I got some turns in! As the Ottomans.
Basically, I'm kicking serious butt. I have expanded in every direction of the compass and my troops keep riding through with ease. (Mind you, I am a Monarch player having a look around on Regent
)
I've wiped out the
Karaminds in the south east and now border with Armenia (is that the right placement for them?). I'm working on the
Aydin in south west Turkey now also and they look like falling fairly easily, judging from my assualts so far. I have taken cities to my east, right up to
Trebizond's borders. Only Trebizond have shown much kind of resolve or ingenuity againgst my onslaught. I look forward to giving them a damn good hiding.
All the other Turks seem to lack any kind of cavalry, which makes my life a lot easier.
I've made advances in Europe too.
Byzantium lost all their cities immediately surrounding Constantinople, which I've now contented myself to simply cut off, so that I can dedicate troops to slaughtering the
Serbs,
Bulgarians and western Byzantine holdings. (I was losing more than I was taking when assaulting Constantinople).
The biggest losers to my European advances (aside from Byz) have been the
Bulgarians, who have put up some resistance and have attempted assaults on my cities. I'm dealing with the hilly terrain by bombarding their advancers and then slaying the injured. The old Jihad is proving very useful here. I did this fending off for a while, but then I gathered enough cavalry to make a dash north up the coast. That has succeeded and now I surround the Bulgarian capital, with one more city further north and a few to the west.
Serbia has been lively through all this. I took their costal city with ease and they've sent some knights and infantry down in a disorganised fashion, easily dealt with. The more I progress into Bulgarian lands, the more Serbs I encounter. They largely get slain but I'm wary of an organised groups taking some of my new acquistions.
Byzantium remains a presence in the Makedon lands. I've tried taking their large city beside my Serbian capture but failed a few times, as have others (do they have a defence bonus in there?) So I've adjusted my plans in the Aegean Sea. I've spotted that Serbia has three weak cities there. the first one fell already. I can see myself sweeping through the others and I'm contending for some of the smaller Byzantine cities too. Those Europeans just don't have the guts that these Turkish warriors have.
At sea I'm dominating my chosen territories (basically the whole Aegean). I've popped so many new Pirate Galleys that it's child's play for me. I've only lost one ship and that was to a Pirate ship that came out of the Knights of St John. I intend to press hom this advantage to take more islands here. Perhaps a war with one of the Italian States would do it.
War has however been brought to my door without my choosing, thanks to the
Mameluks. They also roped
Lombardy into it, along with the
Bosnians. I'm not too bothered about the former but the latter I had in mind as allies. Anyway, I don't think this war will cause many problems, they're too far away.
VPs see me trailing Byzantium by a little bit. This would easily be remidied if I took Constantinople. But I'm keeping up nicely through conquest. No one else is challenging me for power or VPs now (about 25-30 turns in).
I'd have to play with some of the Europeans to see how this really is.
) but the SS are amazing. Varwnos cities are beautiful. I hope I can get it before my 9 hours at work are done.
