Part 28: The Ottomans Part 5: 1569-1635

The Ottomans Part 5: 1569-1635



In 1570, Bayezid II passes away and a regency council is formed to attend to our empire until Mehmet comes of age.



We enjoy a decade of peace with the Europeans struggle with one another. Troops are recruited and infrastructure is built up in the intervening years. Mehmet III comes of age in 1579 and takes over the administrative rule of the Empire.



Mehmet's administrative ability is high enough to take is through the modernization process. Westernization switched us to the Western tech group and allowed our tech levels to skyrocket and match the European powers. Our military units are still of the Ottoman tech group, however. Going through the process of military modernization changes your availability of military units to those of whichever tech group you've westernized to. The ideal thing to do would be to westernize as many times as necessary to reach the Western tech group, then go through military modernization one time to gain access to western units.

The penalties associated with going through this look bad, but they only last about 4 years. On the other hand, the Western Influences penalty to our stability from westernizing will last forever, until removed by going through modernization.



Before modernization, our troop selection is still limited to Ottoman troop types.






With the modernization process instituted, we can now change our preferred units to western styled troops.



In 4 years, this penalty will expire and we will be free and clear. We'll have the western research tech group and western unit types without having any out of the ordinary modifiers any longer.



Morocco somehow finds itself in a war against Bohemia, and we come to their aid.



The Bohemian army is much smaller than the Austrian forces, and with our new up-to-date army we're able to defeat them easily.



Cities are occupied by Ottoman forces while Bohemia seems to struggle in a war against Poland as well.



We push for a quick end to the war and take a single province from them as spoils of war.



Now that we actually share a border with Kaffa, I'm willing to finally complete that mission to conquer it which keeps popping up.



Just like with Serbia, The Ottomans can get a mission to conquer Bosnia with a reward of free cores on their provinces. This mission won't appear if they are your vassal or if you are allied with them, so we need to cancel both of those agreements.



Kaffa is conquered and added to our domain.



And the next quest we receive is to conquer Bosnia and gain cores on their territory.



They are quickly overrun and annexed.



Since we have a skilled artist and a skilled philosopher as advisors, we have a fairly high chance to receive a "Prospering Times" event. This event lets us choose to build either a university or a fine arts academy in a random city instantly for 500 ducats. Sure, it may be better to have the appropriate manufactory in every province, but these universities are significantly cheaper and built instantaneously.



Morocco comes under attack from The Netherlands, Castille, and several other nations. We attempt to help by rushing to their aid with our numerous galleys, but they are no longer able to stand up to modern navies. Our first attempt to break the blockade on Morocco results in our fleet being wounded and chased off, losing a galley to the enemy in the process.



Our next attempt to break the blockade results in a catastrophic loss. Our entire galley force is pinned down and sunk by Castille. The remaining cogs and carracks make their retreat and take shelter in a Granadan port.



A new idea slot becomes available, and we take Excellent Shipwrights. This idea gives +2 maneuver to any future admirals that we recruit, and maneuver is the undisputed best attribute for admirals. Since all of the westernization and modernization events have passed by now too, we drop Church Attendance Duty and replace it with Seahawks, which gives us +1 naval tradition per year. These naval losses were terrible, but we're going to become the most powerful naval force in the Mediterranean again, if not the world.



The prospering times event triggers again, giving us another cheap as dirt university. You can likely see this event every couple of years with a decent artist and philosopher.



As soon as we suffered our catastrophic naval defeat, all of our research was redirected into naval technology. Once our naval tech levels reach 26, Mehmet III orders the construction of a new grand fleet. Dozens of wargalleons and merchantmen vessels are commissioned. Shipbuilding facilities all along the coasts of Greece and Anatolia explode with activity.



Our old remaining carracks and cogs - relics from our original days naval superiority 2 centuries ago - are all decommissioned and disbanded from military service.



While our shipbuilding projects are in progress, Bohemia loses its cohesiveness and falls apart into its constituent states. Hungary provides an irresistible target.



The Hungarian army isn't prepared for an invasion of any kind, having just declared their independence. They haven't had time to secure any alliances or military pacts yet, either. The war comes to a quick end and we seize several provinces from them.



An entirely new, modern navy of pristine war galleons and merchantmen roll out of drydocks and into military service. Our new navy is organized into 3 fleets. The Imperial Navy, made up of 25 war galleons and 20 merchantmen transports, is one of them. It is put under the command of an extremely talented new Admiral, Aydin Gedik.



Our second navy, a reformed Black Sea Squadron is commanded by the esteemed Admiral Selim Cerrah. The composition of this fleet matches that of the Imperial Navy with 25 war galleons and 20 merchantmen.



Our third and final new fleet, the Aegean Patrol, is made up of 15 war galleons and commanded by a promising junior officer. This fleet will be tasked to defending key straits, maintining blockades, and hunting down smaller enemy fleets while our other 2 primary fleets face the brunt of the enemy's naval presence.



Mehmet III gets to see his new grand fleet built and put into commission before passing away. His heir, Hasan I orders the recruitment of two new armies of 20 regiments each. These new armies will remain stationed in southern Greece and will act solely as an Ottoman marine force and coordinate with the new restructured navy.


The world of 1635