didnt siege It down with 49% and Ottomans sieged down Constantinople with the first 7%. Fckin bullshit. Also They allied tunis and have total navy superiority, because of this.
Just put your transport fleet on aegan sea before declaring war and it should make it.
Thank you for this! That truce breaking is great too, something which I never did before in EU4. I was really sceptical when I first gave Byzantium a shot last night, it kept being recommended as a fun nation to play but I couldn't really see a way to make it work. My first run I tried to ally one of the Ottoman major rivals but it didn't work. Then I watched some other vids, but they are laughably reliant on RNG. I did give your strat a twist, tanking crown land to zero to get the estate statutory event to fire and geteting a few 100s by selling land right before accepting. Meanwhile improving relations with all potential neighboring allies and get them to join by promising land. Only the knights and Albania ended up willing to do that though. I also took loans from the merchants estate. Between that and the estate statutory cash, I didn't need any regular loans until into the war.
Keep 'em coming. I live for these guides
I tried it and it worked! I am a medium skilled player. A few notes: My fleet got murdered along the way to koceli, so I never got it. 2 of the estate interactions you mentioned are emporor only, but they are not required. Austria never allied me. Still worked like a charm!
How did you prevent bankruptcy during the second war?
@@kymourdarkmyth799 your loan size will increase when you get more dev, you can take bigger loans to pay off the smaller ones, if bankruptcy is an issue
you'll keep the same debt or a little more, but wont go bankrupt at least
@@kymourdarkmyth799 Take money from the ottomans in the first war, and you can disband mercs once you've blocked got them locked out of the balkans in the second war.
Tried a few other guides over and over. Got attacked by Venice, my allies got ambushed, skanderbeg didn't attach or I ran out of manpower. Thank you for this guide 🙏. Your accent is like butter to my ears, where are you from? 👂🥰
I've also gotten attacked by Venice. I think you need the Austrian alliance the moment you finish the Otto war or you'll get fucked. Not sure tbh.
Thanks for continuing to put out high quality guides for new content!
1:38 is 'supremacy over the crown' and 'expansionist zealotry' only available if you own the emperor dlc? It doesn't show up for me
Those are dlc.
I think estates is common sense, or at least one of The big three.
I'm assuming, thats the DLC I don't have and those options aren't there
Thanks for this wonderful guide!I It worked for me on my second try!
Great to hear!
during i watched the tutorial i hopped into eu4 instantly
Really good strategy, you have a lot of freedoms! I struggled hours with other takes, this one was just one take. There are some things which really can enhance the gain of the first war so you don't need a second war:
1. Build the said 2k in Athens, build 4 Light Ships in the remaining provinces.
2. prioritize getting Knights and Albania into an alliance with you, you should be able to get it before 1446
3. take burgher loans beforehand and boost stability right when you are peacing out, then take loans out with the 800 you got from the Ottomans. You can get half of the remaining loans away by just taking the now more expensive loans (50 ducats instead of 20) and repaying them with the expensive loans
4. scorch earth in Constantinople, go to the fort on the other side and scorch earth there while doing so, take the fort of Selanik too like said, but instead of going to Edirne, go with the 28k into Gallipoli so one stack is sieging Constantinople with the defensive edict and if you want to make sure a 20% Fort defense advisor and the other is sieging Kocaeli, but keeping Kocaeli isn't that important.
5. With the other stack still stuck on Anatolia you can also split a good siege pip general (2-3 Pips on Siege at least) off of the Gallipoli siege and do Edirne simultaneously so they both finish soon enough
6. Now Constantinople is probably somewhere between -7 to 21% and you can engage the about 15k with your 28k while blocking all routes with your fleet and the occupied forts and stack wipe them there fairly easily.
7. To get to 80+% now just re-siege Kocaeli with your army but prepare a bit of morale boosts like prestige, advisor for the case of the Ottomans desperately engaging
With these changes or tweaks, I was able to make it in one take without any big preparation time, thanks for the heads up Radio Res :).
“Works 100% of the time” Me on my 5th time bc ottoman army gets to Constantinople before my army gets there
Lmao
I suggest you pause a bit when you declare war, then you can move your units simultaneously
Hey, fyi, tried the strategy on hard difficulty, and it still worked. Thank you for the guide :)
whenever i try my navy engages a small ottoman fleet, so when i arrive in constantinople the stack is already there. does this happen to anybody else?
Time it so your fleet doesn't engage ottos trade fleet
After a few ALT + F4s and me following this guide exactly how he explains it, I managed to fight off the Ottos in both the first and the second war.
strategy does not work I have tried over 10 times Each time the Ottomans or an ally kick me off kocelli and I can't take the fort.
Love, love love your guides! Can't wait for more! Thank you!
The troops landing in Constantinople always get hit by the Ottoman stack. I timed it perfectly to match timing in your vid, and they're hit every time before crossing to Kocaeli. The transport keeps getting engaged. I can never get enough war score on the Byzantium side of the strait for the 1st war.
Instructions unclear, I converted to Zoroastrian
For anyone who's having a problem with the 2k troops crossing the strait, you can choose not to do that. You can still win against the Ottomans without taking the mothballed fort in Anatolia. Don't engage the Ottoman army and just siege their Capital. You will have enough war score to take the provinces and money that you need.
Do you guys play a different game? You cant siege their capital. Gumulcine stands in the way, You have to siege that level 2 forst first. Right now, 49% didnt siege and Ottomans sieged Constantinople with the first 7% tick. Yeh not rng.
I meant for those who's trying and having problems with the 2k troops strat by crossing the strait. Of course you cannot win against the Ottomans if you don't siege their capital.
After third try, I did suprisingly well. Was a bit worried for my third war (me, and Austro-Hungary union vs Otto-Crimea) almost lost. Preparing for a fourth with help from Mamalukes.
2k aint enough to siege down Kocaeli and I can't get to Edirne without sieging down gallipoli first
Some thoughts and happenings from my first test run
-The knights raided my coast and my opinion of them is -47 as I finish my first war and could not ally them.
-The Ottoman navy took down mine. Perhaps it is because Athens ships did not reinforce or something, I have to fight the whole war without naval superiority.
-My 2k army got hit by a small force of 3-4k and retreated back to the Balkans. It baited the Ottoman army with the general to engage onto Sinoz and I beat the Ottoman land force in my first war.
-If the Ottoman stacks are separated, you might be able to take down them one by one. Just don't fight both of them at all. I managed to secure higher morale and General Pips and same Discipline(from Ruler personality) and still got wrecked in a 31k vs 28k fight.
My run was still dead even though I managed to win both wars, since I lost naval superiority I got blockade and ended up with 13 war exhaustion and bankruptcy.
the problem is the money after the 2 wars
maybe sell the titles?
I cant believe how well this worked. I have never won a war against the ottomans as byzantium before. This is amazing. Finally my dream of rebuilding the roman empire can begin!
Strat didnt work. Followed your instructions exactly, managed to archieve everything you said but the peace deal is too expensive. Also considering that here are so many guys not making it , you really should not have sold it as a guaranteed win...
This guide is really, good and
the best form for explaining!!! Pls make videos like this :D Nice!!
Dude im turk but I hate ottoman in this game :/ (nice guide btw)
I like Turks but I hate the neo ottomans who live with the mentality of 400 years ago
Me too. Ottomans are great if they are an ally, if not, they are a real pain, especially in early game :/
@@emib6599 it`s hard to see a real turk considering 99% turks from turkey aren`t turkish but mostly anatolian because turks mixed with locals
@@d4tas42 yea but they still call themselves turk and still have a considerable turkic ancestry
@@d4tas42 nationality isn't determined by your genetics
Just tried this strategy, won from first time. Hell, I even felt lucky so I stack wiped Ottoman forces sieging Konstantinopol, and after that ones who were trying to get Selenik back. Mercs and their leaders make all the difference in the world.
NO RNG.... proceedes to present a strategy 100% dependant on RNG. General with at least 2 point is siege. Dice rolls at siege. etc all depending completely on rng
This is a first guide that actually let me do proper start with Byzantium and even on first try. Tanks man grab my sub.
This just does not work. I’m sorry but it must be a like one in twenty game to get your game
My favorite Byzantine game was when I allied basically everyone in the Balkans, Trezibond, and Theodoro, and created a Balkan coalition against the Ottomans, we beat the Ottomans so hard that they never recovered
This worked great, next 30 years are a bit rough though. Couldn't get Austria as my ally. Ended up with Hungary. Wedged in with a super strong Venice. Ended up having to take Corsica from Genoa, and then some of Sicily from Aragon and then making space for myself in Tunis. Been a really fun playthrough.
"Unless your rolls are terrible, you will win."
Ah so I'm fucked huh
i love that the closed caption translated your "siege rolls" into "seed rolls"
Not sure if things have just changed since this guide came out but this entire strat revolves around RNG. If the Ottoman trade fleet intercepts your transports you’ll always end up in Constantinople too late. And it’s extremely common that they do.
Tip: Athens has a fort defense bonus. Give them occupation of forts that you take to lengthen sieges and make your vassal pay for fort maintenance. Switch occupation back to Byzantium when you make peace.
Instructions unclear, accidentally restored the Roman empire to its hight.
So doing this on hard I have a few things to add.
You don't need 5 groups of mercs you can do it with 4.
Watch out for Ottoman ships when declaring for the first time. The strategy is sort of foolproof, when I lose during the first war it's because there were some Ottoman ships that intercepted my 2 stack, and slowed me down enough I couldn't siege Kocaeli fast enough.
Getting alliances after the second war can be very difficult. I've gotten there 6-7 times, and I only had good alliances once, usually on Hard difficulty it wasn't possible to get Hungary, Austria or Poland.
The issue I run into is loans. Since I want to declare on Ottomans the moment the peace is up every time to either limit their snowballing or take advantage of them, I've had a very hard time managing money. A key part of beating the Ottomans is allowing half of their army across and then wiping them, which requires a decent navy. Maintaining that navy and paying back loans from the initial wars is really tough.
Did you sell the titles? it gives you around 150 ducats at the start, it can save you for a few bad modifiers that you will be able to remove later on.
Excellent guide thanks Res! Advice for others, definitely try to take the gold rather than maxing out on provinces (like Res indicates). I made the mistake a few times and it’s much easier in the long term to just have zero loans after the first few wars rather than more provinces and but more debt.
Did it! Works like a charm, had to start 1st war in different month due to Ottoman fleets trade interfering with transport. In second I declared with Ottos still having one stack of 13k in Balkans, took fort then stackwiped it with Albania. Then entered Anatolia as they were weakened, steamrolled all their armies and peaced out at 95% warscore :D
I love the new Byzantium unit model
That moment when byzantine ai beats up ottomans
I just brute forced the wars with ally swarms. Got the Basileus achievement. This guide would have made my life easier.
Much of the game, if technical, boils down to how effecient you spend the (in-game) time. This way seems very effecient in that regard.
While I don't like to _not_ play that way, going for 100% war score isn't really nescessary (nor worth it) most often. Only few exceptions (break stronger enemies and specific cruicial wargoals; i.e. vassalizing someone you need before they grow too big etc)
Great tactic but some things to look at for:
Sometimes there is 2 ottoman ships patroling so when you declare war and fight them, your 2 stack army will arrive late
Also don't have shit luck like me and lose twice bcs of terrible rolls at sieges ex: he takes fort at 7%
Nice that's what I was waiting for so long.
Another thing not mentioned here is that you can put defensive edict (not sure if DLC required) on the state Constantinople is in. This will give the fort +33% defensiveness. (Technically meaning dicerolls have to be much higher to progress one siege stage/give offensive modifier on tick - *simply said will lengthen the siege considerably*)
My goodness, you are a gentleman and scholar.
was really frustrated attempting this a few times until i got lucky and stackwiped their army on the first war. thanks!
Just kidding lost it all I hatebeing alive
It's a crime you don't have more subscribers my dude
Gonna leave some tips here:
1. Do build to force limit
2. Get 250 ducats, but only get 2 mercenaries, the important part is getting a 3 siege pip general
3. Most of the time ottomans will try to unsiege edirne, if their stacks get apart, do engage the weak stack
4. Wait some months and you can get albania and the knights as allies, at least one will join and you will have naval supremacy
5. If you manage to siege edirne, selinak, and the fort in koseli and win a battle, you can get all your cores, probably
6. Do save scum if you want, save scum every siege tick if you need lol
This should be tagged as only working with all the DLC, I cannot call Albania and the Knights into my war because I cannot offer them land
You don’t need to as long as you have been improving relations constanylu
@@abubnis4206 I have done this multiple times, you CANNOT call them in without the DLC that allows you to offer land. Unless maybe some good rng, but I don't think so
Another exception is if an Ottoman trade fleet runs into your transports on the way to Constantinople. It delays the troops long enough to not arrive on time.
Something that also works with the fort in Anatolia is to transport the 2 troops there to land on the 1st of the next month, start the war and immediately move them across the strait to a mothballed fort.
I do that combined with Albania ally and it usually works fine. After that it's a siege battle and micro management I guess.