Tales of the Ottomans

[Tem_Probe]

Originally posted by Sokollu

The Ottoman Military Strategy:

Never fight two fronts at the same time.

hehe

Yes, that is very wise. You can actually easily fight on multiple fronts and win, the only problem is the war attrition that will inevitably set in, and the drain on your treasury and manpower.

[Mimir]

Which settings are you playing on? Normal? Hard? etc?

[Carolus Rex]

Lovely stuff.
Keep updating, the turkey is on the move.

[Tem_Probe]

On May 3 1448, less than a month after the annexion of Candar, our age-old enemy, Venice, whom had beared a grudge against us since we seized their commercial assets in our lands, decided to strike back at us. Thus, Venice, and their allies: Bosnia, Mantua, Milan and Naples waged war on us. We called in our allies for this war, whom quickly moved in and responded our call to arms.

Their first move were quickly executed. Bosnia moved into Kosovo, driving back our weakened army deployed there while Venice moved in to besiege Smyrna. We started deploying our troops against them, mustering new armies to use against those catholic dogs. Great news would be brought to us shortly following the beginning of the wars: The heathen and heretics in Adana, Macedonia and Cataract had finally been converted to the One True Faith, and our infrastructure technology had improved enough to allow us to construct Refineries.
We began to plan our attacks: Our massive fleet went to Delta, picking up an army located in Egypt, and then moved on to the Bay of Tobruk, where we engaged the navy of Mantua and defeating them easily. We loaded another army in our navy, and set sail for Crete. On land, we sent two armies to engage the armies of Venice in Smyrna and Bosnia in Kosovo, defeating each of them in turn. We unloaded both armies in Crete at the same time: A disastrous defeat ensued, resulting in the near destruction of both armies on the beach and attrition during the retreat. Roughly 12000 soldiers out of the initial 30000 managed to escape the island alive, retreating safely to our boats, and began licking their wounds for the planned conquest of Crete. This would prove to be much tougher than initially expected, however the Ottoman patience and the willingness of its Sultans to sacrifice countless thousands for the conquest of a few acres is legendary.

In the meantime on the Continent, our army moved into Bosnia, engaging our enemy there and defeating them. In may 1449, we again unloaded our troops in Crete, attempting to secure control of the island. Once again, our armies were repulsed, though they suceeded in inflicting some casualties to the defenders... that was a start. Once the troops got back into our navy, we retreated to Alexandria, to prepare for another onslaught. The Venetians would not be allowed to hold us back from our destiny, we would do everything to take control of the Mediterannean Sea. In September, we sent an army to invade Ionia, defeating the Venetian army there, and starting the siege. Next month, Bosnia was captured and annexed as a part of our growing empire. This annexation would be enough to convince Milan to make peace with us, though Napoli and Mantua remained decided enemies. The annexation of Bosnia would however get us another enemy, one we could care less about: The state of Wurtemberg, which was too far from us to pose any kind of threat anyway. After defeating Bosnia, our army there moved back into Kosovo, where local rebels had seized the province.

May 1450 started with a rebellion in Bosnia, just as we were busy quelling one in Kosovo. It was also at this time that Ionia fell into our hand, and where we made another attempt to seize Crete. We failed, once again, to defeat the garrison there, however we had no intentions of giving up on our plan yet. October: We fought the Venetians in Crete again, being repulsed again by their veteran army. We moved back to Alexandria, preparing the next stage of our offensive on Crete, while defeating an invasion army by Venice in Kosovo.
We took back Kosovo, and as we did, Naples declared war on the Papal States, dragging the whole alliance behind him in this foolish conflict, which would prove a great benefit to us, as Venise would be force to tie its ressource fighting in Italia instead of fighting us.

It is too bad that our grand Monarch would not live to see the conclusion of the war. In February of 1450, Murad II died, replaced on the throne by Mehmed II Fatih, whose first act was to seize the command of our army in Kosovo and move into Dalmatia, defeating the Venetian there, and besieging the province. In the meantime, our fleet in the south would not lose its time. Picking up a reinforced army in Alexandria, and moving to pick another in the Gulf of Tobruk, it moved into position in the Cretan Sea to prepare another invasion of the island. At this time, Bavaria also entered a conflict against Venice and its allies, in outrage of its war against the Pope, quickly followed in successive months by other powers, such as Savoy and Genoa.

However Venice was determined not to leave us the control of the island. As we were preparing to unload, its fleet moved into the Cretan Sea and engaged ours there. Their combativity was admirable, as they defeated our navy and drove it back all the way into Morea. At this time, we would be seizing Dalmatia however. We would move onto Crete again, only to be driven back by the navy there once again. However, the Venetian made a stupid mistake: Expecting us not to continue our offensive on Crete until we achieved total victory. They not only moved their navy away from the sea surrounding the island, they also took the army defending it, presumably to move it back into Italy where the Venetian alliance was suffering hardships. And so it was that in May 1452, our troops would march into the island virtually unnopposed, with the only the fortress standing in their path.

By the end of the year, we had opened a Fine Arts Academy in Thrace, if only to prove that the Ottoman Empire was not only concerned by war. Strangely, in the following months, we would be plagued by rebels fighting for their religion: In Ionia, Dobrudja, Albania and other areas. We fought several battles against them, and the Venetian fleet, winning everytime, until in January of 1454 we finally captured Crete. In Thrace, we founded the Enderun, instituting a military college that would be the pride of the Ottoman military for years to come. This year would be characterised mostly by a number of successful if minor naval battles against Venice, allowing us to weaken their overall navy by picking on isolated parts of its fleet. In 1455, we loaded a massive army into our fleet, sailed all the way to Venice unopposed, and began to besiege their capital after a very, very bloody battle. Our Sultan instituted Great Military Reforms, bolstering our army again, setting the foundations for our future conquests. We won several battles in Veneto, however we could not hold indefinitely, and as an army of over 30000 mens marched again on Venice, our troops were driven back, the siege of the capital broken. The Venetian were not an easy prey, unlike many of our previous opponents. We loaded 2 armies in Ionia, sailed to Venice, picked up our derelict and fleeing army there, and moved back. Our armies were reorganised, and we attacked Corfu this time.

It would appear that the mistakes were not learnt from, however, as our first assault was a failure, and so was our grand combined assault the month after. We moved back, licked our wounds, assembled massive armies, and decided to plot a new strategy for the conquest of Corfu. One of our general came up with a brilliant idea, and we would see it tested out. At beginning of the month of December, our 1st army disembarked on Corfu, occupying the troops there for a while, though they were beginning to be hard pressed. As they were about to be driven out of the island again, the Imperial Army, and the Army of Syria both disembarked... on the opposite side of the island. The defenders, who were winning, found themselves trapped between three armies on the move, and were utherly destroyed, leaving no survivor. In May 1458, the province of Corfu was finally in our hand. The following years were marked by a succession of revolts crushed, naval battles against Venice, and the completion of 3 Refineries, to bolster our growing economy.

In 1463, the Mameluks declared independence from us, and our ally declared war on Algiers, we defeated the Mameluks in Alexandria, converted Kosovo, and moved to conquer back the Mameluks-held lands. We also sent an army to fight against Algiers. We captured Alexandria, captured Kabylia. Our ruler codified the Atam-Dedem Kanunu, providing a set of laws for our Empire to follow. We continued our offensive against Algiers, which was powerless to defend itself against us, while we continued crushing rebels on the home front. This war had to end soon....

The year was 1466, we had seized Al Djazir and Aures as well, however Tunisia made peace with them, and we were forced to move back.

NOTE: There are some blurry areas here, I'm trying to figure out what were the peace treaties with Venice and the Mameluks, reading the logs at this point is getting confusing. I believe I annexed back the Mameluks and took Ionia and Dalmatia from Venice, but I'm really not quite sure. I'll try to look again later, and post a clarification as soon as I figure out.

[Tem_Probe]

May 1449: Returned to Status Quo with Naples.
September 1449: Returned to Status Quo with Milan.
March 1456: Returned to Status Quo with Wurtemberg.
September 1458: Returned to Status Quo With Orleans.
May 1459: Accepted peace with Venice in exchange for 173 ducats in compensations.

Indeed, so I did not get any provinces out of this war, I made peace with them to stop those damned revoltees which were infesting my Empire and to get my stability back up.

May 1465: We made peace with the Mameluks, annexing them back.

[Tem_Probe]

October 1468, our ally, Tunisia, was defeated in a war by Castile, and forced to cede Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and become their vassal. This action would seed a future conflict against Castile, as Our Grand Sultan could not allow his ally to be vassaled by a catholic dog.

1469, we completed a Refinery in Kastamonu. The end of the year would give us the perfect occasion to strike back at Castile. Their ally, Aragon, declared war upon Ragusa. Not interested in fighting them, Castile dropped out of the alliance, and built another with Cyprus and Serbia.

On September 1470, our fleet had moved into the channel of Cyprus, and we declared war upon them. Their ally Serbia and Castile effectively joined them in the war, as we had hoped, and so did our ally Tunisia, though we were betrayed by Ak Koyunlu once again. In October, our army moved into Serbia, engaging their army, defeating them and setting up the siege. We loaded an army on our fleet in the Gulf of Cyprus, and ordered them to take the island. In November, they had unloaded and defeated the enemy army located there. On the African front, we had moved an army into Cyrenaica, and begun the siege.

May 1471, we captured the provinces of Serbia and Cyrenaica, annexing Serbia into our growing nation. In July, the fleet of Castile moved into the Gulf of Cyprus, trying to break the embargo enforced on the island, resulting in a miserable failure on their part. We converted Albania to the One True Faith, benefited from enthusiasm for the Navy, and in December, annexed Cyprus.

The war in Africa wasn't going exactly as expected as in February 1472, our ally in Tunisia was annexed by Castile, leaving us without ally for a long time to come. In May, we captured Tripolitania from Castile but our fleet moving on Malta was driven back. We moved into Tunisia, engaging the armies of Castile and defeating them. The fleet of Castile tried to pursue us into the Gulf of Sirte, only to be defeated, and defeated again as we pursued them into Cape Bon.

In January 1473, we improved our infrastructure to Early Baroque(4), allowing us to start establishing judges in our provinces, to maintain order and generate additional income. We also captured the province of Tunisia from Castile. They could hardly oppose our armies in Africa. We loaded two armies into our fleet, moved into the Gulf of Almeria, crushed the Castilian fleet there and unloaded in Murcia, driving the army there back and starting the siege. The other army unloaded in Fez, to lay siege to the province held by Castile on the borders of Algiers. Castile tried several times to attack our armies in Murcia and Fez, as well as our navy, being driven back every time. By the time October had come, we had occupied both Fez and Murcia as well as converting Bosnia to our Faith. We moved into army from Fez into Granada, before sending the other into Toledo. The fortress was too strong there to take though, so we proceeded to move into Castilla, engaging the army there, capturing it in a matter of months. By this time, Castile was desperate to reach a peace agreement with us, but we would have suitable compensation first.... Slipping an army in our back, Castile managed to free Fez from our occupation in August 1474. Our army too weak to occupy most of Castile, we sent it roaming arround their land, defeating small armies in Estramadura, Toledo and Granada. In November, we captured Granada and continued fighting numerous battles in Castile. We continued fighting on the seas and lands, winning most of the time, even though they were small skirmishes, they had a lot of impact on the Castilian morale. On August 9 1475, we agreed to a peace with Castile, as moving further in their territory would imply years of efforts, and the rebels were starting to annoy us. In exchange for peace, we would receive their colonies and trade centers in:

Senegal, Sunda, Trivandrum, Palembang, Mahe, Ambovombe, Casamance, Louga, Antsirana and Buru. This would give us provinces and ports on the Coasts of East Africa, Madagascar, India and Indonesia. Too bad we could not gain their territory in North Africa, however that could be gained again later. In the meantime, we still had won Cyprus and Serbia, strenghtening our position by a lot.

We would spend the next few years rebuilding our army and navy, installing judges in every province, starting the colonization of our new colonies to replace them with loyal muslims, cleaning out the rebels of the previous war, attempting to convert several provinces, and most of all, working on our stability, both immediate, which had fallen low a couple times due to nasty events, and future, by augmenting serfdom and becoming more close-minded. We would enjoy 5 years of peace, 5 whole years before we waged a new war. On June 13 1480, we declared war on The Knights. More details will come later this week.

Ah, only 138 years to catch up now
thoughts, comments?

[Emperor2002]

Great story.
By the way screenshots maby?

[USA patriot]

Great installment! Keep the good work up! (and don't be to late with your next update... )

[Tem_Probe]

As mentionned, I played 138 years ahead of this, so if I post a screenshot at this moment, its like revealing the next century and a half

Btw, what do you people recommend as a host for posting screenshots?

[USA patriot]

Originally posted by Tem_Probe
As mentionned, I played 138 years ahead of this, so if I post a screenshot at this moment, its like revealing the next century and a half

Btw, what do you people recommend as a host for posting screenshots?

Me.

[USA patriot]

Send them to steve.bc@telia.com and they will be up in 5 red minutes!

[Tem_Probe]

On June 13 1480, we declared war upon the Knights, whom immediately were backed up by their allies : Moldavia and Spain. Hungary joins their alliance, making war on us as well. Time for the revenge! Our fleet in Coast of Rhodes was attacked by the Knights Templar, while we moved an army into position in Wallachia. We defeated their fleet in Coast of Rhodes, and loaded an army to prepare the invasion of the island. Hungary immediately moves an army into Bosnia, besieging the province, while attacking our army in Wallachia. We successfully drive them out of Wallachia, as the Knights make a counter-attack on our fleet in Coast of Rhodes.

The naval battle is fierce and they succeed in driving our fleet out of the naval zone and into the Aegean Sea, where it is intercepted by the Hungarian navy. Our fleet is forced to flee back onto the Coast of Rhodes, intercepted there by the Knights. They drive us back into the Aegean Sea, where it is intercepted by Spain and Hungary.
January 1481, Spain burns our trading post in Casamance, while Hungary captures Bosnia. Soon after, we capture Wallachia. They attempt to drive us out of Wallachia, but fail miserably. We suffer another naval defeat in Aegean Sea, being driven out to the Coast of Rhodes. Another army from Hungary, more massive, moves into Wallachia and drives us out. At the same time, Moldavia moves into Dobrudja and Spain defeats our army in Cyprus. This war is clearly not going as planned and by the end of March, our Sultan agrees to return to Status Quo with Moldavia, giving our Empire one less enemy to worry about. On the African front, we send an army into Cyrenaica.
May 4, 1481, our glorious ruler, Mehmed II, passes away. Bayezid II , leader of our powerful army in the Coast of Rhodes, takes the throne. He moves into Rhodes, however is unable to secure control of the island and is forced to retreat back to safety on the navy. As we lose this battle, an army of Spain moves into Cyrenaica, engaging us there. At the same time, our age-old enemy, Venice, declares war upon us, joined by Bavaria. Seeing our Empire attacked from all sides, our Sultan does a wise move and secures peace with Spain for 50 ducats.

Venice moves into Kosovo, and we send an army to drive them away. No luck. We fail another attack on Rhodes. Venice sends another army to besiege Cyprus. Serbia is lost to rebels. Venice moves into Albania as well. April-May 1482, we defeat Venice in Kosovo, however Wallachia falls back to Hungary. Our army in Kosovo quickly moves into Serbia, defeating the rebels and laying siege to the province. We engage the Knights in battle again on Rhodes, being driven out again despite all odds. Those damned islands always manage to resist our attacks somehow.

June 15, Our Sultan is forced to Seek Reconciliation in the Cem Sultan's Rebellion. Our army in Serbia, seeing an approaching Hungarian army, decides to move south into Albania, engaging Venice there, though being ultimately defeated. The Hungarians, like true gentlemans, start besieging our own rebels. If that keeps them busy.... In July, Auvergne joins Venice in their war against us. Hungary takes control of Serbia. Two of our armies meet in Macedonia, being reformed into a much larger one, only to move into Albania and crush the Veneto there. ur army then proceeds to track down the fleeing army into Ragusa, driving them out there as well. The Knights try to lift the blocus imposed by our fleet on them, however our navy prevails. We continue moving north, into Istria, besieging the province.

January 1483, Venice takes control of Cyprus, however we make peace with its allies: Bavaria and Auvergne, returning to Status Quo. We load an army into the Coast of Rhodes, and send several armies in Ragusa and Istria. We fail to convert the heathens in Dobrudja, provoking a revolt there. A feud starts, and we decide to side with one family, provoking another revolt in Rumelia. We send an army to take care of the rebels in Rumelia, however the rebels prevail and drive our army out. In Rhodes, we decide to use the same tactic that won us Corfu years ago, and unload one army that begins fighting, only two unload two others on the opposite side of the island a week later, defeating the Knights within the day. Their army is crushed, and we begin the siege. We fail to convert the heretics in Aleppo, provoking a revolt there. Hungary attempted to lift the siege of Istria, but failed miserably. In September, we capture Ragusa from Venice, sent twice armies in Serbia and Wallachia, defeating the Hungarian army at both location. February 1484, Hungary successfully lifted the siege in Istria. By the end of the month however, Rhodes had fallen into our hands, and the Knights had ceased to exist. The war was beginning to turn in our favor.

We sent an army into Bosnia, to free the province from occupation. Our fleet absorbed the Knight's navy and moved to the Gulf of Cyprus, loading an army. An army moved into Croatia, defeating the Hungarians there, while we took control of Dalmatia from Venice. Our army unloaded into Cyprus to free the province. No resistance was met, and the siege began. We won two successive battles in Croatia, however being driven back from Wallachia. Our armies moved back into Istria and Wallachia, defeating the army in Wallachia, repelling two attacks on Croatia and freeing Serbia within the month. Our Sultan had additional armies dispatched to Croatia, Wallachia and Serbia, to reinforce the armies there and move further into Hungary.

In the first months of 1485, we won 4 successive battles in Croatia against Hungary. They had become desperate, being pressured by our armies from all sides, and their troops moved chaotically. We captured back Cyprus in April, and quashed all remaining rebels. We would fight many successive skirmishes against Hungary in the coming months, winning them all. By the end of the year, Croatia and Wallachia had fallen into our hand and were preparing further invasion of Hungarian lands, and the Venetian islands.

The year is 1486, one of our army just marched on Pest, defeating Hungary in battle, while another sneaked on Krain. At the same time, two armies unloaded on Crete, using the adopted tactic to take over occupied island, defeating Venice there and besieging the island. In Hungary, an attempt was made to lift the siege of Krain, however it was met with failure, while another Ottoman army marched on Maros. Our fleet moved to Rhodes, loading the army located there, unloading it in Antalya, while Venice made a failed attempt to lift the siege of Crete. Our army just unloaded in Antalya marched on Ionia, besieging the province. The army led by our Grand Sultan in Ionia was so eager to take Ionia, that the province fell into our hands before our fleet could reach the Ionian Sea. When the navy arrived, our Monarch embarked back upon the navy while the province of Pest fell into our hands as well. We unloaded an army into Corfu, unopposed there, and the Hungarians agreed to come to peace with us: The Ottoman Empire was rewarded with Istria, Croatia, Banat and Wallachia. Venice made a charge on Istria, forcing our army to fall back, however it was soon reinforced by other armies used in the Hungarian campaign, and Venice was forced out in turn.
The start of the year was celebrated with the arrival of Kemal Reis to lead our navy to glory. We pressed our advantage by marching on Venice, however we were driven back. July and August would mark the fall of Corfu and Crete to our hands, however. In October, the Papal States were freed from Venice, and declared war upon them, placing Venice in much trouble over its Italian possessions, especially since all its allies refused to support Venice in the war. (Note that Venice owned the upper half of Italy at this time). We sent our fleet and army to attack Venice, driving their defending garrison back. In August 1488, Veneto had fallen into our hands. This would allow us to force a peace on Venice, gaining Crete, Corfu, Ionia and Dalmatia in the process. Our Grand Empire, while having been on the verge of defeat in the first two-three years of the war, had come back, and gaining vast territorial concessions, which would mark our ascension as the first power in the world. We would spend the next 4 years quelling the rebellions that had plagued the last years of the war, all the while rebuilding our armies and attempting the conversion of several provinces. Until, in December of 1492, Our Sultan declared war upon Karaman.

[Tem_Probe]

On December 7 1492, The Ottoman Empire declared war on Karaman. Venice came to us, hoping to settle the old Turkish-Veneto conflict, but our Sultan sent them sailing home by refusing to even discuss compensation. The Imperial Army moved into Taurus, engaging and defeating the enemy there twice. Our Sultan accepted a petition for redress, harming our stability greatly, but improving our centralization.

The heretics in Serbia proved too strong to convert, provoking two successive revolts, though easily crushed by our troops. Those in Croatia though, were easily converted. In October 1493, we captured Taurus, and the next month, Karaman was fully incorporated into our growing Empire. Our Sultan hired a foreign drill instructor, allowing us to improve our military readiness. More religious conversions were being done: Ionia was converted to the One True Faith, though we failed to do the same in Cyprus, the rebels there defeating our small garrison. In June of 1495, we had a boundary dispute, and pressed our claims against the Kaliphate... We sent two armies to take care of the rebels on Cyprus, while converting the heathens on Crete. Once the rebellion was crushed, we loaded our army on Cyprus and unloaded it into Aleppo. It moved into Syria, and we declared war on the Kaliphate, pitting us at war with a powerful coalition including the Timurid Empire, Baluchistan and the Chagatai Khanate. We failed to convert Istria, however the following months would see the conversion of Ragusa and Corfu. One of our artisan also came up with an unexpected invention, gaining us a free manufactory.

July 1496, the Kaliphate burns our trading post in Trivandrum. Our army moves into Iraq, engaging the Kaliphate there and defeating them in battle. They would not allow us to take the fortress however, and came back to attack us 6 or 7 times, being driven out each time by our troops. We failed to convert the heretics in Dobrudja, giving us some revolts to take care of in Europe, but no real threats. However our armies were not numerous enough to fight all these enemies at once so in November of 1496 and February of the following year, we made peace with the Chagatai Khanate, Baluchistan and the Timurid Empire. The fools would allow us to destroy their ally without resistance, and so it would be. In April, Iraq fell to our forces. We moved two armies, one in Basrah, the other in Awhaz, engaging the armies there and sieging the provinces. In July, we converted Wallachia, in November, it was the turn of Rhodes. In January of 1498, we captured Awhaz. In May, we had another boundary dispute, this time with Nubia, and again our Sultan decided to press our rightful claims. In November, Basrah fell to our armies. By May of 1499, we had reached peace, gaining Basrah and Awhaz and 105 ducats. The following years would prove how hard it could be to maintain those two provinces under our control, as these were provinces lured by the heretical teachings of the Shiite, for which we had no tolerance, and the lack of a landbridge forced us to nearly constantly muster troops in either province to just keep them under our rule.

February 1500, we converted Serbia to our faith. In March of the following year, we declared war on Nubia. We marched an army on Nubia, defeating their army there, and they retreated to the Nile. The next year, a relief army moved on the Nile, crushing their army there. There, it moved further into Batn al Hajar. In June 1502, we captured Nubia. We converted Cyprus to our faith, while our army advanced on Sudan. January 1503, we captured Batn al Hajar. In April, a Fine Arts Acadamy was completed in Macedonia, and in June, we captured Sudan. We advanced on Bisharin however unexpectedly the Nubian exterminated our army! They moved back to retake Sudan, but were engaged by our army, and driven out. We moved into Bisharin, crushing the remaining Nubian troops. By August 1504, we had reached peace with Nubia: the Ottoman Empire gained Bisharin, Nubia and Batn al Hajar in the process.

In November 1505, we had another boundary dispute, though this time our Sultan decided to settle the issue, as our stability was quite low. In April 1506, we converted Basrah, giving us a little backing from the constant rebellions in those two provinces by reducing the number of heretics. On January 2 of 1507, we declared war again on the Kaliphate; lacking a clear casus belli but eager to complete a landbridge with our earlier conquests, placing us at war with the Kaliphate, Baluchistan, the Mughal Empire and Chagatai Khanate. Those allies would once again prove their cowardice in face of Our Most Glorious Empire by failing to defend their ally which would be annexed exactly one year after the declaration of war. Its annexation would give us a landbridge to the previous conquests in Basrah and Awhaz, in addition to capturing their small fleet in the Straits of Ormuz.

The Peace wouldn't be long however, for in September of 1509, the Ottoman Empire would declare war on Ak Koyunlu, our former allies gone rogue.

Only 110 years to catch up to! :P

[Fry In My Eye]

I didn't know the Ottomans had a Caliph until they conquered Iraq

I think you mean Sultan

[Tem_Probe]

Right, eheh, mistakes happen

[Fry In My Eye]

That's okay, you have all your lifetime to thank me for it.

[USA patriot]

Man, you're going for the world! Excellent update! Send the screenshots to steve.bc@telia.com when you feel for it .

[Carolus Rex]

Very good, just reead up on the latest updates, keep it comin'.

[Tem_Probe]

The first screenshot I have of this game comes from year 1609 :P so it will wait a little more

[Tem_Probe]

September 27 1509, The Ottoman Empire declared war upon Ak Koyunlu. The Imperial Army quickly moved into Azerbaijan, engaging the enemy forces and being driven out and back into Kirkuk. Reinforcements are drafted to prepare for another move into Azerbaijan while their army moves in to besiege Sivas. In February, we move back into Azerbaijan. An army reaches there in March to oppose us, but is quickly destroyed. In December, we lose control of Sivas just as a relief army comes to engage the defenders and drive them out. The long siege is initiated. From January to April 1511, one or two armies a month march on Azerbaijan to fight our troops, each of them being defeated and destroyed in turn. In May, we capture the province from Ak Koyunlu. The army is ordered to move into Nuyssabin, fighting a minor army there and defeating it easily. Another army is ordered to march on Daghestan in February. In March and April, we capture Nuyssabin and recapture Sivas from Ak Koyunlu.

On May 2 1512, Selim I Yavuz rises as the ruler of our Empire, taking command of our army in Sivas. He moves into Kurdistan, defeating the local defenders. In September, Persia supported the chiite rebels in the Turko-Persian Conflict, our ruler ordering that we crush the heretics, and takes note of this event to prepare the Persian Conflict. In December, we captured both Daghestan and Kurdistan from Ak Koyunlu. One of our army is dispatched to move into Armenia, capturing it by November 1513. In December, Batn al Hajar was converted. In March 1514, Ak Koyunlu capitulated and agreed to our peace offer, gaining us all of its lands except the capital.

January 1515, A Fine Arts Academy was completed in Wallachia. Our troops were busy cleaning up the remaining rebels. The following year, Aleppo was converted to the One True Faith, finally. In September 1516, we built the Imperial Halic Shipyard, plunging us into debts. On January 2, 1517, our Sultan became known as a Kalifa, taking the Hedjaz as its vassals. This would start an whole era of improving relations with our vassals, as The Ottoman Empire was pretty much hated by everyone in the worldm, eventually taking them as our allies. In August, our Infrastructure was improved to High Baroque(5).

On February 1518, The Ottoman Empire declared war on Nubia. Our army moved into Sudan, attacking and defeating the army there. In October, the province fell into our hands, and in November, they were officially annexed. In October 1519, we crushed the Celali Uprising. In September 1520, Suleyman I Kanuni became our new Kalifa, taking commands of the troops in Corfu. In January 1521, the Hedjaz finally became our allied, after doing much, much courting. In October, we had a Mameluk uprising in Egypt, trying to secede from our Empire. We also converted the heathens and heretics in Daghestan and Armenia. We destroyed all the rebels, but not before Alexandria fell to their hands, and so we initiated the siege. February 1523, we gained a Refinery in Ionia. In March, Alexandria fell back into our hands. In September, we had a boundary dispute, where our Kalifa chose to press the issue. In May 1525, we converted Awhaz to the One True Faith. (Note that I'm skipping most of the revoltees in this time period, would be too long and boring to describe)

A conquistador we gained a couple of years ago was busy exploring the NE African Coast and we started colonizing the region. The colonization was quickly stopped however, when on September 1 of 1526, Spain declared war on us.