That last battle in the Byzantine base was straight-up Gandalf arriving with the Rohirrim at Helm's Deep.

13:10 The term "Byzantine Empire" was only coined following the empire's demise: its citizens referred to the polity as the "Roman Empire" and to themselves as "Romans".

Fun fact: Byzantines called themselves Romans as they were the continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire

drongo's house: a mess drongo: i think i need to call the macro police in place a 10/10 meme on the cards

Palatine school has always been awesome if you think of it as applying 23% discount on all unique units. Cataphracts have higher effective HP to cost ratio with palatine school and biology than royal knights with bloodlines and 25% discount if you factor in the extra 1 armor.

The inventor of the great bombard tried to sell it to the Byzantines (Romans) first but they weren't willing to pay his salary so he sold it to the Ottomans instead who then blew down the walls of Constantinople. They could only be fired a couple times a day because they had to be covered in oil to cool off after each shot.

Rule 1 of facing the Byzantines: Do not let them get to late game Rule 2 of facing the Byzantines: See Rule 1

in Germany we say: "Schere, Stein, Papier" which Translates into "Scissor, Rock, Paper"

Cataphracts are an amazing unit if you can afford it. Especially in late game once both players start hitting the 200/200 cap. A lot of people do not consider pop cap as a resource, when in reality it is a very important resource. So while they cost a lot in terms of food and gold, they only cost 1 pop space, which is compensation enough in late game especially when the eco is strong enough to support producing them. Think about it this way, when it's late game and both players have 120 eco each, 80 military each, the Cataphracts are far more pop efficient than most units in the game making your army very powerful.

That was a beautiful game! When I imagine a good and thrilling match, this is what I have in mind! Nice back-and-forth throughout the first 30 minutes and a totally surprising domination in the last battle with a diverse and powerful army! I can’t stand games where you basically know who will win after 8 minutes because one player is non stop attacking and crippling the other’s eco to guarantee a huge edge for the rest of the game …

That was deeply upsetting that you call it scissors, paper rock.... XD Love the content Drongo!

we say scissors paper rock in brisbane too. same as the parmi parma debate, it changes from city to city

Every time I see someone make Wynguard palace without immediately going into wynguard raiders I shake my head. You're getting knights on the cheap, and it is a HUGE power spike. It's the equivalent of 6 stables, and it trains incredibly fast too. You should use this to overwhelm your enemy with favorable trades, where losing units doesn't even really cost you anymore

Crosswbos look kind of cool. Elite upgrades confirmed.

Drongo I am seeing this BeeKeeper movie popping up now too!! You spoke so Loudly, my iPhone heard you, and now think I too want to keep bees!!! 🤣🤣 Minty! 👌

ahh the finer points of australian geography and mango distribution

Exciting game, it was hard to say who would win until Byz Cav came up from downtown :)

loving all your casts, thank you again sir

Thanks for the video again Drongo!

I gotta respect the man's overly specific anecdotes. WHERE ARE THE MANGOS!?

Hi Drongo! you are welcome to come and record games here every tuesday and friday! KEKW

its "rock paper scissors" from where i grew up. also a bunny hop is a bicycle trick, ...while a daisy chain is an electrical system. (for your tower analogy)

Great cast Drongo

That was one of my favourite late games I’ve seen

am I hallucinating? i swear this is the 1st time Drongo has been on player view and you can see the relic icons on the minimap

20:10 totally agree ab cataphracts, i never build em when i play byz, thats why i almost always go keshiks mercenary

Holiday lesson 1 tidy your house before you go. So when your depressed cause your holidays over at least you have a nice house.

Well, here in Taiwan they say "Paper, scissor, stone" there is always a confusion between different foreigners haha

So I had that experience playing online. I have only played 1 game vs a person, and the second I was winning the game it disconnected. In retrospect it sounds like the person I played hacked

I like having some cataphracts so once our army's collide they run through the front line and attack the siege or ranged units. And the enemy front falls faster since the ranged is now busy and they are taking more damage.

As a fellow Canberran, I concur with “scissor paper rock”

Love the rambling haha

@UncleDrongo ;-) Good reference, we are really missing the yummy and cheap Queensland mangos down here in Melbourne! How are the prices in Perth for a mango? ;-)

we love you Aussie

Youre my #1 favorite caster❤❤❤

In Belgium we've got other options for ya; you can go "Blad, Steen, Schaar" or "Schaar, Steen, Papier" (respectively Paper, Rock, Scissors or Scissors, Rock, Paper).

13:13 the Byzantine call themself "Romanoi" simply translation "Romans" remember the empire is the Eastern Roman Empire, just late in the modern era (1500-1800) they started to call them "Byzantines" just to downplay to the ERE as a real successor to the Roman Empire (remember that in multiple times the Franks, the HRE call themself as the real sucessor of the romans XD)

In Germany it`s "Scheere, Stein, Papier" - Scissor, Rock, Paper.

It's funny that you ask what the Byzantines would have called themselves, because the Byzantines wouldn't have called themselves Byzantine at all, they would have called themselves Romans (Rhomaios in greek). The title Byzantine wasn't used until 1557 (104 years after they ceased to exist) by a German historian (the name comes from the old name for Constantinople, Byzantium). The name is part of a tradition in Catholic Europe to deligitimise the Byzantine's claim as the Roman Empire. But that's a little too in depth and confusing for video game casting so probably just go with the Byzantines for a serious option but. Also nice to see the Wyngard and the Palatine School used at a high level I feel like I only see the Berkshire and Foreign Engineering Company, thanks for the cast Drongo.

In Poland, we say "kamień papier nożyce", which goes against You aswell, Drongo.

He wasn’t using triumph for the cataphrats

I cannot see how extremely early farms 🧑‍🌾🥕🥔 are correct, even as English ☕. It is so heavy on the wood 🪵 cost, even with the English discount. 10 English farms cost 375 wood 🪵. It basically always severely delays you getting wheelbarrow, horticulture, your first archery 🏹 range (if not going aging up with Council Hall), and your first barracks. If not making you miss the opportunity to get them in the early game entirely. They all seem far more important in the long game than the increased gather rate the farms early gives you. And they all seem much better for tempo as well. English farms 🧑‍🌾🥕🥔 in Dark Age only have a 4.6% faster gather rate than deer 🦌 based on official statistics (not counting walking time). So it really is not a big loss to focus on them or berries 🍒 (which English farms are 30% faster than in official statistics, but berries have virtually no walking so the real difference is not as high) instead of farms.

"FIRE, WE NEED MORE FIRE!!"

25:45 made me lol

New video title suggestion: "Fire, more firee!" 33:20 :D :D :D

In Germany we say Scissors, Rock, Paper (Schere, Stein, Papier). :D

Bi-zan-tian. good on ya drongo!

I feel like in Perth we say "Paper, scissors, rock"

Drongo, I think you're still misinterpreting what the cataphract is good for. They're not that good at raiding because they're slow and they can't charge, they're not really cost-efficient even with the Palatine School, what they are is highly pop efficient. So if you're deadlocked toward the end of the game and both players are hitting 200/200 pop, making cataphracts means you can put much more total army value on the field than your opponent. If your opponent responds by making equal amounts of spears (80 res/pop) and crossbows (120 res/pop) your cataphracts (330 res/pop) will have about triple their army value. Even with the bonuses against cav and armored units spears and crossbows get, your army will still collectively out-DPS theirs especially if you use Triumph & Trample well, and it will have 3-4 times the HP with strong armor. In a full army battle, they will start losing units faster than you, and then Lanchester's laws will take over and you'll trade very efficiently. Even if your opponent makes knights, handcannons, mangonels, etc. you're still significantly ahead of them on army value if you make the same pop's worth of cataphracts. Also, they can be used efficiently early in the game in very small engagements if they can kill enemy units and then survive and be healed, that's what the Cistern of the First Hill is good for. Like you see Delhi often making small numbers of elephants and healing them with scholars, Byz can potentially do the same thing with cataphracts. But when you're in the midgame trying to make cost-efficient trades with a 25-50 unit army, cataphracts can't trade well in that scenario.

Romanioi - greek for Romans. The Hellenistic half of the empire didn't really speak Latin as Greek was already firmly established as the lingua franca in late antiquity in the eastern Mediterranean.

Talking about a problem, in this case maphacking, does not encourage people to do it, for that's not how humans work. People are not oportunistic freaks who will take every advantage they can at the expense of others. Actually, talking about it creates a culture that shuns away people who do this, which actually encourages people to NOT do it. It triggers our instinct of avoiding ostracism (getting expelled from the group), so we tend to avoid things that are clearly immoral on the culture we are a part of. Before anyone says anything about one or two people, yes, there are exceptions. Those exceptions, though, are usually of people who are psychopaths or sociopaths. Maybe narcisists, but that would be rare already. Oh, and big corp CEO's. Those surely are oportunistic freaks at the expense of others. But AoE4 players? Far from the norm to be a wanabe hacker. TLDR: Speak up about hacking problems for it helps building a healthier community

I reckon you need to play the Byzantines and understand them so you know what sort of units you could face and when

✂️ 📃 🪨 = Heresy

As a Queenslander, definitely get the Manog reference

Rock, Paper, Scissor

Striker was def map hacking. Was zoomed way out

The Byzantines called themselves Romans.

Rock, Paper, Scissors here in the former usa.

Go blue!!

Let me drop some quality information for you: Scissor-rock-paper (Austria - German)

Rock paper scissors lizard Spock

I think it would be amazing if both start with revealed map, it will make easier mechanics and attracted more new player, and make player show their true quality on strategy since it will not deppending on a luck finding a recources. give a both player a fair chance.

+1 for scissors paper rock

13:30 my braincells... they're showing their age.

solid trump imitation on 35:31!😆

I had severe OCD growing up, I had to tap everything a certain number of times. My mom has your version of OCD as you, try not to get to upset with your family members!

Duck duck grey duck vs scissor paper rock

The byzantines probably called themselves romans

Where I’m from we call it empires of age 4

Thought i was the only one that gets corrected for saying scissors, paper, rock 😢

In Poland we say it Paper, Rock, Scissors xD

omg the one name XD

🎉🎊

In Germany we sai: ,,Schere, Stein, Papier" / ,,Scissor, stone, paper" So it's completely different....😅

Classic aussies they say even rock paper scissors upside down

damn bro still saying brand new 😂

Byzantines called themselves 'Romanoi', which is greek for romans.

I'm bumping into hackers regularly maybe 1 in 5 games or so in ranked and more often in team ranked. I'd love for you to make a video about it I think it creates a problem when everyone pretends it's not happening! For example cod and it's streamers that also hack and noone talks about hacking while hacking in cod is rediculous. You're a big deal amongst the aoe communitie you're opinion on hackers will impact the communitie in a positive way, or atleast that's my opppinion. Anyway love toure work mate

So is the byzantine empire good now?

I have used nothing but bysantines since the new patch bothe in ranked and everything else and. You're right aussie cataphract are an expensive unit and I'd evan say that reguler knights are better at raiding since cataphract don't have a charge attack and are slower. But cataphract are still an amazing unit they are worth there price if used correctly. Cataphract synagize with bysantines perfectly though and are worth there price in strength. Bysantines biggest weakness is there anti siege is as bad as it gets and bysantines make for a perfect anti siege unit when the horsemen can't get through and there basic springalds are just outmatched by better anti siege. plus there debuff to the enemy after stampede makes a big diff in big fights. They also synagize perfectly with the castle age cistern landmark due to there superior health and armour over reguler knights. Also I know you hate bysantines varangian gaurd but they also synergise perfectly with winery into the into forine engineering if you have either camel archers or camel riders since they then get the +2 armour and have the same armour and move attack and movespeed than a palace gaurd while in berserk. mode.

18:49 I would like to see a video covering it; if you agree, please like this comment!

It's Rock Paper Scissors and yes that upsettet the fu.. outta me In german its scissors rock paper but its sounds so wrong in englisch 😂

your trump impression was great!

in Russia we say rock scossors paper))

The people we call Byzantine’s called themselves Romans. Iirc byzantines is a more modern term to differentiate the Eastern Roman Empire from the Western one.

Don't self-diagnose Drongo...if you suspect you have OCD get it confirmed by a doc. Don't be like all these weirdos online who self-diagnose because they may have a single symptom of an illness or something. Just keep casting and commentating. You're doing a great job.

cats are bad vs knights but counter things like archers and maa better than knights do. That's the trade off. similar to a how a palace guard is bad vs maa but better than maa at countering trash.

How often does Drongo’s wife have to hear the Trump impression?

Do not say SPR. Bad Drongo. It's RPS.

Cataphract should get 1000 health. Ans its still a Bad unit

byzantine empire called themselves romans

The byzantines called themselves Romans. We call them the byzantines.

Drongo, if you veto doing the casted game when you see that someone is cheating, maybe it would at least make a few cheaters think differently. Striker shouldnt get view time IMO with the map hacks (Zoom out). Either that or cast them but blast them the whole time for it :)

Wait there's RNG in this game? Why? It can't be competitive with RNG

Stop cinematic mode

Australians are Aussies, so byzantinians are byziz.

They called themselves Romans mate. Some history please xDD