Ottoman Empire's Military from Osman Gazi up to early 17th Century Discussion

[click2kill]

Before I don't ****ing care about the Ottoman Empire, the Janissaries. I didn't even knew they existed. After I played them on Medieval 2, they became my instant favorite, then I became fascinated to their History. I have to thank Medieval 2 Total War and those who created it for making me learn history...

****ing Total War games, better than my teachers for learning history

[druzhina345]

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druzhina345
Illustrations of Ottoman Costume & Soldiers

[click2kill]

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druzhina345
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

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[John Sobieski]

Erebus Pasha, I'm interested by your comment on Mezokeretzes. It certainly seems to have shaken the Ottoman commanders, given their subsequent reluctance to engage in any more field battles. The contrast with the 1530s, when Suleiman openly challenged Charles V to meet him in battle, is striking. But is justified to describe Mezokeretzes as a miracle? As I understand it the crucial turning point occurred when Habsburg soldiers broke ranks en masse to pillage the Turkish camp. However, were they winning before this?

[Erebus Pasha]

It was Inkie who originally posted that. I responded to it John - all back on page 2 of the thread.

Responding to your question though it does seem that the Imperial forces had successfully shattered initial Ottoman assaults on the fortified entrenchments and the latter had become disheartened and disorganised.

I don't think we should read much too much into the comment about Ottoman commanders being reluctant to engage in battle after Keresztes. From the mid-fifteenth century until the late seventeenth centuries siege warfare was the preferred method of fighting for both Imperial and Ottoman commanders. In fact considering the chain of fortresses on both sides of the border that separated the Habsburg domains from that of the Ottomans it was essential that the most important of these were neutralised for strategic reasons.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Might as well jump in since someone else necroed this.

@Erebus, do you know to what extent the volley fire was adopted? It could have been a single unit, it could have been the troops of one army commander or it could have been the whole army.
The thing that strikes me the most about the long war is the sheer lack of coordination between the various Ottoman forces all along the front which no doubt nerfed their offensive capabilities (in my opinion) and probably kept them from being able to make a united defense in Hungary (kind of odd seeing as they had the Danube between them making communication fairly easy if they could communicate by boat). The other thing I remember is just how strong the Hapsburg defenses could be and in what areas they built their forts, it seemed like a very coordinated effort on their part. The Turks on the other hand seemed to have no plan regarding their defenses and may have been make shift or at least with the intent to hold any bit of ground that they could at a given time.
However the Long War being fairly long and involving many different stages and operations its hard to discern how these things were done (and where exactly or even why they were) without specific details.