Page 3 of 6 FirstFirst 123456 LastLast
Results 61 to 90 of 171

Thread: Turks

  1. #61
    Member Member Komutan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Istanbul, Turkey
    Posts
    154

    Default Re: Turks

    Quote Originally Posted by tristuskhan
    That topic is not related to the Turks, anyway, so let's come back to it. I'd like to know how players do act with the sons who are not to become Sultans, since the Ottoman dynasty got most of his power when a very special law went to be applied, I read it in a biography of Soliman the lawyer (the magnificient): the Sultan had the right to have his brothers assassinated if no (royal) blood was spilled -most were asphixiated, until the 17th century when they were kept incaged for all their life. That gave the turkish empire a fantastic boost, smoothing the civil wars and allowing stable kingdom. What I'd like to know is when that rule was created. I like to apply it in my games, insuring the best of my sons to become the Sultan. That's cruel. Could the turkish specialists tell us more about it? It's not related to the Shari'at, neither to the Yasak (law of the steppes, both turkish and mongol), who thought about it and how was it accepted?
    Mehmet 2(the conqueror of Istanbul) created this rule.What motivated him was most likelly the civil war between 1402 and 1413.In 1402 the mongols defeated the ottoman army.Their ruler Timur splitted the ottoman territory between the 4 sons of the padishah.They battled each other and in 1413 Mehmet 1(grandfather of Mehmet 2) defeated the others.

    Not all padishahs choose to have their brothers killed.Some were imprisoned for life in the palace.

    But I think it is wrong to say that this practice allowed a stable kingdom.Ottoman rulers(with the exception of a few of the the earlier ones) did not have proper marriages.They had a harem and concubines.All these women fought for their sons succession between themselves.For example, the intrigues of Suleyman 1's wife, Hurrem Sultan(Roxanne) are very famous.

  2. #62
    Ming the Merciless is my idol Senior Member Watchman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Helsinki, Finland
    Posts
    7,967

    Default Re: Turks

    The practice of royal frantricide upon ascension to the throne started with the Ottomans around what, late 1300s or early 1400s or so - actually right after they'd whupped the Serbs at Kosovo Polje if memory serves. I think there was something pretty dramatic like a captive Serbian knight or prince or something managing to stab the old Sultan, who died. His eldest son duly received the job and promptly had his brothers strangled on the spot to pre-empt the sorts of civil wars the various Turkish dynasties had tended to have, and the practice stuck.

    Later on (a few generations after Suleyman the MAgnificient, I think) they just started isolating the princes in a building in the Porte known simply as the Cage from infancy, where their contact with the outside world was limited to servants and slaves. It is perhaps not a great surprise that the Sultans this setup produced tended to be insane, criminally incompetent, or both. A few actually turned out to be almost capable, and some more developed a passion for illuminating Korans or something similar and flatly refused to take the throne and leave their comfortable little world when asked to...


    Anyway, back to topic. Playing the Turks from Early with the smallest unit size is otherwise kinda fun, but there turns up a wee little problem - 40-man Kataphrakt princes and 100-man blocks of Byz Inf are suddenly a whole order of magnitude bigger problems. Thus far I've managed to look scary enough they haven't attacked me, and even caught a few provinces (like Trebizond and Georgia) basically for free when the AI left them virtually ungarrisoned, but now there's a huge four-army block of Byzantines rooted in Lesser Armenia with a 6-star prince and a 100-man Byz Inf unit whose leader has enough nasty traits for the whole unit to have a valor of 6 before general bonuses...

    I'm so not going in there until I get my Janissaries going.
    "Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. --- Proof of the existence of the FSM, if needed, can be found in the recent uptick of global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. Apparently His Pastaness is to be worshipped in full pirate regalia. The decline in worldwide pirate population over the past 200 years directly corresponds with the increase in global temperature. Here is a graph to illustrate the point."

    -Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

  3. #63

    Default Re: Turks

    Does anyone have any advice for the Turks starting on High? I've tried two or three times and have been destroyed by the Mongols when they arrive. The Mongols seem to ignore everyone else and go straight for me, and 25 turns isn't enough time to prepare for the Mongol onslaught. Your provinces aren't well developed and your army isn't very large. Has anyone had success starting on High?

    I guess the obvious answer is to not be in Asia Minor when the Mogols arrive.
    So, maybe build a fleet and send everyone to Greece? or Egypt?

    thanks in advance

  4. #64

    Default Re: Turks

    i need your assistance,

    what shuld i do about changing of beginning treasure

    or where can i learn this questions' answer

    please tell me

    thanks

  5. #65
    Member Member Jaqmaq the Blaq's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Oklahoma City
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Turks

    Greetings infidels. I am new to this and still learning basics. Consider this post as getting my feet wet here so I am comfortable with questions later.

    After playing as the Picts and Vikings on the Easy setting in VI, I decided to dive in with the Turks on Normal difficulty in the Early milieu. Gorsh what a soul consuming process. Most of my fighting is on autocalc as both of my computers tend to crash when I manually battle. I made so many mistakes at first it is a wonder I survived: spending money like it was going out of style, building loads of peasants and attacking smaller but better equipped forces of Egyptians and Byzantines and enduring horrific losses. Took me a while to understand the importance of quality troops with valor.

    After a disastrous battle with the Egyptians, who had a 7 star general stationed in Arabia, I signed a ceasefire then an alliance and turned my attentions northward. Georgia and Lesser Armenia fell at once to my troops, not sure how, perhaps the peasants just hugged them to death. The "Byz" had some good troops in Anatolia and Trebizond but I spent myself into debt building tons of peasants and just overwhelmed them with numbers and of course my good looks. In about 10-15 years I had taken Constantinople for good. But the Egyptians had been patiently building and overran Syria and Edessa, eventially besieging Rum twice. This was not a good time for that as I had no money. Fortunately a great way to improve cash flow is to kill your troops. The assault on the 'Nople had decimated my forces and with the cash now coming back in it was time to upgrade to spearmen. I eventually found an amazing strategy that worked with the Egyptians: show up with the biggest army. They pulled back from Antioch. They pulled back from Syria. They pulled back from Tripoli. I slaughtered them in Edessa. We battled in Arabia and Palestine, and they pulled back. By the time we got to Sinai I had such a supply chain of decent quality troops going that each turn they ratcheted backwards. When they got to Egypt of course there was nowhere left to retreat. The beauty of it was that after the defeat in Arabia, their king led the army - even though they had a pair of 6 star generals and a 7 star general under his thumb. We left them to rot in the forts and in an astonishingly short time they were eliminated.

    But we didn't stop there. When we saw the Almohad was mostly peasant armies, our supply chain kept us rolling all the way to Algeria until we came up hard against the cursed Spaniards in Morocco.

    Meanwhile we held Constantinople and observed with wry amusement as the Byz were being pounded by the Hungarians and Polish. And we had finally started to learn Finance and Budgeting 101, and were able to keep reasonable cash flow with a few big projects thrown in every few years. And finally we had pushed into Khazar and Volga-Bulgaria which were not affiliated with anyone yet, and sent an emissary to ally with the Novgorod.

    Silly Novgorod. They first refused alliance, then sent a large ragtag army against us. Fine. We pulled back to Georgia. And we found a 4 star prince we hated in Tunisia and worked him over to Georgia. By the time he got there, we had amassed a nice little stack for him. He charged into Khazar - and was defeated. Excellent! Gotta love that cash flow. We improved his troops and sent him in again, the Novgorod Prince moved in to join the battle, and we prevailed. And in an event of supreme convenience, the Prince died without heirs - the Novgorod holdings broke up into rebel bands - and with our new understanding of cash flow we bribed and blitzkrieged all the way to Finland, Livonia, and Kiev. I got concerned at this point because the vile Byzantines were now on our new doorstep in Kiev.

    And about Kiev. We had continued to harrass the Byz, and finally lost our patience and took out Bulgaria and Greece in the same turn. After a few turns of consolidation and regrouping, we pushed into Moldavia, driving the Byz backwards into Kiev. We by now hated these Purple People Eaters so we launched into Kiev and then Crimea, rooting out their violetness wherever we found it. Our forces met east and west and now we control the entire Black Sea region, all of what would become Russia, Asia Minor and the Middle East, and Africa as far as Morocco.

    The Spaniards hold Morocco and we are currently attempting to get them to attack us in Algeria, so we can start our first Jihad. They are being rather difficult about the entire process however. Ever since we busted the Byz in Bulgaria and Greece, the powers of Western Europe have been very gracious. Italy has a large stack but looks the other way while Greece is scantily protected. Hungary battles the Polish or someone in the interior. We are beginning to build ships to control the Med and have won over two of the islands. Our cash flows are reasonably strong, our sultan is learning how to build his armies, and we have 60 years before the Horde arrives. We have a castle in Tripoli and we're digging in at Sinai and Antioch to prepare for the pale infidels. Things are looking very bright for the Turks.

    All in all it has been a surprising success for my first real campaign. The early years were pretty much: click End Turn and expect to die. And I had resigned to having the Egyptians in my backside for the rest of the game and only holding Asia Minor from Rum to the 'Nople. But once we got them turned around it was a swift linear progression of events.

    Time to put our newest provinces in order and gear up for the Crusades and the Horde.
    Mistah Kurt: "Women are evil. Men are stupid."

  6. #66
    Member Member BalkanTourist's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    South Carolina
    Posts
    264

    Default Re: Turks

    Welcome !
    Good to hear that you are doing well. I remember it took me awhile to get used to the muslim factions. I prefer(ed) a spear wall with swordsmen on the sides ready to flank, while light and medium cavalry hit the back of the enemy. With muslims you've got to concentrate on Horse Archers and hybrid units. I've never played the Turks but owned the whole world with the Almohads and the Egyptians. Once you get your economy running it's easy. Don't ever use peasants for anything but garrison duties. And at the last, I know how you feel as I auto calculated for a year before I got a comp that could allow me to fight. But trust me, it's a whole different story, if you like the game now, you'll love it when you fight your own battles. Despite RTW, I still believe MTW is the better game!
    Alea Iacta Est

  7. #67
    Member Member Jaqmaq the Blaq's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Oklahoma City
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Turks

    Balkan, thank you. I am looking forward to conducting battles myself some day.

    The Turkish empire has expanded since last I posted. We overran the Spaniards and survived an outbreak of Portughese rebels and now rule the entire peninsula of Spain. We're currently engaged in bloody warfare with the Aragonese who are not going quietly into that good night. But they are down to two provinces and we have a large force of 3000 of them surrounded and cut off from reinforcements. Their time is nigh.

    The Byzantines have been forced into exile on the island of Crete and left to rot there. We will clean up their mess at the end. If we get bored we may land a small assault team to weaken their numbers and remind them who's their daddy.

    As we populated the Med we began running into the Sicilians who managed to destroy the Papacy and push the Italians into Croatia. For a while the Italians and Hungarians provided a nice buffer zone. Good fences make good neighbors, but we got tired of being good neighbors and declared war on them both. Meanwhile the French attacked us and declared Crusade in one of the northern European provinces and the Germans just wound up being in the way. The Crusade moved into our soft belly behind the front lines and began slicing through us like a hot knife through butter. Finally we wised up and surrounded the Crusade with numerically superior forces on all sides, and then attacked the province it was located in. It moved to attack a neighboring province - retreated - disappeared. We have no idea where those 800+ fanatics went, but they are off the board for now. Meanwhile the Holy Roman Empire is a vague memory of yesteryear as the Germans gaggle together in one remaining fortification and prepare to drink koolaid punch. The Hungarians are long gone. We were offended by their weakness. The Italians barely lasted a year.

    At this point the Sicilians appear to have had enough and launched a rather poor attack on our land forces, which was repulsed - and our sea forces - which was a lot more successful. We lost many ships. We are now engaging them by land, and we are cranking out ships in 6 provinces to overwhelm them by sea.

    The Mediterranean supply route was the key to taking Spain, but the Sicilian interference has hampered us in taking out the Aragonese. And what a boon sea superiority has been. Thanks to advice on this forum, we peaked at a 19k net annual income before war broke out with everyone on the Continent. That surplus fueled not only our vast Turkish army but also a broad building improvement plan in every province in the empire. We are turning out Imams in Constantinople to spread the word of Allah to every dark corner. Each of our Holy Land provinces has a Keep, and we have saturated the eastern Mediterranean sea routes to sink any crusaders before they arrive.

    We still have almost 30 years before the Mongol horde sweeps into Khazar, Georgia, and/or Armenia. Plenty of time to build up Muscovy and Kiev and prepare for any eventuality.

    Our next steps are to finish off the French and Aragonese, retake control of the western Med sea routes, then tighten the noose on the Sicilian land forces. We are undecided how to approach the Papacy. Three assassins have failed in their attempts on the pope. The sultan's advisors whisper in his ear to attack and weaken the Pope but leave him with a small remnant of power until the very last stroke.

    We have yet to make contact with Britain. Finland is building a shipwright and will soon begin launching its own fleet to explore those regions.

    Our greatest dilemma at this time is simply the vast size of the empire. It takes fully an hour or two to manage the provinces and determine the upcoming year's strategy. Many of our emirs have developed crippling vices and we ponder the implications of stripping their titles. But the current Sultan is a weakminded fool. He is the likely target of assassins working within the royal family.
    Mistah Kurt: "Women are evil. Men are stupid."

  8. #68
    Member Member madyoui's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    tampa,florida but i would rather be in brasil (yes brasil is spelled that way)
    Posts
    2

    Default Re: Turks

    i do not know what to do! i am playing turks and i have a yearly income of 10 florins! i only have the provinces i began with.i mhave an army designed to take on byzantynes but everyone says to attack eggys, what do i do?
    the first best thing is to capture territory, the second best thing is to destroy it.
    the first best thing is to capture an enemy city, the next best thing is to destroy it.

    Sun-tzu

  9. #69

    Default Re: Turks

    Well if your army is designed for a Byzantine offensive take on the Byzantines. If you take some of there provinces you should be able to get enough forces to take on the Egyptians later even after they have strengthened their defenses.

    I would suggest just all out offence against the Byzantines, before you go against the Eggy's. War on two front's while manageable =/ can get ugly. . . Try taking provinces up to and including Constantinople and Georgia then your Borders are only 2 provinces (to the North anways). =D Then get a ceasefire or alliance with them and switch your beady/greedy eyes to the Eggy's.

    And try get some trade going with ships once you get the coastal provinces. That should help your treasury. Having said that it could be difficult when you are warring with your neighbours . Well you can't have everything. . .

  10. #70
    Member Member Claudius Maniacus Sextus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Romania,Wallachia,Dacia a poor country.
    Posts
    48

    Talking Re: Turks

    well i first quickly attacked byzantine's because they lack troops and unit developing buildings(except constantinopole).in a couple of years theyr beaten.by having to atack quick,you must use any unit you can muster and lead your battles withh great wisdom and courage.with constantinopole you can train better units like Futtuwas,saraceans,Ghulum etc.
    and having this "high-tech" army you will crush the egyptians queit easyly,because their armies consist mainly of pezy's.
    After this conquest you can do what ever you want,with Hashishin Janisaries and Ghulum your practicly invicibile.

    This was just a little,short guide but i hope it help's.


    Cheers and Best of Luck!
    ABSOLUT Orthodox Religious Fanatic
    "Ave Domini,Murituri Te Salutant''

  11. #71

    Default Re: Turks

    check out the earlier posts about rushing Egypt. In a couple of turns you can make a lot of money ransoming the Egyptian sultan and then in a few more turns you can own all Egypt. It works well and it gives you some great money making provinces.

  12. #72
    Member Member sir_schwick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    59

    Default Re: Turks

    As strange as it sounds, I actually try and let the Egyptians keep Egypt. This keeps them from resurgeing with 6k troops in Arabia just when you have consolidated the Byzantines. Of course I eventually let them take Sinai and use boats to take Egypt. I know this is a lot of lost potential income, but handling resurgence armies is a biatch.

    Also, I let the Byz keep their islands. Usually they make peace and those islands always have ports with no tradeable resources. Gives some immediate income to trade operations.

    _______________________________________________

    My first Turk game I did the classic Egypt-ransom-Byz-rush strategy. Then I invaded eastern Hungary and POland, streching from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. I was getting crusades out the arse, but it raised some really badarse generals. Learned the true meaning of Jihad and how to get 40+ Turcoman +1 valour horse in one turn. Decided to invade Iberia next for kicks. Actually beaten back cause of some bonehead moves, but they were out within 10 years. Was about to reach High era when my HD crashed and I lost that game.

  13. #73

    Default Re: Turks

    Heres a tip for dealing with Egypt. I attacked the Egyptians in the first 3 or 4 turns on Expert in the early period as the Egyptian sultan is in Antioch if you take Tripoli via Syria then he is trapped, then invade Antioch kill the Egyptian sultan and any sons he has there and the Egyptians are destroyed as they have no heirs left, very very simple way to deal with a big rival. That easy.

  14. #74
    Sovereign Oppressor Member TIE Fighter Shooter Champion, Turkey Shoot Champion, Juggler Champion Kralizec's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    5,812

    Default Re: Turks

    I did another Turkish campaign (starting early, expert) last week, and it was interesting in some ways.

    First of all, the Byzanthines were quite difficult to deal with, unlike earlier Turkish games. However when I did manage to get Constantinople it was a piece of cake.

    Secondly there were lots of civil wars and rebellions in the game. At the end of early almost all of eastern Europe consisted of rebel provinces, as did Norway & Sweden and a good chunk of central Europe. Strange thing is that most of them were quite well developped, lot's of citadels and master bowyers, etc. Those rebels must be industrious people! Of course I bribed lot's of armies and this helped my expansion.

    Knowing the Golden Horde would come eventually, I began my preperations already in the early period. First I began a raiding strategy in all of the steppe provinces- 1. capture a province with a huge army, lead by my king 2. destroy all buildings in it (I really don't want the GH to have citadels and high grade production facilities) 3. pull out and repeat on other provinces. The added advantage is that when the Golden Horde is thinned out, you can launch lots of Jihads and take all the steppe provinces with ease.
    I also built a fortress in Georgia because the GH appeared there in all of my previous games. I stationed a single unit of Gulam bodyguards there, plus 2 units of Hashishin. My thought was that because it would take an eternity to besiege this stronghold, the Golden Horde could only assault and lose a lot of valuable men or wait it out, letting me launch multiple jihads to retake it.

    However, the GH did not appear in Georgia. I was pissed off.
    Soon afterwards I was able to train the Janissary units. This coupled with v2 Armenian cavalry and v1 Saracen infantry + upgrades in good quantities meant that wiping the GH off the map wasn't nearly as hard as it should have been- they were gone in 11 years.

    After that, well it got quite boring. There weren't any superpowers that could rival me, and whereas I wielded Jannissaries already the western kingdoms couldn't throw anything better at me then feudal units. It still took quite some time but there weren't any exiting battles after the Horde.

  15. #75
    Member Member Jaqmaq the Blaq's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Oklahoma City
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Turks

    Question to the Learned. Playing on Early Normal, my Turks have captured the whole board and it is still some 15 years before the Golden Horde is supposed to emerge. Am I forced to wait for the GH to emerge and be elminated before I can achieve victory?

    Second question, now that I think about it. There is one territory not under my control, the Irish isle. They have no port so I cannot land there. Is there any Turkish unit available in Early that can storm in and root them out?
    Mistah Kurt: "Women are evil. Men are stupid."

  16. #76
    Member Member Jaqmaq the Blaq's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Oklahoma City
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Turks

    My bad. Eliminating the rebel force in Ireland finished the game before the GH arrived. Apparently I had to have a port on the English isle to reach Ireland.
    Mistah Kurt: "Women are evil. Men are stupid."

  17. #77
    Member Member Malachi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Cambridge, UK
    Posts
    2

    Default Re: Turks

    Newbie Salute to Katank for the Early Turk blitz. That's some good work. And a big yay for Futuwwas! Currently enjoying a High-Hard Turkish campaign. I think 25 years is long enough to prepare for the Mongols.

  18. #78

    Default Re: Turks

    Quote Originally Posted by Malachi
    Currently enjoying a High-Hard Turkish campaign. I think 25 years is long enough to prepare for the Mongols.

    I'm playing the same (Turks High-Hard) and am having a hard time keeping my head above water.
    Two English crusades, one German Crusade, war with Byzantium, war with Egypt, and war with the Mongols have severely depleted my armies and caused me to lose Trebizond, Rum and Armenia. I've gained Nicea, Egypt, Sinai, Arabia, Cyprus and just took Tripoli after a hard fought battle. I'm on the upswing and am finally making money, but Italy is getting big and could take me out pretty quickly if they so decide. I tried to stay at peace and just prepare for the Mongols, but the crusades and the backstabbing Byzantines changed that.

    What's been your early strategy?

  19. #79

    Default Re: Turks

    Hello im new to this game but ive been around these games for 10+ years. I was looking for some building info( the college of surgeons to be exact), and decided to post my thoughts on the turks, since im now engaged in their epic tale.

    Early period:easy(ya ya I know its really easy but I will go for guts and glory later)
    Start with only a couple provinces, and very uneducated people, and a small army. You are surrounded by egypt and byz. Egypt is overall the weaker opponent. But byz is a sleeping lion of the east. Better to kill it while its sleeping than wait for it to wake it up when its already hungry. Georgia is the first I take for +1valor janissaries in the later period also I focus on taking constantinople very early, whilst holding egypt at bay with diplomatic options.Once I have taken constatinople I focus on egypt till I get to egypt lol. By this time I will have also taken kazaar( one of two provences they invade, the other is armenia not sure if theres more.) At this point its best to defend whats yours for a while to build up your tech and prep for mongols. I saved at year 1200 and preped for 30yrs with my units and thousands of mercs. When the golden horde arrived they came with 25000 men, I had about 20000 I was aiming for 10000 lol. They only invaded kazaar because I had a large army in armenia as well 2000 men.
    That battle was great and took 4+ freakin hours. But I learned about all the turks do's and dont's and which men are really good and ones that stink.
    Saracen are the single most importent infantry for early and late periods I used 6 units in a square formation in the woods and the held off thousands of mongels. They shredded calvary and took arrows like champs(hehe woods are great cover, and calvary are poor in woods), also I used reinforcements for the other part of my army.....alot. Heavy steppe calvary for moscovy and kazaar are the best you can get for preping for mongols, use them well. I like this game for the battles, the strat part is easy even on hard, but the battles can be more difficult.
    Once you defeat the mogols its a cake walk, not really any army thats going to attack with 25000 or even 10000 so you should have it pretty easy.

    Main points of turks:

    Turks are a heavy calvary faction, they have great archers and horse archers, use this to your advantage. Kill the men charging you, skirmish them some more then use heavy calvary to drive them home. Also they have some of the best heavy infantry in the game janissaries heavy infantry and gazi are just aw inspiring to watch cut through hundreds of brave knights even on horses.

    Mongols will be a problem you must deal with in 1231 prepare for them early.

    Crusades will be a problem, once you take constatinople they will usually crusade to that provence first and its easy to defend with a good army.

    jihads are useful, I didnt use them to much except for fun but they may prove more reliable to you. Just remember that they are only used on previously owned provences!

    Mercs!!!!! What could a warlord ask for thats better than his own body guards?? an army that he only pays once!!! if they die? who cares hire more!!
    And you can get any unit for any faction!! even rebel units ha!
    I took 10000 mercs to war against the mongols,chivaric sergants, italian infantry, arquebusiers(guns), handguns, alomohad urbans, bulgarian brigands, pavise arbalests, crossbowmen with pavise, longbows!!! alot lol, mortars lol gunpowder wasnt used in middle east yet not till 1260, chivalric men at arms, byzantine infantry, halberdiers!!! ahaha great units, poor mongols, billmen I think didnt use them in battle as I had 163 reinforcements, bleh to many.I also used a merc army for taking all of spain. Just make sure you have your own generals leading the mercs like your gulam cav.
    Also I used mercs for taking byz out early, then I built up my own units and disbanded all the mercs.

    This is my opinion on playing the turks, and some of the ideas that I used to thrive and have fun.....heheh 25kvs20k was alot of fun!!! I saved the replay, not sure if I could email it out but I have it for those new to the game or new to turks that wants to see them in action on a huge scale.


    -diz

  20. #80
    Sovereign Oppressor Member TIE Fighter Shooter Champion, Turkey Shoot Champion, Juggler Champion Kralizec's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    5,812

    Default Re: Turks

    Tip: well before the Horde arrives, send a few army stacks to the steppe provinces. After you've conquered a province, tear everything down, move to the next province and repeat. This will earn you money, prevents the GH from building good troops and later on you can launch jihads on these provinces to gain quick influence for your Sultan.

  21. #81

    Default Re: Turks

    the ottoman turks,a historical note.
    i once read somewhere that the ottomans had a set battle tactic using three waves of troops.
    1st wave-a motley collection of christan mercanaries who had been promised plunder go on to soften up the enemy and take heavey casulties.

    2nd wave- in go the cavalry

    3rd wave- finally the jannissaries go in and finish it all off.

    because the jannissaries are so hard to acsess in the game you could use
    high valour/armour sarecen infantry and turcoman foot as a reasonable substitute.the 1st wave could even be peasants as they are only being used as spoilers to disrupt thethe enemy before your good troops go in.if anyone tries this please post to let me know how you got on.
    the jannissaries were also linked to a particular sufi sect and lived a harsh monastic life.before battle they would have a sort of last supper involving bread cheese and wine.extracts from the koran and the new testament were swen into their uniforms.
    disclaimer....any mistakes in this post are my own.

    the kalifah of watton

  22. #82

    Default Re: Turks

    as a foot note to my comments on the jannissaries i found a good article on them on the net at wikipedia free encyclopedia.ive noticed alot of spelling mistakes in my last post as i didnt use spell check.can you edit a thread youve allready posted?

    the kalifah of watton

  23. #83
    Gettin' Medieval Member King Bob VI's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    85

    Default Re: Turks

    Currently enjoying a High-Hard Turkish campaign.
    Same here, also. I rushed the Byz. early and left the eggys alone until they attacked me, now I've conquered all of their lands over to egypt. The horde: they sent a small army to georgia when they arrived, which I heroically beat off, but the next year they came back with about 3k troops. I got some merc. from armenia and used my pretty big army in rum to drive them back to Khazar, which I could defend from. I've just got the military academy up in rum (it's about 1350) and I'm enjoying the powerful jannisary units. Many of the turkish units can be built w/ +1 valor in various turkish provinces, so it's a good idea to build those there. Another good idea is to capture Constatinople asap. it provide a huge income, and can act as a center of trade. It is also convienient to be able to put most of your troops in there and defend from one province, instead of from Nicea and Trebizond, were you have to split your army. The crusades will come through Const. quite often, but it is quite easy to wear them down with HA and pepper them with foot archers, before charging them with various infantry, and Heavy Cav at the flanks. Just some tips, hope they help.

  24. #84
    Chief Sniffer Senior Member ichi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Posts
    3,132

    Default Re: Turks

    Quote Originally Posted by kalifah of watton
    as a foot note to my comments on the jannissaries i found a good article on them on the net at wikipedia free encyclopedia.ive noticed alot of spelling mistakes in my last post as i didnt use spell check.can you edit a thread youve allready posted?

    the kalifah of watton
    With member status comes the ability to edit IIRC.

    There is a spell check feature with each post, helps out when you don't spell well or have fat fingers

    ichi
    Stay Calm, Be Alert, Think Clearly, Act Decisively

    CoH

  25. #85
    Member Member RollingWave's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Republic of China (Taiwan)
    Posts
    352

    Default Re: Turks

    The Turks are arguablly the worest faction to face the Mongols with, simply due to the fact that you can't build Arbalest.

    The simpliest way to beat the mongols without heavy losses and heartstoppers is to build a CAMEL TURKISH SILVER load of arbalest and spearman. facing them in georgia and Armenia will mean that you have the height advantage, and with the endurign ammunition of the arbalest you can repell the mongols quiet well (the reason why they are better than archers... archers ammo ran out fast, you must keep pulling in new units of archers)

    Another rather dirty trick i use sometimes is the hidden army trick. apparently the size of the Mongol force depends on the garrison you have in the eastern area, the more troops you have, the more Mongols will come, so essentially, leave a tiny garrison at the border areas, and in the areas close to the borders... build lots and lots of Jihad, that way, the Mongol will arrive with a rather small force, and u hide ur forces into the castle, the next turn you get up all ur jihad, sent them in and just auto calc.
    Last edited by Kekvit Irae; 09-16-2006 at 14:38.

  26. #86

    Default Re: Turks

    Never!

    Drop as many full flag armies you can spare in Khazar! Mongols should arrive with about 22,000-25,000 men in just ONE province. That way you can kill them all at once!

    When Mongols arrive, drop a Janissary army in there with your best 9* general! Flat land should make it even more challenging! Oh yeah, hopefully you captured Constantinople quick enough to build Grand Mosque and a military academy....

    After a 3 hour battle, you should not see any grass on the battlefield, just a LOT of dead horses and men! On the other hand, probably half of your janissaries will be dead, but the other half with have gained MASSIVE valor!

    I do this with the pope too, I keep a large army in Rome and Papal States and wait for them to pop out. You can gain a lot of valor for your men this way. Plus the pope usually brings fairly decent men to fight (I hate an army thats made up of peasants and militia). About the only way you can have fun later on in the game (I also always wait for the Burgundians to pop out too).

  27. #87

    Default Re: Turks

    Quote Originally Posted by Marquis of Roland
    Never!

    Drop as many full flag armies you can spare in Khazar! Mongols should arrive with about 22,000-25,000 men in just ONE province. That way you can kill them all at once!

    When Mongols arrive, drop a Janissary army in there with your best 9* general! Flat land should make it even more challenging! Oh yeah, hopefully you captured Constantinople quick enough to build Grand Mosque and a military academy....

    After a 3 hour battle, you should not see any grass on the battlefield, just a LOT of dead horses and men! On the other hand, probably half of your janissaries will be dead, but the other half with have gained MASSIVE valor!

    I do this with the pope too, I keep a large army in Rome and Papal States and wait for them to pop out. You can gain a lot of valor for your men this way. Plus the pope usually brings fairly decent men to fight (I hate an army thats made up of peasants and militia). About the only way you can have fun later on in the game (I also always wait for the Burgundians to pop out too).
    For even more fun, change difficulty to expert!

  28. #88
    Tovenaar Senior Member The Wizard's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Europe
    Posts
    5,348

    Default Re: Turks

    Quote Originally Posted by RollingWave
    The Turks are arguablly the worest faction to face the Mongols with, simply due to the fact that you can't build Arbalest.
    Doesn't faze me at all. The advantage of the Turks is their enormous mobility. With very cheap forces (Turcoman horse, inf, Ottoman inf, ghazis) you can run around, tire and crush forces larger and better-equipped than yours.

    This is extremely handy for the Late Turkish campaign, GA.

    You will need to be extremely aggressive. Produce Turcoman horse and inf and, if you can spare the expense, some Ottoman inf as well. Keep the Egyptians befriended -- you'll have your hands full completing your GA goals, which are all to the West.

    Invade your first goal, Anatolia, ASAP, some three-four turns into the game. After that comes Lesser Armenia, which is VERY IMPORTANT. It's easier to reach than Armenia proper, and it will gain you access to your only heavy cavalry for a whole while: Armenian Heavy Cavalry. You can produce them right off the bat there, which is great, because AHC will be your battle-winning arm.

    Equip a single army for the task of pushing West. Just one. I equipped it with the following units: 4 Turcoman horse, 3 Saracen inf, 2 Turcoman inf, 2 Ottoman inf, 2-4 AHC. I built that up, of course, as I advanced, but the HAs are PARAMOUNT and must be in there. Consolidate your hold on the provinces you've just captured by sending garisson troops -- militia, peasants -- from your nearest by developed province. All that's needed is a stack of some two-three of these units.

    Your eventual goal? Bulgaria -- it has a Citadel and this will allow you to tech ASAP to janissaries. Bulgaria has a hidden +2 valor bonus to JHI. To reach it bypass Constantinople after capturing Trebizond and/or Nicaea. Don't assault or starve out the garisson! It's better to bribe them, because that will keep the Citadel up.

    I've found that you can reach Bulgaria within 10-20 turns from the starting date. From that base in Europe, you can calmly invade Serbia, Greece, Wallachia and Moldavia. As your power grows, your enemies will multiply: I found myself attacked by the Egyptians in Rum while my one single army equipped for large-scale battles was all the way in Bulgaria.

    Now, to compensate for this lack of numerical power, you will need to use your HA's and light inf to the fullest. Contact with the enemy is NOT your objective. Pepper them with as much arrows as is possible, weaken them, let them chase your fast Turcoman cav and inf. Only when your HAs have no more ammo do you bring in your ghazis, saracen inf and, most importantly, AHC. Your enemy will be tired and weakened numerically, and once you have them pinned down by your Saracen inf, strike them in the flanks with that amazing charge power of ghazis and AHC. 3 units of AHC, 2 ranks deep, striking a weakened and surrounded army in the back is enough to make any enemy run like hell.

    Your objective is NOT to fight battles with a lot of losses. You do not have the resources to compensate for large losses. Your objective is to have each battle end in a utter victory, where your enemy is annihalated at very little cost to you.
    "It ain't where you're from / it's where you're at."

    Eric B. & Rakim, I Know You Got Soul

  29. #89
    Senior Member Senior Member katank's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Cambridge, MA, USA
    Posts
    3,739

    Default Re: Turks

    That is indeed a good way to play and great fun.

    Lack of arbs is not a problem.

    For bridge battles in Kiev, the access to naptha more than makes up for arbs.

    To kill that jedi king, use some naptha and send him to kingdom come instantly.


    As for massive jihad spam, I tried that once. In early, I blitzed Constantinople and then produced a grand mosque for Imams. I built jihad markers every turn.

    Zeal was at whooping 85 or so when the Mongols arrived.

    I dropped all 40+ jihad markers on Khazar and owned the AI by autocalcing.

    I then disbanded all the junk troops and ended with more than 3 stacks of elite janissaries.

  30. #90

    Post Re: Turks

    Quote Originally Posted by The Wizard
    You will need to be extremely aggressive.
    Interesting that you should say that. Am new to this board but I have played this game for a while and I like to point one thing. To use your "Hit 'N' Run" tactics to its fullest potential you should have an effective mobile HC

    (Imagine a armoured Boyar)

    For me the Sipahi of Porte, how should be able to carry out this role, are unable to carry out this role because of their unrealistic stats.

    To counter this I modify their stats from 5 5 5 7 to a more a realistic 7 6 5 5, double their unit size to 40 and notched up their speed slightly below that of a Turcoman Horse.

    (And completly justified considering their high build requirements. That aside I did do another modification I may later regret - I modified the JHI charge stats to 7 and give them a single javelin missile, I may have over stepped the mark and inadvertently turned them into super-troopers)

    BTW: Does anyone why I can't build a 2nd Grand Mosque and is there a way around it?

Page 3 of 6 FirstFirst 123456 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Single Sign On provided by vBSSO