Before I begin, and since it really doesn't properly belong anywhere else, I want to point out a small problem with Turkish dynamic province names: Madeira (which retains the name "Madeira" in Turkish) is incorrectly labeled Kanarya Adalari. That would be the Turkish name for the Canary Islands.
On to the meat of this post. It will be divided into three sections: government type, reworking of the Janissary stuff, and everything else.
So let's get started.
GOVERNMENT TYPE
As of 1.12, the Ottomans start as a despotic monarchy. It's probably my favorite kingdom type in the game simply because of how ridiculously useful that -1 unrest is and how you can get it right out the gate. But it does a relatively poor job of representing Ottoman succession. Why? Because, unlike the western kingdoms that the government type represents well, Ottoman succession was not clean. In fact, Ottoman succession was pretty much always ugly.
Additionally, the term Ottomans specifically refers to the noble house of Osmanli (something like "Sons of Osman"). If the Ottoman state is ever ruled by a non-Osmanli ruler, the name just gets weird. People have pointed this out quite frequently.
To represent the unique nature of the Ottoman government, then, I'm proposing implementing a special government form: Sublime Porte. Rather than starting the game with this government form (like England and her unique government), or getting it via event (like Austria's unique government), the Ottomans would get this government form by enacting the decision that relocates their capital to Constantinople. This prevents an oddities arising from the "Sublime Porte" being a kingdom in 1444.
So what does the Sublime Porte do? Simple: it melds the traditional gameplay of a kingdom (royal marriages, legitimacy) with the RNG elements of the new theocratic ruler selection process to create a unique gameplay experience. So let's get to hard facts.
1. The Sublime Porte government type confers +5% discipline, +10% siege power, -25% accepted culture threshold, and -0.05 autonomy/month (remember, this government type only exists at the imperial level: this reduction is less you'd get as almost anything else). The discipline bonus reflects the Ottoman's military's exceptional combat performance early in the EU4 period. This performance wasn't just limited the Janissary corps, but also the Sipahis (their mounted rivals) and the combat engineers that made the Ottomans so good at siege warfare.
2. When a ruler dies, three things happen. First, the player gets an event. This event announces that the previous sultan has died and that a new sultan needs to be selected. It provides a list of three candidates. All three will be of the Osmanli family (thus ensuring you always have the dynasty that gave its name to the empire). One option will represent the conservative option: the eldest son, one that has a respectable power base (-0 stability, strong claim). Another option will represent the dark horse son, who lacks the widespread support of his elder brother (-1 stability, average claim). The final option is the youngest son, who also happens to have very little political backing but has just enough clout to seize Constantinople out from under his brothers (-1 stability, weak claim).
The second thing to happen is that things get crazy. No matter who you select, the Janissaries, if they're active, will ask for a bribe (somewhere in the vicinity of 1/12th of your annual gross income). If you accept, you lose the money and that's it. If you decline to pay, you'll lose 1 stability and face a random uprising: one in Anatolia, one in Greece. These will be Particularists.
In addition to these rebels, you'll also possibly face rebels based on your selection of a ruler. This is the third thing that happens. If you selected the eldest son, you'll be spared rebels. If you selected the middle son, you face an insurrection in Greece by the eldest son and in Anatolia by the youngest son. If you selected the youngest son, you face an insurrection in three locations: your capital (eldest brother), Greece (nobility), and Anatolia (middle brother).
To prevent the AI from being totally destroyed by this, the AI will always select the eldest brother (thus avoiding rebellions) and then decline to pay the Janissaries (losing 1 stability). In effect, they ignore the main new features of the Sublime Porte government to prevent them from exploding or something.
3. So let's talk actual stats for the rulers. Like the new theocracy heir system, all sons will have ?/?/? stats when you get the selection menu (this isn't strictly necessary but it helps). This ensures the Ottomans can't simply cherrypick their successors like Republics can. The stats will be distributed by RNG, but the general idea is that the eldest son has about 7 points, the middle son has 10 points, and the youngest son has 12 points. Exact ages will vary, but I was thinking something like: 30, 25, and 15, respectively.
What we're doing here is rewarding players who have built a country that is stable enough to survive a violent succession (which is what happens when you opt for anyone other than the eldest son) while simultaneously making it likely that players will often opt away from the theoretically best ruler. Remember, the Ottomans can no longer get -1 unrest from their government form. They're reliant on legitimacy for that reduction. If you take the youngest son and start with ~33 legitimacy, you're talking about a net swing of approximately +4 unrest (you're losing the -3 unrest bonus at 100 legitimacy and eating something like +0.75 unrest from low legitimacy). This is in addition to the stability you just lost. All told, taking the youngest son gives you the indisputably best ruler, but it also slaps you with an unrest swing of nearly 5.
These mechanics together would create a more interesting ruler system than what I experienced in my last Ottomans game.
JANISSARIES & CORRUPTION
I didn't even get the Janissary event to fire for me last time around. I have no idea how that happened.
So new trigger: enacting the Devsirme system. That gives you a handy-dandy flag. The Janissary event checks for that, finds it, and then fires the event at some point (MTTH: 64 months?).
When the Janissary event fires, the players get a choice: Form the Yeni Cari (+5% discipline, -10% infantry cost) or to dismantle the devsirme system [It's actually a C with a cedilla, which gives it a "Ch" sound, but I can't figure out how to get that in this editor]. As an aside, I personally think that the system should be "Expand the Timariots," since the vast majority of Ottoman troops around this time were timars, but that's a pedantic point and doesn't really mean much here.
As a point of clarification: Sipahis were traditionally paid significantly more than Janissaries. In 1609 there were 47,000 Janissaries and 21,000 Sipahis; in 1613, salary outlays to the two groups were identical (and usually the Sipahis received more). Also in 1609, just for the sake of comparison, the entire artillery corps was comprised of 8,000 men. These figures are taken from Rhoads Murphey's Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700.
After conquering Cairo, you begin to have Janissary vs. Sipahi events. At first they fight over salaries. Your first event is 'Crisis of the Outer Treasury.' The Ottomans divided expenditures between the Inner and Outer Treasury. More often than not, the Outer Treasury was only able to balance its books by direct cash transfers from the Inner Treasury. But what's the significant of Cairo? Well, that's where the Inner Treasury got its money. Ottoman treasury surpluses in the 16th century tended to be pretty much what the Ottoman government was getting from Egypt (which, at times, accounted for up to a third of total government revenue). This event would say something to the effect of:
Option A: "We shall adapt and change with the times." +10% cavalry cost. (Sipahi Undermined flag)
Option B: "The Timars have served us well so far; let them continue." +10% infantry cost, +10% cavalry power. (Janissaries Undermined flag)
Now the Koprulu family. This is a reworking of the old event, which is a one-off bonus for whoever happens to be sultan at the time. I'm not a fan of it since it means the Koprulu can either be hugely important or just irrelevant. So...
Option A: "We shall elevate the Koprulu Family." -1 stability. Adds Koprulu Family flag (-1 interest rate, +5% production income until 1821). The production bonus represents the fact that many Koprulu family members played important roles in local economies.
Option B: "Send these Albanian peasants to the frontier." +1 stability.
Later, we get the following event. This particular event assumes the Koprulu family flag is active. This particular event fires between 1600 and 1650 and the AI will take it 90% of the time.
Option A: "Sack that Albanian peasant!" Koprulu Family flag removed, remove "Sipahi Undermined" flag from previous event.
Option B: "He is right; disband the Sipahi!" Size 3 revolt in capital, +10% cavalry cost, -5% infantry cost, add "Sipahi Disbanded" flag, remove "Sipahi Undermined" flag from previous event. [Effective swing of -5% infantry cost.]
Option C: "Force him to restore the Sipahi." -1 stability
And then things start to come to a head. If the Ottomans are Anatolian (?) tech group, the Janissary disaster fires as normal. If the Ottomans have westernized normally, the Janissary disaster has probably fired. If the Ottomans westernize by decision (like the one that requires holding Vienna/Danzig/Prague), then you get this.
MTTH: 1000 months. If the Sipahi Disbanded flag's in place, halve it. If the Koprulu family is in power, halve it. Event cannot fire if: the Ottomans do not have >200 development.
Option A: "Disband the traitors!" Ruler is killed, size 2 Janissary revolts in: Cairo, Baghdad, Constantinople, Budapest, Alexandria, Adana, and Karaman. These are pretender rebels. If they successfully break the country, the government form changes. If the province isn't held by the Ottomans, it's replaced with a random (-1) province. This prevents people from giving away these provinces to avoid the worst of the event. Additionally, adds the Nizam-i Cedid modifier and removes the Janissary modifier. Also removes Devsirme (+10% manpower) modifier.
Option B: "Reach a compromise." Lose the Janissaries flag (+5% discipline, -10% infantry cost) but stop the rebellion. -1 stability.
Option C: "Bow to their demands." Ottoman Empire becomes an Absolute Monarchy and loses the Koprulu Family flag (if it's there).
In all cases, the Nizam-i Cedid event removes Sipahi flags. All of 'em.
Nizam-i Cedid modifier: 5% discipline, +5% infantry cost.
Best-case Janissary modifiers for comparative purposes: +5% discipline, -15% infantry cost, +10% cavalry cost. Additionally, this modifier goes hand-in-hand with Devsirme, which is +10% manpower.
EVERYTHING ELSE
By which I mean, "Wallachia."
Wallachia's exact status is a mess. Vlad II was initially brought to power by the Ottomans and served as their de facto subject. Then Vlad II participated in the Hungarian war of 1443-1444. And then it participated again at Varna, which ended in such a spectacular defeat for the Christians that it effectively established Ottoman hegemony in the Balkans right up through the 19th century.
However, it might be interesting to allow Hungary and the Ottomans to effectively fight over who gets to inherit the Wallachian throne after Vlad II's death.
Possible sequence of events.
> Vlad II dies.
>> Ottomans back Mircea, his eldest son and heir.
>> Hungarians back Vlad.
>> Wallachia chooses.
>>> If Wallachia chose Mircea, the Hungarians can spend money and assassinate him. As a result, the Ottomans get a subjugation CB on Wallachia.
>>> If Wallachia chose Mircea and the Hungarians did not assassinate him, he becomes ruler and Wallachia becomes a vassal.
>>> If Wallachia chose Vlad, Wallachia allies and is guaranteed by Hungary while the Ottomans gain a subjugation CB.
Might be an interesting alternative to just hoping you get the Subjugate Wallachia event. Admittedly, though, my Wallachian history is a bit rusty.
On to the meat of this post. It will be divided into three sections: government type, reworking of the Janissary stuff, and everything else.
So let's get started.
GOVERNMENT TYPE
As of 1.12, the Ottomans start as a despotic monarchy. It's probably my favorite kingdom type in the game simply because of how ridiculously useful that -1 unrest is and how you can get it right out the gate. But it does a relatively poor job of representing Ottoman succession. Why? Because, unlike the western kingdoms that the government type represents well, Ottoman succession was not clean. In fact, Ottoman succession was pretty much always ugly.
Additionally, the term Ottomans specifically refers to the noble house of Osmanli (something like "Sons of Osman"). If the Ottoman state is ever ruled by a non-Osmanli ruler, the name just gets weird. People have pointed this out quite frequently.
To represent the unique nature of the Ottoman government, then, I'm proposing implementing a special government form: Sublime Porte. Rather than starting the game with this government form (like England and her unique government), or getting it via event (like Austria's unique government), the Ottomans would get this government form by enacting the decision that relocates their capital to Constantinople. This prevents an oddities arising from the "Sublime Porte" being a kingdom in 1444.
So what does the Sublime Porte do? Simple: it melds the traditional gameplay of a kingdom (royal marriages, legitimacy) with the RNG elements of the new theocratic ruler selection process to create a unique gameplay experience. So let's get to hard facts.
1. The Sublime Porte government type confers +5% discipline, +10% siege power, -25% accepted culture threshold, and -0.05 autonomy/month (remember, this government type only exists at the imperial level: this reduction is less you'd get as almost anything else). The discipline bonus reflects the Ottoman's military's exceptional combat performance early in the EU4 period. This performance wasn't just limited the Janissary corps, but also the Sipahis (their mounted rivals) and the combat engineers that made the Ottomans so good at siege warfare.
2. When a ruler dies, three things happen. First, the player gets an event. This event announces that the previous sultan has died and that a new sultan needs to be selected. It provides a list of three candidates. All three will be of the Osmanli family (thus ensuring you always have the dynasty that gave its name to the empire). One option will represent the conservative option: the eldest son, one that has a respectable power base (-0 stability, strong claim). Another option will represent the dark horse son, who lacks the widespread support of his elder brother (-1 stability, average claim). The final option is the youngest son, who also happens to have very little political backing but has just enough clout to seize Constantinople out from under his brothers (-1 stability, weak claim).
The second thing to happen is that things get crazy. No matter who you select, the Janissaries, if they're active, will ask for a bribe (somewhere in the vicinity of 1/12th of your annual gross income). If you accept, you lose the money and that's it. If you decline to pay, you'll lose 1 stability and face a random uprising: one in Anatolia, one in Greece. These will be Particularists.
In addition to these rebels, you'll also possibly face rebels based on your selection of a ruler. This is the third thing that happens. If you selected the eldest son, you'll be spared rebels. If you selected the middle son, you face an insurrection in Greece by the eldest son and in Anatolia by the youngest son. If you selected the youngest son, you face an insurrection in three locations: your capital (eldest brother), Greece (nobility), and Anatolia (middle brother).
To prevent the AI from being totally destroyed by this, the AI will always select the eldest brother (thus avoiding rebellions) and then decline to pay the Janissaries (losing 1 stability). In effect, they ignore the main new features of the Sublime Porte government to prevent them from exploding or something.
3. So let's talk actual stats for the rulers. Like the new theocracy heir system, all sons will have ?/?/? stats when you get the selection menu (this isn't strictly necessary but it helps). This ensures the Ottomans can't simply cherrypick their successors like Republics can. The stats will be distributed by RNG, but the general idea is that the eldest son has about 7 points, the middle son has 10 points, and the youngest son has 12 points. Exact ages will vary, but I was thinking something like: 30, 25, and 15, respectively.
What we're doing here is rewarding players who have built a country that is stable enough to survive a violent succession (which is what happens when you opt for anyone other than the eldest son) while simultaneously making it likely that players will often opt away from the theoretically best ruler. Remember, the Ottomans can no longer get -1 unrest from their government form. They're reliant on legitimacy for that reduction. If you take the youngest son and start with ~33 legitimacy, you're talking about a net swing of approximately +4 unrest (you're losing the -3 unrest bonus at 100 legitimacy and eating something like +0.75 unrest from low legitimacy). This is in addition to the stability you just lost. All told, taking the youngest son gives you the indisputably best ruler, but it also slaps you with an unrest swing of nearly 5.
These mechanics together would create a more interesting ruler system than what I experienced in my last Ottomans game.
JANISSARIES & CORRUPTION
I didn't even get the Janissary event to fire for me last time around. I have no idea how that happened.
So new trigger: enacting the Devsirme system. That gives you a handy-dandy flag. The Janissary event checks for that, finds it, and then fires the event at some point (MTTH: 64 months?).
When the Janissary event fires, the players get a choice: Form the Yeni Cari (+5% discipline, -10% infantry cost) or to dismantle the devsirme system [It's actually a C with a cedilla, which gives it a "Ch" sound, but I can't figure out how to get that in this editor]. As an aside, I personally think that the system should be "Expand the Timariots," since the vast majority of Ottoman troops around this time were timars, but that's a pedantic point and doesn't really mean much here.
As a point of clarification: Sipahis were traditionally paid significantly more than Janissaries. In 1609 there were 47,000 Janissaries and 21,000 Sipahis; in 1613, salary outlays to the two groups were identical (and usually the Sipahis received more). Also in 1609, just for the sake of comparison, the entire artillery corps was comprised of 8,000 men. These figures are taken from Rhoads Murphey's Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700.
After conquering Cairo, you begin to have Janissary vs. Sipahi events. At first they fight over salaries. Your first event is 'Crisis of the Outer Treasury.' The Ottomans divided expenditures between the Inner and Outer Treasury. More often than not, the Outer Treasury was only able to balance its books by direct cash transfers from the Inner Treasury. But what's the significant of Cairo? Well, that's where the Inner Treasury got its money. Ottoman treasury surpluses in the 16th century tended to be pretty much what the Ottoman government was getting from Egypt (which, at times, accounted for up to a third of total government revenue). This event would say something to the effect of:
Option A: "We shall adapt and change with the times." +10% cavalry cost. (Sipahi Undermined flag)
Option B: "The Timars have served us well so far; let them continue." +10% infantry cost, +10% cavalry power. (Janissaries Undermined flag)
Now the Koprulu family. This is a reworking of the old event, which is a one-off bonus for whoever happens to be sultan at the time. I'm not a fan of it since it means the Koprulu can either be hugely important or just irrelevant. So...
Option A: "We shall elevate the Koprulu Family." -1 stability. Adds Koprulu Family flag (-1 interest rate, +5% production income until 1821). The production bonus represents the fact that many Koprulu family members played important roles in local economies.
Option B: "Send these Albanian peasants to the frontier." +1 stability.
Later, we get the following event. This particular event assumes the Koprulu family flag is active. This particular event fires between 1600 and 1650 and the AI will take it 90% of the time.
Option A: "Sack that Albanian peasant!" Koprulu Family flag removed, remove "Sipahi Undermined" flag from previous event.
Option B: "He is right; disband the Sipahi!" Size 3 revolt in capital, +10% cavalry cost, -5% infantry cost, add "Sipahi Disbanded" flag, remove "Sipahi Undermined" flag from previous event. [Effective swing of -5% infantry cost.]
Option C: "Force him to restore the Sipahi." -1 stability
And then things start to come to a head. If the Ottomans are Anatolian (?) tech group, the Janissary disaster fires as normal. If the Ottomans have westernized normally, the Janissary disaster has probably fired. If the Ottomans westernize by decision (like the one that requires holding Vienna/Danzig/Prague), then you get this.
MTTH: 1000 months. If the Sipahi Disbanded flag's in place, halve it. If the Koprulu family is in power, halve it. Event cannot fire if: the Ottomans do not have >200 development.
Option A: "Disband the traitors!" Ruler is killed, size 2 Janissary revolts in: Cairo, Baghdad, Constantinople, Budapest, Alexandria, Adana, and Karaman. These are pretender rebels. If they successfully break the country, the government form changes. If the province isn't held by the Ottomans, it's replaced with a random (-1) province. This prevents people from giving away these provinces to avoid the worst of the event. Additionally, adds the Nizam-i Cedid modifier and removes the Janissary modifier. Also removes Devsirme (+10% manpower) modifier.
Option B: "Reach a compromise." Lose the Janissaries flag (+5% discipline, -10% infantry cost) but stop the rebellion. -1 stability.
Option C: "Bow to their demands." Ottoman Empire becomes an Absolute Monarchy and loses the Koprulu Family flag (if it's there).
In all cases, the Nizam-i Cedid event removes Sipahi flags. All of 'em.
Nizam-i Cedid modifier: 5% discipline, +5% infantry cost.
Best-case Janissary modifiers for comparative purposes: +5% discipline, -15% infantry cost, +10% cavalry cost. Additionally, this modifier goes hand-in-hand with Devsirme, which is +10% manpower.
EVERYTHING ELSE
By which I mean, "Wallachia."
Wallachia's exact status is a mess. Vlad II was initially brought to power by the Ottomans and served as their de facto subject. Then Vlad II participated in the Hungarian war of 1443-1444. And then it participated again at Varna, which ended in such a spectacular defeat for the Christians that it effectively established Ottoman hegemony in the Balkans right up through the 19th century.
However, it might be interesting to allow Hungary and the Ottomans to effectively fight over who gets to inherit the Wallachian throne after Vlad II's death.
Possible sequence of events.
> Vlad II dies.
>> Ottomans back Mircea, his eldest son and heir.
>> Hungarians back Vlad.
>> Wallachia chooses.
>>> If Wallachia chose Mircea, the Hungarians can spend money and assassinate him. As a result, the Ottomans get a subjugation CB on Wallachia.
>>> If Wallachia chose Mircea and the Hungarians did not assassinate him, he becomes ruler and Wallachia becomes a vassal.
>>> If Wallachia chose Vlad, Wallachia allies and is guaranteed by Hungary while the Ottomans gain a subjugation CB.
Might be an interesting alternative to just hoping you get the Subjugate Wallachia event. Admittedly, though, my Wallachian history is a bit rusty.
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