Jodien said:
The names are mostly written in modern pronunciation which is quite wrong for the 15th century. Western Anatolia was still ruled by Latin and Greek languages, the Turko-Persian language which will later be called as the Ottoman lang. was very new at the time.
Not really. Western Anatolia (in fact Anatolia was indeed a part of Asia Minor) was not ruled by Latin and Greek by the time. Turks were everywhere all the way to in Nicomedia already in the 11th century. Turkish was dominant in the Turkish-culture areas, thanks to Seljuk and Turkish Principality rule since 1071.
Your suggestion of Province names sound too archaic. Too Roman for the period. I think Constantinople/Bosphorus, Adrianople/Thrace, Smyrna/Smyrna, Trebizond/Trebizond are fine as concessions, and can be kept in old English versions, but Nicomedia, Brusa, Bithnya, Ankyra, Sebaste, Paphlagonia, Atalia are not. These were important Seljuk/Ottoman centres, and had their Turkified names already. The names you wrote are more proper for a game like Rome Total War. Finally, using Turkish names have more educational value, since these tend to be the same today.
Some provinces can be called Kurdistan and Armenia depending on their sizes on the map, can't tell without seeing the map. EU II's Kurdistan and Armenia were not very accurate.
CULTURE
I went through the list of Ottoman Grand Viziers in wikipedia, to look for their ethnic origins. Since the viziers were trained in the same system other government officials, this will give us an idea of the cultures represented in the Ottoman central government.
For the game period approximately (there are many with unknown backgrounds, and other biases)
1/3 are Turk
1/4 are Albanian
1/6 are Slavic
1/14 are Greek
1/20 are Georgian
1/10 are remaining others
For the first half of the game period, Turks are very few. For the second half, most are Turks (since Devshirme system wasn't used any more and the Empire became less centralised). I missed the Albanians before, but they have to be there.
There is only one known Armenian. There are no known Kurds or Arabs. While these people had some influence in the Ottoman Empire, it came later. In the game period, their regions were periphery for the Empire. Especially after 1600, Ottomans became less centralised, which meant that local feudal lords and governments had more power. Kurds had such autonomy. This may be interpreted to give them cultures of the areas they ruled.
Final verdict; I recommed
Turkish, Greek, Slavic, Albanian cultures for the Ottomans in 1453. Armenian, Kurdish, Arab, Tatar, Georgian cultures are optional, based on game-balance issues.
ARMY AND NAVY NAMES
Turkish names are better. Brains of English-speakers won't ooze out of their ears if they see Ordu instead of Army. It won't harm anyone to learn some Turkish, including enemies of Turks, but it definitely adds flavour (as long as a 'Tumen' is not called 'Dagitim').
I'd like to name my own armies individually. I keep having Army of Austria in Iran border, or similar chaos.
