Barbu -> RE: 12.10 Turkish Options (11/11/2004 2:02:22 AM)
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In all the campaign games I have played, Turkey always stood out as the weakest country by far, even considering the lower victory points requirements. In fact, in most games I have played except one Turkey ended up completely crushed at one point, and the country was always played by competent players. Turkey's weaknesses: Inability for Turkey to gain political points on it's own: Turkey has poor morale, a very weak economy, relatively small corps and average leaders. Every single country can beat Turkey in a fair fight, and the outcome isn't really a question. Assuming a competent player at the other end, there really isn't much of a viable option Turkey can use except just plain attrition at a high political points cost. Absence of any viable long term strategy at the start of the game : EVERY single other country can form up a viable plan at the start of the game, even Prussia and Spain. If France and Great Britain start the game at war, Spain has a relatively free hand in the Mediterranean and with a few important minors, potential for solid growth and further expansion (usually at the expense of the turks...). Prussia allied with Austria and GB have a realistic chance at victory against France. Short of attacking Austria in combination with France, there is nothing the Turkish player can do, and even then crushing Austria would mean a very strong France and an hostile coalition, not to mention that the russian player may decide to intervene right away. Sea power: There are 4 potential enemies for Turkey: Austria, GB, Spain, Russia. Against the last 3, sea power can be and usually is the decisive element, and against a determined opponent this usually means the loss of most turkish controlled minor states. Lack of operational mobility: The turks have 2 problems there. First is a financial one which limits the overall mobility of their army through regular supply. The second is Turkey's heavy reliance on feudal corps, a consequence of their economic weakness. Feudal factors can't be detached and this is a serious limitation if waging a war of posts and sieges, trying to invade and occupy cities or raiding supply lines. Absence of natural allies: The only country that doesn't want anything from Turkey is France. All the others are either natural enemies or allied to them, or at best uneasy neighbors. France is usually tangled up with Austria and Prussia, and often GB as well and help from them can be fairly limited. If attacked by GB or Spain or Russia, or even Austria, Turkey has very little in the way of potential outside help except in unusual circumstances. Economic weakness: Turkey has the worst economy in the game, rivaled only in mediocrity by a Prussia that was crushed by France - which happened only once to that degree in all the campaign games I've played - or Spain that lost it's fleet (happened only once as well). This isn't made up by feudal levies as some people would think. There are 87 feudal factors available at first, and assuming Turkey lose them all (not gonna happen if things are going well), that would mean 87 factors a year, so roughly an extra 44 manpower by economic phase. A more realistic number is 60 factors a year AT MOST, meaning at best 30 manpower per economic phase - a number that ca be closely matched or exceeded by every other major power. This would also mean Turkey is fighting a major war every year, which would mean lost political points unless circumstances favored the turks. And if Turkey doesn't fight, the feudal potential is stagnating, sort of a catch 22. It wouldn't be a good idea to adress all issues. Turkey IS supposed to be the weakest major power by virtue of the VP requirements. However right now in my opinion even considering that, Turkey's strength still isn't in proportion to it's VP needs. We have used house rules the last 2 campaign games, and though they helped it still wasn't enough in one of them. I have also read a few that were suggested but they were either insignificant changes, or far too complicated to implement - we don't want to the game to be anymore complex than it is. Here's a couple of the modifications that we liked: -Turkish feudal morale raised to 2.5 (3.0 if dominant). This may seem a lot since a lot of people consider feudals to be "free", but in fact they aren't free; Turkey is paying up for them with it's other numerous weaknesses. -Allow turkish feudal corps to detach "militia" as garrison. These militias can be absorbed by other feudal corps. All turkish detached feudal "militia" is to be disbanded during the december levy phase. This would adress some of the operational mobility problems the turks are facing. OR -Allow Turkey to build militia, and turkish regular corps can be made up of a mix of regular infantry and militia, like all other major powers. A lot of the time Turkey can't use all of it's regular manpower and the surplus ends up being wasted. Also, in order to garrison cities Turkey currently has to use up relatively expensive regular infantry, and given their limited resources this is somewhat of a pain. -Rhodes, Palestine, Syria are not minor states but are considered Turkish provinces. This makes sense historically since they stayed that way until 1918 (I think), and it does considerably reduce the incentive for major powers like Spain and GB to prey on Turkey for easy political points and conquests. It also eases the problems of being in the instability zone, something that Turkey is frequently faced with. Let's face it, a minor country like Rhodes, with no income of any kind, no realistic use as a naval base, is only there to provide an agressor with a free political point - if Turkey doesn't lose it first by being in the instability zone. We'll probably use the siege and muslim revolution options from the first post as well. Basically we are looking for easy to implement options (the nizami cedid revolution isn't) that can make a difference, and that can mirror history to a certain extent (can stretch it a bit). Any comment on my assessment of Turkey's situation, or how to play Turkey is more than welcome!
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