[GS] The Ottomans Discussion Thread

[agonistes]

I'm presently playing an Ottoman game and haven't made much use of the Janissaries yet. I agree that the +1 amenity bonus from conquered cities and the Grand Bazaar are strong indeed! I went with standard cav rush @ game open as it's fast. One target to the next, quick. Pillage & attack. In the game I'm playing I have allot of niter (start bias?). I am thinking that for longer games with large maps you could send main army cav to engage technologically savy opponents while mass producing Janissary armies to send with a few artillery pieces for the lower tech civs. The 20% governor with the military academy bonus to production with the already low production sounds to me like it could be unstoppable. Just avoid replacement parts.

I didn't have any niter... had to chain settle cities down the coast to secure a spot that had 3.

Boy that industrial ottoman music is riveting! I stood out of my chair and saluted!

edit: if u build the swordsmen with victor, then upgrade, you start with 2 promos.

 

[Archon_Wing]

Who cares about Janis. Just chop catapults, grab a GG and overwhelm them. Once you level those catapults up, they'll roll the next target easily.



I started with no iron (the iron is from a captured city) and despite Shaka fielding impis and knights, he couldn't kill my catapults in time. If I actually attacked with a proper timing and felt like tryharding in an emperor game (I didn't even rush, built wonders instead), this would have been more devastating. I actually just started running random catapults into people's lands to pillage. Since pillage is OP, didn't care about losses.But it's more about getting catas that live long enough to get promotions. Once that happens they are screwed.

Catapult rush has actually always been pretty decent if you lack resources. Of course it means nothing to people that just reroll when they lack resources, but each to their own.

This whole oil crap is annoying though. If you run out of oil your whole army is weak, and I couldn't find any uranium despite nearly owning a continent, so bleh. Not really a fan of the new resource system.

This is the real combo. Rocket Artillery and Rock bands!

 

[BarbarianHunter]

I didn't have any niter... had to chain settle cities down the coast to secure a spot that had 3.

Boy that industrial ottoman music is riveting! I stood out of my chair and saluted!

edit: if u build the swordsmen with victor, then upgrade, you start with 2 promos.

Unlike Archon Wing I think the change to the resource system is a great addition ! I enjoy the challenge of having to settle chain cities such as you mention.

I think you might be right about the music as well. I noticed it (usually oblivious).

You have done the 2-promotion Victor thing? It says you only get the free promo if the unit doesn't already start with one.

Spoiler :

 

[agonistes]

Who cares about Janis. Just chop catapults, grab a GG and overwhelm them. Once you level those catapults up, they'll roll the next target easily.



I started with no iron (the iron is from a captured city) and despite Shaka fielding impis and knights, he couldn't kill my catapults in time. If I actually attacked with a proper timing and felt like tryharding in an emperor game (I didn't even rush, built wonders instead), this would have been more devastating. I actually just started running random catapults into people's lands to pillage. Since pillage is OP, didn't care about losses.But it's more about getting catas that live long enough to get promotions. Once that happens they are screwed.

Catapult rush has actually always been pretty decent if you lack resources. Of course it means nothing to people that just reroll when they lack resources, but each to their own.

This whole oil crap is annoying though. If you run out of oil your whole army is weak, and I couldn't find any uranium despite nearly owning a continent, so bleh. Not really a fan of the new resource system.

This is the real combo. Rocket Artillery and Rock bands!

yea, I started using the free promo in my bombards.

edit: @BarbarianHunter - use the gov promo on swordsmen. You should be keeping resource at a minimum except for upgrades - that way you can still build swordsmen. The trick is to build the swordsmen faster than the resource ticks to 30. Then you get the swordsman with the victor promo, promote him, then upgrade to janis on the next resource 30 tick. I screwed myself by getting too many mines up.

Luckily I got a city to flip, near two volcanoes with lots of plain hills and diamond/iron mines, so I can belt out more Jannies if I must. Or just trade resources every turn.

edit: hmmm, but I've only promoted jannies to 2 that got 1 from combat as swords... I see what you are saying now. I'll test it.

 

[Bayley]

Ottomans so overpowered

Just as a comparison to the Greek civ bonus of 1 wildcard slot, the Ottomans can build seige units faster, deal more damage with them, AND capture cities at FULL health and build seige units. Yes this does mean that they are less versatile, but their bonuses just completely overshadow other civilizations. Keeping populations of captured cities high makes them incredible in high lvl games where the ai gets massive growth buffs (admittingly only played up to emperor in 6 but i'm working my way to diety). Maybe this will be less true for the player, but the ottoman ai in all my games has been able to dominate. Would highly recommend people try to play them.

Moderator Action: Merged with Ottoman Discussion thread. leif

 

[Jojo_Fr]

Ottomans is one of the balanced civ in Gathering Storm. If you compare it to Hungary or to Maori.

They are not overpowered at all. Building siege faster is good but Nubia build archers faster too. And advanced siege unit need Salpetre which is a rare ressource.

 

[Jewman]

yea, I started using the free promo in my bombards.

edit: @BarbarianHunter - use the gov promo on swordsmen. You should be keeping resource at a minimum except for upgrades - that way you can still build swordsmen. The trick is to build the swordsmen faster than the resource ticks to 30. Then you get the swordsman with the victor promo, promote him, then upgrade to janis on the next resource 30 tick. I screwed myself by getting too many mines up.

Luckily I got a city to flip, near two volcanoes with lots of plain hills and diamond/iron mines, so I can belt out more Jannies if I must. Or just trade resources every turn.

edit: hmmm, but I've only promoted jannies to 2 that got 1 from combat as swords... I see what you are saying now. I'll test it.

interested in figuring this victor trick out as well. I got wrecked in early game by dido the only suleiman game I played. I also built the Great Bath like a dummy (i figured it was the only time I was going to be able to/want to) so that's probably why I got off to a rough start.

 

[DefinitelyNotWarmonger]

I feel the most bonkers thing about the Ottomans, except the music, is Ibrahim's 'Serasker' which gives +10 strength when attacking cities. It is so easy to conquer cities in the early game thanks to that ability (which is only the first upgrade).

In terms of strategy, just build sufficient catapults and warriors, then upgrade them all game. Catapults are harder to maneuver but doesn't matter if a couple of them die during the process, because producing units is really cheap.

Feels really strong in single player. Likely weak in multi though.

 

[Disgustipated]

I didn't find any need to promote past Serasker. I mean, why would I care about my grievances? I'm going full on warmonger. The final promotion doesn't seem necessary either. You can only use it while at peace, and why would you be at peace?

 

[agonistes]

Unlike Archon Wing I think the change to the resource system is a great addition ! I enjoy the challenge of having to settle chain cities such as you mention.

I think you might be right about the music as well. I noticed it (usually oblivious).

You have done the 2-promotion Victor thing? It says you only get the free promo if the unit doesn't already start with one.

Spoiler :

View attachment 519139

Confirming that using victor on a swordsman, promoting, and then upgrading to janissary DOES in fact work - you get the second promotion.

I suspect the rule is their only because you can't get double promotions as a norm - like if your ship gets the wonder promote, then u upgrade, if you go in range of the wonder again before promoting, you lose. out on that next free promotion. But if you promote then upgrade, then move back to the wonder, you get another promotion .

In my tsl giant Russia games, I'd try to spam out boats early to get tier 3 battleships. But... moving around 50+ ships in that area (and remembering who needs the promotion) is an operational nightmare.

Anyway... verified. Tier 2 Jannisaries as fast as you can build swordsmen.

 

[MrRadar]

There might be a bug with Ibrahim's Khass-Oda-Bashi promotion. The tooltip claims that extra 0.5 alliance points are gained just with the owner of a foreign capital:


I have him in Amsterdam:


And I do get +0.5 with Wilhelmina:


but I also do get the same with my two other allies at the same time:




I only had him in Amsterdam, only mod used is various modules of Concise UI.
Has anyone seen such behavior?