Interesting way of buffing Byzantines - Updated

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
1

All ideas center arround buffing their outposts.
Historicaly speaking the Byzantines gave free homes and land to people who accepted to live on the edges of the empire and had the duty of guarding the borders.

These where called “Akrites” meaning the people living on the edge / border in Greek.

they were a kind of frontier militia to counter small threats and notify the empire for larger threats so that the army would march against them.

Option 1
Outposts support 5 population and cost no stone but cost +10 wood.

This buff is inline with the byzantine trope of map awareness and will subtly help them.

Option 2
Outposts support 5 population and fire one arrow vs enemy military units.

Wood cost increased by +25

This buff is inline with the byzantine trope of map awareness and defensive civilization.
It cannot be used offensivelly as it does not target vils or fishing ships, but would help a little in defence along with some skirmishers/pikes.

Option 3
Outposts support 5 population and fire one arrow after feudal age

Wood cost increased +25 stone cost increased +15

This can be hard to balance as mass of outposts could pose a threat and single ones could be too distracting to economy.

Possible ideas to limit this:

  1. Stone property so vils demolish it fast
  2. no range upgrades through blacksmith
  3. minimum tile distance between outposts 6 tiles
    4.no animal tagreting
3 Likes
2

So you wanna encourage people to tower rush with outpost?

4 Likes
3

one arrow and no garisson makes it useless for that

4

You can imagine that an outpost interrupt your villagers’ work with that one arrow again and again in even the dark age.

5

I think that the resource cost of the outpost + the fact that vils would demolish it in no time does not help this strategy.

It must receive stone structure property so that vils destroy it fast

6

An outpost costs just 5 stone more than a house.
Now it can supply 5 pop same as the house and even with the attack ability.
That will be used for dark rush.

7

You are right. Must be after feudal age.

maybe option 1 is better " Outposts support 5 population and cost no stone but cost +10 wood."

I updated op with multiple options please check

1 Like
8

Oh right, forgot outposts were a thing. Indeed a bonus there would fit the Byzantines since they had a beacon system over Anatolia, that worked exactly like in Lord of the Rings.

I think that removing their stone cost would already be a strong enough bonus, given the line of sight they provide, plus it synergises with the byzantine bonii of free LOS upgrades and higher building hp, and the byzantine focus on counter-units. Having outposts hold population or give them an attack would be ridiculous.

9

I prefer option 1, it fits their theme better. Option 2 is kinda useless, imo and option 3 is too good for disrupting eco without much resource penalty in feudal
I’m not so sure about the +5 pop but cost 10 wood really. Personally, I just wanna have it for scouting intel without spending extra wood to it. outpost is so exposed in open field that opponents can easily keep disrupting+5 pop bonus and you lost 10 extra wood easily too.

10

The Byzantines are one of my favorite Civs and even if they don’t change, I still enjoy them due to their history and diverse culture. But since other people constantly ask for a Byzantine Buff, I’d suggest a few radical changes (since this game is ever evolving) that will bring a few civs more in line with their historical origins and make them stronger in uniqe ways:

I always find it funny/odd that the Byzantines are suppoesed to be a defencive civ yet everyone in the MP comunity complains (Never uses them) becaues they get easily over run in the early game. Thus here are my suggestions for civ alterations:

Current civ alterations.

Vikings.

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 only) (loses transport ships but they have non attacking Longboats in feudal age.) and gift them cheap trash units.
Castles cost change to 450 stone and 300 wood 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 skirms to the shores of my enemies.

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)]. 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)

Byzantines get a unique tech in the Feudal age barracks: Justinian Reforms - Sword line +1 Melee armour from castle age.
(Optional) Enables the technology of Varangian Guard from the Feudal age.
In Feudal age , Byzanitne army 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 loose 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 and Greek fire.

African ,Mezzo,

African and mezzo civs should only have canoe navies. Able to fire arrows ,fast ,agile and only using 0.5 pop space but they don’t have access to Gally line, nor cannon. Gallons. All canoes can carry/transport 3-5 units. Don’t have access to fire ships but get fire canoes that shoot fat covered fire arrows (Fat burns intensely hot).

11

I like the idea of buffing outpost

Option 1 seems fun
Option 2 sounds weak?
Option 3 is basically extremely cheap tower, too easy to be abused imo

12

In my opinion, Byzantines don’t need an addition to their tech tree but a small eco bonus.
Outposts costing no stone are a redundant bonus, since they have no problem with free town watch and town patrol.
The only thing i’d give to them is Herbal Medicine, since they have a good bonus for healing but missing this tech is a weakness more than a compensation. This change would be an adjustement without any balance issue.

1 Like
13

I prefer the trample damage for knights idea

3 Likes
14

What if they start with all tiles arround the TC visible?
It should be the same tiles as after town patrol/guard.

This may help them locating their 8 sheep earlier, so they may afford a deer push.

15

I really like the fact that outpost evolved

16

How about Outposts provide +5 population and can garrison villagers inside?

1 Like
17

fire one arrow vs enemy military units

18

He/she edited the content before.