I fell in love with the Byzantines when i first installed AoE2, back in '99. Now i'm doing a PhD in Byzantine History. Best civ ever.

Yeah the Byzantines are pretty good, just don't leave the gate open.

Good review. Thanks for it!

Spirit of the Details. Im impressed how much work you put into your vids!

Byzantines: "Jack of all trades, Master of none....but still better than a master of one."

14:45 its hilarious how the monk tries to convince the barracks to join the dark side and the barracks screams heresy and kills itself.

It's a bit silly that the giant reason to use the Cataphracts is completely in hidden stats. On the outside, they are simply uselesy when compared to the knight line of units, but their hidden stats are simply insane. Paladins may beat them in battles, but who would really want to use paladins against a civilization that can produce halberdiers at reduced cost?

I just ran across these videos, and man, you have got absolutely superb production value. Congrats on your subscriber base (+1 here), and thank you!

So in a nutshell: The Byzantines are really tuff to kill and if you try to attack them with highly upgraded units, they will just throw pikemen in your face until you die. :D

Byzantines is love

Seeing today's release of the new Byzantine overview made me come back to this one, and my my, how far you've come since 2500 subscribers. I remember discovering you and T90 back in mid-late 2015 while I was in college, and actually copying your style in early 2017 when making my own tutorials for a browser game called Dominus. I only ever made a half dozen before I stopped playing when I graduated and went into a full-time job, but I enjoyed doing it. And I've been a longtime sub and fan of your content. I love your mathematical analyses of this 20+ year old game. Keep it up, man!

Thank you so much for your enjoyable, very well researched, greatly edited videos!

0:19 Listen the eargasmic jingle. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

binge watching this playlist , so good

its 5 years later and amazing how i can go back, enjoy and relearn a lot of things. Thank you for such amaging job for so much time!

Great review, I love listening to your reviews Spirit.

So that's why I liked the Byzantines so much back then, their castle-unit is all like "Fuck your counters." and that explains why my Turks got their asses so easily removed that one game today.

10 months ago you had 2500 subs...... And now you're at 36000..... Awesome job man

Your videos are always very informative. I love that. Keep it up.

Hi There, I'm gonna throw the request out for the Goths. They're my absolute favorite, but they're probably not as competitively viable as other races, still love that mass of fast producing infantry though. It would be fun to learn their strengths and weaknesses in the detail that you give your civ reviews. Looking forward to the next one. Thanks for all the hard work!

The Byzantines were my favorite civilization when I first got the game. They suited my play style perfectly. I'm a defensive player who waits for the late game to do most of my fighting. I also prefer water maps (where my micro happened to be better than on land based maps). I found that I could usually replenish my navy faster than my opponent after a major battle.

14:54 villager moonwalking!

DO MAYANS NAO! Your channel is great. I always knew Aoe2 was a math game! And your content proves it and all I have to do is watch it, sit back, and relax. Once again, great channel and great content! I have subbed.

Byzantines are my personal favorite, along with the Italians.

Even though they're labeled as a "defensive" civ, i like to castle rush with Byzantines. Reason being, putting forward castles up around enemy town can kill opponent badly with their extra building hp bonus(Byzantine castles are very hard to kill sooo many hp) and even without a stable the basic cats make a solid early unit to use before oppenent can get upgrades for its own units. They lack the push post imp in large part to no blast furnace, so imping quick & staying on top of enemy base is key to win quickly as Byzantines.

I pronounce it "Eastern Roman Empire". Sometimes swap Eastern for Late. ;X

2,500 subs back then! Wow Spirit has come a long way!

Very nice video! I'm glad you're doing the Mayans next. They're my favorite and I wanna learn more about them.

wooo go Byzantines ! The best civ in AoE and the true descendants of the Roman Empire !

One thing which I think was worth a mention but you didn't was they get full gunpowder. Despite being expensive, gunpowder often gives that high damage punch you need.

I don't think I've seen a bad video out of you yet. Keep it up!

The Mayans :D an amazing Civ! I look forward to that, and to see your view on the Saracens.

Anti anti cavalry cavalry: Cataphract Anti anti infantry infantry: Huskarl Anti anti archer archer: Chu Ko Nu

Spirit, you should redo some of these Civ overviews. Much has changed and I'm sure you have some different opinions regarding certain strategies and aspects of these Civs. It would be cool to see you review your Civ overviews. Particularly with Civs like this and the britons and all your early on videos! You're awesome!

Amazing as always!

2500 subs... Blows my mind how far the channel has come since then. It has a hundred times more than that now.

This was my favorite civilization!

Thx 4 making this vid. i would love to see a vid about the not so common civs, like the koreans,Italians, etc.

I came from your last videos, just to laugh on how OP are the cataphracts. Keep your good work brother!

I took the quiz twice with slightly differently answers and got the Byzantines both times. I wanted to make sure I was using the beat civ for what I wanted to accomplish and it turns out I was. Thanks for the overview and the quiz; both are very helpful.

"Impeyro, Aago, Presto, Saane, Correctus"

Don't worry. Your pronunciation is fine. It sounds much more similar to the Greek or Italian pronunciation than the silly Brits do.

Here's a critique, YOUR AWSOME!! Thank you for the accurate videos.

Great video as usual. Like I told you before, I really dig these Civ overviews. definitely keep them coming. If i had to vote i would love to see the other forgotten civs, Magyars Incas Italians and Indians. You've already read my mind and did some of my favorite Civs already (Teutons, Japanese, and Byzantines) and added a new favorite as well (Slavs) if not the forgotten ones (seriously though, so many people ignore them because the mainstream is non HD/forgotten it seems like =/) then i vote for two other ones i like, the Chinese and Spanish. Or less used ones like Turks or Koreans. I swear, most times I look for a game to watch from high level people, unless its random civs, its all Huns Aztecs Mayans Vikings(if water) with maybe some others here and there, but mostly those 4. Water is ALWAYS viking unless random -_-

Byzantines: Super-Saver Civilization.

hi there, thank you for your videos, great job! I think cataphracts with logistica can beat frank paladins in number, e. g. 40 vs 40, can you do a test of in what numbers cataphracts start wining?

Between your videos and the music in the video. Your great at making videos keep it up

Man, 5 years ago, 25,000 subs. You’ve come a long way.

You're Canadian, aren't you? Great video! I love the Byzantines.

sooo...the cataphracts are basically anti-anti cavalry-cavalry units ?

Nice, thanks. I have been waiting for this one. :D

I haven't played AoE in years but I still enjoy these videos!

As an Englishman I can confirm that literally no English person I know says by-zan-tynes, we all say bih-zan-teens

damn,I played as the byzantines,only to know that Infantry rushed,use catapract Archer Rushed,use Cheap Skirmisher Cavalry Rushed,use Spears Siege Rushed,use cataphract + Some Light Cavalry,to deal with archers

Great detail in this review

Hi! I love all your overviews. Could you make a picture or a video making a comparison between all the civs. Something like a comparison chart when we can see de marks of all the civilizations in their different aspects! I will be very grateful to you!

I love hearing him thank the viewers for 2500 subscribes, as of this comment he's at 144K and deserves it. The internet needs more factual, proven analysis, but more than that it needs more content creators who try to be genuinely good people in their videos.

out of topic, I just love your voice

my favorite civ ally combo is byzantine (me), Aztec, chinese. I just played a game recently where my cataphract army was nearly crushed by a massed wall of briton long bows until my Aztec ally came in with a wall of monks and started converting the enemy units and driving them back. The Aztec monks also benefit from the byzantine team bonus, allowing them to heal faster, and between the three civs you have you infantry, archers, cavalry, seige, and navy covered.

Great video. Can't wait for the Mayans!

Always my favourite team and unit (Cataphract).

so would cataphracts negate the anti-cav bonus on geonese crossbowmen from FE?

YESSSSS... Thank you for posting these guides These have helped me so much to learn so much about this game and how to play Thanks you for posting these aoe videos Btw first

Watching this before friday's tournament. Amazing job. Until now, i belive the Spanish, Japanese and Bysantine are my top three.

I feel like bombard canon is a huge advantage. It makes trebuchet obsolete because there is no downtime for assembly/disassembly while still having the overpowered range. Byzantines have been my favorite civilization for a long time because of the tech tree, but you are right it's not so good for a early game rush...

Actually, according to my Greek dad you're pronouncing Byzantine correctly.

this and mongols are my all time favorite civs, when i was a kid in vanilla aoe2 the first time i beat hardest ai i just walled up and played defensive as byzantines.

You are the best aoe researcher out

Actually Byzantines are my favorite civilizations to play they have everything

Spirit Of The Law I don't understand why the Byzantines lack Parthian Tactics in their tech trees, the Roman Republic fought against the Parthian Empire (Persia) and even continued to war as the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire against the Sassanids, having fought them for most of a millennium would have taught the Roman / Byzantine commanders at least *some* of the tactics employed by their eastern neighbors. Byzantines also lacking siege engineers strikes me as odd as well, considering Roman / Byzantine engineers were not exclusive to building roads and aqueducts. The lack of Architecture also seems out of place (especially since it would make them the *uber* defensive civ with harder to kill buildings) due to the fact that Roman and Byzantine engineers were responsible for maintenance and construction of things like Aqueducts, THE *HAGIA SOPHIA* which was the largest church in Europe for almost 1,000 years.

Your videos are making want to play AOE again .

man, your style changed so much since 2015... I like that

I see them as a cavalry and naval civ.

4:01 that gave me anxiety... xD

Thank You Sooooo Mush

subscribed again. thanks for the wonderful analysis. i was really waiting for someone to compare cataphracts and paladins and explain logistica in numbers. great video just onw thing, you said that you faced a problem of ending the game with byzantines and showed that mayans can end a game more easily . but i face difficulty with mayans too to end the game. plumed archers and eagles are not that good to just crush someone's town. i need raw paldin or samurai power or something. waiting for your mayans review but i would really like to see chinese or koreans(espacially chinese with their chu ko nus). me and my cousin used to play chinese and japanese in 2v2 arabia. he(japanese) loaded his champions in my siege rams(chinese) and chu ko nus protecting any melee damage from opponents

"Speaking of which, I have been listening to the requests you've been making, and the most popular has been the Byzantine-" *HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

will you be making a new set of overviews when patch 4.8 comes out?

Byzantines were my main. My friends usually rock with high gold makers (Spanish), Britain, and Turks/mongols depending on the map. I played mostly a flanking Calvary, and monk support.

good work!!!

What do you call an armoured cat? A "CAT-A-PHRACT"

Your silly american accent is right since the name comes from Byzantium which is the latin name for the greek colony that then became Constantinople.

Epic Video Perhaps covers everything About Byzantines. Cheers

Yeah, I started to play either Byzantines or Slavs as my two main Civs for a while now. They feel so good to use in general. As Slavs, it is the very few times I favour Champions, since I prefer using other units worth gold, but Slav Champions in hordes can clean up grouped enemies really well. Much less Halberdiers, due to calvary being sliced by them so well. Never using Archers, using a combination of different Siege Ongars, Siege Rams, and Heavy Scorpions is something I enjoy, since I love seeing hundreds of Halberdiers being followed by Siege Weapons. Lastly, I always have Boyars as a replacement for knights, and use them to help clear up tanky units such as Champions, other Knights, and even Siege Weapons. Same with Byzantines for the most part. I favour the use of Halberdiers and Skrimishers, often throwing in Camels only when I see the enemy has a large assortment of Knights that are too much for Halberdiers alone. Although their Siege is weak, Siege Rams and Trebuchets pretty much fill the lack of Siege Ongars and Heavy Scorpions, along with cheaper trash units. They also have the Cataphracts, which has a similar trample element that Slav Infantry have, as well as acting as an Anti-Anti-Calvary Infantry Unit, making it good against Halberdiers and such whilst negating enemies from using the same cheap soldiers I am using to better deal with my 'knights'. I also love how both have Monk Upgrades, as I like to use Monks to gather Relics and heal the units equivalent to knights, as well as steal enemy infantry. I also usually use Hussars whenever I feel that Siege or Monks are a greater problem, and they fill that role fine. Overall, when I play, I pick either or.

Please make a overview of the spanish.. its my fav civ, but I cant find any good strategy.

"B" rating...And their the Byzantines...Clever.

I'm amazed at how much you put into the videos it's awesome! Can someone steer me in a direction on how to test units?! I can never get it right....

One of my favourite opening musics

Breaking News: Mayans lived in Arabia )))

How can you counter 200 British longbowmen when they shoot out your siege before it gets in range?

I'm from the UK and I've always pronounced it the same way you do!

Trivia : Pikemen And Halbardier because first in the Age of kings there were only pikemen, after the conqueros when the halbardier has been added, they added it in the description.

just build walls and play safe if you think the enemy player is better than you. If you are better player the variety of options will get you the win, you can counter everything. So just master Byzantines and win games :P Btw Cataph and Camels is the best possible cavalary in this game, i don't agree with that grade, A++

I don't pronounce them Byzantines, in either form.The proper name is Eastern Roman Empire.

wait, back then you only had 250 subs!? You've gone so far now!

The combination of camels and cataphracts and rams/halbadiers is a powerful one. You only need fifteen to twenty cataphracts to mop up all counters then use cams against calvary.

1 problem:Romania is in the north of Bulgaria

japanese navy is not that good spirit

Go Byzantines! Old School Hipster Catacraft FTW! Great Video i learned a Lot from my Favorte Empire =)

Fully upgraded Byzantine castles should be reason enough to love this civ :D It's so hilarious how long response time you have when enemy trebs take forever to take down your +8000hp castles ^^ Go Byz!