[Tactics] Some reccomendations for playing the Ottommans...

[Empedocles]

so...you feel like you can spread the faith of Allah up to the coasts of France? Will you lead your janissaries marching to the gates of Moscow?

No way! APE:TI Ottomans are not piece of cake. In fact after several tries I decided it would be best to play on M/H due to everybody declaring war on me.

No further delay... 10 tips for playing the reds in M/H:

1-Forget about moldavia and Armenia. Their unrest will only give you trouble and both of them do not sum 500 coins a turn of profit.
The best thing you can do is move the armies in those regions to the nearest one. Move all of moldavia's army into Bulgaria, split armenia forces into Maesopotamia (Persia will eventually attack you) and Ankara (your richest city).
The army in maesopotamia should be sent to garrison damascus and Ankara.

2- Disband the navy. You don't need them and they cost 1000 a turn.

3-Start a trade agreement with the mahara confederacy (I don't know how much will this help you but they are the only ones to accept it).

4-Protect your treasury, do not train units untill you are sure you are making a profit. It is easy to go bankrupt (and you don't want to) on the first turns.

5- Build Governor residences and Bey's mansion from turn 1.

6-Disband the cavalry unit in moldavia and the artillery in Maesopotamia. They cost 1000 a turn for nothing.

7-Stop taxing your provinces with negative unrest. Believe me, you don't want rebellions all over your lands when all your forces are garrisoning cities.

8-Move the Imans into Bulgaria and Bosnia to counter religious unrest.

9-Every turn check your ministers. You receive pretty good ministers in the first 3 turns of the game. Since unrest is your main issue put the best as the Judge.

10-Last but not least (in fact it's the most important tip): LOWER YOUR TAXES TO THE MINIMUM FOR BOTH CLASSES!!!!).

If you followed these tips you will notice that only Bulgaria and probably another province have produced rebellions.
After turn 3 (when you have built the governor residences) you can start taxing provinces as long as they don't go negative.
You may be lucky as to see a russian army moving near Moldavia. This will increase your population happines for opposing foreign occupation and will let you move your armies in Moldavia again. .
By this time Persia, Georgia and probably austria are at war with you. Georgia can't reach you since armenia is now rebel, the desert and the poor AI will protect you from Persia.

To sum up, you only lost armenia to rebellions, and you are making 3000 profit each turn. That should be enought to put you on foot.

good luck!

ps: if someone tries these tips on H/H please let me know.

[Sgt Gul]

why disband navy? if the enemies block your ports its game over for the ottomans. i can get along pretty well with my neighbours, swift justice . make sure to defend the crimean khanate. focus on finishing off georgia, daghestan and venice early on. then focus on persia and austria. against austria you should only make a defensive war like the ottomans did in reall life against russians and austrians. hit the enemy and defend.

[Kip]

I have a suggestion.

Don't play as them.


J/K! They're a really interesting faction, but notoriously hard depending on the mod (this one, for instance, tends to strip away several provinces due to rebellion). I myself don't fancy playing as them (they already possess quite a large empire, I prefer carving mine out ). Plus, they are just oh too fun to attack as the Austrians, and many of their provinces just call to me to colonize as a western power...

[alpaca]

Well on one hand they are in an economically bad situation at game start, but on the other they have pretty much undepletable manpower and if you get Georgia as a vassal at least won't have more than a two-front war (Persia usually attacks you and you're at war with Russia and, most likely, will be at war with the Austrians or Venetians).

I'd really recommend boosting twg by setting upper class taxes to the lowest possible setting, lower class can be kept high in my opinion as you won't be able to afford a lot of industry buildings and don't need the manpower. The navy... hmm not sure, it might make sense to disband it as it's pretty expensive and you can't build proper ships anyways/can't get out of the mediterranean or red sea easily to trade - I'd propose securing a trade agreement with Georgia along with the protectorate and sell them your cotton, disbanding your navy might indeed be a good idea (didn't play Ottomans extensively just the early game to make sure they're not impossible to play).

Oh, also be sure to reform your cabinet, most of the ministers have their fingers in the privy purse and similar shenanigans