Question with how to play the Ottoman Turks

[hannibal_barca]

I am playing with the latest 5.2 beta. I get a good start as the ottomans but after 40 years or so of expanding into mostly muslim countries, the Catholic Powers constantly launch crusades at me with very large armies and I cannot defeat them. The constant relations drop I get with the Catholic powers since I am muslim makes this almost inevitable.

 

[El Jojo]

That's the life of the Ottomans in EU3 and why the AI can't manage them.
Who's invading you ? Austria ? The emperor ? They are the only ones who should have big armies able to reach you by land. You have better units early game, defend on good terrain and you'll slowly bleed their manpower. Scorch earth if you have to.

Against Castille or England, you have to get a fleet or accept high blockade (which can really hurt your WE), Press Gang is a nice National Idea to help with that.

If you wanted to avoid the crusades, then I'm not sure it's possible. They hate you, they have a CB and you're a real threat. So yes it's ridiculous that England wastes all of its ressources on you, but the HRE building up against a growing Ottoman empire ? It makes sense.

 

[zezeb]

Get a big doomstack of your soldiers. You should have better and more advanced soldiers and try to grab the greek states. Gives you quite nice income and manpower and take all of Turkey. If you do that, you should get a high army tradition. Get good generals and beat the living hell of those darn christians!

 

[cywang86]

Here's the thing. The Christian nations can't have holy war CB unless they border you, be a Defender of Faith, or have Divine Supremacy NI.

Since the AI rarely picks up DS as their NI, simply keeping Serbia and Wallachia as your vassals buffer is enough to prevent Hungary (and eventually Austria) getting a CB.

Castile and England usually end up with Defender of Faith, so you NEED to have a navy that can decimate theirs. Build over your naval force limit if you have to to strip them of their DoF title. Once you have about 60+regiments of land army, plus a navy that's larger than any European nations, they should stop initiating holy war unless you're extremely vulnerable due to wars with the horde.

 

[DDRJake]

Here's the thing. The Christian nations can't have holy war CB unless they border you, be a Defender of Faith, or have Divine Supremacy NI.

...and if you are the target of a crusade, which OP said he is, meaning all catholics have a free holy war CB on him. When it rains, it pours.

But simply build up a good army, which you should be able to do with all that rich cored Anatolian lands and smash anyone who lands on you. In this inland sea, galleys are quite powerfull along with being cheap so build as many as you can to try to decimate any incoming English or Iberian fleets. Make sure your armies use plenty of your superior Ottoman cavalry.

 

[cywang86]

oops, reading comprehension

But yeah, a strong navy is enough to ward off most catholic invasions. Make sure you build the correct land units, or they won't be able to upgrade as your land tech advances.

 

[brifbates]

oops, reading comprehension

But yeah, a strong navy is enough to ward off most catholic invasions. Make sure you build the correct land units, or they won't be able to upgrade as your land tech advances.

In general you don't need a strong navy to beat the a.i. nations, just patience. Only a couple nations will have enough transports to land a force that you can't just laugh at while smashing it. For England and Castille just park regiments around so they won't assault and let attrition eat them up before you smash & laugh at their "doom" stack. Once the a.i. nation throws enough troops away fruitlessly trying to land on your shores they will usually accept at least a white peace.

Your bigger worry is getting a land border with the HRE. As long as you don't directly border an inland nation they generally won't DoW you no matter what else is going on. So keep a buffer of balkan minors until you are in a position to wreck the HRE big boys.

 

[Dustman]

Even if you're very strong, try avoiding land borders with both Austria, Bohemia, France and Poland at the same time. With holy war CB you can easily have 500k+ troops against you instantly. Even if you win, losses may take 10+ years to replenish, and chances are high you'll be attacked again during this time.

 

[alexti]

I wouldn't recommend expanding into muslim lands. The best defense is offense. Build a large fleet (take loan or two to get money) and just obliterate Catholic powers. In early years (before Europeans reach land 5) your military advantage is huge, after you reach land 6 it's huge again. So my view on this is to conquer/annex good provinces, such as Italy with all those universities and valuable goods, keep the big nations (Bohemia, Austria, Castille, Burgundy, France, England) under more or less permanent occupation - no reason to let them recover, just leave them a province, so that white peace timeout won't kick in. After Europe is under your control you won't need to worry about westerners outteching you

 

[Chronicler]

well, I have mostly played 5.1.

But I would start with peacing out Timurids right away.

Then claim throne of Mamluks right away, and start a war with them. And force them into a union asap.

Do the same to Algiers if you can.

Then when that's done, if you can take anyone else with turkish culture, like Yemen, OMan or Hedjaz that would be good, let Mamluks do most the fighting for you. Also claim all your cores, do your missions, and release Bosnia and Serbia so you can get core missions. You should force-release Iraq and force a PU on them as well.

When you inherited all turkish lands you will be very powerful.