Ottomans are unplayable.

[Ryuujin95]

You don't have to constantly be at war with the hordes unless you really want to. I usually just play defensively along my border, without making peace with the hordes unless I need to (or if I'm specifically making a push to expand that direction.) Fighting them in my territory keeps my WE down, and the constant battles keeps my tradition up. If I ever need those armies elsewhere, I've usually punched the horde in the face enough times that they'll concede defeat, or at least allow me to, and then I have 5 years before I need to move those armies back.

 

[TeutoDraeger]

Uniting the Ottoman Cores(without the one the Timurids own) can be done in under one year, after that it is a matter of stalling the hordes and waiting for disaster to strike. One thing you completely disregard is that often enough countries will just DOW you because you have low War Capacity, then you will become the crusade target and after that every nation dows you as long as your wc stays low and it will stay low because you are at war with 1-3 Hordes for the entire first century or so.
I am not saying that Ottomans are unplayable or even overly difficult, but as the Ottomans you have to live with the fact that you will probably be in constant war against most of Europe. I have played many a successfull OE game before, but sometimes it is hard to get started with conquest due to the constant DoW's you receive from sometimes very random countries (yay a DoW from Saxony who brought in Austria and Hungary).

you can remedy the horde situation by conceding defeat/offering tribute. this totally negates the war capacity argument and removes half the problem. taking the income hit for a few years or even a decade is much more preferable to getting gang-banged by the hordes -and- the crusaders. while it's counter-intuitive to my prestige argument, prestige isn't that hard to recover as you proceed to annex your cores.

i've never been at war with more than one or two major powers at once as the ottomans in any of the games i've played as them. not to say i've always been successful, because i'm human and make mistakes too, especially when i'm playing tired/drunk/both...but my point is, it's not that hard to avoid massive wars like the OP and you are talking about.

 

[Pewt]

I've managed to have Europe pretty much ignore me by conquering other Muslims rather than Christians, which allows me to be a superpower by the time anybody notices I exist.

 

[TeutoDraeger]

as a historical note, the ottomans went most of the period covered by the grand campaign largely ignored by -most- of europe. aside from the venetians, aragonese, hungarians, and later on the habsburgs, the ottomans didn't really deal with europe that much.

 

[Ryuujin95]

Another thing to watch out for is your infamy. High infamy will draw the Christian nations in like flies, on top of making your stability problems worse. One game when I was constantly running my infamy in the red, I would be constantly DoWed by opm neighbors, and get no-CB DoWs from random places like Denmark and the Teutons. When I play more efficiently and keep my infamy in single digits I find things are far more peaceful when I want it to be.

 

[RobRoy3]

Or, if all else fails, use spies to resurrect the Byzantines and curb stomp them.

Oh, yes. Forgot about this strategy. Expensive, but this works well, if you're trying to avoid wars with the west. You can use either Patriots or Nationalists, depending on whether BYZ or TRE or EPI are still in the game or not, yet. Personally, I think the money is better spent on beefing up the military, but it all depends on your money situation.

 

[lullelulle]

as a historical note, the ottomans went most of the period covered by the grand campaign largely ignored by -most- of europe. aside from the venetians, aragonese, hungarians, and later on the habsburgs, the ottomans didn't really deal with europe that much.

As a matter of fact they had excellent relations with Sweden and fought wars against Russia together, the Swedish king Karl XII even lived in the Ottoman empire for 6 years. They also went together with France to beat the Habsburgs. Religion is way to much of a diplomatic cripple. Common interests could easily overweight religion.

 

[Derahan]

As a matter of fact they had excellent relations with Sweden and fought wars against Russia together, the Swedish king Karl XII even lived in the Ottoman empire for 6 years. They also went together with France to beat the Habsburgs. Religion is way to much of a diplomatic cripple. Common interests could easily overweight religion.

and the Ottomans were rather Secular weren't they?

 

[lullelulle]

and the Ottomans were rather Secular weren't they?

Extremely. They were very open to Christians, just look at the Janissaries. They had a ton of power in the Ottoman society.

 

[unmerged(80402)]

and the Ottomans were rather Secular weren't they?

Not in the way we see it now. It was after all muslim nation, and one of sultans sad he will make the prophet banner flutter over rome...

 

[brifbates]

All the western nations DoW, send troops to feed you land tradition, make no headway at all... I don't really see a problem here. As long as you don't do something foolish like try to get too offensive minded overseas what does it matter if they are all at war with you? They have no hope of doing any sort of damage to you after all. Just set a couple stacks roving the coasts and splattering them as they land, eventually they'll come crawling for peace. If your ruler is good enough just soak up the war taxes along with the land tradition. The only nations that should cause the Ottomans even the slightest concern early on are the ones with a land border and those are just expansion opportunities waiting to happen.

One piece of advice though, if you haven't already done so change your starting NI to military drill. Taking your cores will give more than enough manpower/force limit to protect yourself with your godly forces...

The ai is dumb about DoWs, there's no way around that. As soon as you get to war with 2-3 hordes the Euros will come calling because you look weak, just accept it and smash them into bloody pulp every 5 years-like rebels except dumber...

(For more tips you could check out Edgewise's AAR: Kill. Them. All.)

 

[unmerged(80402)]

IMHO, best what western nation can do, and did in reality, was crushades against OE. And it is pretty shown ingame. Just problem is that AI did not manage to take them down. Ussualy. But if it does, then they rule.

 

[DreadLindwyrm]

Extremely. They were very open to Christians, just look at the Janissaries. They had a ton of power in the Ottoman society.

Hence the "Ottoman tolerance" stuff in game.



I've never had much trouble with the OE, except when I've let my self look weak and had high infamy. Something that can help is to try to keep track of the Papal Controller, and avoid your relations getting too poor. Reduces the chances of being picked as the crusade target whilst you build up your force and deal with the hordes.

 

[RiseFromTheAshz]

on very hard and its only 1718

 

[Lord Curlyton]

Seeing as this topic was basically just beaten to death recently, I'll provide a link to the topic which should how to succeed easily plus pitfalls (plus a bunch of not-very-OT stuff):
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?575702-Ottoman-Empire-a-little-bit-underrated

 

[Caban]

Ottomans are among the easier countries in the game once you get a feel for land combat modifiers and naval combat. And while you might hate the hordes early on, they are wonderful later on. It's infamy free land, and a huge colonizer bonus for bordering them. I like to keep them around until I get my little west African colonies going strong.

And god help Europe once you've Westernized your military.

 

[unmerged(80402)]

IMHO, best what western nation can do, and did in reality, was crushades against OE. And it is pretty shown ingame. Just problem is that AI did not manage to take them down. Ussualy. But if it does, then they rule.

Take down the european crushades ofc.

 

[TeutoDraeger]

As a matter of fact they had excellent relations with Sweden and fought wars against Russia together, the Swedish king Karl XII even lived in the Ottoman empire for 6 years. They also went together with France to beat the Habsburgs. Religion is way to much of a diplomatic cripple. Common interests could easily overweight religion.

i apologize, i should have been more specific. my comment applies to pre-modernization (aka pre-decay aka before 1650) ottoman empire.

 

[Caban]

Some Ottoman leaders were extremely religious, but for the most part they were just about the most secular state in all of Europe. Their situation in the west practically required it of them.

 

[unmerged(80402)]

Some Ottoman leaders were extremely religious, but for the most part they were just about the most secular state in all of Europe. Their situation in the west practically required it of them.

I would not call them secular, i would rather say tolerant. Secular they were not, cause the immams were in the hands of state, as sultan was also the Khalif...