And when being pushed into defence with 4 extra LOS, you just might see everything and anyone coming. They probably come out last and are most likely forced into defence unless they forward. Why? Because Byzantines are downright bad in the dark age. This bonus probably looks most worthless to newer players but I can imagine most experienced players call this the 2nd best bonus of the Byzantines.
Because no matter what, 333 food and 264 gold is quite an advantage for fragile fast imp economies. Castle dropping a Byzantine can prove suicidal if he decides to engage in a race to imp. In a weird way of course, but they make the cut.Ī map where this discount is most fearsome is arena. Combined with their cheap trash units, this even makes them a good boom civ. That’s why Byzantines have a cheaper imp.
But in boom games, early discounts don’t make the cut against a full imperial army. The bonus above shows that military and economy go hand in hand. However, luckily this bonus sometimes encourages players to think out of the box and make fire ships.Īnd hell, you don’t even need to be a Byzantine to pull it off!Īnother great bonus to cover the lack of any economical bonus. A whole fleet of these is simply not to stop by anything else except unique units. Naval battles are 99% of the time decided by galleys or their successors. So when in doubt, go Skirmishers!Īn often overlooked bonus are the Byzantine camels though, mainly made in case of emergency but they might be a good combination for fast impers? Fire Ships +20% attackĪ rarely used bonus and probably the only design error made during the development of AoE2. You smell a game coming now probably and right you are. Here’s a classic match where DauT goes nothing but Skirmishers all game long. So a pack of roughly 30 units probably already covers the disadvantage.
Huns save about 30-40 wood per house while Byzantines save 9 wood and 5 food per skirmisher (and 9 food, 5 wood per spear). When Byzantines even catch up with the economical advantage of the Huns. This especially holds true in feudal age trashwars. When engaging in a trashwar against these heirs of the Roman empire, you better brace up to learn some Latin. Their cheap trashunits are unprecedented. Camels, Skirmishers, Spearmen, Pikemen, Halberdiers cost -25%Īrguably the best bonus in the Byzantine arsenal. So a great bonus for defensive building and it makes Byzantine castles very fierce opponents in trebuchet wars (a whopping 6720 HP without upgrades). For example a town center in the castle age: regular civs need 1:30 minutes to construct 2400 HP, while Byzantines need exactly the same time to construct their 3120 HP TC. Thus a Byzantine villager does not need more time to construct a building than any other civ. Alongside the bonus also comes an indirect build speed advantage. This bonus is actually double sided and that extra side is not documented anywhere in the techtree.