Ottomans - east or west?

[lord of the mark]

Im currently playing as OE. its 1520. I took Mamelukes in 1513, giving me the med coast all the way to Tunisia. Ive got the Balkans, except Hungary, Romania (Which is Hungarian) and Dalmatia (Still Venetian) I dont have Rhodes or Cyrus. Ive got the entire Caucasus to Dagestan (and just finished off the White Sheep turks).

Austria still has only taken a few provs in SW Germany. But I know Ive only got a little while till Austria inherits Hungary and Bohemia.

Ive got one goods manu, one refinery, and one FAA. Ive got tax collectors almost everywhere, and am researching Infra 4.

The rich provinces to the east in India are tempting, but ive got to go annex offculture-Shiite Iran to get there. Or go by sea, which just doesnt seem right.

OTOH best provs in Europe are in Italy, which I wont be able to get for a while, unless I go to war with Spain, which Im not keen for. OTOH I think a preemptive strike into Hungary, to keep the big white blob from getting too strong makes strategic sense, but is not as promising in terms of resources.

So give this Grand Vizier some ideas!

[lord of the mark]

in the absence of advice from the diwan, the grand vizier made the decision himself, and struck west, taking most of Hungary in the course of two wars. He is now preparing to turn east against the Caliphate, hoping to avoid a quagmire.

[Nikolai]

After securing the western ME, I tend to go for the west. Not sure if it's the best thing to do though.

[Dinner]

With the Ottomans I usually try to conquor the muslim world and sweep through south Asia.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Oerdin
With the Ottomans I usually try to conquor the muslim world and sweep through south Asia.

Arabia first, or Mesopotamia?

[Nikolai]

What's a Caliphate without the holy cities?

[lord of the mark]

Ok, we've taken down Aden, giving us all the holy cities, and the entire coast to Hadramut, except for Yemen itself.

We then went after the Caliphate (which is odd, since the events showed wed abolished the abbasid caliphate when we conquered the Mamelukes )
Almost immediately Austria, which was finally done with its long, pointless war with Poland, DOWed us, along with their allies, Spain and Portugal. This was a true challenge to the state we'd built. We managed though, implementing sieges in the east, jumping on lightly defended Austrian provinces in Hungary, managing to hold the Spanish and Portugese off at sea and on the periphery (thank Allah for historical naval leaders)

After taking a couple of Austrian provs, we settled for a white peace. We then made peace with the caliphate, taking only Kirkuk and Tabriz. We now focused on Spain. We won, and ended up taking Dalmatia (which they had earlier taken from Venice) and both provinces in Sicily.

[Nikolai]

All hail the Caliph, true successor to Muhammad!

[lord of the mark]

ah but the caliph got arrogant. We annexed cyprus, and then annexed Yemen (damn, we shoulda force vassaled them and then diploannexed, the Grand Vizier just wasnt thinking) Raised our already high BB alot.

So then, we're sitting quietly, getting ready to DOW the Knights and grab Rhodes, when Austria and its allies again DOW us. Austria is much better prepared in terms of number of troops this time, and is a full CRT ahead of us. We finally scraped out a white peace.

[lord of the mark]

OK, well having high BB isnt THAT bad. While we were minding our business, Poland DOWED us along with a couple of allies. While the ensuing war cost a fair number of ducats, we managed to gain Jedisan and Podolia, which, being provs we have claims on, dont add to our BB.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


Arabia first, or Mesopotamia?

Arabia because you have shields on half of them plus the mamaluks will fall and be annexed the first time you take their capital.

[lord of the mark]

Oh, I did the Mamelukes along time ago. Its now 1575, and ive taken Arabia, and most of North Africa. When my BB get a bit lower, I will probably renew my push for Meso and Persia.