Query: Turkish settlement strategy?

[PseRamesses]

The turks are on of those factions that do not require castles to field decent armies since you can hire your horse archers from cities. I personally wouldn't try to go for all of africa and would stop once i get to the egyptian provinces since the cities are really far apart and not extremely useful. It would be better to expand in two directions at once with one army southwards and one westwards. You can wipe out the Byzantines fairly quickly if you call a jihad at a good time and get multiple jihad armies.

I rather keep the Byzantines around as long as possible for trade and to have a nearby jihad-target. As for the unit-rooster, HA´s are not the only answer, and the castles has excellent foot-units which are more useful in settlements against the mongols and timurids.
Setting my final borders at Kaukasus, Bosphorus and Gibraltar lets me defend my empire wit only 3 field armies. You´re right that it would be the same if, instead of Gibraltar, my border was set at Alexandria. I do like though to have a monopoly on ivory, slaves and with strong merch´s in Constantinople a monopoly in silk is feasible. Having Arguin is also cool since I in one game conquered the new world so Bush was brought up a muslim, he he!

[Snipafist]

I tend to have less castles than normal with the Turks, as they can recruit some excellent units from cities (janissaries as well as earlier horse archers), but their castle units are not to be overlooked. Ottoman Infantry, Naffaratun, later cavalry, and (in the earlier period) Turkish Archers are all fine troops. The problem is finding a good spot to place your castles. In general, I agree with the "if it can build a port, make it a city" rationale, so try to place castles in landlocked provinces with decent growth and access to nearby cities in case of attack. Further, Baghdad can make a fine castle for defense against the Timurids and Mongols. This is vital - if the Mongols/Timurids come after you, you are going to need a multitude of well-defended castles on your eastern frontier.

I also like to keep the Byzantines kicking for as long as possible. Before gunpowder, it is not very beneficial to take them out, as you can't possibly fend off all the European powers that will want a piece of you once you get into Europe proper. Additionally, it's cheaper to use war fleets to block the two land bridges than to keep a full-fledged army nearby. This keeps out Byzantines AND crusaders quite effectively. They make a fine "buffer" between you and Europe this way, and you can turn your attention to Mongolian invasions and cleaning up the Egyptians at your leisure.