Ottomans, new UA is powerful

[LostKnight]

I dont know if many of you have noticed, but the Ottomans UA got changed, now, all their ships get the privateer ability(capture enemy ships on kill), and this ability even work on ANYONE(not just the barbs!)


Facing an ottomans fleet is truly a nightmare now, as every time you lose a ship, they get one more!

 

[Nyanko]

I dont know if many of you have noticed, but the Ottomans UA got changed, now, all their ships get the privateer ability(capture enemy ships on kill), and this ability even work on ANYONE(not just the barbs!)


Facing an ottomans fleet is truly a nightmare now, as every time you lose a ship, they get one more!

Yeah its great, isnt it? Mixed with the fact longswordsmen upgrade to Janissaries and Pikemen to Those Lancer units means that the Ottomans are monsters now.

 

[bonafide11]

I might have to try them next then after I win with Byzantine. Constantinople / Istanbul domination.

 

[iconocast]

yeh i just about fell off my chair when i upgraded longswords to muskets, wonder if this is a good thing.

 

[Nyanko]

yeh i just about fell off my chair when i upgraded longswords to muskets, wonder if this is a good thing.

It is for Civs that have Musketmen UU's, as it means they dont have to build them from scratch

 

[OrsonM]

Ottomans were already pretty good before exp., players just were reluctant to modify their strategy towards Otto.

Not that I'm complaining, keep those buffs coming.

 

[janboruta]

Ottomans were already pretty good before exp., players just were reluctant to modify their strategy towards Otto.

My thoughts exactly. As Suleiman I always went early on with two triremes for some barb-hunting and pretty soon I had a navy of 7 triremes. This gives you an edge in early game and those ships can act as a meatshield later (historiccaly the Ottoman fleet was composed of galleys which went obsolete really late in the Mediterranean).

And I always had really sweet Janissary conquests. Just plan to do some conquering in the Renaissance, then upgrade Jannisaries to Rifles/Inf/Mech Inf and you're king. Same applies to Gods&Kings, but the Prize Ships promotion for their every ship is just awesome and really makes you build a navy of melee ships and go swashbuckling

 

[pspboy7]

Ottomans are actually more fun now, cool! My biggest win is with Ottomans still!

 

[Bad Wolf]

Ah, so now there's a reason not to immediately quit if I roll the Ottomans on a random start, excellent.

 

[Harthhal]

There never was if you could make it to gunpowder

 

[Petiscator]

I really like the Ottomans! Their UA is great, specially with meelee ships (I'm a naval warfare lover), allowing you to have the biggest fleet in the whole game. Having prize-ship-promoted trirremes/caravels is amazing, and it can be even better with the Commerce policy tree (which I like to adopt) and The Great Lighthouse.

It's so cool to find out Dido is your neighboor! Unite 2-3 trirremes and start capturing her powerful quinqueremes = early naval domination win. I suppose finding Byzantium would be nive, though their Dromons would be hard to beat. Getting a fleet made of other civ's UUs is one of the greatest things to do with the Ottomans, it's like having not only the awesome Janissaries and the meh Sipahis, but Ships of the Line, Quinqueremes, Dromons, Sea Beggar; all with reduced mainentance cost.

As the naval orientated UA is kind of lackluster in a Pangea map tipe, their UUs starts kicking in. Your janissaries are able to keep the pressure while healing better than the Caroleans (I would like to, someday, get the march promotion with the Janissary, while I find blitz to be better for them). The Sipahis are nice for pilaging, bullying city states and scouting enemy forces, but I hardly build it (most of the times my pikemen get upgraded to them).

Seriously, if you have never tried them out, do it.

 

[ahawk]

The new UA is a large improvement. On the other hand, the AI is even more inept in naval combat than land combat, so the Ottoman UA is sorta like killing flies with a rocket launcher... easier than killing them with a swatter, sure, but not an absolutely necessary advantage. Rather, I think the Janissary is the best part of the Ottomans, and is arguably one of the best unique units in the game.

 

[Callonia]

Well, i just faced ottoman janissaries for the first time like last week. It was uh interesting because after seeing do a full heal at least once i could visibly feel their battle line getting stronger than mine. Gotta be careful against ottomans and don't let your weaken units be in position for janissaries to exploit by killing it.

You will have to shift them out or change your battle line to moving them to more defensible position even when it requires allowing the city take some attacks, it have like 250 hp or so, let it get attacked few times, at least you're not getting overrun by janissaries.

Fighting on the rivers isn't always ideal, lately i've been using rivers as a way to delay the enemy by one turn though, there are exceptions.

 

[Roxlimn]

Lancers got indirectly and directly buffed. They no longer have a specific defensive weaknesses, just the normal defensive vulnerabilities of Mounted Units in general, and Rifling has been pushed back significantly, so they get to perform on the field with Musket units and Longswordmen, assuming you get Metallurgy fast enough.

I got to play with a bunch of Sipahi from a Military City State last week. Even without Armory promos, they were pretty good. The Extra Sight allows you to promote a Sentry Sipahi into a +2 Extra Sight unit (as good as a twice promoted Scout!) that can come in for the kill.

I also had a Charge Sipahi going on. That promotion is actually pretty good now that most units are fighting while damaged to a greater or lesser extent. I imagine that +33% Combat Strength is a good bonus for a "middle shot" on a unit your Janissary REALLY wants to kill. As it was, my one Charge Sipahi got a lot of good shots before Rifles started coming in, and it was still pretty good then.

Sipahis have 5 movement, not the usual 4 Lancer movement. As such, they're first-response to any location in my large sprawling empire, and they can reliably hit-and-run around my core infantry without getting hit back. If you're desperate, you can even suicide one to take out key units in the back as far as three tiles through Rough Terrain.

 

[Babri]

The new UA is a large improvement. On the other hand, the AI is even more inept in naval combat than land combat, so the Ottoman UA is sorta like killing flies with a rocket launcher... easier than killing them with a swatter, sure, but not an absolutely necessary advantage. Rather, I think the Janissary is the best part of the Ottomans, and is arguably one of the best unique units in the game.

Actually janissaries are bugged, they heal fully after killing units rather than 50%. Anyway their UA is pretty awesome, considering that naval promos are much more powerful in G&K when fighting land units.