How to beat
Byzantineas Ottomans
Matchup tips
Imperial Hippodrome makes a lot of sense, especially against the Ottomans, because you are going to be dealing with Sipahi. With Triumph, your Horsemen do 13 damage compared to the Sipahi's 12, making them slightly better.
Longbowmen make a ton of sense against Janissaries because the additional range means you'll have excellent tools to deal with them.
Against Byzantines, once the Triumph ability is activated, if they're not under your TC killing villagers, you can just run away and re-engage later.
Against a Byzantine Hippodrome build, you'll need spearmen at some point.
Against Byzantines, Ottoman Imams can be very effective because Byzantine players won't rush out archers; they'll gradually build Longbows. So the Imams can survive longer in the field, healing your units.
If Ottomans only mass Janissaries, the Byzantine player can counter with Varangian Guards. Therefore, Ottomans should mix in crossbows alongside Janissaries to deal with Varangian Guards.
The Cheirosiphon is incredibly strong against Ottomans because they are reliant on their infrastructure. The fire forces them to fight on burning ground, dealing constant damage. While Imams can heal, once Byzantines have around 13 Longbowmen, Imams will struggle to survive in fights.
Sipahi, with 155 health, can take a couple of additional hits from Limitanei, which makes them a very strong meat shield; even with spears at the front, they don't go down fast enough for archers to clear them.
With 10 longbows, you can oneshot a spearman.
The Imperial Hippodrome's bonus torch damage upgrade allows scouts to significantly increase the torch damage of nearby units.
Varangian Guards do reasonably well against Sipahi because Sipahi are fairly fragile. But Varangians into crossbows, especially with a thick front line of Sipahi, is not a good choice.
If you play a slow game into Janissary timings in Castle, Byzantine Limitanei can ruin you.
The more you lean into horsemen, the more viable the Mehter's melee armor becomes; the aura offsets half of the damage buff you get from Triumph.
Byzantine Unique Units
Byzantine Landmarks
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