games tend to forget they aalways had a standiong army and were improved on old roman ways. medieval two total war had militia infantry besides vargian guards and mercernaries... shame CA didnt look up their ways of battles. they didnt relied on mercs as they think.

"underpowered" except for the fact that they were the world's strongest millitary economy and most technologically advanced for the first 100 years or so. Throughout all of Byzantine history they were NOT weak at all times.

they are under powered consider history...

It may not be a big boost but it ensures that you can actually use Byzantine's normal ability. Without it if you don't have enough faith, then you're sh*t outta luck if someone founds the last religion.

The issue with Byzantium comes from the fact that religion is nearly impossible to get on higher difficulty levels, rendering their ability useless.

The trick, I found, is to use the extra belief to prick a second enhancer or founder belief. The logic that you normally can only pick one of those and you either get double reward (two founder) or double spreading (two enhancers). If you're picking anything else (since it can't be a reformation belief) the religion seems nice in theory but it's only maginally better.

Consider that you could pick both Itinerant Preachers and Religious Texts. Now, without you making the effort to spread the religion it spread 30% farther and up to 50% faster, it basically spreads itself. On a huge map you will have cities on the other side of the world from civs you've never met following it. Combo with Tithe or World church for easy moeny or culture repectfully. Alternatively you could get two founder beliefs like Tithe and World Church and then just have more reward. Either way, I can say from experience before trying that, the Byzantine just didn't work, after that, they felt almost unfair.

I don't know, from personal experience, Byzantine is more like a double-edge sword. They potentially have the most powerful religion in the game but you need to know how to set it up to make it work. This mod just buffs the civ so they can get their religion going faster, not a bad thing but that's not the most important they with Byzantine.

On emperor or multiplayer the thing about religions is that you need to pick your beliefs soon, but it dosn't have to be first, you just have to have a large enough selection to make something that works. The Celts are good at being first to found a religion because of their UA and then enhance their religion, but that's it. If you go down peity hard right away it'll probably work before Immortal difficulty and against people. Provided you can use the extra belief well.

Reformation belief of +2 tourism for every building purchased with faith, get 3 buyable buildings with your religion and you're set for a very easy tourism victory with Byzantium
That being said though that's really only possible with a lot of faith and luck, so in that sense Byzantium is a gamble of a civ

Hell someone only has to playc celts and your ability as Byzantium is put on the back bench.

Religion isn't a viable strategy for winning because someone can get deserts/tundra, or find a religious civ before you do, or get a ruin with faith, or even be ethiopia and have stele. In my opinion Byzantium needs +2 faith from palace as a Unique ability, along with the additional belief.

This mod will not have an affect on tourism. Shrines do not count as Holy Site improvements.

Byzantium can be pretty powerful with Piety. I'm not so sure but there is a policy in piety that gives 3 culture for each holy site. Does this affect tourism when hotels and airports are available?

If their UUs were Midevil Era instead of Classical it would be a Very Good Diplo/Culture/Warmonger Civ.

And although religion can help a lot , it's by no means required to win.

Yeah, I really don't consider Byzantium that great. Their UA basically forces they into a Pottery/Piety opener so you have a good shot at landing a religion. And while their UUs are both strong, they're also both early in the game.

@Cameron no they aren't. They're really good, until you hit King level or higher. In Multiplayer and King+ difficulty, they are nearly never played except when selected by the randomizer.

i thought byzantium was considered as one of the best civs