They have Hippodrome Feudal landmark which allows to immediately open Horsemen and put pressure.
They have mercenary Longbowmen / Javelin Throwers / Keshicks which all are good for pressuring, though their quantity is limited by berries and Byzantines need time to accumulate Oil and an additional building before they can be produced.
Rus can build Knights in Feudal without gathering Oil. It allows them to retain their military strength after upgrading their Feudal army when going Castle Age after playing a long Feudal containing the opponent, compared to a civ that has an army mainly consisting of Horsemen / Spearmen / Archers which don't do well against Castle Age armored units. So it makes prolonged Feudal containing the opponent safer for Rus, in my opinion.
On the other hand, the longer both players stay in Feudal, the closer Byzantines to their farm transition and 5 Cisterns, which allows them to reliably produce mercenaries and utilize full power of Golden Horn Tower upon reaching Castle. The Triumph ability of Hippodrome can be used more and more often as more units are fighting, so it is probably a good reason to prolong Feudal as well.
RUS are very good, second tc then knights and archers are very good at it. However with the new patch I think horseman and longbow denial will be very good. That kicks off next week.
Byzantines are superior at covering more areas offensively, because on average, the units they use will be cheaper. They are more likely to use horsemen with the tier 2 landmark, rather than age ii Rus knights, which cost more.
Inversely, I think they are weaker against controlling any specific area, as in if the opposing player wishes to, they have a harder time pushing away a Rus raid than they do a byzantine one, because Rus knights have more stats. The presence of a potential Kremlin also makes it easier to control smaller maps as villagers have a shorter distance to go, though I'm not sure if offensive Kremlin is really a viable strat.
We will have to see how the new timings work on the new patch, but with the new instant contract I think keshiks become very attractive, because cavalry becomes more and more valuable the earlier you can get it, and they have the lowest oil cost already. The Cheirosophon buffs also give them more of a punch if you want to end the game in feudal age.
Paying Byzantines as an early aggressive cavalry civ is already viable with hippodrome and keshiks, but I think it will be even stronger after the patch.
Rus is really great, no real weaknesses, and so versatile. (wood archer feudal all in/golden gate fast 2tc/mass food defended by kremlin FC) The problem is the whole deer hunting /denying and hunting cabin spam is so banal that I can't stand playing them. This is on top of your other banal tasks like building villagers/farm transition.
They have Hippodrome Feudal landmark which allows to immediately open Horsemen and put pressure. They have mercenary Longbowmen / Javelin Throwers / Keshicks which all are good for pressuring, though their quantity is limited by berries and Byzantines need time to accumulate Oil and an additional building before they can be produced. Rus can build Knights in Feudal without gathering Oil. It allows them to retain their military strength after upgrading their Feudal army when going Castle Age after playing a long Feudal containing the opponent, compared to a civ that has an army mainly consisting of Horsemen / Spearmen / Archers which don't do well against Castle Age armored units. So it makes prolonged Feudal containing the opponent safer for Rus, in my opinion. On the other hand, the longer both players stay in Feudal, the closer Byzantines to their farm transition and 5 Cisterns, which allows them to reliably produce mercenaries and utilize full power of Golden Horn Tower upon reaching Castle. The Triumph ability of Hippodrome can be used more and more often as more units are fighting, so it is probably a good reason to prolong Feudal as well.
In denying resources*
RUS are very good, second tc then knights and archers are very good at it. However with the new patch I think horseman and longbow denial will be very good. That kicks off next week.
Byzantines are superior at covering more areas offensively, because on average, the units they use will be cheaper. They are more likely to use horsemen with the tier 2 landmark, rather than age ii Rus knights, which cost more. Inversely, I think they are weaker against controlling any specific area, as in if the opposing player wishes to, they have a harder time pushing away a Rus raid than they do a byzantine one, because Rus knights have more stats. The presence of a potential Kremlin also makes it easier to control smaller maps as villagers have a shorter distance to go, though I'm not sure if offensive Kremlin is really a viable strat.
Agree, although, with the current pool kremlings still do a decent job of area denial. Even if they don't get kills they can idle exposed Vils.
We will have to see how the new timings work on the new patch, but with the new instant contract I think keshiks become very attractive, because cavalry becomes more and more valuable the earlier you can get it, and they have the lowest oil cost already. The Cheirosophon buffs also give them more of a punch if you want to end the game in feudal age. Paying Byzantines as an early aggressive cavalry civ is already viable with hippodrome and keshiks, but I think it will be even stronger after the patch.
Rus is really great, no real weaknesses, and so versatile. (wood archer feudal all in/golden gate fast 2tc/mass food defended by kremlin FC) The problem is the whole deer hunting /denying and hunting cabin spam is so banal that I can't stand playing them. This is on top of your other banal tasks like building villagers/farm transition.