From shepherds to Caliphs, Rise of the Ottoman Empire

The systemic cavalry strikes from all directions against the slowly progressing arabian army were too much for the arabian generals as they saw their massive army slowly eaten alive by Rüstem Pasha's cavalry platoons. They retreated back to the city of Surt further to the west.

Rüstem Pasha knew that now was the time to take over the ancient city of Luksor and he ordered the firing pace of his cannons to be tightened. Two days later, when the defences were more like rock piles than walls, he sent his legendary Janissary Divisions to take the city. Arabs had reorganised their ranks, but nontheless they were no match to the power of Janissaries. Ottomans marched to the city. The wealthy and fertile lands of Egypt were now completely under ottoman control. Rüstem Pasha's next task was to take the city of Surt, where main arabian army licked their wounds.

The arabians were decisively beaten on all fronts and they approached Rüstem Pasha with peace offerings. Rüstem Pasha had received instructions from the Sultan that no peace will signed unless the Arabian are willing to capitulate or if city holy muslim city of Mekke is captured. So the almost insulting offer was turned down. During the negotiations the main arabian army left Surt in order to surprise the Ottoman army.

Rüstem Pasha was expecting this and he had gathered his armies in Kem Kasir in order to completely wipeout the arabian army.

Rüstem Pasha's plan was a great success and the arabian army was defeated to last man. His cavalry then rode to Surt and took over the city without meeting ant notable opposition. The Ottoman empire now strecthed from Indus River to the western borders of Libya. The following period that lasted from 1700 to 1830 is considered to be the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire.

Meanwhile in Middle East Murad had ordered the conspriction of new cavalry platoons for the inevitable attack on Mekke. The once legendary Guard of Osman I Platoon was reformed. In Africa Rüstem Pasha's army began the long march towards the arabian city of Kufah were he was to meet the new ottoman platoons and attach them to his army.

I'd prefer in between the photos if you have a lot of pictures.

BTW, is the sudden drop in production due to the capture of those Arabian cities?

Yeah, maybe some text between the pictures if there's a lot of them.

But anyway, this is excellent stuff!

yared94 said:

I'd prefer in between the photos if you have a lot of pictures.

BTW, is the sudden drop in production due to the capture of those Arabian cities?

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Okey between photos it is (votes 2-0). No, that is the end of my GA. It actually lasted about 130 years (40turns).

And thanks sicky!

Aha

How come everyone except for you had 0 production in 1826? Did they all switch civics?

BurnEmDown said:

How come everyone except for you had 0 production in 1826? Did they all switch civics?

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I really don't know, I wondered that myself. And it happened around 1740 too.

The Sultan of Ottoman Empire finally passed away at the age of 88 in 1704 and sadly he did not witness Rüstem Pasha's Arabian campaign, which began in 1706. Since Murad had no sons, his nephew Mehmet II, son of late Mehmet I, rose to the Empire's throne.

Rüstem Pasha wanted strike Arabia fast before it could recover from the loss of Egypt. Therefore he did not have time to assemble all his troops into one massive army, instead he lead the attack with only half of the army's strenght.

At first his army was successful and the small city of Kufah was soon burned, but the feared Arabian camel archers counterattacked the tired Rüstem Pasha's army after the victory and Rüstem Pasha's army suffered heavy losses. Rüstem Pasha was also killed during the attack by a famous Arabian Warlord Saladin, who also had planned the attack. The new sultan wasn't particilarly pleased with the results and he desided to lead the next attack towards Mekke as soon as he could reassemble his armies.



In 1721 the European powers called up a congress in order to divide the world into their own spheres of influence. Mehmet II had no objections to such plans, since his ambitions laid elsewhere; for the moment.

Yay only one victory condition left!

It took ten years to reorganize the ottoman army into such condition that the heavily defended Mekke could be taken. New platoons were trained and the famous European Corps were conspricted from suothern Russia and Balkan. Finally in 1736 Mehmet laid siege on Mekke and his artillery batteries opened fire on the Arabian troops.

The heavy borbarding had an almost instant effect as Saladin sent his camel archers to harass the ottoman cannons. The famous Camel Archers had brief success, but they failed to withdraw from the battle as a bold move from the 1st Platoon got them encircled. Eventually, the more heavily armed ottoman platoons defeated them.




After this victory Mehmet threw his infantry, supported by the cavalry, against the Arabian defenders. Allthough the Arabs fought hard, but still the attack was a partial succes. Arabs lost almost all of their defenders, though the city itself was spared.




Mehmet was displeased and he rallied his retreating troops to a final assault and with his pure will he drove his platoons against the last defenders and finally the 4th Platoon broke through and claimed the city for Mehmet. Saladin was killed while defending the Mashid al-Haram mosque from pillaging ottoman troops. The death of Saladin left Arabia leaderless and it soon collapsed into smaller city states fighting against eachother. Mehmet had no intentions to conquer these worthless emirates, therefore he sent his army back to Sur.




However, some interesting issues rose up the World Congress, held in at same time, as the indian representative demanded that the city of Margus should be assigned to them. The Ottoman Grand Vizier was stunned by this arrogant demand and declined. However, the european powers saw that a conflict between these two nations would benefit them and voted for the Indian claim. Obviously, the Grand Vizier refused the councils decision. The Indian representative had received promises from the european powers that they back up their votes militarilly, therefore he boldly declared war on the Ottoman Empire. However, he was deceived as none of the european powers, which were perfectly aware of the militaristic and economic power of the Ottoman Empire, followed his actions. The Indians were left along to face the full might of the Ottoman army. The newly invented ottoman airships immediately entered Indian airspace and started to bombard Indian troops.

The plot thickens...

It seems odd the Russians are not more of a force here. I'd keep your left flank well garrisoned while going after India. It would be so like the Civ4 AIs to let you weaken yourself on India and then hit you from Russia, Mongolia, or from behind in Europe.

Great story... I'll be following it for as long as it lasts (which may not be much longer from the looks).

Great story. I wonder what will happen when the congress convines?

BuckyRea said:

The plot thickens...

It seems odd the Russians are not more of a force here. I'd keep your left flank well garrisoned while going after India. It would be so like the Civ4 AIs to let you weaken yourself on India and then hit you from Russia, Mongolia, or from behind in Europe.

Great story... I'll be following it for as long as it lasts (which may not be much longer from the looks).

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Well couse the russians are my vassals, I doubt anyone will attack from there, not sure what you meant by that?

And I have formidable force in Salona (the Balkan city), so I am prepared, allthough Germany has been quite weak in this game. The Mongols are usually so far behind in tech that I hardly ever consider them a real threat and getting rifles will guarantee that.

danjuno said:

Great story. I wonder what will happen when the congress convines?

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Remains to be seen, though the AIs are not too eager to declare war on me so it might be a disappointment. I have only played a little ahead from this.

Mehmet II and his army had just reached Sur, when he got word from the eastern army commander, Field Marshal Muhammed Pasha Jahangiri, that the Indian troops were on the move towards Persepolis. Muhammed Pasha Jahangiri did not make much of Indian threat and he said that his current platoons and infantry are more than enough to stop them. Therefore, aging Mehmet decided that his army would leave Sur and join forces a month from now.

This proved to be a mistake as the Black Death, that had been raging in Europe for some time now, spread to the Ottoman Empire and Sur. Allthough Mehmet was quickly isolated from everyone he got the disease and his old body could not handle it. The Ottoman Sultan, Mehmet II, was dead.




Mehmet's son Suleiman took the throne after the news spread to Istanbul. He appointed Field Marshal Muhammed Pasha Jahangiri to lead the Indian campaign and sent more platoons and division from Middle East towards Persepolis.

When the troops arrived, Muhammed Pasha Jahangiri had already defeated the Indian force attacking towards Persepolis and with these new men he desided to attack against the Indian border city of Kabura. However, the Black Death had already spread into the city, so he wisely let the Indian suffer the plague before taking the city. This his troops would not get infected as the plague had already been cleared from the Ottoman Empire.




Mehmet II had left behind the largest civilization the world had ever seen, yet ambitious Suleiman had every intetion to spread the ottoman influence ever wider. Therefore he started make new expansion plans, while the Indian campaign was still at its beginning. He also focused his efforts to the modernization of the Ottoman army.

Only six months later news spread from India that Muhammed Pasha Jahangiri's army had taken Kabura and his main army, armed with the latest ottoman invention: Rifles, was now marching towards the indian capital Dilli, while his cavalry platoons were attacking against a coastal city of Pattala, which was also bombardment from the sea by the newly completed ottoman Frigate.

Suleiman had given orders Muhammed Pasha Jahangiri to capture Dilli and Pattala before negotiating peace terms with the shaking Indian Mahajarate. His goal was to vassalize India rather than to conquer the poor Indian nation. Suleiman himself participated in the 2nd World Congress. His presence, though, kept the European powers silent and no demands against the Ottoman Empire were representated. However, Suleiman fromed a coalition against England in order to liberate Inverness to Vikings. With the participipation of Ragnar, Napoleon, Bismarck and Kublai Khan the coaliton succeeded as England did not dare to refuse the councils decision. Ultimately this lead to the collapsing of the British Empire.




In India, Muhammed Pasha Jahangiri followed his orders preciously and took Pattala with only few losses. The indian army ws under equipped and the ottoman forces easily defeated them. Muhammed Pasha Jahangiri then turned his full attention towards Dilli, which was more heavily defended, yet only few of defenders had firearms.




Eventhough the Ottoman army was outnumbered, Muhammed Pasha Jahangiri's forces captured the city quite easily. This was due to the fact that ottoman weaponry significantly more advanced than the Indian one. Suleiman's investments had payed off.

After the lost of their capital the Indian army surrendered without conditons and the nation was made a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. As Suleiman found no use for the cities of Dilli and Pattala, he ordered Muhammed Pasha Jahangiri to liberate them under Indian control. Suleiman also ordered Muhammed Pasha Jahangiri's army to report to him in Istanbul. It was couple years later when Field Marshal Muhammed Pasha Jahangiri found out why.

The reason why Suleiman gathered all his armies to Europe and western Africa was the secret negotiations he had started with Willem van Oranje, the ruler of a small Dutch nation in Europe. Willem van Oranje offered to become Suleiman's vassal in exchange for militaristic aid against one of Europe's leading powers, the French. Suleiman saw this as great opportunity expand his influence to Europe, so he agreed.




At the same time Suleiman accepted the offer, he also declared war on France. Since France controlled the western African nation of Mali, Suleiman also declared war on them. Spain and Germany were also fighting against the french.




However, Suleiman had been preparing for this moment for years, so when the war was declared his land armies and navy were in position, in Africa and Europe, to strike against the mighty France, only the German city of Budapest stood between them.

Another ottoman Golden Age was about to start.

From the map I see France controls the Maghreb - Suleiman could consider attacking and taking control of Tunis, Algiers and Rabat/Casablanca