I post this here now to inspire hope in others who would like to try playing as Byzantium.

But Byzantium is so ridiculous now that I lost all motivation to continue to the inevitable end (could also because I've been playing this particular game nonstop for the last couple of days). For anyone curious, it resulted in about -80 in aggressive expansion, not bad for more than doubling the amount of territories.īyzantium is currently allied with France and Great Britain, rivaled by Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, should really just be even more of a steamroll over Asia with 100 years still left on the clock.

The pictures here were taken a few years after the integration of Russia into the empire. Just to give an idea of how powerful Byzantium became, I managed to fight off a coalition of Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, and Hungary with only my vassals and a moderately strong France. Since we didn't share the same dynasty, I couldn't force a PU (not that I'd want/been able to, they are already the largest nation on the Eurasian continent), but shortly after I claimed the Russian throne, its old ruler died and oh my god, Russia is now essentially a Byzantine vassal. When I finally looked up from Asia minor in 1640, Russia, who broken our military alliance and rivaled me after I integrated Lithuania is being ruled by a 50 year old king with no children. Also managed to snag Roma from the Papacy when they dropped all their allies.

From then on, its a steamroll of Islamic territories as Byzantium expanded east and south. Then somehow my dynasty got onto the Lithuanian throne and when the opportunity presented itself, a quick war forcing PU on them fueled by the might of Austria and Russia ended with Byzantium in charge of the large swathe of land that was Lithuania. Adding to that alliance with France and the Mamluks and soon the Ottomans were no trouble at all (though my diplo points were decked with all the relations I had). This resulted in a couple of provinces and vassals for Byzantium and alliances with Austria, and Lithuania. Survived the initial onslaught of the Ottomans by expending into the Balkans, especially Hungarian lands (everyone hated Hungary for some reason). Really lucked out with my royal marriages, ended up with 2 PU, Lithuanian (forced through war) and Russia (peaceful), but my Byzantium was already quite powerful even without the PU.

My third game as Byzantium with Ironman on (first two didn't even last 30 years).

Europa universalis 4 roman empire