Redeeming the Sick Man of Europe - An Ottoman AAR

unmerged(21111) · Aug 30, 2004

As I grew tired of playing Vic

, I decided to play it one more time before sending it to the shelf. I don't like to manage big empires yet I like tons of events. So I decided to save the Ottomans- my way.
VIP 1.03b, hard/hard. Avoiding exploits.

"The implications of the decline of Ottoman power, the vulnerability and attractiveness of the empire's vast holdings, the stirrings of nationalism among its subject peoples, and the periodic crises resulting from these and other factors became collectively known to European diplomats in the nineteenth century as "the Eastern Question." In 1853 Tsar Nicholas I of Russia described the Ottoman Empire as "the sick man of Europe." The problem from the viewpoint of European diplomacy was how to dispose of the empire in such a manner that no one power would gain an advantage at the expense of the others and upset the political balance of Europe."
The Library of the US Congress

As I opened their events file, things were interesting, yet there's a # before the goverment changes. So I removed them to actually become a conmon when the event fires. It's a costly change and I hope it pays.

The first time I saw the sad leftovers of a past glorious empire things looked bad. Literacy of 4% . Less techs than Brazil

. Four nationalities, but tons of non-nationals. 5 machine parts, and none to be had after that. I guess there's a penalty for the Ottomans as I was the 1st in prestige for 20 years and got none from the WM. Had to actually build my own. Rats.

Since the economical situation was grim and I hate to manage many places at once, I decided to sell my land to the cash cow. I don't think it's an exploit as I'm selling it for good, and I'm not taking advantage of the dumbass trade AI.

It sounds crazy but I'll beeline culture techs

.

Attacking minors time after time can be considered an exploit. Attacking them once isn't, is it?

So I sail to Haiti aka "hit me for prestige". If I were a small country I'd get Morocco first, but I have tons of provinces so I'll take the extra 20 prestige instead.
The poor Haiti falls quickly and nets me about 70 prestige. So for a while I'm number one. No MPs though...

The Netherlands decide not to let Belgium go. Prussia and Austria side with them while the Brits help Belgium. Now something fantastic happens- I sucked up Vicky only once, and she decides to ask me to join an alliance! So there go Ottoman ships to Western Europe to take any advantage they can. I land in Dutch lands, kick some butt around, occuppy their capital, and there, war indemnities. Cash is always useful

.
I decide Prussia isn't worth the effort now so I sail back to the south to the Austrian lands. After a dash for Wien they hand me some provinces. I don't like BB points but I'll take them for now.
The extra prestige I got from those fast victories wasn't to complain about either.

Then the great land leasing begins. There's no way to reproduce it in-game so I'll simply sell land to the UK. Where to begin... Hmmmm, those Slavs love to rebel. Let's have the Brits quell them instead

. So all my European possessions except the capital and its state go away.

Since I'm making quite a fortune for a backwater country, I decide to operate the Great Relocation. I'll... well, persuade people to live around the capital and western Anatolia. My plan is to end the game with only Konstantinyye, Bursa and Izmir states. Plus key colonies, coal and iron provinces, and Meccah of course.
To make people move it's simple. Tax them 100% and close RGOs. The starting factories are located where I want them already. So 20 years of forc... I mean encouraged relocation happens. I'll regret later doing it so early tough. I ended up with tons of non-nationals in my core provinces, thus making them crazily rebellious.

I also decide to make a comeback of an old tradition- Janissaries. Native and colonial guard divisions are raised everywhere- as well my mob pool before I lose too many provinces so people will actually think my military is real. If they don't... well, let them taste tens of thousands of guards. Even being native and with low tech they still are to be respected.

I started to take screens only about the time the Crimean war fired, before that I thought the game wasn't too interesting to record it.
The Egyptians events fired and I "lost" in order to have the event that makes me a conmon fire. Later on they lost tons of lands by event anyway. The problem of the VIP conmon event for the Ottomans is that it adds even more militancy among non-nationals. So decades of rebellions here I go

. I really dislike monarchies as the rebellions start later when plurality rises so it's time to have the boring quelling.

I took the dangerous way of researching only cultural techs, I don't even have Freedom of Trade- not that it'd be useful anyway. At a certain point, Korea had more techs than me. Boring years followed until my plan returned results- many cultural inventions raised my prestige higher than 1000, way more than the second place. Meanwhile I patiently sold my land and herded my population around Istanbul. Whenever someone dropped below the -100 prestige though, there I was to take advantage. Luckly the Ottomans begin with an army able to beat minors and many medium countries as well.
Literacy was worked on as well, by the time the Crimean war was around the corner, I was about to reach 50% literacy. Phew!

I decided to release those pesky Greeks too. So I created Cyprus and Crete. It was good to have almost no BB as people flocked to have an alliance with me.
With that secret card, let's see who's gonna fall like a house of cards.

edit: hmmm, what, I can't too many use smilies?

unmerged(21111) · Aug 30, 2004

Too bad I couldn't find any screen from before the war. Anyway, up to five techs can be traded in one go

. So our redemption would be Prussian army techs. Back then I had researched no techs but cultural ones, rendering me a house of cards indeed- in this specific case, the Tzar is right. When the event fired, I was at -2, or -3 research points. Since I was getting about .5 a month, I just prayed my tactic to the date was correct.
It included the sale of the whole western front, thus freeing all my 20-30 guards divisions to dig-in the Armenian mountains. Since every country but Austria came to my rescue, the Russians decided to wait for a way to break through the mountains.
It never came as I quickly sold some land for five army techs, bringing me on par with the west again

. So once the new muzzle-loaded rifles arrived in Instanbul, the Janissaries went through swift training with Prussian advisors, and within a couple of months were ordered to charge through the mountain range where they were praying for a miracle months before. I think this emulates the vanilla campaign event somewhat, too.
This was the turning point of the campaign, something that I was cooking for 20 years. The Tzar must have turned puke green when he found out the house of cards suddenly became a military power :rofl: .

Besides the Armenian front, the British landed on Crimea and Prussia advanced through the Baltic. In the screenie even Beroda, an Indian satellite, managed to land on St. Petersburg

. Falling appart like... a house of cards, the Russians throw the towel:

There's no Russian navy anymore:

Soon the war is over, and the whole world agrees the Tzar is all bark and no teeth:

With the main menace kept at bay for the moment, the Sultan, speaking in name of the Ottoman Parliament founded a decade ago, announces a development program that will change the face of the land- forever.

Finally, after 20 years of boredom, I began to actually build stuff. Selling land and herding POPs can get boring after a while.

I read that some people don't like to scroll if the images are too big. Sorry but I don't have the tools to edit them properly...

unmerged(9046) · Aug 30, 2004

I like the style of your AAR. I hope you don't run out of land to sell off before it ends!

unmerged(21111) · Aug 30, 2004

No worries, that was addressed after the Crimean bluff. You might have noticed the economy grew a lot during the war, that's because now that I think about it I bought Interchageable Parts a couple of years before the war. MPs are worth more than anything in the game, it pays to have it even it diverts one from the cultural beeline, it's worth taking loans to buy them, heck if someone wants to trade my grandma for MPs

.
Money went in short supply as basic materials and engineers were brought from around the world. Factories were built every month. Now that I can build my own MPs, I can buy them too

. With the not so bottomless British coffers strained by years of investment and the war against Russia, the Sultan gave a speech stating that such a cultural benemoth like the Ottomans should build the finest luxury items the world has ever seen. Tropical wood and silk were imported by the ton, and the exports value increased many times during the 1850s.

Just one year after the heroic Berodan disembark on St. Petersburg, the economy was booming:

I think I had experimental railroad but I'm not sure, I took no screenies either.

I wasn't joking about having less techs than Korea though:

Haha, we can build the finest luxury items as well as MPs but we don't have a clue about fertilizers.

Some side reports, the UCA managed to stay united:

unmerged(21111) · Aug 30, 2004

Sometime during the 1550s, the Italians try to unify their country. After some debates, the Parliament votes for intervention in order to balance the power in Europe.

The Austrians are no match for the Janissary corps, are beaten to a pulp and beg for a separate peace. The world finally acknowledges the Ottoman position among the nations:

The Sardinian AI, though, was having a hard time and was losing ground. Since we started it, let's finish it as well. I told my 10 divisions to fight for the glory of Italy:

Sure enough, soon Austria had a yellow blob among its provinces. It lost once more and the Italians finally celebrated their first great victory in its unification effort:

Knowing the dumbass the AI is of course I gave them a -attrition general too

.

Now that our budget is in its way to bankrupt itself, it's time to profit from our peace deal with Austria. Now look at what we have here- an Italian core:

Soon the budget was healthy again:

unmerged(21111) · Aug 30, 2004

I'll try to alternate story posts and screenies posts in order to reduce the stress of small screen readers. Actually my screen is small too but I don't mind the scrolling that much.

The OE can colonize Africa after 1860, so I spent quite a fortune building stuff everywhere. I never treated the AI unfairly, if they had more claims than me, I considered the state to be theirs and sold them my claim.

Sometime during the year of 1864, the Russians decide to come for another show. This time I had no real allies, though, so I decided to dig-in and wait. They never tried to cross the mountains but it pinned down my forces. So those Frenchies decided to grab my poor satellite Tunis. Despite public outcry and protests from Great Powers, the Parliament voted against opening a new front. Knowing I was in no real position to contest sea control, I gave in for now. Tunis had no good resources and we can't diploannex in Vic anyway...

My defensive tactic works and all the Russians accomplished was the loss of prestige for yet calling for another bluff.

The public demanded a new Navy, though. The Bosphorus must be guarded at all costs, and another loss of honour like the Tunis incident can't happen again. So Iron Steamers was brought with London engineers.

Smelling the scent of danger in the air, I decide to upgrade my military. Once again Prussian engineers and drillers come to Instanbul to show the marvels of breech-loaded rifles, machine guns (!) and better railroads.
It would prove to be a wise decision. Less than one year later, the Egyptians tried to regain their losses, and those bleeping French decide to take a piece of the Empire as well. Ironclads still don't exist, so the wooden fleet will have to outperform itself in order to prevail.
A new front was needed. The Brits decide it's none of their business. But surprise!, the good Ottoman reputation among nations manages to finally convince the Prussians it's a great chance to grab their claims early.
I usually don't steal colonial claims anymore, but those damn French pissed me so I proceeded to grab half a dozen of claims in northern Africa.
After some bloody battles in the Ligurian Sea, I managed to finally secure a beachhead in Draguignan. General Tahsin proceeds to fight his way towards Paris, not before killing thousands with the newly acquired machine guns

.
Oddly, I'm fighting the war separated from Prussia. Anyway they proceed to take most of eastern France (why this always happens?

) and the French military rating drops like a rock.
Egypt is also beaten to pulp in order to make sure they're never a menace again. My favourite peace deal is made on the last days of 1866: they agree to pay me for all the damages, as well as acknowledging they're scum among nations.
I could finally concentrate on France and on the early days of 1868 France suffers the same fate as Egypt. Sultan Murad V goes to Paris to parade under the l'Arc de Triomphe. A new tax reduction is announced shortly after and Ottomans of all ethnicities celebrate around the world.

A couple of months later, Queen Victoria annouces the Ottomans are officially under their protection now.

bonus: Look at what I found at http://www.allaboutturkey.com/yeniceri.htm .

"Janissaries (in Turkish Yeni is new and Çeri means soldier), standing Ottoman Turkish army were organized by Murat I. Ottoman armies had previously been composed of Turcoman tribal levies, who were loyal to their clan leaders, but as the Ottoman Empire acquired the characteristics of a state, it became necessary to have paid troops loyal only to the sultan. Therefore, the system of impressing Christian kids taken during invasions of countries (devsirme) was instituted and having been converted to Islam and given the finest training, they became the elite forces of the army.

Special laws regulated their daily life cutting them off from civil society such as being forbidden to marry. Devotion to such discipline made the Janissaries the scourge of Europe. These standards, however, changed with time; recruitment became lax (Moslems were admitted, too) and because of the privileges Janissaries started to enjoy their life, their numbers increased from about 20,000 in 1574 to some 135,000 in 1826. To supplement their salaries, the Janissaries began to pursue various trades and established strong links with civil society, thus undermining their loyalty to the ruler. In time they became kingmakers and the allies of conservative forces, opposing all reforms and refusing to allow the army to be modernized. When they revolted in 1826, Sultan Mahmut II abolished the corps, putting all opposition down by force. Thousands were killed in the Hippodrome and others banished, but most were simply absorbed into the general population."

So in real life calling back the Janissaries coupled with a parliamentary system would be outright political suicide, but since the game doesn't care, there I go with reforms and native troops

.

Please watch the use of language like "Frog Bastards." I changed them to "bleeping French"
Stroph1, Moderator

edit: Sorry, I didn't think it'd be considered offensive

o .

unmerged(21111) · Aug 30, 2004

Screens post.

France decides to take Tunis:

Damn.

Russia gives-in:

Notice the red province that reduced my border. Imagine that, a British advisor comes to the Queen and tells her that the Ottomans are giving land for free

. If they only knew...

Forgot to add this screen of the vanilla event:

Ironclads tech for land:

The second army reform:

In case anyone is wondering, I got the islands as "change". Sometimes the trader has no cash to spare. You know, the chance of them accepting the trade drops suddenly to zero. No problem, give me an island instead.
Johor came from conquest. One must keep his economy in check... Bankruptcy=DOW.

Finally an ally:

BB points? No thank you.

Haha. Yeah, right:

:

Tahsin leads the coalition troops:

This treaty includes a parade under l'Arc de Triomphe, riiiiight?

At 54% war exaustion, they had no choice.

Great, one less thing to worry about:

15 years after the Crimean War, the OE is an industrial power:

unmerged(9046) · Aug 30, 2004

I guess I need to rethink my strategy. I seem to have a mental block against giving land away. It seems to be working like a charm for you, though!

unmerged(21111) · Aug 31, 2004

I'm so lazy that I gave 70+ provinces to Lubeck for free later in the game :rofl:.

It was however the best game I ever played by far. The start was slow and all those years I posted were pretty mild too. The end, though, was fantastic and I ended with almost 9000 prestige, only 8 BB points and had half of Europe on its knees. All in 1905, VIP. I could keep playing but nah, I'm happy already. Or maybe I should go after the Tzar or perhaps Vicky?

unmerged(19542) · Aug 31, 2004

Very nice aar.

unmerged(21111) · Aug 31, 2004

Ah thanks. Now for some screens.

The Franco-Prussian war doesn't fail to fire:

It was just a couple of years since the last major showdown between us and France. Their army is nowhere to be seen and soon it's all over:

One by one the German minors join the united country, except for Lubeck

.
For some strange reason, Germany went from +200 to -200 relations with me immediatly. The German ambassador leaves Istanbul and I feel I helped creating a monster.
The UK just sat there the whole game buying land from me and smoking opium. They refused to enter a formal alliance so after some controversy diplomats are sent to Paris in order to create a league against the new menace.

I was building up my military and searching for easy prestige. Lubeck went bankrupt and was about to become a practicing target to the New Janissaries when I noticed they have... steel railroad! Everyone was using early ones back then. Between a 99 prestige fix and two extra railroad levels, I chose the latter. After one year of diplomatic contacts, they changed they mind about the Ottomans and agreed to share their secrets. They had muuuch to teach us. Besides, with some extra provinces Germany would no longer be able to bite them in one go.

Hehehe

I wouldn't claim it as yet though as I waited for the Mission to Civilize invention.

All over Europe people were whispering about the German militaristic attitude. Their army was growing everyday and every country was getting uneasy. But before the war that would end all wars we'd meet other challenges.

unmerged(19542) · Sep 1, 2004

Good update.
You got really nice techs from Lubeck.

Lamprey · Sep 1, 2004

This is one cool AAR

unmerged(21111) · Sep 7, 2004

Time to update this thing. I noticed there are quite a lot of screens thus making it slow to load to 56kers and slow DLSers like myself. I can't think of much but perhaps smaller posts will add less stuff for each page.

A rather slow period followed. Nothing special was happening, so let's skip to the 1877 war.
Russia as in real life came for yet another showdown. I was still allied to France, and guaranteed by the UK. Hehehe. This time I decided to take an offensive approach and hopefully get some land.

As usual, the Russian army had immense numbers but low tech. Our alliance was whiping them on every front, and when St. Petersburg was within sight, they offered me a nice deal, including an iron province. India received her share as well, and I ended up with a Tibetan province that I released later.

As I'm a nice guy, I gave the wool province to the UK as a gift for her trouble. Hehehehe. :rofl:

unmerged(21111) · Sep 7, 2004

Oops, I always forget my unciv satellites won't enable me to enter a normal war... farewell Tibet! Actually I honoured the call but could do nothing.

After waiting for almost 20 years, finally the damn ironclads and monitor invention shows up. I've been selling land to France too, so my final borders in Anatolia are close to the planned.

I won't post a screen just for this but one year later I got cruisers and heavies. Grrrrr... 20 years waiting for ironclads and now I can build heavies...

unmerged(21111) · Sep 7, 2004

In 1882 the Egyptians were busy fighting the UK. To remind them who's boss I declared war just for the fun of it

. I got the traditional humiliation plus indemnities.

Around that time I noticed an excellent party for powergaming. The Kurdish Party is probably the party every player has always dreamed of. Perfect, just perfect! Nevermind that nobody votes for them (not even the Kurds

)so the only way to get it is as a monarchy or conmon and force it.

It's a great choice to balance a budget, uh?

Around 1886 I was entangled in a diplomatic mess. I'm not playing the game anymore so I don't recall whether France or Germany declared the war. The fact is after biting a couple French provinces Germany stopped for that moment, settled for a white peace, leaving me against Holland. I kicked them hard and they pretty much offered me their entire colonial empire... which I refused :rofl:. You know, IIRC every colonial province belonging to a civ gives two BB points, and since I'm a low BB prestige whoring player, I said no to the puzzled Dutch emissaries. I settled for the good old humi-indemn.

By now I was swimming in money, so I began a promoting spree that made me drown in it. Remember folks, don't promote more than 20% of your population to capitalists or the game will get silly. I had about 40% in the end and the game was kinda boring then.

Next chapter: how to double your prestige from 3000some to 6000some in a dozen of clicks

.

Heretic · Sep 7, 2004

Next chapter: how to double your prestige from 3000some to 6000some in a dozen of clicks .

oooh. I want to find out about this one -
Often I see some sort of 'no colonies' empire like Austria motor from 2000 to 5000 prestige & I wonder how on earth they turned on the prestige-tap like that.. I'm all ears//.

Heretic

Morpheus506 · Sep 7, 2004

I would never have dreamed that an empire which has sold so much of its land could be that high in rank... whoo.....

unmerged(21111) · Sep 8, 2004

Heretic: while I won't spoil the "surprise" (I already said how I've done that) Austria gets tons of prestige out of "nothing" because they research cultural techs. Germany does that too. Despite my prestige whoring since day one, both of them finished with about 3000+.

Morpheus: besides being lazy, I was inspired by real life examples like Switzerland, Cayman Islands, Singapore, Hong Kong... as well as fictional ones like House Ordos from Dune and Great House Hlaalu from the Elder Scrolls series. None of them are exactly rich in natural resources or hold extensive lands, and yet they're rich and well known for being commercial or financial hubs.

unmerged(2970) · Sep 9, 2004

zebomba, regarding POPs relocation I have a question to ask, maybe you have faced it already.

Does only closing of RGOs force labourers to relocate to other provinces or also high taxes? And if high taxes is a prerequisite, how high they should be?

thx

Redeeming the Sick Man of Europe - An Ottoman AAR

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