Africa Scenario - Ottomons, any tips?

Playing on Deity.

After 5-10 turns I immediately lose all my cities and the game is over. I cannot produce any naval units strong enough to defeat the ironclads of Italy because of no iron. Literally every civ declares war after 5 turns and the situation is hopeless.

Any suggestions?

Having attempted it not even once, I have a vague idea that might or might not work: Maybe you can try to get someone to declare on Italy before they declare on you. Sure that makes the start even worse, but maybe if that works you can develop something out of it after surviving the first few turns

I can't even hold out as the Boers on Deity, let alone the Ottomans. By far the toughest civ to play in the scenario. If Italy doesn't take you by sea, France will by land. I found that at least with Morocco you survive a lot longer if you build nothing but Rifled Canons.

FeiLing said:

Having attempted it not even once, I have a vague idea that might or might not work: Maybe you can try to get someone to declare on Italy before they declare on you. Sure that makes the start even worse, but maybe if that works you can develop something out of it after surviving the first few turns

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You can't embark over water as the Africans!

Came here to make this exact thread.

It's crazy how hard the Africans have it compared to the Europeans. So far I've won Deity with England and Belgium (and getting the achievements!) with really little effort, for the Africans it's something else...

The main problem for the North Africans is that everyone hates you, so you can't get up your trade routes. I've tried a few times as Morocco, only to be at war with every European by turn 10. Even if I get my coastal city up enough to build a fleet to hold them off, I'm completely gimped as far as GPT and points go. You can't trade with any of the other north africans because Italy is in the way. Maybe you get a land trade route with a city state if you're lucky, but that's it. Egypt seems a bit easier because you have more time to prepare, not to mention the extra culture and Suez control. As for the Ottomans, everything they have just seems useless. The Sipahi is an awful unit, the UA is useless because you don't have coal to build ironclads, and as far as I can tell the Turkish Bath doesn't do anything more than the than the Stock Exchange.

Wrt the Ottomans, the war with the Italians is won or lost in the first 10ish turns.

So consider what you can build in your 3 cities within that time, especially before you lose one (and don't lose more than one).

Some caravan/cargo ship hammers to your capital does help. Just remember the privateers. If you can luck into capturing the Italian Duo Class Ironclads (no coal requirement), you can then work to steal the rest of their fleet.

gpt sucks here, but you can at least toss a caravan to the Suez or other for decent gpt. But you'll want to expand south to be able to send caravans into Ethiopia (rarely DoWs anyone).

It is possible to force peace with the Euro civs eventually, though it may not be in time to get enough gpt from the trade routes.


But hey, what would Deity be without actually being hard?