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unmerged(23791)

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Dec 22, 2003
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My first ever AAR. :rolleyes:

Settings were Hard/Aggressive v1.02 House Rules - NO RELOADS!

Okay, I had the benefit of hindsight from past failures to make the Ottoman Turks great again, and also when the AI and game events combine to ruin the Grand Pasha's day dreams! This time, my Turks are luck!

From the start, we researched Army Tech, and keep going until we got breech loading muskets which give the first significant increase in firepower plus the previous organisation and movement speed increases.

Budget wise, near max taxation on all groups, and max defense and education spending. Crime fighting at 50%. Social min.

Beides the massing of Turkish troops near Syria and Amman, the whole Army of the Danube and Imperial Guard was transported to Tobruk.

Poltically, I accepted the Prussian advisers in ealry 1838 and also increased the reserves.

War with Egypt came as expected in Feb 1838 (scripted event?). We were now in a colonial war with Egypt and France. After 3 years of continous fighting, Egypt was annexed in early 1841 which gained my Turks Great Power status and overall 3rd game ranking. The deployment to Tobruk was key to victory from past attempts as opening a second front in North Africa really got the Egypt AI in a bind. Previously, I was content to be on the defensive, and was often overrun by the Mameluks. Luckily during the fighting, Russia and Austria did not declare war and advance on my undefended borders with them. All France did to help Egypt was to sink half the Ottoman navy!

I have about 40 regular/reserve infantry divisions and 8 cavalry divisions in service.

My Ottoman Empire is now busy redeploying to the Russian and Balkan fronts.
I will now rebalance research to get more Industry and Commerce advances.

I don't think that there will be any more easy gains from now so time to consolidate and modernise, and wait for the Christian Great Powers to squabble and strike at one of them during the turmoil. Perhaps I should go after Persia (but UK guarantees independence) or the rest of North Africa but it really stretches my logistics as I'm far away from building railways and the Ottoman navy is too weak. Maybe I should develop Basra and base a new fleet there to exploit colonies in Africa and Asia? :p

Wait for the next chapter....
 
Good luck with this first AAR of yours. It is always a treat to read about where the Ottoman Empire takes people. For some reason I have a fixation with them. :D
 
Just build a few colonies right next to egypt and expane your territory there, but mainly focus on russia, since they are coming for you :wacko: and get back your puppets, like montenegro and serbia and retake greeece. PLEASE !!!
 
A Balkan War - You Got It!

But first, I must build up my troops for the inevitable Christian Coalition lead by Russia who are even more likely to come after me if I attack Greece.

My guess is probably 5-10 years before the Ottoman Turks are ready to take on the Christian powers. Would be nice if Germany if I can get Germany to become a full fledged ally! :D

My strategy would be to fight defensively as make the Russian suffer high attrition in my provinces given the present relatively low tech. Will adopt a "von Manstein/Napoleon of 1814" mobile defense tactics.
 
Remember to run over Ethiopia when you have a spare moment ;)

It must feel like playing with a timebomb, the Crimean War events.
 
Now I am playing at Vic like Turkey. More difficult for me than the CSA. First the Egyptians. I needed 4 years to get an advantageous peace (three provinces). Then beginning the long process of modernisation and trying to take Greece, but when doing it, the whole of Austria power fell upon me. I took two Greek provinces and reached a white peace (better than a victory) with Austrians. Yesterday afternoon Russia declared war on me and I am fighting for survival.
Good luck with your AAR, I think the Ottoman Empire it is not easy to play. :)
 
Perhaps with such high relations with Prussia/and or Austria, you could enter a defensive alliance. That way, when the Russians come calling you will have a northwest front on the Russians opened up.
 
I hope you got a huge army. I tried a game as the ottoman empire, and suddenly Russia invades :mad: I standing no chance since my military is overstretched, 'cause of rebellions and egypt to guard. Needed all my forces to push them back and after the third time in a MONTH!! when they came back I quited, makes no fun and I can't reinforce as fast a Russia, no wonder with that industrial and colonial basis :eek:
 
1846 Ottoman Empire fends off Russians

Russia started declaring war and then offering White Peace from around 1842. My Ottoman Turks stayed on the defensive and accepted their offers. However, the Russians got serious in 1843 and seemd bent to all out attack. At this stage my mobilised the 35 divisions in reserve. After 3 years of war where I was slowly gaining on the Russians especially in the Caucasus but also in the Odessa region. War weariness set in on both empires but finally in mid 1846, the Russians offered 5 provinces in the Caucasus for peace. Since one can only demand 3 provinces against a civilised power (correct?), I accepted the offer. Would have been nice to get Odessa - next time :rolleyes:

So I have no just demobilised the reserves and my troops are returing home. Don't know what the AI will do next but will be watchful of Austria. Russia should be quiet now for 5 years unless AI is willing to take the big prestige hit??

Gotta build more factories and research more industry.

I took the advice of other forum members and fielded 2 dragoons with artillery - seems OK not yet distinguished themselves yet but useful to take over undefended provinces
- I guess with artillery, they are an all arms division of a sort.
 
1873 Strong but enemies are increasing

The Ottoman Army fields 85 divisions, making it the 2nd Military Power; overall the Ottomans are 2nd in game terms. Russia lost 3 wars to us and have yielded 15 provinces including Odessa and Crimea. Russia also lost a war to Austria and has been quiet for many years. :rolleyes:

However, we are in the midst of our second war with Austria despite giving them 3 provinces, they broke the peace treaty (is there an AI bug here - thought 1.02 they are less likley to do so?) :(

Russia stirring up the Balkans caused me problems to no end. Had to keep fully mobilised as regular army is not large enough. Huge standing army is starting to break the bank. My industry ranks 9th only! I guess I'm not building enough factories.

Don't know if I want to soldier on as the Ottomans much longer......so tiring to run this empire that does not want to stay together. UK is very far ahead and will win the game anyway.

So far I've done better than history but not sure from here on......... :(
 
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Imagine how bad it was for the real ottoman leaders :wacko: . You've done better than them, and thats something to be proud of, you just need to control the revolts.
 
Try to stick it out. It's no mean feat doing what you've done.
 
Don't give up. Have you thought about alliances with Prussia or United Kingdom. Maybe you will be involved in greater troubles in the future, but perhaps Russian and Austrian intentions will be softer also. :)
 
Id say make an alliance with the British Empire, if at all possible. The British will be quite happy for you to keep the Russians busy as it keeps them out of India, and gives them dominance over those pesky northern tribes in the Pamirs and such. We'll probably still see them thrown out of Afghanistan but who knows beyond that?

Of course, maybe you want to get the Arabian Peninsula under your control to ensure that the 20th century is an Ottoman century. Think of all that luscious oil under your control!
 
Why not have a go at Iran? It is a nice big juice target just waiting to be taken out. Then maybe after that you can harass the British in New Dehli!