Rise of the Ottomans

[Anubis88]

A quick intro note;

i was lucky enough to have been invited as an alpha tester. I posted a lot in the Dev forum about my campaign, and Wallachian suggested that i post it here as well as a preview of how the game currently works. Unfortunately i wasn't paying too much attention to making screenshots as the game progressed as often as it would be ideal, so i'm going to make a report from some of my old screens, and try to be more consistent with it in the future, while giving you guys some battle pictures as well.

I have tried to take a very historical approach as the Ottomans; which has added difficulty to my game; avoiding conquering Constantinople for example, which, spoiler alert, i still did 20 years to early since Mehmed appeared too soon, and given how every nation hates me i had to close down one front in order to be able to continue the campaign.

1410 AD - The Timurids arrive


One thing that really surprised me in the mod was how well the AI is using navies. As you can see, Trinacria is trying to reform the Norman Sicilian Kingdom. After a hard fight, i managed to push into Serbia; however upon conquering Larissa from the Serbian Empire the Duchy of Athens decided that they don't want any Turks close to Athens and attack me the next turn. Given how strong their combined armies were, i had to withdraw and consolidate in the north.

Asia minor is a battlezone. The Knights, the Genoese, Karamanids and Aydin are fighting like crazy for their land. But now the Timurids arrived. I've actually lost a battle vs them as a slight underdog. It was probably because i was so shocked about how amazing their units looked that i didn't pay too much attention to detail. I forgot to have my archers in skirmish mode, and when the Timurid tanks hit they decimated my army. At this point war was brewing on every front, and the Ottomans, despite their riches and strong power bases in Bursa and Edirne were fighting for their lives everywhere.

[Anubis88]

1425 AD




Through some luck and a lot of battles, i've managed to repel the Timurids, and conquer large parts of Asia Minor. Bayezid the Thunderbolt has in an ahistorical scenario managed to defeat the Timurids, which avoided a civil war. Funny thing happened to me. I forgot how successions work in MTWII as i haven't played it in a while. Bayezid I is a scripted FM, and i was automatically sure he would be my heir and didn't check who the actual heir was. When my sultan Murad I died, i was shocked to see that next line was my worst FM! I left him in a city on a border where he was really unhappy, so his authority was at 0, and that made every general very disloyal. I had some premium armies rebel, and i barely managed to put everything back in order.

The Pope launched a crusade against the city south of Varna (i forget the name), and the armies that attacked me were so strong that i actually had to give up the city, which is for now a trading post of the Catalan Company ruling the Duchy of Athens. Quite unlike MTWII to put you in such a situation... So i obviously LOVED IT!

I guess one could say that there is a coalition out there against the ottomans;

War is hell, and on every border huge battles are coming; Will the turks survive?

[PavleSubich]

!
the game is so hard even with the oottomans?
How will we play croatia,ragusa,bosnia LOL

[Wallachian]

Thanks Anubis, great stuff

Well it depends on how you play the game and how many factions you go to war with. I played a Bosnian campaign and found it quite ok on H/H difficulties.

It could also be because the Ottomans are islamic so everyone tends to hate them and have lower relations with them. As Bosnia, I played as a good Catholic and kept the Papacy on my good side. I was allied to Hungary and to Milan and managed to wipe out Serbia and Naples without too many problems. But i always kept good relations with as many factions as possible.

[PavleSubich]

So what were u starting with?Catholic or Krstjani?

[Anubis88]

1435 AD

Couldn't resist, Mehmed conquered Constantinople, while the Sultan Suleiman conquered Galata.


A great White-Horde Moldavian allied invasion force appears


The battle begins, as the underdog. (the reinforcments didn't come all at once. Anyone know if it's something i can't bypass? I definetly have the computer power to show all the troops MTWII can handle, and i have unlimited men enabled in the settings, but maybe it's just the limit of TW games.)




Some battle pics

Ottoman right flank


Cavalry skirmish


Tanks


Rustem Pasha makes the charge with what few men are left of his bodyguard


Don't eat the yellow snow


Time ran out on battle, so it wasn't a heroic victory, but it destroyed a lot of my armies anyways.


P.S.

I guess i'll need a siege of Rhodes or Siege of Malta type of force if i ever want to conquer Chios

[Dead*Man*Wilson]

Awesome, thanks for sharing this!

[Wallachian]

Great images Anubis. Love the bitter fighting!

So what were u starting with?Catholic or Krstjani?

There is an option to choose between Catholic and Kristjani but it's not fully implemented. I played as Catholic though.

[Anubis88]

A couple of screens of a night siege, defending Varna against the White Horde; (click on picture for HD quality)

[Wallachian]

In my Bosnian playthrough there is quite a Jihad style race for Constantinopole between the Ottomans, the Karamanids and the Tatars.

[vikior]

All of this looks absolutely amazing!

[sullivanclan1]

Looks great! Why not increase all units to 250? Having full stacks of armies to their fullest would make the campaign better.

[The Despondent Mind]

There just has to be some way to make Constantinople be really hard to take, that you really need to dedicate to it.

[Wallachian]

The best we can do is have a garrison script so that when you attack the city you get a full stack to fight against. We might increase the quality and experience of the units in the stack too.

[Lusitanio]

Looks great! Why not increase all units to 250? Having full stacks of armies to their fullest would make the campaign better.

Do that and then play a siege battle as the defender. You would have lots of fun (or not).

[alex33]

1435 AD

Couldn't resist, Mehmed conquered Constantinople, while the Sultan Suleiman conquered Galata.


A great White-Horde Moldavian allied invasion force appears


The battle begins, as the underdog. (the reinforcments didn't come all at once. Anyone know if it's something i can't bypass? I definetly have the computer power to show all the troops MTWII can handle, and i have unlimited men enabled in the settings, but maybe it's just the limit of TW games.)




Some battle pics

Ottoman right flank


Cavalry skirmish


Tanks


Rustem Pasha makes the charge with what few men are left of his bodyguard


Don't eat the yellow snow


Time ran out on battle, so it wasn't a heroic victory, but it destroyed a lot of my armies anyways.


P.S.

I guess i'll need a siege of Rhodes or Siege of Malta type of force if i ever want to conquer Chios

Super awesome. How exactly did you get Mehmet? The game starts way before he was born, does it not? Are some famous characters scripted to spawn?

[Anubis88]

Indeed, some rulers are scripted in the game so you can play with them. I really love this addition, it was great to have Bayezid and Mehmet leading my armies... I won't spoil much more though

[JohnD18]

I want to play this amazing mod. How can i do that? Like Anubis88

[Wallachian]

You will be able to play soon. We are very close to a public release but need to fix some critical crashes

[PavleSubich]

so what doe those crashes mean?
tht u merged those 3 versions or 2 of them?

and u encountered unsuspeted crashes
should we be glad u merged them finaly or saad cuz of the crashes?