It's always generally good to get Byzantines off of the berries early, if it means that they don't get their first longbow pack out on time, it can really throw off your whole game plan and the timings and when you can get map control and that can snowball to the next berry patch and then the next one. And generally when you're playing Byzantine, you don't really want to make an archery range that early; you want to be able to rely on the longbow for your early defense, but if you're under pressure, it doesn't come together.

Byzantines don't want to build archers, they want to get Longbows, which is much slower to scale up, especially without Grand Winery.

Hobelars are a good answer against Longbows, but they are ineffective against Byzantine horsemen with Triumph because the horsemen destroy them.

Byzantines used to do very well with Cheirosiphon all-ins, especially against House of Lancaster. Currently, the timing has been moved back by a minute or two due to the early cisterns play, giving House of Lancaster more time to prepare for a potential all-in.