Venice against the Ottomans

[Duke of Wellington]

Arggh, that feeling when you go into a battle you meant to stop but didn't quite get to in time. I hate it. I trust it can't turn the tide of the war, but you never know.

It may have been a costly victory in Wallachia but at least Austria won this time. In the end that's what counts and they will recover from the losses.

 

[TheExecuter]

Typical Venice...

Their Christian brothers are being oppressed by the unspeakable Turk in the Balkans...and they'd rather pursue wrong culture, wrong religion desert waste provinces to shore up the trading concession in Alexandria.

And you wonder why Venice is hated?

 

[Enewald]

Ottomans have any provinces they cannot reach but you can?

 

[Qorten]

Uhm, does this mean that you've got no fleet blocking the Bosporus right now? Be cause that would be like, really bad thinking. I do approve your plan to take the Ottoman provs near Alexandria though. Should've landed in the province with the least amount of Ottoman soldiers to have 99% certainty of success.

 

[aldriq]

I had the slight suspicion that you might want to go for the rest of Egypt. It scares me though, to think I can even remotely predict your random thinking processes...

 

[Storey]

The AI went ballistic over Wallachia because it is a minor and in FTG minors are not well-liked in wars, in short they are attacked sooner than the big boys.

Ah of course the Ottomans and their fixation on Bosnia and now it’s Wallachia turn to get dumped on.

About the Ottomans themselves, stick to Europe. (too bad there isn't an event which rellocates the Ottoman capital back into Asia when they lose all their European possesions and Constantinopole is controlled. Although if memory serves there used to be one...)

Oh I want the ottomans to keep their capital in Thrace. Its’ so easy to take and run up the victory points. That’s one of the reasons I’ve shifted strategy from the Balkans to…

Arggh, that feeling when you go into a battle you meant to stop but didn't quite get to in time. I hate it. I trust it can't turn the tide of the war, but you never know.

Even with a pause feature I’m capable of not reacting as soon as I should. Fortunately I can continue the war but it certainly makes me think that maybe this isn’t the best way to win this war.

It may have been a costly victory in Wallachia but at least Austria won this time. In the end that's what counts and they will recover from the losses.

True I was lucky that Wallachia wasn’t in the earlier wars or Austria and my allies might have been distracted from the Ottomans. Yes they do recover as you’ll will see.

Typical Venice...

Their Christian brothers are being oppressed by the unspeakable Turk in the Balkans...and they'd rather pursue wrong culture, wrong religion desert waste provinces to shore up the trading concession in Alexandria.

And you wonder why Venice is hated?

Too true.

Ottomans have any provinces they cannot reach but you can?

By land no they can't reach where I'm at but by sea yes. In fact I’m sitting on those provinces right now.

Uhm, does this mean that you've got no fleet blocking the Bosporus right now? Be cause that would be like, really bad thinking. I do approve your plan to take the Ottoman provs near Alexandria though. Should've landed in the province with the least amount of Ottoman soldiers to have 99% certainty of success.

Oh no I’ve maneuvered my fleets around so that I never leave fail to block the Bosporus.

What’s sad is that I could have done just that but I hesitated and my army landed in Alexandria before I could redirect it. My thinking was if I won I would take credit for an audacious attack against all odds but as it ended on a less auspicious note I’ll just lower me head and blame it on too much happening to quickly or some such crap.

I had the slight suspicion that you might want to go for the rest of Egypt. It scares me though, to think I can even remotely predict your random thinking processes...

There is a method to my madness. At least I think so. Maybe… We’ll have to wait and see how this turns out to be sure.

Joe

 

[Storey]

Okay so things didn’t go do well in Alexandria but I’m not the type to let a defeat or two stop me so I immediately sail to Cyrenaica and land unopposed, which technically I count as a win. However soon the Ottomans show up and once again I lose the battle and have to retreat to my fleet.

I decide to sail to Crete and wait for reinforcements.





By August I’ve got close to 18,000 men and load them up for another try at Cyrenaica.





But in the meantime let’s look back at the main battle front.

So Austria and Bosnia have decided to try to take the battle to the Ottomans. They certainly have enough men to hope for a victory.

This is what I’m afraid of in trying to attack the Ottomans on their home turf. But Austria’s and my other allies weren’t done by a long shot.






Another wave hits the Ottomans in September.

They meet the same fate as the first wave. This was Austria’s last hurrah in the war. They marched home and didn’t return but my other allies weren’t ready to give up.






For some reason the Ottoman’ fleets were very active during this phase of the war and won several sea battles.

Once again I had to use my fleets to support each other in order to finally defeat the Ottomans and force them to port. I admit at being caught by surprise. Up to this point in the war I was winning at sea as I usually do but suddenly off the coast of Africa the Ottomans had a resurgence and pushed me hard before I got the upper hand.







This opened the way for my invasion force from Crete and finally I have the upper hand in North Africa.

First Austria failed, then Bosnia failed but that didn’t deter Mantua from trying their hand at pushing into Anatolia. At the same time I’ve spent everything I have in the treasury on recruiting and I load up all my recruits and head for North Africa.

For the past year I’ve been sending out peace offers to the Ottomans. I have a +61% peace resolution score but they keep refusing my offers. I’ve been greedy and I’ve been asking for everything including the kitchen sink. So far they won’t budge so I’m going to continue applying pressure.





I've had to shorten my posts for the moment because of continuing computer problems that I'm working on. It's affecting my download and upload capabilities. Go figure.

Joe

 

[Duke of Wellington]

but I’m not the type to let a defeat or two stop me

I'm glad of that. This AAR wouldn't have been so fun if had stopped after the first couple of updates.

so I immediately sail to Cyrenaica and land unopposed, which technically I count as a win

Interesting definition of win. Would you also consider driving to the shop and buying a Lottery ticket without crashing to be winning the lottery?


Some parts of this war are quite odd. Mantua battling Wallachia in Anatolia? Not something that is often seen. Other than that 61% is a good score to have but I wonder how high it has to go before they give in?

 

[Saulta]

Argh, they should just admit defeat!

EDIT: Btw, what are you asking for in the peace deal?

 

[Qorten]

Argh, they should just admit defeat!

EDIT: Btw, what are you asking for in the peace deal?

Probably like three or four provinces? With 61% WS I think you only get away with one, maybe two provinces.

I wonder where you are going to send your recruits? You don't need them in North africa as you are already strong enough there to continue the sieges.

 

[unmerged(90806)]

caught up again and i have to say i'm impressed
i guess you're demanding the Ottoman north Africa now and you won't stop until they relent; understandable as the Balkans now seem to be an easy push; Bosnia and Mantua don't fail to impress me, maybe a prov for Bosnia to say 'thank you' for their efforts?

 

[WeissRaben]

The Ottos have one of the most stubborn AI in the whole game. If with other nations you can ask for WS-20% peace deals, with the Ottos is more like WS-50%. Unless they are REALLY tired.

 

[Enewald]

Demand Cyrenaica and Quattara?
The European provinces can be conquered in the next war.

 

[unmerged(58610)]

Don't demand the kitchen sink. The Austrians started the war before you were ready. Take what you can, build up your strength and then strike again.

 

[Herbert West]

Deamnd Rumleia and Bulgaria, the rest will thus be cut off from the OE main body and most likely revolt away (loot them a lot before you make peace)

 

[Stuyvesant]

Leave it to me to try, with ironclad consistency, to post a reply after 11 pm Central, when the servers inevitably go down. So, it's been a while since I managed to get through, but here I am.

It's always nice to see you prosecute a war, sometimes enthusiasm taking the place of careful thought or even realistic odds. But hey, the occasional defeat makes the final victory all the sweeter.

You seem to be doing quite well against the Ottos. The Ottoman naval successes could be troubling, but since you seem sanguine about it, so shall I. Good luck cranking up the war score so that you can achieve your war goals, whatever they might be.

 

[aldriq]

Wasn't North Africa the favourite place for the Ottomans to do the bulk of crisis recruitment? I guess that hasn't changed much with the recent wars...

 

[matt12th]

Austria's AI sure is goofy, hopefully Bosnia can get a province or two.

 

[Storey]

Interesting definition of win. Would you also consider driving to the shop and buying a Lottery ticket without crashing to be winning the lottery?

Ah but I wouldn’t consider buying a lotto ticket in the first place since I’m good enough at math to realize what the odds are for winning. Maybe a better analogy would be if I were to go to the shop with ‘she who will not be denied’ and stop her from buying a lotto ticket. That I would consider a win!

Some parts of this war are quite odd. Mantua battling Wallachia in Anatolia? Not something that is often seen. Other than that 61% is a good score to have but I wonder how high it has to go before they give in?

If I remember correctly Wallachia was helping the Ottomans in a war (possibly against Russia) and marched off to help them only to find themselves trapped on the wrong side of the Bosporus.

I’ve been asking for a lot or to put it another way I’ve been asking for more than I can reasonably expect but I’m not in a hurry to end the war so what the heck I might as well ask for the moon.

Argh, they should just admit defeat!

EDIT: Btw, what are you asking for in the peace deal?

I’ve been asking for four provinces. I vary them but the answer has so far been no. As you’ll see I finally give in and ask for less and get it.

I wonder where you are going to send your recruits? You don't need them in North Africa as you are already strong enough there to continue the sieges.

Nope you’re wrong. I need to kick the Ottomans out of Alexandria and I’m going to need all the troops I have to do it. Believe me when I say the Ottomans are king of the battle field so I need to apply any and all advantages that I can to will a battle. I use numerical superiority and tactics in the coming battle.

caught up again and i have to say i'm impressed
i guess you're demanding the Ottoman north Africa now and you won't stop until they relent; understandable as the Balkans now seem to be an easy push; Bosnia and Mantua don't fail to impress me, maybe a prov for Bosnia to say 'thank you' for their efforts?

You are so right in seeing that I''m trying to do you’re scaring me.

The Ottos have one of the most stubborn AI in the whole game. If with other nations you can ask for WS-20% peace deals, with the Ottos is more like WS-50%. Unless they are REALLY tired

I think you’re right. I’ve been asking for provinces that add up to somewhere in the 30-35% range and 61% isn’t good enough to cover it. So I need to back off a little and see what happens.

Demand Cyrenaica and Quattara?
The European provinces can be conquered in the next war.

Not good enough!

Don't demand the kitchen sink. The Austrians started the war before you were ready. Take what you can, build up your strength and then strike again.

You are as always the voice of reason and I shall obey.

Deamnd Rumleia and Bulgaria, the rest will thus be cut off from the OE main body and most likely revolt away (loot them a lot before you make peace)

When I started the war I was going to focus on the Balkans when I demanded my pound of flesh but then I got to thinking (Always a dangerous occupation for me) and realized that it was to my advantage to NOT take provinces in the Balkans. I mean why take provinces that are, in the right situation easy to take to build up my war score? So I’m going to try to get provinces outside of the Balkans for myself and give the provincea in the Balkans to reward my allies.

You seem to be doing quite well against the Ottos. The Ottoman naval successes could be troubling, but since you seem sanguine about it, so shall I. Good luck cranking up the war score so that you can achieve your war goals, whatever they might be.

I don’t know why the Ottomans suddenly had the success at sea that they did. I lost several galleys during the war and didn’t have enough ducats to replace them so it was touch and go for awhile. The Ottomans had one main battle fleet and I had to shift fleets around to finally get the upper hand. Once that happened I was able to regain control but it was upsetting nevertheless.

Wasn't North Africa the favourite place for the Ottomans to do the bulk of crisis recruitment? I guess that hasn't changed much with the recent wars...

Yes but over toward Morocco and I don’t think they can get to me so I’m going to leave them alone.

Austria's AI sure is goofy, hopefully Bosnia can get a province or two.

Ain’t that the truth. I’ve learned to rely on them for the early part of the war but they don’t have much staying power.

This does bring up the point of how am I going to defeat the Ottomans. Since I won’t go the conventional route and just boost the right sliders until I’m the steroid king of battle I’m going to have to find another way to win wars. I have two tools for victory. First my naval power that allows me to compartmentalize the war and then the second tool is to use my allies to tip the scale of battle in my favor in these isolated war zones. So far my allies have proven to be the difference between victory and defeat. Can they continue to be my ace in the hole or will they become the anchor around my neck? Beats me but it’s all I have to offer at this time that will possibly fool anyone into thinking that I have a plan for the future. Let’s find out shall we?

Joe

 

[Storey]

Because of computer issues I’ve lost a few images so all I have are recollections of what happened for a brief period of time so bear with me.

I finish the two sieges in Cyrenaica and Quattara and combine my armies and march toward Alexandria. At the same time my army from Macedonia is sailing toward Alexandria. I try to time it right and manage to beat the odds and attack with a one two punch that would do Muhammad Ali proud and push the Ottomans out of Alexandria.


In a rare moment where I manage to integrate the cognition of my limitations in game play and the clear understanding that I will, if given enough rope, hang myself from the nearest yardarm I decide to make an offer that the Ottomans will possibly accept.


I ask for Cyrenaica and Quattara for myself and Serbia for Bosnia and the Ottomans do indeed accept.

Once again I can concentrate on other matters and I look and see that my relations with Austria is at +187 and we have a royal marriage so just for the hell of it I ask for military access and they refuse. I’m not sure what is going to be necessary to get military access.

We are now the proud sire of 55.55% inflation.

I’m getting my trade income up but it is at the expense of numb fingers and a numb mind as I endlessly send out merchants that are eating up valuable cash that I can’t afford to lose so I stop what is for me an experience reminiscent of Gregory, a childhood bully, who would crag his fingernails across Mrs. Preston’s chalkboard in fifth grade class to the screams and wails of his classmates who begged him to stop the screeching noise but Gregory, being a bully, was not sympathetic to our pleas and continued until objects of abuse would pour out our hands, pens, pencils, chalkboard erasers etc and pelt him from the classroom much to Mrs. Preston’s dismay.
In other words I would love to see the trade handled as they do in EU3. Please I beg you

June 1602 and I notice that I am still at war with Wallachia and we agree to a Status Quo peace. Not sure how I managed to still be at war with just them but then I really don’t care as long as it’s over.




I think I can safely say that I am about to lead the world in at least one thing.

Just looking around.

The red marks are reasons for concern.

I’m not surprised about the manpower numbers but I don’t like the number of level one forts. Fortunately most are in the Balkans and can be defended but as I move on I need the cash to upgrade forts and I don’t have that right now.







My world in 1602.