The Ottoman Thread

[manio curio]

Hi all,

I just finished my game with the Ottomans, I played with Regent/Normal, here's my feedback:

UHV1: I conquered Byzantium and it already had 3 Wonders, one of them was mount Athos and I believe that was built between the scenario start and my spawn, if I am wrong let me know. Therefore the goal turned out to be rather easy to accomplish, I built the Topkapi palace for obvious reasons.
UHV2: the most entertaining goal of all, I am not entirely sure about Morocco inclusion among the conquest target, but my knowledge of Ottoman history lacks the detail to make a strong case for either, I will let others chime in.
UHV3: It appears all great military instructors, artists and statemen settled in the city count, including the ones settled before the city conquest. I am not sure if this is intended or not, but I thought to be worth mentioning.

UUs: very fitting and useful for the accomplishment of UHV2, especially the great bombard.
UP: I have no idea how conscription works in the game, therefore I really cannot have an opinion of the UP. I would appreciate some help in understanding it.
UB: it helps to have extra happiness for a relatively cheap building, all in all it was handy.

Overall game: It is amazing how well the game mocks the Ottoman history at a high level: great military campaigns, an unstoppable military force until...you guessed right....1700 and then the decline. The massive empire constructed to complete UHV2 becomes untanable and plagued with poor stability, especially the overexpansion penalty, I had -24 points for basically 100 years, with the 'recent expansion' and good civs + good economy keeping me alive. Moreover the several wars alienated all other civs, on top of religious tensions, all to the 'glazed' with poor tech research and rather high city maintanance costs. I really became the 'sick man of Europe' by the end of the game.

NOTE: The terrible overexpansion penalty persisted even after I gave indipendence to my Italian possessions.

Saves and pics attached, with the usual thanks for @Leoreth.

 

[lethrgy]

overexpansion stability hit can be contained by lowering the population of non-core cities (IE. via whipping or conscription) you can actually see how much each city is contributing to stability in the F1 screen for city overview, it's the column all the way second from the right under the stability scales. i think the calculation is that base stability is raised by population * 2 for each city in your core, and is lowered by population * 1 in historical area cities and a bigger penalty for cities in foreign area. pretty impressive to have such a large empire without controlling the population

 

[manio curio]

overexpansion stability hit can be contained by lowering the population of non-core cities (IE. via whipping or conscription) you can actually see how much each city is contributing to stability in the F1 screen for city overview, it's the column all the way second from the right under the stability scales. i think the calculation is that base stability is raised by population * 2 for each city in your core, and is lowered by population * 1 in historical area cities and a bigger penalty for cities in foreign area. pretty impressive to have such a large empire without controlling the population

I was under the impression the cities in the historical area would contribute positively to the expansion stability, but what you just said makes sense. How do I conscript the population? I know is a dumb question but couldn't figure it out

 

[SOVNARKOM]

The Ottomans seem to have been weakened now. I remember their core area in eastern Anatolia was much larger than it is now

 

[AOS9001]

The Ottomans seem to have been weakened now. I remember their core area in eastern Anatolia was much larger than it is now

Ottoman core expands after a certain condition is met. I think it's taking Istanbul?

 

[Ohioan]

I was under the impression the cities in the historical area would contribute positively to the expansion stability, but what you just said makes sense. How do I conscript the population? I know is a dumb question but couldn't figure it out

You need to have the Nationhood civic I believe, and then there should be a big DRAFT button by where the despotism rushing button is

 

[Temujin8k]

If you're Ottomans, you don't need to adopt Nationhood. However, you can only conscript two units per turn in cities with non-state religions present.

 

[SOVNARKOM]

Ottoman core expands after a certain condition is met. I think it's taking Istanbul?

Yes, but the mechanism for gaining a larger core area in the west after occupying Istanbul existed before the weakening of the Ottoman eastern core (so obviously cannot compensate for the losses)

 

[BaneFire]

I've very rarely had reasons to use conscripts; simply because if you're a conquering civ you probably have enough cities with good hammers to spam out a big army, and if you're not then you usually have the means to either defend sufficiently (2x city defence xbows last an awful long time...) or can diplomacy your way out of a fight. Maybe it's different at higher difficulties.

 

[AOS9001]

Once, while playing Russia, I was bogged down in a war with China in Siberia/Manchuria. Then my vassal Poland collapsed and Germany conquered indy Warsaw. A few turns later Hitler pulls a Barbarossa on me, and even with railroads it takes multiple turns to get units back from Siberia to Eastern Europe. I had to draft infantry in my biggest cities because I was desperate for troops, trying to hold off the Panzers long enough for the main forces to return.

That's the only time I've ever had to use the draft function, but it was fun!

 

[SultanRedSnake]

Ottoman core expands after a certain condition is met. I think it's taking Istanbul?

ISTANBUL?!

 

[SultanRedSnake]

NOT

 

[SultanRedSnake]

CONSTANTINOPLE?

 

[1SDANi]

Been a long time gone

 

[AOS9001]

ISTANBUL?!

You're the guy with the Suleiman avatar... I'm just sayin!