The Ottoman Experience - a technical AAR

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I gained a lot of info from this forum and restarted (once again) my grand campaign with the Ottoman Empire. I hope writing an AAR will keep me focused and actually finish the campaign.

Since literature is not my strongpoint, I will write here things that may help people get some information that I searched in these forums, a sort of 'applied' knowledge. (hopefully applied correctly)

I play the fruits of Mad King James' efforts, MKJ v6 (GC), on EU2 v1.05
Difficulty: VeryHard & Normal. Since VH reduces BB in 6 years, I prefer it to Hard. Normal is there because otherwise the AI nations tire themselves by war.

**AIM**: I just wanted to experience the Ottomans, while willing to guide them a bit.
With such intention, I naturally can't use loansharking, trading maps, putting colonists wantonly and such things.

I will keep a *Respected* reputation, especially before declaring war or grabbing Non-core provinces.

I also use merchant auto-send because I am too lazy and anyway, it will be a sort of handicap against my other advantages, like using H.I instead of AI to run the affairs of the empire.


Finally, a word about Domestic Sliders (DS) before I start. In the saved file, year 1419:
aristocracy = 6 centralization = 6
innovative = 5 mercantilism = 5
offensive = 6 land = 6
quality = 7 serfdom = 4

My preferences are:
-aristocracy: 8 or 10, since it can give 1 or 2 extra diplomats, at times it is useful.
-Centralisation: more the better but not that important.
-Innovative: for ottomans, I prefer 3-6. relatively big stability cost vs. tech. cost forces a compromise.
-Merchantilism: I try for 4 to get some colonists.
-Offensive: Either 0 (siege=1), 9 (morale=+0.08) or 10 (shock+1) seemes the choice. If some events push it to one extreme, maybe I can go all the way. Otherwise, not bothered.
-Land: would go 4 if I need colonists. Otherwise, not bothered.
-Quality: Full quality. The morale bonus is useful but I prefer the disadvantage of having less troops costing more.
-Serfdom: gamewise, I think 6 or 7 is good but I normally can't bring myself to go above 5.

Anyway, here I go (or come)...

 

[unmerged(4007)]

Keeping a "respectable" reputation as the Ottomans will be a challenge in itself. I'll have to keep an eye on this and see if you keep that goal.

 

[Bismarck]

So you plan to play as an enemy of mine....


interesting... I'll have to see how you do.

M

 

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Year 1419 - 1429

Year 1419.
Reputation: Honorable. DS:+Quality (manually increased quality by 1)
Income=$5.1 (per Month); Stabilty cost:$418; Army:40/20/8 (Infantry,Cavalry,Artilerry)

Since stability, after setting that DS, is +1, I put stab research to full, untill I get +2. Some would say all sliders should have some research going on. The problem is, it is more easy to pull one slider all the way. Also, unlike a single-province country, the effect of monarch's research ability is not that important here.

BTW, some explanation about this version of GC regarding Ottomans. Daghestan belongs to Golden Horde while Morea is an independant country. Also, there are events for Teke to be inherited, some Arab and Slavonic lands to become our core around 1500. Luckily, such knowledge of the future is not terrible because I want to play the 'good' boy and also want to be as historical as possible until the 16th century, since I enjoy all those scripted events.

1419 January: Teke wanted an alliance. I know they dislike a bunch of other countries that I may need to kill. Maybe they will save me a DoW.

Event: Great Army Reform. Naturally I chose Army reform, as it increases quality.

On May, I did what I always do - declare on Byzantium (Roman Empire). That silly patch of land breaking my would-be empire into two equally important parts is something I can't accept. I can never fight any other war 'peacefully' as long as this 'thing' exists.

It is nice of the Knights and Morea to come to the aid of the Roman Empire, since I gobbled them all; The Knights and Byzantium annexed on 1420 while the siege of Morea lasted until 1423, followed by annexation. Since they are not of my religion, annexing them is just one BB point. Those three entities also gave me a reasonable navy to play around with.

With the fall of Istanbul (Byzantium), there are a sequence of events, the result being:
-Istanbul is capital, with a big population, tax base, and a CoT (Centre of Trade)
-Three important provinces change into Turk culture and Sunni religion.
-Two provinces gained free from Genoa (Kerch and Kaffa)
-Ottoman gains Slavanic and Greek culture.
-Treasury receives $2000.
-In DS settings, innovative dropped by 3.

I had also got rid of an *Uncooperative Philosopher* (Random Event) and innovativeness further dropped.

Also, though none of my effort, Trade level 01 was researched and I clicked the auto-send merchants.

If I didn't mention the battles, it is because they are not exciting. I have a general, with 20k Cavalry, while the others had practically nothing, except the powerful ships. The knights landed their men on Turkish beaches and got slaughtered. All I had to do was to avoid their ships and land my men in Rhodes.
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1421: Maybe because quite a few of my infantry were slaughtered, the body count must have made me seem small. In any case, Trebizond, Georgia and Kurdistan (Ak Koyunlu) ganged up on me.

However, Ottomans received both Murad II (king and leader) and Iskander Bey in that period, while my cavalry was still intact. Also, the Kurds and Georgia didn't have much men left after their previous war with the Golden Horde. So, in spite of a few disasters, like getting killed in the Armenian winter, it was not a big deal to win the siege of Trabzon and annex them.

There was a nice event to signify the failure of the Trebizoid's foolish ambition to replace the Roman Empire: 3 more provinces changed into Turk & Sunni. (wonder if it can be called an exploit!)

Peace with Georgia was a mess, because their capital is what I want but I can't get it untill they lose their other province, Sochi, which I didn't want. So, I just grabbed $80 and made them my vassals.

Ak Koyunlu was stripped of Armenia (gold producer), Nuyssaybin (Shitte religion), $400 and vassalised.

Thus ended a very profitable war on 1424. In any event my army (30/30) was over the support limit and it is just as well I put them to some use.
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BTW, there are some events, like reducing monarch's diplomatic ratings, giving $100 and others. I don't want to write them unless it make any difference to me at that point.

Teke was inherited by events while another event made Kurdish a state culture.
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1424: Just before I inherited Teke, I launched a war on Qara Koyunlu.
There was a funny reason. Azerbaizan, a core provice for the Ottomans but owned by Qara Koyunlu, was controlled by the Kurds. So, to get a 100% score against them, I had to strip them of this province and that can only be done by declaring on Qara Koyunly.

In any case, Qara Koyunlu were allied with the Mameluks and between them, they had 4 core provinces of mine. So, I just gain 1 BB for 4 provinces. Since Qara Koyunlu was busy fighting the Timurids and Mameluks fighting the Nubians, it was that much hard to resist.

Although Aden and Hedjaz joined their side, they didn't lift a finger and I was happy to accept White Peace when asked.

Some losses were heavy, especially in taking Syria but the Mameluks didn't seem to have an army after that and were happy to deal after I took Judea. In any case Iskander Bey was fantastic in battle. I knew I am going to miss him after he dies.

Result:
1425: Qara Koyunly parts with Azerbaizan, becomes vassal.
1427: Mameluk gave away Allepo, Lebanon, Syria.
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Achieved InfraTech-01 but decided to build tax collecters only in Sunni provinces. Rebel-hunting is not my mood in this game.

In the neighbourhood, Hungary annexed Croatia. More seriously, Papal states somehow annexed Hellas. Now this is a problem because it separates Morea from Thrace-Macedonia. I don't feel strong enough to land in the Italian mainland to pursuade the Pope.

I have a feeling I am losing more money with the merchant autosend right now but with $1600 in cash, I didn't bother.

Had some Royal Marriages as normal. (5 I think)

The problem is the army size, of 50/36. They are 14k above limit. Disbanding them, esp. the infantry, is advantageous because others may declare war and same me a DoW. However, I have this fanatic attitute to keeping the 'losses' minimum.

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NOTE:
At 1429, the reputation was 'slightly tarnished'.
I said I prefer the 'Respected' Reputation. However, it is not easy to know when I will go above that. So, I just made a policy of not gaining BB while ALREADY in a 'slightly tarnished' level. Either that or I had to open the save file each time. Too lazy for that. In any case the general idea is to give a lot of importance to BB.

 

[Craig Ashley]

I'm always curious to see how people play the nation I am playing (and writing about). But a respectable rep? With the Turkish scourge of christianity? You need to read some of the other Ottoman AARs to see how it's done, man.

Seriously though, I am actually very intrigued by your goals. It will be interesting to see how this play's out (and to see what events MKJ has dreamed up).

posted by kongu3

Since literature is not my strongpoint, . . .

Don't be afraid to give it a try. I'm not saying a log style AAR (or however you are planning to do this) can't be interesting. Just don't be so eager to limit yourself. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

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shawng1 & Bismarck,

Really grateful for your encouragements.

Actually I don't expect much reply because I intended to just write so someone who was even worse than what I was 2 months ago (in gameplay) may find some use. I myself haven't posted much although I read a lot and even copy & e-mail stuff from these forums. So, I don't expect such people to reply.

I am having a new angle to EU2 with this importance to BB. Previously, I didn't really care what other countries did in the game.
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Craig Ashley,
You can say I am a fan of your
From the Pope's Basement (An Ottoman AAR)
In fact, I wondered if another OE AAR is needed. In any case I simply can't bring myself to play any other country, having tried and tried and tried to finish the Ottoman GC since EU1.

 

[Bismarck]

I care about my BB too... but I wouldn't let it interfere with my plans... if something comes along which is keeping with my long term ambitions, well, I'll take it and live with the consequences.

I think the worse I've had is a bad reputation... but I recovered....

M

 

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An honorable Ottoman -- that is an oxymoron if ever there was one. Good luck!

 

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Year 1430 - 1439

Year 1430.
Reputation:SlightlyTarnished; DS:+Quality
Income=$42/mth; Stabilty cost:$720;
Army:21/27/8; Navy:50(total); Losses:36/20 (Army losses so far)

Increasing the Quality slider is not a good thing to do, since the army is already over the limit. Still, it is a matter of principle. The fact I still hold $1800 cash also helps.

A summary of our core provinces:-
Mameluks and QaraKoyunlu had given us all our 4 core-provs. So, the south is cleared.
Kurdistan, Candar and Dulkakir are Sunni & 1-provinces (Thus need diplo-annexation)
Golden Horde still hordes Daghestan.
Karaman has 3 provinces, all ours.
Georgia - as I said earlier, no way to get them while playing 'good' boy.
Venice has 3 of our core.
Ragusa already our claim, seems to have grabbed Kosovo too.
Hungary seems to have grabbed Serbia.

Now that our reputation had fallen in the eyes of the world and also our own citizens, it is time to lay low. I mean, people want to join an empire because it would protect them and keep them cozy, not send all of them to battles. The christians may hate us all they want but not the rest of the world.

In any case there are tough jobs ahead and the time had come to use some heavy 'un-violence'. With all those cash, it is a duty indeed to send Missionaries to soften up the people. Actually, it is more urgent to deal with catholic and shitte strongholds because then we can put high tolerance to Sunni and Orthodox.

Ragusa declared war on Hungary. I wish something useful happens out of it that would save me some BB points in taking my core provinces.

Candar: I sent a few State-gifts, set up an alliance, and easily diplo-Vassalised Candar (1431). Another 10 years and I can annex them.

Received an *Exceptional Year* Event that reduces inflation 5%. However, I didn't have any inflation. Maybe I should put my slider to full treasury for 5 years, make money, and wait for this random event to occur again.

1432: Ragusa made peace with Hungary but Bosnia is still controlled by Hungary. Hope Hungary annexes it and lets me liberate it in the future.
Wait! Bosnia is not my core prov anymore in this version. All that drooling for nothing. In any case Hungary didn't annex it.

*Minerals +5 in Armenia* Event. It shows how urgent to convert that gold province. Right now I am losing 60% of the income due to religion and culture.

Timurid declared itself defender of faith, giving them cb on anyone attacking Sunni nations. Never understood what is so great about having a cb (causus belli) on someone. Maybe I don't appreciate it because I seem to have cb on almost everyone since day 1.

1433: Oops! I have 6 colonists doing nothing. I wish Ionia is ours. Also, I have too many diplomats idling away. No one to RM.

Random revolt in Rhodes. These islands are messy when it comes to things like this. Anyway, I despatched Iskander Bey to make a short job of them rebels.

1434: **Enthuasiasm for Army** event. It is very nice because I gain 20 artillery that otherwise can't be obtained until LandTech-07. On the other hand, it also comes with 5000 infantry, which I am tempted to disband but finally didn't have the guts to do so. (There is food for everyone, I guess)

1435: The Kurds attack Dulkakir. Not as useful as Karaman attacking them, though.

1438: Ragusa again DoW Hungary, with Venetian support this time. Oh God, Hungary is still controlling Bosnia without annexing. Wonder if AI is using some looting exploit.

Nothing came out of the war between Kurds and Dulkakir. Now I am wondering what to do. I do need a land coridor to the 4 provinces I took from Mameluk & Qara Koyunlu. I guess I just have to attack Karaman and take Adana & Konya.

Yes!! Finally!! Karaman attacks Dulkakir. Yes! Dulkakir loses and now Karaman is seiging Sivas. Praying Karaman annexes Sivas.

The most significant event of the decade had been getting those artilerry, and Karaman attacking Dulkakir. The missionaries only succeeded with Rhodes, failing in the other 3 provinces, especially in Lebanon (Catholic) and Nuysaybin (Shia)

(Other events, like *Gift to State, $200*, *End of Feud, stab+1*, *New Land Claimed* happened too but I don't feel it important enough to elaborate on them.)

 

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Year 1440 - 1449

Year 1440.
Reputation:Respectable; DS:+Innovativeness
Income=$43/mth; Stabilty cost:$721;
Army:22/26/2.8; Navy:50(total); ArmyLosses:40/21/0

[I am not really sure about these DS settings. For now, it was too narrowminded and I corrected it. However, I am not sure about the future. I guess I can always increase centralisation, since every Empire desires it.]
[BTW, I save and also reload every decade, since many agree it 'wakes up' the AI. In any case these are periods where I tend to have no wars.]

Now that people are starting to respect us again, we can do naughty things and escape.

Cost to convert also increases if province is not connected to capital. So, delayed sending missionaries to Lebanon. Bribed the Kurds to submit but they kept refusing to be annexed.

There was a message about a Crusade against the Turks. Only Hungary agrees. However I didn't see any war between us. Too bad. Too boring.

1441: Karaman annexed Dulkakir. However, before they could gain a single sheep, I declare war on Karaman. With seaborne landing in Taurus, Adana attacked from Allepo, and the other two provinces overrun from Anggora, it was all over; especially with 3 commanders leading the armies.

The 28 artilerry came handy too. (25 pieces will give +2 seige against 'minimal' fort). Of course, Adana port was also blocked by my ships to make it fall faster.

[I had a rebellion in Adana and I saw it was due to religious intolerance. I wonder if the AI deliberately shot down the orthodox tolerance]

1442: Karaman capitulated. I Relieved them of Konya, Adana & Sivas. Natually, Karaman is also vassalised. It is real nice to gain ex-Dulkakir (Sivas) without a BB point.

1444:*Great Royal Hunt* event. Nothing good actually comes out of it. Good relationships always come from State-Gift.

Another *Exceptional Year* Event. slashed my 3% inflation.

1448: Golden Horde is going through disintegration, with revolt risks >8%. I wondered if Daghestan will defect to me. I really like the Hordes and don't want a war with them. Although it rebeled successfully countless times, and in fact Crimea and Astrakan gained independance, Daghestan was somehow re-controlled by the Horde.
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As for the missionaries, they converted Rumeila & Bulgaria but still failed in Armenia, Macedonia, Lebanon and Nuyssaybin. At this rate, I won't have much money.

edit: After Karaman fell, the Kurds decided to let us annex them, adding 27k Infantry.

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Notes:
The decade did run fast, since the battle with Karaman was too short.
As I had said in the beginning, I haven't set any specific hard-coded targets but just wanted 'experience', whatever it means. I am just doing the best I could think of under my BB self-limit.
While I had misgivings, I think MKJ's idea of giving the core provinces in steps is not a bad idea.

 

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Year 1450 - 1459

Year 1450.
Reputation:Respectable; DS:+Innovativeness
Income=$56/mth; Stabilty cost:$823;
Army:37/24/2.8; Navy:49(total); ArmyLosses:52/23/0

[Army losses in the last decade was 12/2 but mostly due to putting down rebels after the Missionaries failed to convert those 4 provinces.]

[Chose +Innovative again because it is still too narrow, making tech cost prohibitive. In any case, with 2 converted provinces, the stability cost would have gone down a bit. With Muslim tech group (not orthodox), I just can't afford too much NarrowMinded.]

[A note on Tech cost: to research TradeTech-03,
as Baden (Latin, 1-province) with neutral slider settings, $5640.
For the Ottomans at this time, it is $22150, a 3.9x. It may go 5x-6x eventually]

The first order of business in the new decade is to send out a battalion of missionaries. In total, 12 of them went out this decade.

The second order of business is to do what I had been waiting to do for 20 years: declare war on Venice. I went for Karaman the last decade only because I wanted a land connection to the Arab lands.

BTW, another *Great Military Reform* event and I HAD to choose Army Reform because I am going into an important war.

1450: Ottoman vs. Venice, Ragusa & others. 'Others' here being Friesland, Munster, Cologne and Kleeves. I think they are German or French but seriouly, I don't know and I didn't want to know. The infighting in the German states must have been worse than in India!

Not surprisingly, my men landed immediately in Create and a small army marched into Ionia. Murad personally marched into Kosovo, a province of Ragusa currently. Unfortunately I have to send Iskandar to oversee the Crete operation. I know Venice values that island a lot and I still don't have the stomach to fight her navies. I had to defeat the Crete defenders the first time.

Sure enough, the Venetian navy showed up a few days after Iskander landed in Crete. I thought I should win, since my navy outnumbered them. However, I ended up losing a few sea battles and then went hiding in the port of Morea. The navy did come out and landed Hamza Bey successfully in corfu a year later, and again went hiding.

1451: The year was bitter-sweet. Murad captured Kosovo. Then, the new King Mehmet replaced him. With a siege+2, he captured Ragusa itself. (Ragusa had about 15k infantry, which didn't measure up to Mehmet). So, Ragusa gave up Kosovo.

Unfortunately, Iskander Bey, whom I took out from Crete to fight the Venetians landing in Morea, 'died'. I am not sure if it is a natural or battlefield death. Suddenly, I didn't feel so invincible anymore and began to build some army to be safe.

Elsewhere, Timurids entered a period of disintegration, with Revolt risks +8%.

*Nobles demanded increased pensions* and threatened instability. Luckily, I had more than $200 in my pocket, thanks to the slider at full Treasury.

France and England ended their 100 year war (1453). Wonder if it is due to WarExhauntion.

Venice was pressing me to accept peace as I controlled Ionia, Crete and Dalmatia. However, it is not giving me the 3 prov. that I wanted. So, instead of wasting my diplomats, I decided, sadistically in fact, to seige Istria and Venice, to get the 100% score. Her navy is still running around but then, the Ottoman navy is not going to face them.

1453: Venice gave up Ionia, Corfu, Crete, & $350.

1454: Gibraltar defected to Granada. I think it belonged to Portugal, who captured it originally from Granada.
[If Granada lives afer 1500, I would love to annex it and be a thorn for Spain. However, trying it now doesn't seem plausible. I even rejected an alliance of the north African countries as it may mess up the events for Spain.]

*Imperial College Instituted* event. Accepted because it is historical and also gives a Conscription centre in Thrace, expanding my manpower base by 10k.

1456:*Enthuasism for Army* event again. A lucky streak, maybe. Now I have a total of 48 artilerry, meaning I get Seige+3 against a Minimal fort.
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Missionaries had finally converted Lebanon & Nuysaybin, along with 4 other provinces.
However, another 6 refused to be pursuaded.

Actually I don't feel like converting the Orthodox but the problem is, with my so-so provinces, I desperately need that 30% income. [Maybe it would be better if income is somehow related to the tolerance settings]
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End of Decade Notes:
It WOULD seem a boring decade but not really. I had to watch out for Poland and Lithuania while battling Venice.

Even after the war was over, I am definitely watching what is happening in the neighbourhood. For example, I saw a lot of Turkish provinces in Golden Horde, Uzbek and Kazakh. I think they used to be Mongol in previous GC versions. Even Astrakan is Turkish. However, since they don't have a CoT in this MKJ GC v6, it is not a priority.

Still, the idea of unifying all the turks does come up, in spite of them having nothing but sheeps.

 

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Year 1460 - 1469

Year 1460.
Reputation:Respectable; DS:+Serfdom
Income=$63/mth; Stabilty cost:$756;
Army:25/36/4.8; Navy:42(total); ArmyLosses:74/30/0

The army is cavalry dominant but mainly because too many infantrymen died. Also, the size is just below the support limit of 68k.

Again sent the Missionaries but there are only 6 provinces to be converted.

1460:I got Gedik Ahmad as leader but I just don't seem to have much attachment for him. I like the monarch though. With Siege+2 added with 40 pieces of artilerry, he will flatten any fort.

Now that there are no Catholics or Shias, I can build the tax collectors.

Hellas irritates me the most because it lies right at my doorstep and separates Morea. I wish I had grabbed it right away in 1419.

In any case England captured Hellas from the Pope. Then Hellas rebelled and massacred the English occupiers. After the rebels won the seige, it immediately reverted to being Papal. I thought maybe it would be rebel-held for some time and finally declare independance. Guess I am destined for a confrontantion with the holy man after all.

[Although I didn't want to exploit the Trade Agreement method, I did accept some offers, especially after they pestered me a few times. Since I am still auto-sending merchants and definitely not choosing to have TA with everyone, I guess I don't really gain much]

1464: *Atam-Dedem Kanunu Codified* event. Must have been an important event but gamewise, it gave +centralisation and +Stab.

Also finished researching InfraTech-03 (ability to build Breweries). The research is now geared to TradeTech-03. I don't care for the Monopoly but a boost in trade efficiency is useful because I am losing 12% due to aristocracy and Land slider settings.

[With Mehmet and high aristocracy, I am having 4 diplomats annually, idling away.]
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Missionaries did more or less as expected, converting 2 prov (Macedonia, Ionia) while failing in 4 of the hard provinces. Unfortunately pesky Armenia still refuses to see the light. I am sending one missionary to them each decade since 1430.
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End of Decade Notes:
Guess it was a boring decade for me. Still, I am sure Mehmet is enjoying himself telling all his harem his heroic deeds in Ragusa.

 

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Year 1470 - 1479

Year 1470.
Reputation:Respectable; DS:+Innovativeness
Income=$73/mth; Stabilty cost:$718;
Army:20/35/4.8; Navy:42(total); ArmyLosses:79/31/0

The palace is getting bored. I wonder what happened to that talk of a 'crusade' on us. Nobody wants a war with us. Should I disband the army to make us look weak?

Maybe we could make the soldiers happy by pounding some (un)worthy enemy. Lets see what F1 shows:
Ottoman 724
Timurid 578
China 434
France 333
Austria 307
(Ledger: Portugal~330, Moscovy~250, England/Spain~100.)
I know Timurid is running negative because they get 600vp for missions. That leaves France or Austria. Still, I wish to take my cb provinces first.

I threw a State-Gift each to Candar and Venice. Candar accepted diplo-ANNEXATION. This is necessary because I need to get rid of my allliace with Candar to enter another alliance.

Venice and her allies are at war with a bunch of enemies, INCLUDING Hungary. Also, Venice is the leader of the alliances. After two tries, I entered their alliances and had two wars by April 1470:

1. Venice, OE etc(cologne, Friesland, Munster) vs. Burgundy, France, etc(Strasburg, Eire, Bourbon..)
2. Venice, OE vs. Hungary

Against France ('70Apr-'71oct):
-------------------------------
As for France, I thought of using my military access with Tunisia to move ships to Provence. However, I decided it would be an exploit. I think only allies and vassals should give passage to war efforts. So, loaded Gedik Ahmad in ships, visited Corfu, and went straight to Provence with 20k men.

In any case the war was not complicated. Except for a 2k infantry we slaughtered, the French were nowhere to be found and we daringly laid seige to Provence, Languedoc and Dauphine. It seems the French did have a huge army as a 30k suddenly appeared in Savoy and laid seige to it. As I was thinking of running away, Provence and Languedoc fell. Even then, the moment my ships reached Provence, I wasted no time retreating. Luckily the French must have been tied up elsewhere and accepted to give us a $100 parting present. Thus ended my nightmare of losing 20k men and a leader in a far-away land.

Against Hungary (70-72):
------------------------
As for Hungary, it was also fighting a losing war against Poland. In fact, 4 of her provinces, including Serbia & Banat, were under the Poles. I need to act fast if I were to get anything from her, since Venice is seiging Croatia with a Monarch.

We laid seige to Pest (Mehmet with artilery= seige+5), Maros and Krain promptly. By some luck and our artilerry pieces, we took out Pest before the 25k Hungarian army came down from Carpanthia. I ran away to Maros the moment I saw them in Magyar. Then the Magyars went to battle the Venetians in Croatia. They lost but butchered a lot of Venetians in the process.

Just as Maros fell, Hungary made peace with Poland. This means we can seige Banat and Serbia! A 20k Cavalry was sent to Magyar first. The artilerry was called back to seige Serbia. A few froze to death in Magyar but it did fall to our Monarch. Then we moved one half to seige Banat while the other went to Presburg.

Now that Mehmet had left Magyar, the enemy decided to retake his capital. However, before it fell, Presburg, Serbia and Banat fell to us. I thought of waiting for Krain to fall too but it was too risky because if the Venetians made peace with the Magyars, I would get nothing.

Still, it was a profitable war as we received Serbia and $400 in the peace of 1472. (The initial offer was $600 cash). The only battle was with against 4k recruit and a prompt retreat of my artilery pieces from an engagement in Pest.
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An *Enthusiasm for the Army* happened for the 3rd time. (1434, 1456 being the last times). Now I have 66 artilerry. At this rate, I need not build any on my own.

The Venice-Hungary war came to a conclusion in 1475, with Hungary taking Istria. Too bad!

Events made Cyprus a vassal to Venice (1474). If Venice annexed, it may save me a BB point. Aragon ends up vassal of Castile by an event in 1477.

1478: TradeTech-03 finished. From now on, no trade research. Just use refineries for the job.

By 1475, I had 3 manufactories: Fine Arts(Thrace), Breweries (Ionia,Smyrna)

Missionaries converted 2 provinces. The 3 failures again includes Armenia.
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End of Decade Notes:
I won 2 wars and a province without a BB (or serious battles). The problem is, I feel a bit nervous about battles ever since Iskander Bey died. BTW, I opened the savefile of 1480-01-01 and saw BB=1.

Anyway, these are what I had played so far (1419-1480).

 

[unmerged(6777)]

You're doing really well kongu3, and your writing is perfectly understandable. You should think about adding a little spice once in a while to round out the events a bit.

I can't believe the amazingly good random events you've gotten - sure, they aren't all nice, but 60 free artillery and knocking your inflation back sure is nice.

I'll be interested to see just how far you can go while keeping a reasonable reputation.

 

[unmerged(8576)]

I have to say I admire you for trying to keep yer rep up as the Ottomans, it´s sure beyond my grasp.

Seriously, it is easy to take too much too fast as them, I´ve run into some problems in the past.

 

[Mad King James]

Yeah that's the main reason I liked the incremental CBs, so you concentrate on solidifying your hold on asia minor and greece, then when the 1500s roll around you can go nuts

 

[unmerged(10577)]

MrT,

...think about adding a little spice once in a while to round out the events a bit.

I am not sure I am good at these things. However, I did deliberately cut short some description of OE-specific events because I thought they are very nicely made and should be felt when playing; since my half-baked narrations may not do justice to it.

...but 60 free artillery and knocking your inflation back sure is nice.

Needless to say, the events do balance out. In fact, random events-wise, slightly more bad events than good events, especially those forcing me on stab research half the time. Still, this is the first time I got 60 art pieces, though I am not complaining

I always get 20-40 artilerry each game though. Those -5% inflation event, I always get the first one when my inflation is 0, and usually get another one before 1500. In fact, I try to have 5% inflation just to put this event to use. Don't know if these are due to some domestic settings.

Oleg,
It sure is easy to get greedy as OE and this is the first time I am resisting it. I myself don't have any idea where it will end up, though I intend to see it to the end.

 

[unmerged(10577)]

Year 1480 - 1489 (the decade of war)

Year 1480.
Reputation:Respectable; DS:+FreeTrade
Income=$79/mth; Stabilty cost:$722;
Army:20/37/6.6; Navy:39(total); ArmyLosses:86/35/0

[Just as I loaded the game, sent the missionaries and wondered what to do, Lithuania DoW GH on 6 Jan]

Actually I thought of marching into Hellas (=Papal) but it was controlled by Aragon right now. It seems Papacy is having a non-ending war with everyone.

Anyway, after 6 Jan, I paused and made some observation:
1.There are 12 Turk provinces excluding my core (GH-2, Astrakan, Azov, Sibir-1, Uzbek-6). However, only 4 have >$10 income (Crimea, Azov, Astrakan and a prov. of Uzbek).
2.Crimea, GH and Kazan are now at war with Lithuania, Poland, Bohemia, Cyprus, Austria. Crimea the nation consists of just Azov while Crimea the prov. is owned by Lithuania, which had amassed 20k there against Crimea's 4k.
3.If Crimea somehow gets Crimea(prov) and then I diplo-annex, it is 2 BB. Also, since Cyprus had cancelled it's vassalisation by Venice, maybe I should just grab it for 1 BB.
4.Lithuania is currenly the largest entity in the map, having taken most of Novgorad.
5.OTOH, if Lith annexes Crimea, I need 2BB to take it back.

With such thoughts, and the feeling that Venice is not going to war with anyone soon, I left the alliance (stability -1). and decided to move men to Kerch and started building 0/20 (20k Cavalry). Crimea offered alliance on February and saved me the bribe money and diplomats.


The War against Lithuania & allies 1480-83
(GH, Crimea, Kazan, OE vs. Lithuania, Poland, Bohemia, Cyprus, Austria)
Lithuania & her allies (LA) were sieging Azov and the fort is already showing yellow as Mehmed landed in Kerch in April. Seeing that LA had 17k in Crimea and 19k in Azov, Mehmed moved into Azov for the kill with 25k cavalry.

The GH must have had similar thoughts and moved in 19k into Crimea from Lugansk. Alas! by the time they engaged in combat, LA had 60k in Crimea! In the end, GH retreated with just 1k.

Mehmed fared better; maybe due to the GHordes delaying the enemy. He annihilated the siege forces and also destroyed the isolated reinforcements sent by the enemy alliance. He must have killed 50k but did loose 12k expensive cavalry. When the stream of reinforcements slackened a bit, Mehmed moved into Crimea and laid siege.

Sept 1480: Lithuanian alliance went to war with Novgorad. Hopefully this will deflect them. The enemy reinforcements kept coming but with a new cavalry reserve waiting in Kaffa (shipped from Thrace), Mehmed was able to hold on until Crimea fell to his siege prowess on October.

In the meantime, a smaller force was sent to Bujak (Poland), to kill stray Polish units and pursuade them to piece. (The treasury is getting empty by now.)

Lithuania was still unfazed after her small fleet suffered a string of naval defeats but Poland and Bohemia had enough and offered $170 & $133 for peace in Feb. 1481. Mehmed must have killed a lot of them in Azov. (All their flags being red, it was hard to differentiate)

Mehmed died on May 81 and the new king is not a military leader. However, before I could mourn Mehmed's loss, Lithuanians had another setback on June as Sweden & Denmark opened another front againt their alliance. From this point on, organised resistance ceased from Lithuania and Austria. The only problem is to capture Cyprus before anything unexpected happens.

I was unprepared when the Hordes captureed a province and agreed to take $168 for peace with Lithuania. However, it must have been a separate peace since I was still in war. Thank god.

I had already decided to take out Cyprus regardless of what happens in Crimea and had made suitable arrangements. The landings began in July. Though 15k died, the second landing was successful. Meantime, with Lithuanian troops busy marching north, 2 more provinces were be-sieged.

March 82: Gedik Ahmad died. This leaves my army a leaderless rabble.
The month also saw the *Cem's Rebellion* event. Since the major battles were over, I didn't mind the revolts (see explanations below).

Oops! There was an unfortunate turn of events. It seems Poland had not signed a peace with poor Crimea and was still sieging it.

Cyprus fell on July and was annexed without fanfare. Also, after capturing 2 more provinces, a peace was signed where OE stripped Lithuania of Crimea (the prov) and $100 in Jan.1483. It was the first non-core province taken so far.

[However, Azov fell to Poland and Crimea (the nation) became its vassal. Unless Crimea breaks the vassalisation, I can never get Azov, since it will be 7BB]
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[I saw Honorable reputation in 1482. The only time I used to see this was when I start a fresh game. Anyway, it is 'Respect' I want; not to be a 'honourable scum']

*Cem Sultan's rebellion* event in 1482: I think he is the brother of the current monarch, Bayezid. The choice is of crushing him (= 4 revolts, stability -1, infraTech+200, ADM+4/2years) or compromise (-$100, centralisation -1). Usually I compromise but I chose to crush the rebellion since it was historical and that ADM+4 might be useful for my missionaries. Since the Lithuanian Alliance had fallen flat by then, I didn't have much problem.

Moscow DoW Kazan and the gang (Crimea, GH). Just played along, since dishonouring the alliance would reduce stability. Personally, I am getting more and more irritated with this Pope holding my Hellas. He is again at war - France this time. BB or not, I just have to have Hellas, and NOW!

[Papal States owns Roma & Marche and Apulia while Napoli belongs to England. They also happen to be occupying my Hellas but not for long]

The War against Papal States 1483-85
Marched the leaderless armies into Hellas on May 83. Just as I hoped, Crimea, Kazan and GH dishonoured the alliance and made me free. (Britanny joined the Papal States but got out soon.)

While I sent a shipload to Apulia, I was surprised it was defended by 21k and backed away. Out of curiosity, went to Rome and saw only 14k men. Dropped my 24k men on them and won in the first round. From there, a detachment moved into undefended Marche.

With Napoli in English hands, the Papal armies in Apulia cannot rescue Rome. Just in case, I moved my ships next to Apulia, to thwart any transportation. By April 84, all three provinces fell. I had to decide whether to negotiate a piece or try to get a 100% score.

In the end, greed won and I landed 25k in Apulia and to my surprise, won.

[BTW, the real pain of not having leaders is not only that they are great but also you feel the men are in safe hands. Without any specific leaders, the personal touch is lost.]

Apulia fell in '85 but I still couldn't get 100% score. Either they are holding some French territories or it is just that you can't get 100% against Pope. I decided to wait some time. It seems the former is true because after France made peace with them, I could get the 100% score.

Papal-Ottoman Peace of 1485: Hellas to OE, Papal States becomes Vassals, Rome transfers $315 to Istanbul.
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Elsewhere,
84: Castille annexed Granada and the *Toruemada and the Expulsion of the Moors - Let us rid of those we distrust* event followed.
85: Englad had events like *Court of Star Chamber*, etc.
White peace was signed with Moscovy (naturally).
Portugal discovers Madurai.
86: Researched Land Tech-03 (finally)

Once again, war broke out between the GH gang and Moscovy alliance. On December 1486, after pondering over the issue, especially with the army reduced to 9/31/6.0, I decided to try and take Daghestan and sent some big presents to the Teutonic Order, the alliance leader. It was nice of the TO to let me join their alliance in April 87 for my third war this decade:

The War against Golden Horde & Astrakan 1487-88
The first thing I noticed was the 2 stability drops (RM with Astrakan and Kazan). I didn't plan for that but it doesn't matter. Just pulled the stability slider and increased the army to 12 in Crimea, facing an equally sized GH army in Lugansk. So, I am facing the allies of 1480. But then, the Crimeans never bothered to seige and take Crimea (prov.) when I relieved the seige in Azov and even gave them some cash. Also, it is they who broke the alliance when I went to war with the Pope. Anyway, there is always an excuse for anything!

End of April saw the Turks encircling Daghestan, Kouban and Astrakan.

Accepted WhitePeace with Crimea and Kazan and brought artilery to Astrakan.

With moscow throwing everything at them, and my 12k cavalry facing them across Lugansk/Crimea, the Hordes didn't bother to put up a serious fight.

Daghestan fell on Sept 1487. GH moved 30k into Crimea but I just retreated my men to Kaffa, letting GH besiege Crimea.
Astrakan and 2 more GH provinces (Uralsk, Volgo) fell by Feb. 1488. and peace was signed:-

-Golden Horde gave up Daghestan.
-Astrakan was vassalised.

Cost: 7/13 dead, almost all from winter attrition.
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1488: Just as I was adjusting the religious settings to accomodate the Shias in Daghestan, Lithuania and allies DoW Moscovy. Another stability hit is simply too much. So, I joined the war againt LA, once again.

OE, Moscovy, TO vs. Lithuania, Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Ragusa; 1488-89
Lithuania apparently didin't plan to face the Ottomans and thus didn't have a standing army. The Ottoman plan here was simple: kill the new recruits in Jedisan, Krementjug, Ukraina and offer peace. Also moved 6k to Bujak and Moldova, to get some score against Poland. All were cavalry units, not so much for offensive power but to retreat fast in winter!

On November, due to the Ottoman hit-and-runs, Poland and Lithuania settled for peace, paying $50 and $111.

It is not worth attempting to take Ragusa now, since they have 24k sitting in Ragusa and I personally prefer not to have a war at the start of a new decade.
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Elsewhere, the interesting news was that Portugal paid Benin $175 for peace!
For most of this decade, the slider was set to gain stability. Just as I thought I can do some research, *Nobles ally with foreign Power-Ragusa*, stab-2
OTOH, not only all 4 of our missionaries succeededed (Dobruja, Serbia, Armenia, Cyprus), but Hellas decides to convert to state religion. An effect of the long papal occupation? Anyway now only Daghestan is not Sunni.
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End of Decade Notes:
This had been a decade of war and stability hits, with over 100k casualties and research at standstill.
Still top in victory points but I wonder what will happen after Spain goes to America.

 

[unmerged(10577)]

Year 1490 - 1499 (Land Tech Research)

Year 1490.
Reputation:Respectable; DS:+Naval
Income=$72/mth; Stabilty cost:$731;
Army:25/25/6.0; Navy:36(total); ArmyLosses:132/104/0.8

[With BB probably on borderline, and since I am falling behind land tech, decided to lay low until I gain LandTech-05 next decade. As for the Domestic settings, no real need to adjust them. It brought my stab to 0]

Received two army leaders this decade but both don't have any seige value. Well, better than nothing.
1490: *Inheritors of Turkic legacy* Event. Something about the Bulgars and Serbs who once ruled the area being related to Turks.
It gives the remaining core provinces in Europe, 19 in all. It includes most of Hungary, Moldavia, Bujak, Jedisan, a nearby prov. of Poland, Dalmatia, Istria and Steirmark (Austrian).

edit: 'Bulgars and Avars', NOT 'Bulgars and Serbs'.

Sweden declared war on Moscovy and I accepted to honour the alliance, since I didn't want a stab hit. Held on until 1494, when with War Exhustion (WE) getting to the people, I decided to accept White Peace with Sweden. (Moscovy had only half my WE though.)

Since I needed cash to build some breweries, thought it a good idea to raise war taxes a few times. Result: I think it is not worth for the Ottomans, who have a lot of poor provinces, making stability cost a pain. This delayed my research by two years.

---------------------------------------------
Venice surrendered Dalmatia to Hungary.
Got a third *Exceptional Year* event. Nice to see the 7% inflation slashed to to 2%. It was followed by a nasty *Political Crisis* (stab:-2) though.
When Kemal Reis won some sea battles against the Portugese (allied to Sweden), decided to build some galleys for him.
Portugal again DoW Benin (1494). It ends in WhitePeace in 1499.
Had to reject an *Italian Engineer* since my offensive slider is at 9 and I had already decided to move it to 10 so it could have some practical use.

Also, The missionary succeeded in Daghestan . So, again the people are homogenous in their idealogy.
- * - *

 

[unmerged(10577)]

End of Century Analysis (1500)

End of Century Analysis (1500):

Finances: 43Tax, 72 (x27%) Production, 21 (x62%) Trade.
Obviously an improvement in Infrastrucures is needed.
Relatively speaking, 1 stab level requires about 10 month of income. Would be nice if just 5 months.
Also, with Muslim Tech group and ~30 provinces, Tech cost is about 4x a latin single-prov. country. (e.g it requires 23000 for Infra4)
However, the 7 breweries that has been built so far helps with 35 points per month.

Religion:
Since there are no Shias, one slot is free. Only a few of the core provinces to be taken are Orthodox. Once they are converted, it will free another slot. Tolerence to Catholic may be necessary since there are a lot of those core provinces and also because an advance westwards would bring more of them.

Ottomon Territory:
The Ottomans have now taken all their core provinces in the east. The Memeluk provinces would come up for grabs later but since they all belong to one country, it should be easy. So, we have to take the dozen or so provinces in Hungary, 3 in poland and 1 of Lithuania fast. On the other hand, the mini states in the Balkans can be messy BB-wise. (Albania, Ragusa, Bosnia, Wallachia).

In any case, except for the Memeluks, the east has to be diplo-annexed while the conquest has to move westwards.

Others' Territorial Situation:
Gujarat had grabed a few provinces in Persia but they would probably rebel to form Persia.
Uzbeks and Sibir had expanded at the expense of the Timurids.
Memeluks had annexed Hedjaz and took Basrah but luckily they didn't expand westwards.
Can't see yet what is happening in India or south of Nubia, though. (The view also stops at Canary Islands in the west.)

Lithuania, with 20 prov, seems formidable but probably exhausted from war.
On the other hand, Aragon having taken Sicily, Malta and Sardinia could be a bigger problem once Spain forms.
Hungary has 13 provinces now but it won't be for long!!
England has taken over her island, (except Edinburgh which is owned by Castile) but has only 1 prov. in Europe.
France, Sweden, Austria and Poland didn't seem to have improved much.
North: Moscovy-10,Novgorod-1,Kazan-2,GHorde-8.

Alliances:
The Lithuanian alliance seem to be holding for decades. (Cyprus was replaced by Ragusa):-
Poland, Lithuania, Austria, Bohemia, Ragusa

The Danish Alliance: Denmark, Sweden, Portugal.

Teutonic Allince: TO, Mosvovy, Corsica, Hungary.

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{In any case this is one of the few games where I enter the 16th century!!}