Should the Byzantines get Legionary? Granted they are missing blast furnace but they still should be pretty effective. However I think they should get some bonus to buff them, since they lack the Roman buffs.
The main weakness of the Byzantines is infantry civs, this unit should help them counter infantry a great deal, since Legionary have bonus damage vs infantry. Their halbs while cheaper can’t really fight other halbs very well.
What? Byzantines have arbalest, hand canons and the best anti infantry unique unit in the game.
Their arbalest and hand canons are generic. No real bonus, other than perhaps a cheaper imperial age to get access to them.
Cataphract is their best counter to infantry, but it’s far too costly. Byzantines have a hard time dealing with Goths, since it’s very hard to get their Cataphract rolling. They often lack the time, even in team games to get the gold needed to produce masses of them, even if they have trade.
The Goths can play the Byzantines at their own game by producing halbs at a even cheaper and faster rate, and while they lack the final armor upgrade, the goths halbs still have blast furnace. Legionary would help them great in countering infantry civs such as the Goths.
In mass fights of Byzantines halbs vs slavs, or japanese, they stand no chance.
True. But why would you send halbs to fight infantry civs while you have arbalest and hand cannoneer?
There are not many civs that have access to both FU arbalest and hand cannon.
Sure, why not.
Byzantines have access to Supplies and Gambesons. That means they would have cheaper Legionaries.
No. They’re not exactly weak vs infantry. They’ve got good ranged units, cataphracts. Can’t give everything to a civ. 2k extra hp on castles, cheap skirms to counter archers, cheap camels in castle age to counter knights, faster healing monks with all upgrades, free vision to remove the possibility of any surprise attacks. That’s already A LOT. If their infantry is weak or if they find it difficult to counter some infantry civs let that be. It could be your favorite but doesn’t have to be very powerful against almost every civ. Byzantines are already one of the most well rounded civ.
This is enough against even all non huskarls infantry units.
That is one unique unit of one civ, not a big deal. And Goths are on a timer because if the Byzantines get to the expensive cataphracts, they should win.
And huskarls
Just like against eagle civs, which is more of a mid-to-high elo problem of eagle spams (especially in castle age and early imp), which only works because the high elo player can micro the eagles and do not let them die to LS. Legionaries wouldnt change anything.
You are not playing the civ properly. Everything about Byzantnes screams “counter units”, you should ideally never use the same unit as your opponent.
Basically everything besides eagles, infantry UUs and the champion line dies to the cheap skirms&pikes. the champion line is weak in general and die to the very meta arbalesters, just like all infantry UUs besides Huskarls/Ghulams. And as long as they have a meatshield, hand cannoners kill them.
I would love to see Legionaries to Byzantines but as a reskin to their Champion upgrade, nothing more. And maybe hold a kite shield instead of the round one, with the XP emblem that Cataphracts have on their backs.
Legionaries were a thing in the early stages of the eastern roman empire so they would also be historically correct. Or could be renamed as ‘‘Hikanatoi’’ and call it a day.
I’m not keen on Byzantines getting Legionaries, since they lasted until the late middle ages and their Imperial Age reflects that (at least since they have hand cannoneer and bombard cannon).
Also, a c. 12th-century long swordsman upgrading into a c. 4th-century legionary looks screwy and I’d rather keep it confined to Romans.
I think the spearmen should be changed to some kind of phalanx infantry， the cataphract give it some sort of buff.
Phalanxs were out of fashion by the times of Constantine
Perhaps Peltastoi was a more suitable option than the phalanx infantry,Skoutatoi、Menavlatoi and Droungoi it can also be used as an alternative to pikemen,In game settings may be set to have a range of 1 block and a higher bonus damage, with Cataphract providing attack speed and movement speed buffs.
As much as I would love to have Legionaries on Byzantines, their man at arms is already quite solid imo. I’d rather have Skoutatoi replacing the pikemen as their tankier version (with throwing javelins as its charge attack maybe?)
No. Please no. Legionaries are a nightmare already. We don’t need another civilization with them.
How about stop suggesting this, just because you saw it from the Romans? Byzantines lived on without legionaries for another 1000 years.