Ottoman Empire

[Monk]

Ottoman Empire guides.

Please review the ToC before posting new guides.

[rvg]

The Ottoman Empire is a unique faction that requires a unique gameplay approach, quite different from the rest.


1. Overview (Hard Campaign/Medium Battles).

a. Pros.
You have a vast empire (12 provinces), plenty of trading ports (enough to trade with everybody at once), and a reasonably secure hinterland that no European power can easily access. You have a technological lead with respect to artillery.

b. Cons.
Oh boy, where to start... Well, first of all almost everyone hates your guts. The Barbary States, a dependency of yours, are at war with pretty much the entire European continent, making it impossible to secure alliances. The Crimean Khan (your other vassal) is weak as a kitten and won't survive long without Ottoman Intervention. Your sorry excuse for line infantry known as Isarelys is pathetic. You have enemies on every side of your empire, a poor cash flow, a bunch of thieves running the government, and last but not least, The poorest capital city on the map. Yes, Rumelia is a dump.

2. A brief outline for survival and victory.

a. Consolidate and secure the borders (executed immediately within the first 5 turns)

b. Nibble away at Austria/Poland/Russia until they are no longer a threat (70-100 turns)

c. Push westward with your high tech armies, sweeping the Mediterranean in an all out assault (endgame 70-100 turns)


3. The First Turn

The first turn is of course the most important one, as it sets the tone and the pace for the entire game, thus I will discuss it in great detail.

a. Rearrange the government. The Ottoman campaign really made me yearn for an option to execute the cabinet members, but barring that, it is still possible to kick them all out and rearrange the candidates so that most ministers end up with 4 stars, which is tolerable.

b. Lower taxes and secure trade agreements. Your economy is in shambles and needs a boost, so switching taxes to low is a good idea. Most of your income early on will come from trade anyway. Speaking of trade, you have a unique opportunity to trade with the entire world because of the numbers of ports you have. Seize that opportunity. Trade with your friends, your enemies, their friends, vassals, anyone and everyone who's willing to sign a trade deal. Early on, trade is your lifeline.

c. Secure your eastern border. Persia hates your guts and so does Georgia. Not a fun thing to consider, especially since you'll have your hands full in the Balkan theater. Do the right thing and sell Armenia to Persia for 7000 gold, an alliance and a trade deal. Feel free to sweeten it with military access if needed. Congratulations, you've just gained some much needed early cash and completely secured your eastern flank. Persia won't bother you, and Georgia no longer shares a border with you. This means that from this point on until The Marathas chew through the Mughal Empire and attack Persia you do not have to keep a single soldier on your eastern flank. None. You have roughly 50 turns of peace in the East.

d. Sell Moldavia to the Crimean Khan. Moldavia is poor and you need cash (once again 7000). The Khan in turn gets the peace of mind in knowing that if Crimea falls, he won't be eliminated.

e. Prepare for war with Venice. The task here is twofold: Take Morea in a blitzkrieg and destroy the Venetian Navy. Taking Morea is usually no problem, but the Venetian Navy is rather tough. Furthermore, their navy if left alone will kill your trade. Nonetheless, it needs to be eliminated, so queue up about 5-6 Brigs in your Mediterranean ports, and all of them will be available the following turn. It might also be a good idea to train Desert warriors in Egypt, Palestine and Syria on the same turn. That way after the Brigs are ready, the Desert Warriors can board the ships go to to war in Europe. Venice will usually declare war on turn 2, so you need to be ready for a land and sea campaign right away. As an aside, it helps to move one ship into Black Sea so that you can easily send troops to Crimea if needed.

f. Start training Isarelys and Artillery in Istanbul, you will need plenty of both.


4. Unit Roster.

a. Trash
Muselims, Semenys, Bashibasuks. Garbage. Disband them all. The only reason to train a unit of Semenys is to park it in a port so that nobody can pull a surprise naval landing on you.

b. Irregulars and Reginal Troops.
Azzars are very good, but much more expensive to maintain in 1.5. Kurdish/Afghan Hillmen are even better, but only available in the Middle East. Desert warriors are rather crappy, but they come in a 120 man unit and are dirt cheap, which means that they are somewhat useful for massed firepower. Once again, they are only available in the Middle East and North Africa.
c. Isarelys.
In a straight shootout, these guys will lose to a European militia unit. Their only saving grace is that they get bayonets and that early on they're the only thing resembling line infantry at your disposal. In 1.5 their price has been adjusted to reflect their substandard performance. Once again, thse guys are unavailable outside of a few core Ottoman provinces.

d. Janissaries.
These come in a melee (Cemaat) and a gunpowder (Beylik) varieties. The Beyliks are a very nice upgrade over the Isarelys. They are great shots with good morale and reloading skill. Their weaknesses include a total lack of bayonets (no big deal) and a total lack of drill training ( a very big deal). Thus, prior to the Fire by Rank tech the Beyliks can easily outshoot their Western counterparts, but afterward they struggle.
The Cemaats are a real gem. While of a limited use in field battles, they make ideal fort defenders and fort takers. Just 8 cemaats can comfortably protect a fortified city from a full stack of line infantry/artillery. They are also very inexpensive. I usually make sure that all of my frontier cities are guarded by the Cemaats.

e. The Nizam Line Infantry. These guys are on par with the Europeans. Ottomans pay a premium to get these, but they really help.

f. Cavalry. Not much to say here, the Deli horsemen are good all around and very versatile, the Mamelukes lack the Delis' guns and cost more, and Sipahis while being excellent in melee come into play too late to be of any relevance. So, it's basically Deli or bust. The Camels and Camel gunners are okay: they do well vs cavalry but have trouble chasing routers.


g. Army composition. It's all about the artillery, more specifically, it is all about the dreaded Canister Shot. Having inferior infantry doesn't matter when your cannons can trash any opposing unit in a matter of seconds. Thus, every unit in your army exists to support and protect the artillery. I'd recommend at least 4 cannons per stack from the start, later to be augmented buy a couple of howitzers as well. A couple of horsemen and the rest all infantry.


5. Afterthoughts

1. Take Malta. Doing so will make you the master of the Mediterranean. No kidding.

2. Eventually, some European power will take out the Barbary States. Use this as an opportunity to ally with your friends (like the Swedes).

3. When upgrading economic buildings only focus on the Average ones or better. Ignore the poor and very poor ones, since those take forever to pay back on the investment.

4. Try to keep the Crimean Khan alive. He's a good trading partner.


Hope this helps and Good Luck!