Slitherine

Expanding our range of early renaissance armies. Ottomans should be the next. So I’ll welcome all suggestions. The idea is an army of the late XV century to play against historical opponents. Specially worried about the mounted troops. E.g. Timariots: armoured or protected? The optional mounted troops; which should be better? (And also how to personalize them , but maybe I should put that on modeling) Thanks in advance to all Ottoman commanders.

From a list perspective, what do you feel is missing from the current Later Ottoman list in Eternal Empire? That covers the late XVth Century.

kevinj wrote:From a list perspective, what do you feel is missing from the current Later Ottoman list in Eternal Empire? That covers the late XVth Century.

Nothing I can account for. Is, which BGs to select what worries me. What should be better: protected or armoured Timariots? Maybe, have them armoured is a waste of points against mainly Knights armies… and so on

You always want Armoured - the + from shooting against Protected Cavalry in more than one rank is a huge negative.

Thanks for the reply. And what about those optional lancers and swordsmen light horse? Are they worth the cost? Or the akinjis will be enough. Also when there is an option I prefer cavalry to light horse, so Kurds and Tatar could be a better option.

Rekila wrote:Thanks for the reply. And what about those optional lancers and swordsmen light horse? Are they worth the cost? Or the akinjis will be enough. Also when there is an option I prefer cavalry to light horse, so Kurds and Tatar could be a better option.

Decide which are the killing troops in your army and then max out on them, IIRC its armoured Cavalry. Just a thought mind you.

Something classic: janissaries, guns and FF. (And armoured cavalry, obviously!) That’s why, I’m so interested in tips about the optional mounted troops, to add an exotic touch.

Rekila wrote:Something classic: janissaries, guns and FF. (And armoured cavalry, obviously!) That’s why, I’m so interested in tips about the optional mounted troops, to add an exotic touch.

I usually see a BG of 4 average Lh lancer/sw in most ottoman army lists. They are good for keeping enemy lh at threat, help out akinjis.

If you take all of the cav as armoured you will have quite a small army. If your timariots (being undrilled) are likley to go down in single rank and stay there so they can evade the armour is overkill IMO - but it does make them less flexible. The drilled Cav however are more likely to benefit from armour.

There are a couple of good lists out there posted on this forum but dont know the frames any more (one that came 2nd at Cancon 2009) which was quite a large comp.

Since Tim's fled the country I will recommend his site which has a number of sample Ottoman lists:

http://www.madaxeman.com/wiki2/tiki-ind ... an+Turkish

dave_r wrote:You always want Armoured - the + from shooting against Protected Cavalry in more than one rank is a huge negative.

I usually use two units of protected Timariots. They are great value for money as far as shooting goes and can support the Akinjis, removing the need for Lancer or Sword armed LH.

Rekila wrote:Something classic: janissaries, guns and FF. (And armoured cavalry, obviously!) That’s why, I’m so interested in tips about the optional mounted troops, to add an exotic touch.

Is this for competition or club games/historical refights?
If it's competition, then you would normally want to optimise the best bits of the army, eg take all the janissaries and lots of armoured cavalry, plus the Serbians to add a bit of impact "punch". How you do that depends on your own style of play and what feels right for you.
Historically, of course, the Ottomans tended to use a heavily defended centre with entrenchments, guns, wagons and janissaries. Unfortunately in a competition game you're unlikely to find many Hungarian opponents who are also willing to charge straight into this.

peterrjohnston wrote:Is this for competition or club games/historical refights?

Not for competition, I want them to add some color to our Italian wars campaign. So they must be “historical” but also strong enough to be a threat to the Condota Italian, French Ordonance and Gonzalo Spaniards.

peterrjohnston wrote:

Rekila wrote:Something classic: janissaries, guns and FF. (And armoured cavalry, obviously!) That’s why, I’m so interested in tips about the optional mounted troops, to add an exotic touch.

Is this for competition or club games/historical refights?
If it's competition, then you would normally want to optimise the best bits of the army, eg take all the janissaries and lots of armoured cavalry, plus the Serbians to add a bit of impact "punch". How you do that depends on your own style of play and what feels right for you.
Historically, of course, the Ottomans tended to use a heavily defended centre with entrenchments, guns, wagons and janissaries. Unfortunately in a competition game you're unlikely to find many Hungarian opponents who are also willing to charge straight into this.

Has anybody tried a historical deployment in competition? Artillery and single-ranked Janissaries, all behind field fortifications could cover almost the central third of the table, 15MU in, leaving the rest of the army to do a mounted shooty envelopment thing in the outer 2/3rds