Turkish campaign: advice welcome

[KaraDevil]

Hi Gilrandir, I’d like to give you some advice about the composition of your armies if I may…

First of all I’d suggest you create two different types of armies, one you will use for offense and one for defense. Be patient and stay on a low profile during early and high… in late, as soon as your faction switches from the Seljuk Turks to the Ottomans (about 1300) you will be able to train Ottoman Infantry and Ottoman Sipahi, don’t underestimate these units, they are very useful especially against Christian knights.

Your defensive armies should be composed of at least 6 battalions of Heavy Janissary Infantry, 4 battalions of Ottoman Sipahis, 4 battalions of Turcoman horse archers, a siege cannon (or demi-cannon) and your General… which would be a solid army of about 1400 men. You should use these kind of armies to defend against crusades and other invasions from your enemies and you will be able to repel them even when outnumbered (with one of these I’ve personally defeated enemy armies of over 6000 men!).

As for your offensive armies you should use 6 battalions of Ottoman Infantry, 4 battalions of Janissary Infantry (yes the normal ones, not heavy), 2 battalions of Janissary Archers, 2 battalions of Ottoman Sipahis, a demi-cannon (or siege cannon) and your General. This will be an army of about 1640 men, excellent for classical Turkish warfare. Almost all of your units will be archers and simultaneously melee troops which will give you an excellent advantage for attacking enemy armies even if they climb up to a hill like the Byz did during your first battle.
Of course it all depends on how you use these troops, the best way to lure the enemy down the hills will be to approach him until he is in range and start shooting. Also do not make your troops attack them on melee until they are out of arrows, you will do them a lot of damage even if they are positioned downhill.

I also suggest you to conquer Hungary asap and to train your Janissary troops there… the province has iron and will boost the attack of your troops immensely. Hope this helps you to conquer easily most of the map :)

[drone]

Welcome to the Org, KaraDevil!

[Gilrandir]

Hi Gilrandir, I’d like to give you some advice about the composition of your armies if I may…

First of all I’d suggest you create two different types of armies, one you will use for offense and one for defense. Be patient and stay on a low profile during early and high… in late, as soon as your faction switches from the Seljuk Turks to the Ottomans (about 1300) you will be able to train Ottoman Infantry and Ottoman Sipahi, don’t underestimate these units, they are very useful especially against Christian knights.

Your defensive armies should be composed of at least 6 battalions of Heavy Janissary Infantry, 4 battalions of Ottoman Sipahis, 4 battalions of Turcoman horse archers, a siege cannon (or demi-cannon) and your General… which would be a solid army of about 1400 men. You should use these kind of armies to defend against crusades and other invasions from your enemies and you will be able to repel them even when outnumbered (with one of these I’ve personally defeated enemy armies of over 6000 men!).

As for your offensive armies you should use 6 battalions of Ottoman Infantry, 4 battalions of Janissary Infantry (yes the normal ones, not heavy), 2 battalions of Janissary Archers, 2 battalions of Ottoman Sipahis, a demi-cannon (or siege cannon) and your General. This will be an army of about 1640 men, excellent for classical Turkish warfare. Almost all of your units will be archers and simultaneously melee troops which will give you an excellent advantage for attacking enemy armies even if they climb up to a hill like the Byz did during your first battle.
Of course it all depends on how you use these troops, the best way to lure the enemy down the hills will be to approach him until he is in range and start shooting. Also do not make your troops attack them on melee until they are out of arrows, you will do them a lot of damage even if they are positioned downhill.

I also suggest you to conquer Hungary asap and to train your Janissary troops there… the province has iron and will boost the attack of your troops immensely. Hope this helps you to conquer easily most of the map :)

Thank you for the tips, KaraDevil. I will take them into account. Division of armies into defensive and offensive is a natural thing for me to do. As for the composition of the army, I haven't reached the late period yet (it is 1305). Still, I don't think I will use Ottoman infantry much - for multipurpose melee/archer type of units I prefer Futuwwa. Secondly, I never (after some initial attempts at usage) train artillery of any kind - way too ineffective in defensive battles and unable to move when the enemy is out of range in offensive ones. And an essential thing you seem to miss is cavalry. You must have some of it to circumvent and smite the enemy in the rear and then to chase routers.
The Hungarians are confined to Walachia only now, so they do not present any particular problem at the moment. My empire stretches from Frankonia to Volga-Bulgaria, and in the south it is in Egypt (the Eggies are in Tunisia with Almohads in Cyrenaica between them and me).
My real concern now is the Italians - they managed to create a colonial kind of empire which beside their core starting provinces includes Portugal, Granada, Morocco, Algeria, Aquitaine, Brittany, all of Great Britain and Ireland, Pomerania, Finland, Livonia and Lithuania. I am reluctant to start a campaign against them so far as it will disrupt the overseas trade I'm having now (my treasury is more than 400 000 florins). As the Italians have a ramified navy network, I foresee the prospective campaign as predominantly a marine one the outcome of which is far from certain. The land campaign presents less difficulty with my beloved JHI up the sleeve. At least it is how I see it now.

[I of the Storm]

Having to fight against a huge rival who posesses a navy is a pain. Especially naval factions like the italians will drop small raiding parties on your coasts if you don't 'garrison' all your seazones properly. For my late game muslim empires 5-6 baggalas per seazone should be a sufficient deterrent navy. Have 2 or 3 killing navies going around (booms mainly I think), preferably full stacks, to fight a naval war of attrition. Overkill and outbuilding is the key here. On the land you seem to be pretty safe but naval opponents are a real pita.

[Gilrandir]

I do expect it to be a pain. The crumb of comfort that I have is the supposition (bordering on conviction) that with the start of a war the Italians will find it hard to retain a hold on their overseas provinces. The disruption of ties with the king will lead to the drop of loyalty and consequently to a number of rebellions, so they will face a continuous shrinking of their power. Hopefully, it will distract them from producing more ships.

[I of the Storm]

This may happen but don't count on it. Keep us updated!

[Gilrandir]

To tell the truth, I want to postpone this war for as long as possible and I'm not going to start it myself, anyway. At the moment I have the Swiss to deal with (they own only Tyrolia and Switzerland, but keep producing Swiss halbs - how can they afford it????) and the French became a handful of rebel provinces so I'm kind of jostling and pushing others to get my piece of their pie (I got Flanders!!).

[Gilrandir]

Now I know why this game is called TOTAL war - within three of four years I found myself engaged in active warfare with three out of four most powerful factions of my time - the Polish, the Danish and the Italians - and it was through no initiative of mine!!! The fourth (the Aragonese) just sent a crusade, so this war can't be called "active hostility". The Danish twice invaded my Muscovy from Novgorod, Italians twice attacked me in Chernigov (their Lithuanian force had five stacks), the Polish captured my Volynia and stormed the fortress. Plus four newly-captured Fench provinces rebelled, plus substantial loyalty drop in Levant provinces, plus the mentioned crusade attacking my Croatia from Venice. And, intensive sea battling to boot. Someone said that the AI is not especially aggressive on expert - bullsh... oops - fiddlesticks!!!
But I'm proud to say I weathered the gale. Trusting my armies to hold back the invaders I decided to deal with the enemies piecemeal.
I started with the Polish by invading Poland and Silesia and besieging both fortresses. I repelled the Italians who attacked from Pomerania to deliver their Polish allies besieged in Warsaw but the Polish, leaving Volynia attacked me with all their might. But I knew it to be an agony. I withdrew and attacked the next year bringing more troops. The Polish being short of manpower after their two phyrric victories in Volynia were utterly defeated and are now confined to Prussia and Carpathia, being unable to garrison either of them properly. Then I evicted the Danish from Saxony and Brandenburg and the Italians from Lithuania, Venice and Milan (by the way, the Italians were foolish enough to start a war against the Danish over Novgorod; moreover, their overseas provinces are rebelling one by one). The crusade is no more and I control all the coasts of Eastern Mediterranean. Well, the wars are not over yet and I have to deal with the resurrected French in Wessex and Normandy, but at least I can draw a breath after those 5 eventful years.
If anyone is interested let me know and I'll report on my campaign later.