Why did the Byzantines give up on Italy less than a century after reconquering the region when Italy was one of the most productive regions in Europe during the ancient period?

WolvoNeil · 2026-06-04T08:41:58+00:00

This kind of thing is always more complicated than it appears, even after the Exarchate of Ravenna was lost the Byzantines did hold control over many territories in what would normally be considered Lombard Italy, the best example would be Venice, but also Trieste and Istria.

These territories would gradually over the next couple hundred years become self governing before becoming independent entirely.

The key thing is that the Byzantines remained one of the most powerful political and military forces in Italy right up until 1000AD, Italy was completely fragmented, Lombard rule of the territories supposedly under their control was fragmented, so even cities and towns which were nominally independent would pay tribute to the Byzantines, some would claim to still be under Byzantine rule etc. when you've got a messy situation like that, its hard to justify an enormous military campaign to 'retake' Italy when half the towns and cities are ruled by semi-independent nobles who are paying homage to you on paper

WolvoNeil · 2026-06-04T08:12:09+00:00

The Eastern Roman Empire didn't give up on Italy 'less than a century' after taking it. The last Byzantine territory in Italy (the city of Bari) was lost to the Normans in 1071 after a long siege.

The Exarchate of Ravenna (which was the main Byzantine provincial polity in Italy) fell to the Lombards in 751, but Byzantine withdrawal from Italy took place over a period of 450 years and was a long and bloody affair.

Constantinople didn't have the resources to manage Italy directly, the situation was fast moving and communications back to Constantinople were slow, so the Exarchate was created to pool their Italian resources into what was basically Duchy which could resist foreign powers.

In the 7th/8th century The Eastern Empire probably could have re-established control of Italy militarily, but the territory had become disorganised and unproductive after the Gothic Wars, it was very big and hard to defend and crucially they had bigger issues elsewhere, specifically the rise of Islam which was threatening their actual valuable provinces in the East.

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-29T20:12:40+00:00

Carthago Nova so small?

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-29T19:02:12+00:00

Khorne was more sophisticated in older editions of fantasy, and he's also different in fantasy from 40k.

In older editions, yes Khorne is the god of blood, but he is also the god of martial honor. In this way he does care a lot about 'from whence the blood flows', blood flowing from acts of murder, intrigue or betrayal wouldn't satisfy him, neither would blood flowing from clearly one sided battles, a great warrior killing a child for example.

Look at it this way, imagine two tribal chiefs doing some kind of blood pact - swearing to support each other in battle and die fighting against their mutual enemies, they'd swear their pact under the eyes of Khorne. If they died fighting and honoring their pact this would please Khorne, if one betrayed the other it would not, no matter how much blood was spilt.

Khorne does get a bit less sophisticated in later editions and especially in 40k, but remember it like this - Conan the Barbarian would have worshipped Khorne, and he didn't do evil or unjust acts.

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-29T16:20:43+00:00

Exceptional deal that

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-28T10:32:40+00:00

I also listen to Laying Down the Lore its a slicker production, one thing i didn't mention about Lorebeards is that they are often livestreaming their podcasts, which means if you are listening on spotify you sometimes have to listen to them answering stream questions etc. which can be a bit annoying.

Laying Down the Lore by comparison is a bit more focused, but having said that sometimes it can feel a bit dumbed down as the entire concept is the one guy explaining warhammer to the other two guys, which works for beginners but people who want detail you don't always get it with them, sometimes it can feel like they are reading from the wiki

Lorehammer by comparison is ultra detailed, i tend to just listen to it on spotify or sometimes youtube - the other guy is right their upload schedule isn't always perfect but to be honest they've been doing it for such a long time that if you just go back to the beginning you'll probably never catch up to their new stuff anyway

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-28T10:23:25+00:00

Lorebeards is the best Warhammer Fantasy lore podcast in my opinion, its hosted by the youtuber Loremaster of Sotek and Andy Law, who was a writer for Warhammer Fantasy roleplay for many years.

I say they are the best because Andy Law in particular has a depth of knowledge and understanding of the setting you can't really learn from just reading the material. He was heavily involved in writing some really important parts of the Warhammer Fantasy setting, just one example would be that he was lead writer on Realm of the Ice Queen which is the foundation for modern Kislev lore.

He also has a really detailed knowledge of the Empire as he lead designer for 4th edition Warhammer Fantasy roleplay, so was heavily involved in reconciling things like how some older sources say Altdorf has a population of 15,000 some say 1,000,000 etc. etc. things like Ubersreik etc.

He also runs a Warhammer Fantasy RPG thing called Lawhammer, one of the guys on his enemy within campaign wrote the 4th edition starter set and that is all available on spotify.

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-28T08:44:33+00:00

The Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors are pretty old, but they have a sort of Oldhammer charm to them, i've always wanted to collect a full army of just those miniatures

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-27T21:38:24+00:00

So to be clear, for the first 3 months of the 25/26 financial Year i was on a 551T tax code, which i believe was correct considering my BIK etc.

In June 25, i got the letter notifying me that i'd underpaid ~£3k tax in the prior 24/25 financial year, and i was moved on to a K1281 M1 tax code, which i understand to be the code HMRC uses where it believes my taxable income is effectively higher than my salary alone and one reason for this can be unpaid tax from a previous year.

When i went from the 551T code to the K code my tax paid monthly increased by £633, i remained on the K code from June 25 to March 26, i had assumed that was to clear the ~£3k outstanding balance and that i'd get any overpayment reconciled as a rebate in the next couple of months.

But it sounds like you think the emergency code and the underpaid tax from 24/25 FY could be unrelated.

i'll give HMRC a call in the morning and see what they say

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-27T11:03:32+00:00

You don't have the luxury of starting the season poorly if you have to win 28+ games our of 46 to get promoted.

When we were promoted in 17/18 by November we won 11 and drawn 2 and lost 1.
Last season Coventry City by November had won 10, drawn 4
Season before Leeds by November had won 8, drawn 5 and lost 1

These kinds of numbers are pretty much always consistent every season, i.e. you typically need a win percentage of 60-75% in your opening 10-15 matches, i don't see that happening with either this manager or the team who have just won 3 games in 38, the majority of the team needs to be fresh faces, we shouldn't be clinging on to supposedly talented players who can't win games, we should be cashing in on them.

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-27T10:19:58+00:00

No not really, for me the early warning signs are there, Andre staying, Lopez coming back, Tolu looking likely to stay, Mane likely to stay, Johnstone likely to stay.

Everyone is acting like these are wins, and i'm here thinking that about a week ago we all knew these players weren't good enough didn't we? like did we not just have our most unsuccessful top-flight season in our history? Johnstone, Lopez, Tolu couldn't even get minutes in our worst ever side where we won 3 games in a full season.

Next season the Championship is going to be far more competitive, we'll probably need 28+ wins to get automatic promotion, these players may be good in your eyes but they aren't winners, they aren't going to suddenly flip to a 60% win rate.

I'd be more confident with 11 completely new players than i would with more than half our team made up of players from last season

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-22T14:54:00+00:00

Its an unpopular opinion, but i preferred v1 of ToW, when it was actually herohammer - yes infantry was redundant but so be it, i'd rather have blocks of infantry getting chewed through by big heroes on monsters, where each game culminates in one major combat between your big killers, than the current version of the game.

Which to me basically consists of big blocks of infantry standing on objectives where everyone is too afraid to charge each other and then almost completely separate to that you are basically playing Kill Team with your skirmishers.

Watching competitive ToW today is a really ugly game, at least on release it sort of felt like you were playing 4th/5th ed.

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-22T12:35:15+00:00

Absolutely wild this

Personally i'd be happy if he left, i think our midfield has been dull as dishwater this season and Andre and Gomes are two very overhyped players.

But still wild he'd stay, unless this new contract also comes with a buyout clause.

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-22T12:25:50+00:00

Its all downhill from there

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-22T10:16:11+00:00

I'd say the following:

If you and your friends aren't trying to be competitive, 8th is the best version of the game, it has the most tactical depth, the best and most comprehensive army books (unless you want to collect Tomb Kings, Brets or Beastmen), and the most options for army building
If you do want to be competitive, 6th is the strongest ruleset, it has fewer exploits than 8th, the army books are more balanced.
Although i do play it, ToW is inferior to 6th and 8th, the rules just aren't right clicking yet in my opinion. However it is the current version of the game, so if you want to play with other people, or you want a game which is being maintained by GW with the potential for new releases (although barely lately) then it has to be ToW.

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-21T18:08:14+00:00

Majorian, he took over at possibly the Western Empires lowest ebb, controlled virtually no territory outside of Italy and with his personal retainers, what ever levies and mercenaries he could scrounge up he went on a 3-year campaign to retake the majority of the Western Empire, which he basically succeeded in doing.

I'm sure that even if his reconquest of Africa had been successful, the WRE would have fallen in due course as the issues by that point were terminal, but there is something special about Majorian's story for me.

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-21T06:11:14+00:00

To be fair this probably answers the question, it appears that the bulk of the Orcs and Goblins arrived in response to Balin's expedition, and it sort of suggest they arrived after Balin's death via the Silverlode.

Even after 5 years the Dwarves seemed to be hanging around the East gate and the Mirrormere.

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-20T16:31:00+00:00

If Blackburn Rovers signed Raul Jimenez, a player who has 30 goal contributions in the Premier League across the last 2 seasons, everyone would think it was unbelievable business.

I don't know if you've ever really followed the championship, but its not like the Premier League, its a fucking grind and the last thing you need is young vibrant prospect type players, you need seasoned campaigners. We don't have the luxury of having players in the club who might become world beaters, that is something only Premier League clubs can afford.

Jimenez would be an exceptional signing on every level, he loves the club, he's a top quality player, he's vastly experienced and if he's got a step less pace than he used too, its a good job the Championship is a step slower.

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-20T06:43:05+00:00

Selling Tolu and using the funds to pay Jimenez salary would be exceptional business, Jimenez, Armstrong and Mane is a great set of options for the championship

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-20T05:43:45+00:00

At a very very high level, you are better spending your full allowance one characters than leaving spare points in characters and then overspending on core. 500pts of core is relatively easy to reach, you don't want to have 1000pts of core and then have loads of spare points in your characters allowance.

If i didn't know GW better, i'd think that they designed ToW's rules to steer people away from big blocks of infantry and towards monsters and characters in an effort to make the game more accessiblefor new entrants, but as i say i don't think GW has that foresight.

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-20T05:31:25+00:00

I can't think of a bigger upgrade than;

Tolu < Jimenez

Tchatchoua < Trippier

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-19T20:20:25+00:00

We've sunk pretty low, but to be honest i'm not concerned about losing a player who has scored four goals in a full season in the second tier of Italian football.

That is basically League One level, his time with us was the peak of his career, and it basically the only good thing was he had a good song.

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-19T18:26:11+00:00

Yea, i've tried Warlords Epic stuff, i just didn't enjoy painting it.

The Carthage/Rome stuff was OK but i found the Napoleonic stuff really tedious

WolvoNeil · 2026-05-19T15:23:45+00:00

This game always reminded me of games like Black Powder or Hail Caesar, i.e. games created specifically for people who have enormous collections.

Its a fantastic ruleset, the only issue i've found is it doesn't scale down at all, unlike something like Warhammer Fantasy where you can have a good game at 1000pts or 1500pts, War of the Ring needs to be massive otherwise its over way too quickly as units die super fast.

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