Civ 6: Best Strategies For Byzantium [2023]

The Byzantium people are one of the civilizations in Civ 6 led by Basil II, what purple and light yellow as their default colors. Theodora is also one of their leaders, and you will be able to obtain the civilization by getting the Byzantium And Gaul pack that was released on 24 September in Civ 6. The main civilization ability of Byzantium is called Taxis. By using the ability, they will get religious strength as well as additional combat for every converted holy city. Their unique unit is called the Dromon. 

How To Win As Byzantium 

When it comes to the Byzantium civilization, you will see religion and domination as two main factors.

Most of the gameplay, while you play as Byzantiums, leans heavily towards religious expansion. Furthermore, their unique ability will allow you to gain points as you expand the religion and spread it in cities nearby. 

Traits

Below are some traits unique to Byzantium in Civ 6.

• Every time you spread the religion into a city nearby and defeat an enemy, you will get additional points for the military units.
• When playing as Byzantium, you will get to use a Naval Ship as well when expanding the religion, which makes it one of the most powerful civilizations in the game.
• The Cavalry Unit of the civilization in Civ 6 is also something to look out for when playing Byzantium. 
• It is also important to establish and find Coastal Cities as soon as possible. 
• Doing so will allow the players to build naval units that can help them in obtaining their main goal. 
• After that, the players can build a special boat that will allow them to utilize the sea and expand their civilization further. 
• Another factor to consider is to get close to other civilizations as much as possible so that the main ability called Taxis will help you convert other civilizations to your religion as well. 
• There are a lot of technologies and strategies to keep in mind when establishing the Byzantium civilization. Below are some important factors to consider in the game when playing as Byzantium. 

Technologies To Prioritize 

When playing as Byzantium, there are a lot of factors to consider. First of all, it is important that you settle down their civilization near forests or mountains.

This is because it will help you focus on the Holy Sites and expand your religion as much as possible. For the more, you will also get an increased output of faith from these sites when you settle down the civilization in these areas. 

The most important part of the Byzantium gameplay is founding a religion and spreading it across different cities in Civ 6. So your priority should be likewise, and the players should focus on finding a religion as soon as they start playing. 

Astrology 

The most important factor, as mentioned before, is definitely a religion. This is why we will be focusing on establishing astrology technology first. Below are all the reasons why you should focus on astrology when expanding your civilization. 

• Holy cities are extremely crucial for Byzantium as they will allow the players to find the religions in the game. 
• The unique ability of Byzantium will allow the players to get an additional Great Prophet point. 
• Due to this, the players will be able to create a religion in this area and spread it across different cities. 
• Taxis are also important as they will increase Combat Strength depending upon the cities you convert. 
• When the religion is established, the Byzantium combat units will get an additional three points in their combat strength depending upon the Holy Cities you have converted so far. 

Bronze Working 

Another technology to focus on is bronze working, and below are all its benefits of it. 

• By establishing the bronze working technology, you will be able to locate all Iron Resources on the map. 
• After locating the iron resources and harvesting them, you will be able to build the Tagma Cavalry. 
• As soon as you unlock the Bronze working technology, you will be able to benefit from the swordsman unit that gets unlocked. 
• Therefore, it is important to get the bronze working technology if you want to make your combat strong from early on in the game. 

Divine Right 

You should focus on the divine right because it will grant you many benefits, as mentioned below. 

• By unlocking divine right as early as possible, you will be able to train and make use of legendary Tagmas in the game. 
• The divine right will allow you to make your combat strong from early on in the game and give you a stronger edge in combat. 

Shipbuilding 

This is definitely an important technology to unlock further civilization, as it will provide the players with many benefits in the game. 

• Shipbuilding will allow the players to make use of the coastal tiles. 
• The players will also be able to focus more on the construction of Dromon, which is the special ship of the Byzantium civilization. 
• As soon as you build two galleys, you will be able to make use of the eureka. 
• Doing so will allow you to reduce your science cost as well. 
• By using the Maritime Industry Policy will be able to establish the shipbuilding technology for your civilization. 

Recreation 

It is important to focus on games and recreation as well when establishing your civilization.

You would be able to establish the Hippodrome District by focusing on the civic. This will allow you to get the upper hand on other civilizations from early on. 

Beliefs And Secret Society 

Religion is a must-have for byzantium civilization, and they should focus on establishing one as soon as possible. 

• When it comes to choosing beliefs and secret society, the players should consider the following. 
• For religion, we recommend focusing on Crusade. 
• It will increase the combat strength whenever you are up against civilizations that strictly follow their religion. Furthermore, the Taxis ability will help you out here a lot. 
• Tithe and Church Property are also good options. 
• The gold yields they have would allow you to invest in different technologies when playing as Byzantium and help you improve the combat too. 
• For a secret society, Void Singers is a good option if you want to get the maximum faith out of this civilization. 
• In case you want to make your combat more strong and improve your military, then Sanguine Pact is also a secret society to look out for. 
• Whenever you establish a secret society, it is important to keep in mind the progress you have made so far as Byzantium.

Unique Units 

It is important to understand the units you will be getting when establishing the Byzantium Civilization. Below are all the unique units you will be able to make use of in the game. 

Dromons 

The first unique unit that the players will be able to make use of in the game or called Dromons.

They have a lot of unique qualities to look out for and make use of in combat. 

• They are Naval Units that specialize in ranged attacks. 
• Fortunately for the players, they have a very high range with two points instead of one. 
• Thanks to their ranged abilities, they will be able to attack enemies and cities from a distance without getting much damage to themselves and protect their ground military as well. 
• Against other enemies, they will be able to make use of their bonus combat strength which gives them leverage over their enemies. 
• The best part about these units is that you will be able to make use of them till the very end without losing their power at all. 
• Since they are naval units, it is important to focus on producing ships and settling down coastal cities. 
• Doing so will allow you to make use of the ranged naval units in the best way possible. 

Hippodrome Unit 

The Hippodrome is actually an Entertainment Complex District that organizes horse races. It is great if you want to focus on games and recreation for your civilization.

This entertainment complex district is a favorite of Constantinople people. It has the following benefits when established. 

• As soon as you unlock the Hippodrome entertainment complex, you will get a Heavy Cavalry Unit for free. 
• You will be able to allow the cavalry unit even if you have just unlocked its buildings. 
• Since Tagmas are also a part of heavy cavalry units, getting more cavalry units out of the Hippodrome district will allow you to expand your military and improve your combat. 
• Keep in mind that you will only get tagmas only when you unlock them. 
• In case you haven’t, you will get Heavy Chariots to utilize instead. 
• Make sure to complete the districts and save gold before you upgrade to Tagma. 
• It is also important to have divine right beforehand in case you want to establish tagma. 
• A good strategy is to stop until the process of their upgrading is fully complete. This will allow the players to increase their size in the game. 
• The district will allow the players to create a domination strategy and increase higher amenities that will allow them to reduce the chances of any rebellions. 
• A good strategy is to build a Hippodrome District in every city you construct. 
• The Hippodrome district will also make sure that the unit production is constant and high. 

The Tagmas

Tagma is a great unit to utilize early on in the game, and below, you will see all the benefits of using it.

• It is capable of replacing knights as it is a Heavy Cavalry Unit. 
• It is different from the standard knights you will have in your military as it is capable of granting the religious units and military units extra points in religious strength or combat strength. 
• However, if you have multiple tagmas, then the ability will not stack up. 
• When it comes to converting the religion of others, then it will help the Byzantium civilization out a lot. 
• It will also help the players when it comes to conquers. In battle, they will always have significant leverage over others. 

The best part about tagma is that it will help the players update more heavy cavalry units when used with the Hippodrome district. 

• When paired with the leader’s ability as well as the civilization’s main ability, the players will be able to make use of these units more efficiently. 
• By themselves, these units might not be that powerful in battle or religious Conversions. 
• The civilization tool kit will help out these units in bringing out the best of them. 
• While the standard units can still help you out a lot in conquests, we definitely recommend establishing the tagma unit as well. 
• You will not need the technologies in the Renaissance and Medieval Eras, like ranged, melee, and siege units, because of the tagma unit. 
• Therefore, you can focus on technologies that will improve the production of your civilization. This includes industrialization. 
• You can also unlock other technologies to help you out in future conquests. 

Taxis Ability 

The unique ability of the civilization is called Taxis. It has different bonuses when you find a religion and when you spread it, and we will discuss both of them below. 

Founding A Religion 

it is definitely no surprise that before, you would not have obtained any bonus when founding a religion.

However, that is no longer the case in civilization 6. 

• For every Holy Site that you set up, the civilization will get two Great Prophet points instead of a single point. 
• Therefore, it is important to find religion as soon as possible if you want to amp up your game experience when playing Byzantium. 
• Failing to find a religion will only break your civilization in the long run. 
• The civilization’s ability, as well as the leader’s ability, will rely heavily on religion. 

In the first two cities that you establish, you will want to set up Holy Sites as well. 

• You can also establish one holy site that will allow the players to run the Prayers Project in the civilization. 
• Crusade is a good religion to invest in when establishing a religion for the first time. 
• When you establish a crusade under the rule of the leader, then you will get ten additional points in combat strength. 
• This will add up to the combat strength you will get from the main ability of the civilization as well. 
• Therefore, you will be able to deal a significant amount of damage to cities and walls. 
• When going for the Follower Belief, we highly recommend choosing choral music. 
• The choral belief will allow the players to access Divine Right as soon as possible and unlock it in the early game. This is the only belief that will help you in the long run as a warmonger and give you extra culture points. 

Beliefs

When you establish your shrine under the temple, you will get six cultures in each city. 

• When choosing between beliefs, founders’ beliefs are more beneficial for your civilization as compared to worship beliefs as they will allow you to dominate quickly and more effectively. 
• World Church, Pilgrimage, and Cross-Cultural Dialogue are also good if you want to expand your religion as much as possible to other cities. 

As a Byzantium civilization, the worship beliefs will not do you any good. 

• You will be focusing more on winning conquests than establishing more cities in the game. 
• However, if you do want to go for worship belief, then the  Meeting House is a good choice since it is heavy on production. 
• You can also increase your Missionaries and Apostles by getting Mosque. Keep in mind that it won’t make much difference when it comes to Byzantium. 

Spreading Your Religion 

When establishing a religion, Byzantium will receive a lot of bonuses for their military as well.

Expanding their religion will allow them to get significant leverage over their enemies. Below you will see all the bonuses tied to spreading the religion as byzantium. 

• By killing a Non-Barbarian Unit, the players will be able to obtain 250 points under religious pressure. 
• This will be applied to all cities lying within ten tiles of byzantium.
• However, it will not staff with the disciple’s promotion to warrior monk in the game. 
• As compared to a missionary and a non-translator apostle, it is significantly higher and more effective. 
• By killing an enemy unit, you will not only make your victory but also make your future battles way easier than before. 
• Since the enemy city will adopt your religion, you will get a chance to obtain the era score.
• Therefore, the historic moment will happen in the game each time you kill an enemy unit such as Byzantium. 

In Dark Ages, it will help you a lot and prevent your empire from being destroyed. It is important to not entirely depend on this ability as well as it will not completely replace your religious units when you want to spread your religion to other places. 

• Keep in mind that your military combat units will not have any religious traits tied to them.
• Furthermore, they will also not cause any negative Religious Pressure.
• This applies to Theological Combat. 
• It will take a long period of time when you are trying to establish religion in areas where there is already a religion present. 
• So it is important that you don’t exploit this ability as it will cause your downfall in the long run. 
• In case you fail to establish your religion at the beginning of the conquest, you will lose combat strength a lot. 

Strategy To Utilize 

When playing as Byzantium civilization, there are a lot of factors that the players can utilize in their gameplay to make sure they win. It is important to choose a good victory from early on in the game.

However, soon as you reach the game, you should start implementing on establishing the victory path as well. 

There are a lot of options available at Byzantium, and we have listed all of them down below, as well as their benefits. 

Culture Victory 

This is one of the victory parts that the players can utilize when playing Byzantium in civ 6.

It has the following benefits. 

• You will be able to obtain the cultural victory by establishing the Hippodrome district.
• This will help you a lot if you’re looking to make a cultural victory for the Byzantium civilization. 
• This victory path is not recommended when playing as Byzantium; however, it can still be achieved. 
• Entertainment complexes like the Hippodrome district will provide the players with major benefits. 
• Like Theater Squares, the players will get a lot of cultures to yield out of it. 
• In case you are up against a civilization that has a strong religious base or a more powerful military, then you can always do the cultural victory path to go for. 

Religious 

while playing as Byzantium civilization, many players will tend to go for the Religious Victory Path. This is because it has the following benefits in the game. 

• Byzantium focuses heavily on religion, and you will be able to find and spread the religion from early on in the game. 
• Through combat and military victories, the place will be able to spread and establish its religion quickly and more effectively. 
• If you manage to go down the religious victory path, then you will be able to convert cities that you have not even fought or battled with. 
• It is important to join a Military Emergency whenever it comes up. 
• This will allow you to make use of the opportunities you will get to convert all the cities nearby to your religion. 
• Make sure to look out for any ongoing wars nearby and join your allies in the fight against enemies, as it will inspire conversion as well. 

Domination 

This is definitely the most sought-after victory path when playing as the Byzantium civilization.

This is due to the following reasons. 

• Byzantium is a very powerful civilization that relies heavily on military power. 
• By focusing on military strength and power, the players will be able to defeat enemies easily. 

After a significant amount of progress, you will be able to upgrade your military units, which will help you against stronger civilizations. 

• If you want to go down this path, then make sure that you have technologies like Combustion and Ballistics. 
• You should also focus on getting more gold as it will allow you to invest in your military power and combat. 
• You will also need a lot of gold to maintain the army, as it will grow larger with time if you are progressing the right way. 

With this, we conclude our detailed guide on the Byzantium civilization in Civ 6 and how to win as Byzantium in the game. While you are at it, don’t forget to check out our Civilization 6 Tier List as well as the Civilization 5 Tier List.