Well, it's a slow day here on the forums, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to describe a *very* unorthodox strategy for the Ottoman Empire I've been considering recently.
I was looking through event files the other day, and it occured to me that, if a human player plans very, very, very well, allowing Russia to recieve Tsar of all the Slavs might actually work out rather well for him. Let me explain what I have in mind:
For those that don't know, Tsar of all the Slavs is an event that Russia gets when it overrruns the Ottoman Empire. If they have occupied Bucharest, Sophia, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Tirane, and Istanbul, and event will fire allowing Russia to declare itself the second Rome. The war ends, the OE becomes a satellite of Russia, they become uncivilized, lose 500 prestige, and Russia inherits all the OE's European posessions.
What on earth could possible be good about this for the Ottomans? Their capital city moves to Ankara--Asia.
I began to consider the possibility that it might be possible to use this to a player's advantage. If you managed to build up a great deal of prestige through colonization of Africa, and if you managed to conquer Persia and so forth and so on, even into China, you could have more than 500 prestige easily by the time Russia attacks in the Crimean War or earlier. The idea, simply put, is this: allow Russia to get the Tsar event, let your capital city be moved to Asia, and suddenly you have the ability to grant statehood to everything from Jerusalem to Japan.
If you've researched cultural techs and colonized, there's no reason you shouldn't have over 600 prestige by the time Rusia attacks. It's also pretty easy to match Russia in military strength. If you just allow Russia to take everything you have in the Balkans, the event will fire, you choose to surrender, and your capital moves to Asia.
Of course, you become a satellite of the Russians, but you can just march your troops into their territory, declare war on them when the treaty expires, and then defeat them to break your satellite status.
The biggest pickle here is that Tsar of all the Slavs makes the OE uncivilized, but it occured to me that if you keep all your industry in African and Anatolia (which you should, considering they're where your national culture POPs are), and if you colonize well, and if you keep you military out of Russian hands, you should have no problem getting the generic civilization event immediately after losing the war, thus making you civilized again.
Basically, you'd be stagnant for something like 10 years after pulling this off, but if you do it just right, you can run off and conquer China and fill it with factories, and at that point even negative prestige won't matter anymore.
I know this idea sounds crazy, perhaps even stupid, but you know, I think it might actually have a chance of working. I'm thinking of giving it a try, but I'd like to hear opinions first.
I was looking through event files the other day, and it occured to me that, if a human player plans very, very, very well, allowing Russia to recieve Tsar of all the Slavs might actually work out rather well for him. Let me explain what I have in mind:
For those that don't know, Tsar of all the Slavs is an event that Russia gets when it overrruns the Ottoman Empire. If they have occupied Bucharest, Sophia, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Tirane, and Istanbul, and event will fire allowing Russia to declare itself the second Rome. The war ends, the OE becomes a satellite of Russia, they become uncivilized, lose 500 prestige, and Russia inherits all the OE's European posessions.
What on earth could possible be good about this for the Ottomans? Their capital city moves to Ankara--Asia.
I began to consider the possibility that it might be possible to use this to a player's advantage. If you managed to build up a great deal of prestige through colonization of Africa, and if you managed to conquer Persia and so forth and so on, even into China, you could have more than 500 prestige easily by the time Russia attacks in the Crimean War or earlier. The idea, simply put, is this: allow Russia to get the Tsar event, let your capital city be moved to Asia, and suddenly you have the ability to grant statehood to everything from Jerusalem to Japan.
If you've researched cultural techs and colonized, there's no reason you shouldn't have over 600 prestige by the time Rusia attacks. It's also pretty easy to match Russia in military strength. If you just allow Russia to take everything you have in the Balkans, the event will fire, you choose to surrender, and your capital moves to Asia.
Of course, you become a satellite of the Russians, but you can just march your troops into their territory, declare war on them when the treaty expires, and then defeat them to break your satellite status.
The biggest pickle here is that Tsar of all the Slavs makes the OE uncivilized, but it occured to me that if you keep all your industry in African and Anatolia (which you should, considering they're where your national culture POPs are), and if you colonize well, and if you keep you military out of Russian hands, you should have no problem getting the generic civilization event immediately after losing the war, thus making you civilized again.
Basically, you'd be stagnant for something like 10 years after pulling this off, but if you do it just right, you can run off and conquer China and fill it with factories, and at that point even negative prestige won't matter anymore.
I know this idea sounds crazy, perhaps even stupid, but you know, I think it might actually have a chance of working. I'm thinking of giving it a try, but I'd like to hear opinions first.
