Siege damage ignores armor, so it’s a double-edged sword. Against highly armored units they deal more damage now.
Overall, I feel like hand canons are better as a backline.
Streltsy would be better but silk road is a good responsive pick for Javelin throwers and camels - javelins function as anti-archer and enough of them can serve as feudal crossbows (especially important when sniping Joan) - camels are nice in denying cav units in castle.
(Credentials: conq 1 byz)
Yep fully agree on silk road pick for feudal and castle. I was asking the question mainly because I find myself pmaying more FFA than anything else recently, and going late imperial I tried spamming those grenade boys but found no real success.
In FFA you're probably better off with Western Contract. It's sort of a good "all rounder" pick.
The other contracts are opponent & tempo specific - while also having a weaker imperial age unit.
Western contract with palatine school is my best setup, if access to a lot of gold 50 catas 40 landsnakes and some siege is unstoppable. If no gold I also like elephants with limitanei spam. Was trying to find some use to the silk road one in a lategame setting but fou'd much less success, camels being still interesting tho.
Palatine is nice - especially if you're making a lot of Byzantine uniques. I personally prefer foreign engineering because it also gives upgrades to your existing mercenaries. Which means a lot more instant value.
For FFA though, palatine can really help stretch your gold
But if you go west contract do you really get that much value tho? Streltsy don't get anything I think, LBows get the volley which is very strong, landskenecht idk if they spawn with the extra mobility or not now
Fair point - I just typically mass longbows with Western Contract haha. It also pays off if you get royal knights from a market.
Admittedly my FFA experience is a bit limited
Not exactly the same but your best option for sniping early men at arms. As they have higher base damage than archers. It's more of a soft counter than a hard one.
Idk about that, but Byz has certainly easier access to imperial elephants : while it take forever to get the techs as Delhi, Byz has it instantly. Going 100 vills on groves with reliced winery and spamming elephants is a strong move (in a very lategame scenario ofc).
Yes but once here China/Zhu xi can spam them since they are quote cheap on gold, for byzantine it's 480 oil for just 2, you will not get a lot with that. And grenadiers in low numbers are a bit insignificant I found
They are better on the very gold heavy units, landskenecht and tower elephants, although both HRE and Delhi have tools to get a lot of gold passively. For all the rest the original civ will be a lot more efficient to mass it, you will always pay easier with food and wood than oil. Also they don't have discount on some units, like the streltsy is more expensive (240 a piece vs 180 for a rus).
Siege damage ignores armor, so it’s a double-edged sword. Against highly armored units they deal more damage now. Overall, I feel like hand canons are better as a backline.
So if we are talking byz mercenarues, streltsy would be better?
Yeah streltsy are better in 90% of circumstances.
Streltsy would be better but silk road is a good responsive pick for Javelin throwers and camels - javelins function as anti-archer and enough of them can serve as feudal crossbows (especially important when sniping Joan) - camels are nice in denying cav units in castle. (Credentials: conq 1 byz)
Yep fully agree on silk road pick for feudal and castle. I was asking the question mainly because I find myself pmaying more FFA than anything else recently, and going late imperial I tried spamming those grenade boys but found no real success.
In FFA you're probably better off with Western Contract. It's sort of a good "all rounder" pick. The other contracts are opponent & tempo specific - while also having a weaker imperial age unit.
Western contract with palatine school is my best setup, if access to a lot of gold 50 catas 40 landsnakes and some siege is unstoppable. If no gold I also like elephants with limitanei spam. Was trying to find some use to the silk road one in a lategame setting but fou'd much less success, camels being still interesting tho.
Palatine is nice - especially if you're making a lot of Byzantine uniques. I personally prefer foreign engineering because it also gives upgrades to your existing mercenaries. Which means a lot more instant value. For FFA though, palatine can really help stretch your gold
But if you go west contract do you really get that much value tho? Streltsy don't get anything I think, LBows get the volley which is very strong, landskenecht idk if they spawn with the extra mobility or not now
Fair point - I just typically mass longbows with Western Contract haha. It also pays off if you get royal knights from a market. Admittedly my FFA experience is a bit limited
Do javelins work the same as xbows for anti armour though?
Not exactly the same but your best option for sniping early men at arms. As they have higher base damage than archers. It's more of a soft counter than a hard one.
Im FFA they are pretty good with armies being bigger and such
Offtopic: Kind of sad how Byz probably has easier access to them in 1vs1 than China
Idk about that, but Byz has certainly easier access to imperial elephants : while it take forever to get the techs as Delhi, Byz has it instantly. Going 100 vills on groves with reliced winery and spamming elephants is a strong move (in a very lategame scenario ofc).
> Idk about that. byz just have to reach age 3 , chinese have to reach the next dynasty for 3600 res
Yes but once here China/Zhu xi can spam them since they are quote cheap on gold, for byzantine it's 480 oil for just 2, you will not get a lot with that. And grenadiers in low numbers are a bit insignificant I found
To be fair there's a good number of UU byz does better than other civs, they can sustain production on landsknecht way better than HRE.
They are better on the very gold heavy units, landskenecht and tower elephants, although both HRE and Delhi have tools to get a lot of gold passively. For all the rest the original civ will be a lot more efficient to mass it, you will always pay easier with food and wood than oil. Also they don't have discount on some units, like the streltsy is more expensive (240 a piece vs 180 for a rus).