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Nikolaj-11

Nikolaj-11

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May 29, 2013
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Hi all, so I just started my first Ironman after the new update and getting AoW. I have played the game for half a years time with various mods like wasteland overhaul and such.


Anyway, I wanted to get some general advice to concider what to do from where I am currently.


So let me set the scene first, I am about 80 years into the game this is Europe as of 1517:

flzdp0.jpg


Things I've noted myself is that Golden Horde, Timurids and Teutonic Order has expanded more than I have seen before.

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So here is my diplomatic situation:

xcjbie.jpg


Serbia is my march, it has gone reasonably well, mainly I use them as a buffer against Austria but they have aided me in conquest in the middle-east and in Georgia as well

I'm allied with Aq, Tim, Crimea and Hedjaz. Tim and Crim are long term still, I allied Aq and Hedjaz after annexing Athens and one of the Georgian countires, Istruria or something.
I realise that My alliance with Timurids and Aq won't last forever, although they are also allied with each other and Tim's size still scares me a bit even though I am ahead in tech.

Here's my tech level and idea groups:

2jff5ec.jpg


I took influence first because I liked the bonuses in AE, Annexation cost, Rep, Relations etc. I also wanted to save adm and mil points in the early game. I took offensive next to get a millitary edge against mamluks. Besides having canons I outclassed them in all battles but my manpower suffers, so maybe I should have taken quantity.

---

Anyway, here are my last screenies, trade and rebels.

71tvyu.jpg

2gv9cfq.jpg


So far I haven't had trouble with rebels that much except when they pop up during wars. I trade in Constantinoble and transfer in Aleppo, it seemed to be the best options.


So, coming into my third idea I wanted to get some advice on what to get. I am unsure if I should get a adm tech just now, although more -coring cost sounds nice. I was thinking to expand trade with its idea set or maybe get Quality. When I eventually end up at war with Europa and Tim I'll need all the advantage I can get. I like Defensive too but am unsure if it's at all useful.

Also, how would you guys go about betraying Tim and Aq? I think they are still a bit too big for me to handle unless I could get both Hedjaz and Crimea with me in on the action, but Crim has been reluctant to join any wars taking place south of Georgie and Hedjaz is scurred all the time.

Any input is appreciated. I'd love to get some comments on how you think my progress looks like, if I did well so far or if I seem to have made any mistakes.

:)
 
Well I like playing the Ottos when I do play Ironman, so I will give you my two ducts.

Use Serbia as a buffer zone against the Westerners. You really don't need to bother with them at all. Unless you have sort of goal in mind. So conquer and sell all the land needed to do so but do it in stages. Europe gets jumpy for some reason when you turn Westwards.

If you want to keep Timmy as an ally, turn south. Africa is your rightful domain and can occupy you for a while. If you want to murder Timmy, conquer a small bit and release Persia. They make an excellent vassal and can take tons of land from Timmy for cheap.

Sooner or later Russia will be an issue. They want that warm water port and will dive for the Black Sea. Either murder-rage your north and cut them off from colonizing early on (you still have time I think) or set up another buffer state up there.

For ideas, I go with Religious, Diplomacy, Quality for my opening ideas. (My very first game I went with Diplomatic, Administrative, Aristocratic for the tech bonuses but as Otto you can keep up easy). Admin is a good and very tempting first Admin idea too. Stacking the core relation reduction is great.
 
Thanks for the input. I already danced with Muscovy once, not even Russia, and they whooped my sorry behind like it was no one's business. They already have a absolutely huge army.

I was thinking of, when I turn on them, occupy the Persian lands and release Persia, would you keep it as a vassal for later annexation or as a march?

I have planned on attacking Venice eventually so Serbia can get Dalmatia and I can get Corfu, Crete and Naxos, but there is no rush with that, they have no where to expand to anyway.

I think you are right about Africa too, now that I cut Mamluks in half it should be easy enough pickings, I'm hoping to vassalise Hedjaz diplomatically too.

Would you say Expansion or Exploration is a good idea for Otto at some point? I was thinking maybe as a 4th or 5th idea if I get that far to settle the free areas of Africa.
 
Keep Persia as a pet and go with Exploration. 2 vs 1 colonist, 20 global settler increase vs 10.

When dancing with Russia remember to invite all your mercenary friends. And their friends. And their friends. Maybe even their pets as well. You will need every body you can muster against them. Mostly to soak up bullets. You should build tons of cannons to do the bulk of the murdering.

Try to be ahead of them in military tech if possible otherwise be on even footing tech wise. If you are behind... Pray.
 
TAKE HUMANIST IDEA GROUP

If you are not going to convert everything on Sunni:

OH GOD TAKE HUMANIST IDEA GROUP

It is absolutely amazing for Ottomans and dealing with rebels. Once you take Humanist Ideas you don't have to worry about converting anything on Sunni faith, which makes you possible to go -100% Piety, which provides powerful bonus to technology, tax and manpower.

Trust me, pre AOW I played Commonwealth and with Humanist ideas I had almost no rebels with 50% of country being non state religion and 15 - 20% being non accepted culture.
 
He has a point with Humanism. I'm playing a new Otto game now and with the changes to unrest Humanism might be a must get idea group in the post AoW world.
 
I'd go with humanism or perhaps religious ideas. Religious Ideas gives you that incredibly nice holy war CB and you'll be able to convert your lands fairly easily, humanism will mean you probably wont have to convert your lands, you can say goodbye to rebellions all together.
 
Nikolaj-11 said:
The secular state of the Ottomans :p
Click to expand...

Hey, this is alternate history, I like combos like that :D

I am proud of my Westernized Constitutional Monarchy of Iroquis uniting exactly the area of modern USA...


Anyway - one more thing, finisher of Humanist Ideas provides -10% idea cost so I suggest taking it as one of the first ideagroups.


Personally I got Offensive ideas and Humanist as first two - first of them to conquer things, second to secure conquest :) Also these two offer Policy which provides -1 to unrest everywhere and one more modifier like that but I don't remember what exactly.
 
Last time I played the Ottomans, I wound up allied with Austria and we tag teamed Venice until I had a land border with Austria. Then they rivaled me and it got more interesting. :)

Key point is that if you can control the Ragusa and Venice trade nodes, you will never be short on money again.

Beyond that, it looks like you're making good progress. The question is what goals you have for this game. My last Ottoman game I set out to unfy Islam, so my early moves were based around that, including ninjaing Granada before Castille could.
 
Nikolaj-11 said:
Hm, I think my only real goal is "conquer as much as I can" I haven't really looked at achievements to unlock.
Click to expand...

There's one Ottoman one, which is to conquer Muscovy and Rome. Rome is easy. As for Muscovy, just conquer as much as you can in a northerly direction. You can alternate those wars with Mamluke ones to wear out the 15yr peace timers.
 
Man I just had an absolutely insane war with Mamluks just now, took me forever.


I was basically alone, but it was also my own fault. I declared the war slmost just after taking Moldavia's southern coast in another wat that was quite long too. Serbia did not get enough time to recover but the timurids joined. Eventually Crimea joined when I called to arms.

They didn't do anything.

Which I found rather odd, in my old war with Mamlukes, Timurids was very active and they were not in any other wars.

Anyway, I managed after a long stalemate and several Georgia and Romania rebellions to white peace the Mamluk allies and occupy them almost fully.

I feel like I wasted too much time, but at least I secured dominance in the area, now I can try to take the rest of the small Georgian states.
 
Woa, that sounds epic Nikolaj-11

I just tried opening moves for Muscovy and England. They have been buffed. Then, I tried Ottomans. Seems like EVERYONE has been buffed, at least in gold ducats per month, at least +10. Before, I remember barely scrounging with +2ducats/mo, just trying to be above the waterline, so to speak.

Also, I just loaded my saved Ironman game and I noticed an odd thing... it HAS to be a bug.

I'm getting Production numbers in the thousands, like 2k-4k, to 8k. It just doesn't make any sense. Is it a bug? Or is this the new trade system?

Also, gold provinces seem not to make as much as gold, as I remember. And gold province locations have been changed.

For example, in my Ottoman game, I decided to eat up the AE and core all of Serbia... why? I really wanted Kosovo, the gold province to become both Sunni and Turkish in order to reap the most tax income from that. If I would have kept Serbia alive, even as a vassal, I wouldn't be able to culture change with that culture still existing on the map in some political sense.

Also, my strategy concerning Eastern Europe is drastically changed now with smaller entities like Galych, Kiev, Chernigov, and Zaporozhia. Before, it was one powerful Ukraine that could be carved out from these regions and act as a great buffer and what I thought would be a great March against Poland/Lithuania and Muscovy. However, now with Ukraine gone, working with these smaller polities is going to be more challenging because they'll hit an Overextension limit and feeding cores to them will be much slower.

In retrospect, imho Persia got MUCH more cores, so expanding eastward and having Persia almost permanently a powerful vassal who helps you out in wars against Timmies and Mamluks is essential. Iraq, Syria, Bohtan, they are all too small to really grow a powerful vassal to help you out in wars. Persia should only be annexed once Ottomans are in India and Muscovy has been contained from eastward expansion ... and once you're in India, it's basically GG.

Yet, I like to get involved in Iberian politics and try to get Portgual and Castille out from colonization game early, which puts a dampen on my eastward and even southward expansion. I am going for Sultan of Rome, Unify Islam, and possibly World Conqueror achievements though.
 
Nikolaj-11 said:
Serbia just Westernized, I am wondering if I should too, given the opportunity. It doesn't seem like I have too much trouble keeping up.
Click to expand...

Oh that's nice, actually. But as Ottomans, couldn't you westernize anyways since Genoa has that island bordering Izmir? Or one needs a land border with a Western/Westernized country in order to Westernize? I'd say for Ottomans, the earlier you Westernize the better. Then the East would be even more of a pushover.
 
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