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unmerged(31504)

unmerged(31504)

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Jul 4, 2004
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Hello everyone.
I have been reading through these AARs and they seem a lot of fun, so I have decided to give it crack myself.
It’s my first one so wish me luck.

Warning, I am no writer of fiction and therefore would fall flat on my face if I tried to make this into some story as people round here do so well.
This will be more matter or fact describing the game with a light hearted viewpoint.

Also I am bloody terrible at EU2 but stubbornly refuse to stop playing it. Feel free to chime in with your tips. I mean please give me some tips!

So this is it.

Ottoman Empire is my chosen game.
Never played them before so I have no idea what events are coming up (except from when you get Thrace).

Aims: To grab all my cores and like in Zach’s Cologne AAR conquer some lucky provinces in Europe and convert them to Islam. Depending on how I am going this will become a my primary mission.
Why: Why not?
I am playing 1.08v btw.
 
We start in 1419 with stability at +2 and 60,000 troops but no decent generals. Despite this fact I declare won on Byzantium right away, as I have military access through the Duchy of Athens it seems the right thing to do.

I send one 20,000 army into Thrace and they get beaten. Seeing that the battle was going ill I had already ordered another 20,000 to march on them. As soon as the Byzantium’s were celebrating seeing off 20,000 Ottomans another 20,000 turn up and this time win.

The 10,000 survivors of the original battle are half way to Morea so the second lot will lay the siege.
The retreating Byzantines lay siege to Rumelia. Instead of using the 20,000 troops in Anatolia, which so far had done nothing but were costing me a fortune, I cleverly elected to allow the Byzantines to continue their siege and I would throw them out once Thrace is mine.

1420

Nothing happens until about June when Rumlia falls to the Byzantines.
I kick myself for not using the 20,000 troops in Anatolia. Ah heck they probably would have lost anyway.
I worry that the (my own name given) the 9,000 Byzantine troops of death will cross back into Thrace and throw me out. Something that would surely happen seeings as we appear not to able a win a battle for toffee. Luckily they just sit their in Rumelia while their capital burns.
August rolls around and Constantinople falls! My first major success.

1421

Morea falls and despite losing control of Rumelia I manage to extract Morea from Byzantine hands in exchange for peace.
That’s one province down, one to go.

I notice at this point that England are laying siege to Albania. Most inconvenient as they were going to be my next target.

1422

England annex Albania.
All I can hope for is that rebels in Albania get busy.
Murat King shows up in Macedonia.

1423

Trebizond annex Kastamond. I notice that Trebizond are Orthodox so I slap in a DOW!
Murad’s first chance to show what a good commander he is.
I place him in charge of 20,000 men and march them into Kastamond only to see him whipped by 5,000 defenders.
I am beginning to think that diplo annexing countries will be the easier option with the OE!
Anyway I restore Murad back to 20,000 and send him back in, this time we win (thankfully). I cover Kastamond and send Murad into Trebzon to mop up the remaining defenders and take charge of the siege.

1424

Moldovia enter an military alliance with Byzantium. I could have done without that as I am planning another war with Byzantium.
Trabzon falls quickly and by April it’s mine.
Kastamond falls in Sept and I keep in return for peace restoring Trebizond to their rightful single province – awaiting annexation by the OE status.
Only two years until my truce with Byzantium runs out btw.

1425

The year starts well with me going bankrupt. I cannot make a penny even with military spending halved and the treasury slider all the way up.
My army is too darn big (60,000) but I need it right now.
Later in the year the stability penalty I paid by going bankrupt is reversed by an event called “Shiek-ul-Islam office instituted”. Back up to +3 stab.
Just as well as I foresee another bankruptcy looming.

1426

Away from Turkey for a moment. In a contender for “Weirdest nation to grab Irish provinces” award, Provence stake their claim by taking Connaught and Leinster.

Provence_in_Ireland.JPG


Looks like the Irish were plum out of luck there.

Anyway back to Business.
Murad has gathered in Macedonia with 38,000 men in readiness for November when that pesky truce runs out.

In June I went bankrupt again. This going bankrupt lark gets real boring real quick you know?

November finally comes and I waste no time in declaring war on Byzantium. Luckily Moldovia wasted no time in dishonouring their alliance abandoning them to the OE.
As expected Murad contrives to lose against an army half his number and retreats.
The plucky Byzantines see their opportunity and march in Smyria and lay siege. Learning from last time I do not leave them alone.

1427

I send 20,000 spare troops into Thrace to conduct the siege and once Murad regained his moral sent him and his (still huge) army to defeat the Byzantines.
At the same time as the Imperial Ottoman army marches to the gates of Constantinople and lays siege Murad actually wins a battle and wipes the invaders out.

More bankruptcy in August. Stability plummets to -3. Need to capture Constantinople quickly!

1428

I have to wait until June for Constantinople to fall. It does so and I annex it.
Thanks to some events and my choices the following occurs.
- Thrace is my new capital.
- Thrace is a new centre of trade much to the annoyance of Venice and Genoa. Cry me a river.
- I keep the Patriachate but appoint my own geezer.

I drop military spending back down to 50%.
My 60,000 standing army is halved.
I still am losing money hand over fist -13.4 a month.
More bankruptcy cannot be far away.

The Ottoman Empire Sux!

OE1429.JPG


Here is the OE 10 years in.
Not bad progress land wise I think but I have to work on domestic policy otherwise it will all be for nothing.
See Y’all soon.
 
Hi Delree!

First, welcome. It's always great to see a new player! EU2 can be a very challenging game, and personally I am not that great a player either. Hopefully some more experienced hands will chime in with playing the Ottomans, as I've never done so. I've heard it described as rewarding, but somewhat challenging.

I'm afraid you're in a fix, my friend. Almost certainly an unsalvageable fix. I am really, really worried by all these bankruptcies. I don't even want to guess what your Inflation rate is now, and while I find playing through a bad position and mistakes nobility itself- I hate AARs that just 'give up' or 'restart' when things turn awkward- if it's as high as I suspect you won't be able to get anywhere. What is your inflation rate now?

General Comments elsewhere:

Military:
I'm a little surprised you're losing so many battles, though the morale situation in the early GC years is a little...strange. I've heard it said that it's just as well to send out small forces consecutively (5K. Oh, they lost? Here's 5K more. Ah, here's some more.) and so forth and hope the morale tips your way. I haven't tested that theory, so here I definitely yield to more experienced players.

Was your military maintenance at 100% during those wars? 50% maintenance really messes up your army's morale.

Go to your military and naval screens. What are your support limits? While there are definitely times you'll want to go above these figures, right now probably isn't one of them. You need to get your economy under control, so... 50% maintenance, and drop below those figures. I don't know what the Ottoman navy looks like in 1419, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was a 'hidden' expense right now.

Economy:
Your economy shouldn't be this bad, though hopefully your recent conquests will help. Your next stop is your economy screen, we need to figure out where your money is going. If you have loans out right now, that's a major expense, especially given your past bankruptcies....it might be better to just go bankrupt one more time.

Personally I never take a loan anymore unless I really have no choice. Loans are deadly in this game, it's incredibly easy for them to get away from you.

I usually keep my treasury slider at about 0.15% inflation per year, though you may not be able to afford that right now. Keeping treasury at full is a bad long term strategy, though there are times (impending war, building up for a major purchase) when you may have to just deal. Some people have different ideas for the treasury.

General Tactics:Later in the game the Empire can get good at diploannexing, though they should be a decent military force as well, so your strategy itself isn't bad. You may want to check this thread. EU2 Strategy Page It contains several links about playing the Ottomans.

Again, good luck! Your game's off to a rocky start, but I definitely want to see where you go from here, even if it's starting over and trying again.
 
Without giving things away, you won't be hearing of many more bankrupties.

I had no choice.
I needed to expand otherwise my neighbours would have out weighed me.
I got into financial trouble but will be concentrating on sorting that out.
 
I look forward to more as well with a few more suggestions re the bankrupcies (which should not be happening, if 1-province Cologne can pay its army without going bankrupt, the Ottomans can do it too):

As Catknight said, check your army and naval support limits (ideally on January 1, 1419) any troops or ships you have over the limit (happens a lot as the AI doesn't pay maintenance) disband immediately unless you're in a war and can use them for something. Army level should right at support limit, only go above it in the direst emergencies as having troops over the support limit causes the maintenance expense to shoot through the roof.

I don't know if you've been doing this or not, but all your provinces need a tax-collector or they only give about 25% revenue. My first act when starting a new game is to appoint tax collectors to all the provinces, even it means printing money for a few months.

What's your treasury slider set on? Generally, I'd say the further left the better but not to the point where you're losing 13D a month. In the early years of my Cologne game I frequently kept the treasury slider at 50% to prevent army maintenace from consuming my entire budget.
 
The Ottomans in 1419 are really in a confined position. Thanks to the fact that most of their neighbors are very small, they can't conquer many cores without getting really high BB. They do, however, have some major advantages that make it really easy to expand once you look past the dearth of military options:

1) Great monarchs.
2) 4 state cultures.
3) Great DP settings for early defensive wars.
4) Lots of cores.
5) Magnificent events.

Your strategy for the optimum Ottoman empire will involve force vassalizing muslim neighbors, reducing orthodox neighbors to one province, and annexing catholic minors. The orthodox nations near you (excepting Georgia) are almost always on the fast track to destruction thanks to being surrounded by large catholic powers. If you let Hungary, Poland, or another catholic power annex them, you'll be able to get the provinces at just 1 BB for the DOW.

With the catholic minors, they usually sit on orthodox provinces (Cyprus, The Knights, Albania, Duchy of Athens) that you want to stay Orthodox until you convert them. Your object here is to annex them relatively quickly once you've expanded as cheaply as possible. The reason for this is that when you get the Mameluks and expand to the east, you'll hit some Shi'ite provinces, and that'll give you a total of 4 religions, so you need to eliminate some fairly quickly. Your optimal size by 1500 will be most of the Orthodox Balkans, Anatolia, the Caspian coast, and the Greek Islands. You can have almost all of these converted to Sunni by this time, as well, getting you ready for the annexation of the Mameluks in 1510 and Hungary in 1526 (Bohemia too, if you get lucky).

The best way to play the annexations is as follows. If you don't do it as stated (I don't, usually, as the game then becomes a cakewalk), no big deal.

Mameluks: Occupy the Egypt province after 1510, and you inherit the nation.

Bohemia: Austria gets an event in 1526 to annex Bohemia. However, the way that event actions work, the nations will be annexed to Austria except for land that is held by a foreign power. I don't recall if the foreign power gets hit with BB (If so, it'd be .25/province; obscenely cheap), and even better if you don't. Anyway, in about 1521, get involved in a war with Bohemia. Occupy all of their lands. Continue to do so until 1526, then when Austria "inherits," all of the land is yours.

Hungary: The normal game setup has Austria inheriting Hungary in 1526 in its entirety. However, starting in the mid-1510s, another event pops up, where if the Ottoman Empire occupies a few key territories in Hungary, they annex the whole lot except for Krain, Presburg, Odenburg, and Carpathia. Those go to Austria, and you release Siebenburgen in Transylvania, and then cede Ruthenia to them. The last part, with the catholid vassal, is annoying, but that's about all. Insult them enough and they'll presumably end the vassalization since it wasn't a military vassalization. At this point, declare war and take Ruthenia, then 5 years later annex them. For the rest of the provinces, invade Austria and take them in war.

As far as losing battles go, by about 1450, you can ensure that you almost never lose a battle. Some events pop up that will push you in the direction of land, quality, and offensive doctrine. Go for them, but you need to keep towards serfdom, otherwise you'll run into huge stab costs. If you hit max land, offensive, and quality, your leaders will all get +1 fire (doesn't matter on land yet) and +1 shock (really useful for majority cavalry armies).

Although it's not written in an educational fashion, my AAR (linked in my sig) covers a relatively strong and very low cost expansion for the Ottomans. The year at this time in the game is 1512, and I have something along the lines of 3 or 4 BB. I go over briefly what happened, but if you're curious about anything specific, feel free to ask.
 
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