Turkey tips

[Jimmer]

Greetings. This is another in a series of "tips" notes I intend to write. I plan on writing them for each major power, using knowledge I gained from playing the boardgame, but applied to the computer version. I hope to create a separate thread for each nation. If I get ambitious, I'll create a thread for general game tips as well (tips that apply to all powers).

[center]I would ask that only tips be placed here, not debates or thanks or whatever. If you have a problem with or like a tip, write the author a PM and convince them, and they can edit their entry. That should keep the length of these to a minimum.
Tips that don't agree with other tips, however, are perfectly fine. Everyone is free to post their tips here.[/center]

Gobble! Gobble!

Now, this could be an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner, or it could be a description of what Turkey tries to do in this game. My intention is the latter.

This game is different than the board game. In the board game, a very real potential objective was dominant power status. While this was difficult to attain, with proper alliances, it CAN be done. Usually, though, the other nations see Turkey as a huge threat, and they prevent it by ganging up on her.

In EiANW, Turkey's only real objective is the Ottoman Empire. She has nothing at all to fear from either Russia or Austria by themselves. They simply cannot force her to surrender (assuming the rule about being forced to sue for peace if your capital is occupied is not correct). They can make things "painful", or "painful as it would be to other powers", but Turkey has one overriding thing in her benefit: She doesn't need anywhere near the political points that anybody else needs.

This is a KEY point, and one every Turkish player has got to get a firm handle on: Political points win this game. Armies do not. Armies HELP, by increasing the odds of political point gains. But, the armies themselves are irrelevant to the real heart of the game: The Political Status Display.

The advantage of Turkey's low VP total required is that they can reside in the middle zone of the PSD for nearly the whole game, and not have a price to pay at the end.

Now, how this translates into strategy:

Turkey, as I said, has one and only one strategic element that she wants: The Ottoman Empire. Therefore, this should be Turkey's ambition from the word go. Now, I cannot recall in the computer game rules whether the OE requires 6 nations, all 8, or only 2 (or, whatever). Whatever it is, Turkey should firmly report to the other majors that she is taking all of the powers east of < fill in the blank -- I will use Algeria believing it is the right one >. Any power that tries to take one of those will be at war. As will any allies who refuse to assist Turkey.

The war costs Turkey virtually nothing, but the other major really can't fight it effectively. Yes, they can prevent the Ottoman Empire from being formed, but that's about it. Hardly a noble goal in this game.

The other major element in Turkey's favor is cavalry. She can field enough cavalry to have superiority over just about any other army anywhere on the map. This is a major factor. That +1 to the die rolls cannot be underestimated. Further, it means that she can safely overstack her army to the point of rediculousness. I once had fifteen Turkish corps attacking four Russian corps. Yeah, he had leadership over me. But, it didn't matter in the end: The stack was crushed, even though it technically won the battle.

Another thing in her favor: Reinforcement. I can hear you gasping "WHAT? Has he lost his MIND? Turkish corps have a ONE for a strategic rating!"

Ahhh, but when one has a dozen corps ready to reinforce, one can move in just the high-morale troops for the initial day of combat. Then, reinforce with everybody else. That could be as many as a dozen corps. If Turkey fought this battle on the plains (as she should), the average is that two of those corps are going to reinforce each turn. Now, remember that the morale level is calculated at the very beginning of the battle (even for second days). So, having these one and two-morale corps reinforce in does NOT change the morale numbers at all! All it does is increase the body count (for the enemy).

The only real downside to the above is that Turkey has to take "real" troop losses for the first round of combat, and possibly feudal cavalry for the second and later ones (the cav might be the only ones to make it in).

Some have said that Russia has nothing to fear from Turkey. Well, that statement is partially true, and partially false. If Russia is fighting Turkey with no other wars, yes, Russia should win. But, if her interests are divided, then, she cannot simply ignore Turkey. That's a path to four to six months of mayhem leading to a forced surrender.

Turkey must remember this! If the Russians are ignoring Turkey in favor of a war with either France or GB, Turkey should very quickly talk to that power about an alliance and some money. Russia is a big target in this case.

The other major thing is the feudals. What are they, really? Soak-offs. They die. They return. They die. They return. Use them or lose them. The closer the turn counter is to the December turn, the more aggressive Turkey should be with them. the only exception to this is for corps that are a long way away from their home province.

[Grognot]

The Turks also have some leverage courtesy of their position; if Great Britain doesn't want Turkish hordes helping France by charging into eastern Austria, for instance, perhaps Great Britain and allies shouldn't interfere with Turkish ambitions regarding North Africa.

[Jagdtiger14]

If I'm Turkey and I have a reliable French ally, all I need are two crappy French corps...one at Constantinople and the other in the Egypt-Syria area, and for France to take two Turkish feudal cav and two feudal inf for political point generation. I dont need the Ottoman or any other minors. The French corps "on loan" will have other Turkish corps added to them of course and with French leadership. Bring it on! 2 vs 5 no problem...unless the die rolls go against you in the Nappy battles.

[borner]

Turkey gets a bad rep in this game, and can be very fun to play. As was pointed out above, you do not need a lot of points, and usually can get the turks for a very low bid, often under 5 points. Thus, you have&nbsp;a lot of freedom in not having to worry about how you are going to get in the Dominant zone.
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I usually try to come to a friendly agreement with Spain. I want the Ottoman, and usually Spain will be too focused on the GB/FR battle early to invest a lot to stop me. Plus, unless GB can kill the Fr fleets, Spain and Turkey can usually keep GB from getting too aggressive in the Med sea, which helps both TR and SP.
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Remember a line from the old EiA playbook. Turkey and France are natural allies, and you should do well.

[Jimmer]

I agree, Borner. Turkey can get away with some very wacky plans. Not just a "hell-bent-for-leather" attitude, either. I played Turkey once, and I successfully convinced both France AND Great Britain to both give me money regularly, AND grab most of the Ottoman Empire. Now, you might be thinking there was some creative lying going on to get away with it, but no: Each of them knew that the other was giving me money and permission to take those conquereds.

Eventually, they changed their minds, but I lasted a good 5 years like that.

The ideas were something like this:

France wanted me strong to keep the Russians down. He wanted help against the Austrians, but agreed that I shouldn't have to help unless THEY declared war on ME.

GB also agreed to that, and used it as bargaining power to keep the Austrians fighting France only.

Spain was happy with Morocco, pieces of Italy, and some islands, and to just be left alone.

The only problem I ran into was when all this worked TOO well: The Russians came calling twice. Both times, France and GB expected me to kill lots of Russian troops, but eventually lose. Well, I managed to outchit him twice in MAJOR battles (one was 15 corps vs 4 corps), and decimated, rather than just played with, his army. After the second war that ended like this (with me exactly one Austrian province from dominant power status), they decided that I was the big threat in the game. So, I found myself at war with France AND GB at the same time (Austria and Russia had enforced peace). I couldn't beat the Brits back when they besieged Constantinople, and had to surrender.

It could have been GLORIOUS!

[Grognot]

Conservation of $ --

Especially if you're playing solo, where GB tends not to trade with you even if you're not allied with France (because allies of GB randomly DOW you), and neither AI France nor AI GB is inclined to fund you much, income is rather limited until you've taken some high-income provinces of another major.



For saving $ --

- You don't have to place all your feudal corps at the start.&nbsp; You'll be able to place 'em later in a
&nbsp; land phase if you really need 'em.&nbsp; The Anatolian and Rumelian troops are placeable pretty close
&nbsp; to Constantinople; this is less convenient for the Greeks (and later on, the Podolians and
&nbsp; Crimeans, although the Crimeans are cav and thus can move out faster).

- Likewise, garrisoning instead of keeping corps around can help keep costs down.&nbsp; Even if you keep
&nbsp; a buying a corps counter at $1/economic phase, you're saving on supply costs/foraging losses.

- If you don't need a feudal corps at a given time, and you don't mind having to put it back where
&nbsp; it started, you can remove it and replace it in a later land phase, saving maintenance and
&nbsp; preventing foraging losses.&nbsp; If you put a large stack in Palestine for a face-off with the Egyptians,
&nbsp; you probably don't need the full stack for taking Cyrenacia, Tunisia et al.

- When you need to forage, which is going to be nearly always for quite some time,
&nbsp; manually foraging your feudal infantry and paying for depot supply for your more valuable
&nbsp; troops is probably a good idea -- it's undocumented how the game prioritizes corps if you make
&nbsp; it choose.&nbsp; (This would be a nifty enhancement -- order the corps' supply priority).

- Fleets go back in port if at all possible in March, June, September and December.&nbsp; $5 can be
&nbsp; laughed at by some nations, but not Turkey -- at least not early.

[borner]

I see turkey's two main issues as money, and Spain. I usually like to offer a deal that after I create the Ottoman, I will give Spain Tunisia. This goodwill gesture will usually provide a framwork for good relations, and should anyone Dow me, it is really too far away to defend anyway.
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With the ottoman I try to build one cav/quarter, and get Syria corps full. You have to give up a lot of manpower for this though - too little money for your infantry builds. Still, your garrisons will fill up soon enough. Strongly consider not building much during the Dec eco phase, and transfering that $ home to Turkey. I find $15 extra is usually much more useful that 5 more Ottoman infantry factors. Unless SPain or GB make trouble, you are going to have far more Ottoman infantry than you will ever need. One other common trick, but one worth mentioning, is Keeping one Ottoman corps with no cav up in turkey itself. You can use this to re-fill the Syria corps ater combat losses, or start placing Ottoman garrisons. Once it's empty, ship another north, and keep the rotation going.
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I like the idea of getting money from GB and Fr. I may have to try that next game. [:D]&nbsp;