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I was playing with the Ottoman Empire 40 unit saves ultimate early campaing, and tried to force a change to constitutional monarchy by changing into a republic (by peasant rebellion) and then change into Constitutional Monarchy (by middle class rebellion) well symply changing into a republic seems to have corrupted my save game, I can't even load the save to the turn the rebellion started. Empire: Total War. Playing as Ottoman Empire. Difficulty Setting for Campaign and Battles: Very Hard Goal: World Domination Victory. No Battle or Ca. The history of Europe over the last centuries can be seen as the history of the Ottoman Empire and a few annoying, small nations that thwarted Ottoman ambitions. Ottoman power is unmatched in its extent and grandeur, straddling the traditional trade route between Europe and Asia. The Creative Assembly and the Total War logo are trademarks.
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The outbreak of World War I led to confrontation between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire in the Caucasus and Persian Campaigns. The new government in Istanbul began to look on the Armenians with distrust and suspicion, because the Imperial Russian Army contained a contingent of Armenian volunteers. Ottoman Empire, empire created by Turkish tribes that grew to be one of the most powerful states in the world in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its dynasty was founded by a prince (bey), Osman, after the Mongols defeated the Seljuqs at the end of the 13th century. The empire disintegrated after World War I.
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There are a multitude of game mechanics, features and aspects in Empire: Total War that are very poorly explained (if at all) in the manual, the Road to Independence or by the in-game advisors. Since the game's release last week, I've seen a great number of posts asking questions about alot of things, and I've started a few myself. I've also seen alot of posts asking the same questions.
As I've been ignoring my social life and personal hygiene in favour of Creative Assembly's latest creation as well as perusing these forums, I think I've got most of it figured out, and I thought that making something of a compilation of things I've found in various other threads on this forum and others could be helpful. I will try to lay out most of the more obscure aspects of many of the mechanics of the Grand Campaign.
Towns, Ports, Farms and Mines
Most people has probably noticed that there are now building slots outside of the main city of a region (if not, I fear for you). These are divided in to the categories of Towns, Ports, Mines, Farms, Plantations and Fur Trading Posts. You can see what category a building slot is by hovering your mouse over it. (Please note that some of the buildings as well as the agents they spawn have different names for some of the factions/religions. They share the same function however.)
Towns
Towns is the main category. In the Towns you can build one of four different buildings; School, Church School, Craft Workshop and Coaching Inn. Once you decide which of these 4 to build in your town, you cannot build one of the other three building types in that same town. You can, however, destroy the existing building if you want to build another type in it's stead. Every one of these four buildings can be upgraded three times, except the Church School that only has two upgrades. You can see when a town can be built on or upgraded, it will have a rotating gold hammer above it. These only show when you can afford to build something or upgrade existing buildings.
Schools enable you to conduct research in the technology tree, this is their main function. They also reduce the public order in their region by inciting clamor for reform. The higher you upgrade your schools, the faster it will research technology and the more public unrest it will cause. Some of the technology in the Social tree requires you to have a school upgraded to a specific level, and others will allow you to upgrade your schools to these required levels. Schools also spawn the agent Gentleman. The Gentlemen have three uses. They can be placed in your own schools to boost research, they can be placed in another nation's schools to try to steal their technology, or they can be used to duel other nation's gentlemen, a form of 'assassination'.
Church Schools' main purpose is to convert the region's population to your own religion. In addition, they provide a happiness bonus for the part of the lower class in the region that belongs to the same religion as the Church School, which means that as it converts more people, more people will receive this happiness bonus. Church Schools also spawn the agent Missionary. The missionary is almost exactly what a priest is in M2:TW, simply park him in a region to have him convert the populace to your religion.
Coaching inns are simply buildings that provides happiness for the region's population. At first it only gives a happiness bonus to the lower classes, but as you upgrade it, this bonus will be applied to the nobility/middle class as well. The coaching inns also spawn the agent Rake. Rakes are essentially spies and assassins of older Total War games combined into a single agent. They can infiltrate armies and cities to provide you with information about them, or assassinate other agents on the campaign map.
Craft Workshops come in two different variations, weavers and smiths. Smiths are only available to you if the same region also has a mine providing a metal, but weavers can be built in any town. The purpose of the Craft Workshops is simply to provide region wealth, they are your money makers (besides trade and taxes). As you upgrade them, they also give you the ability to research more advanced industrial technology. The difference between the smiths and the weavers is that they give you access to different technology as you upgrade them. The smiths also earn a little more money.
Ports
Ports come in three different variations; trade ports, shipwrights and fishing ports. Trade ports increases the wealth of the region, allows you to export resources from the region, increases your maximum number of trade lanes by sea, and enables you to build merchant shipping as well as very minor war ships. Trade ports will be covered more thoroughly in the 'Trade' section further down.
Fishing ports provides the region with a small bit of region wealth as well as food, which increases population growth.
Shipwrights is where you recruit your navy. They are the only place where you will be able to build the more advanced war ships. At the fourth upgrade level, you can choose between upgrading to a Naval Hospital or a Steam Drydock. The Steam Drydock is able to construct the incredibly powerful First Rate Ships of the Line, as well as some other ships like the Steam Ship. The Naval Hospital can not build First Rates, but can build everything up to and including the Second Rate, and they give these ships a small experience bonus. Naval Hospitals require a much lower technology level in order to be built, and will therefore be available long before the Steam Drydock which requires the research of the Steam Engine. Therefore they are far from useless, even though they cannot build any ship that the Steam Drydock cannot.
Farms and Mines
Farms, mines plantations and fur posts.
The buildings are built over their specific resources, and these are the only buildings that can be constructed in these building slots. The resources they are built upon will vary in their yield, IE some farms will produce more than others. If you hover your mouse over the resource you can see it's yield.
Farms gives a small increase in region wealth, increases the population growth through food production, and they also allow you to research agricultural technology.
Mines simply provide region wealth.
Plantations are found almost exclusively in the Americas and India. There are numerous variations, such as Sugar, Cotton, Tea, Coffee, Tobacco. They supply their specific resources, which are used for trade. Sometimes the same plantation slot can give you the option of two or more different kinds of resources to grow. In this case, check which resource gives has the highest price on the world market by going to the 'Trade' tab in your Government window. As always, you have to choose which one you want to build, as you can only have one plantation in each slot. The higher you upgrade your plantation, the more they will produce of the resource.
Fur trapping posts provides you with fur, a resource that is used for trade. As with plantations, the more you upgrade a fur trapping post, the more furs it will provide.
Region capitals
Regional Capitals are the main cities of each region. They are the ones you have to conquer in order to take control of a region from an enemy.
They come in two sizes, most cities only have one building slot that is used for the government building and another in which you can construct walls to improve your city's defense. In these smaller cities, when you've upgraded the government building one step, you get to choose between constructing a military governor's encampment or a continued upgrade of the government building. The military encampment will enable you to recruit more advanced troops. The government building will instead increase your tax income from that region, as well as give a public order boost.
The larger cities, almost exclusively (but not quite) the capitals of the different factions have five different building slots plus the one that is used for the wall. The different buildings you can construct in these slots enable you to research different technology (for example, more advanced ammunition for your artillery from the Cannon Foundry buildings) and recruit various military units. There is one slot for each of these military and government buildings, so the only choice you have to make is what you'll spend money on to upgrade first. You don't have to choose what types of buildings to build as wit the towns. There is also a slot for the construction of a cultural building or an academic one. The cultural one will provide a happiness boost to the population, and the academic will provide a boost to your rate of research and spawn gentlemen. After the first building in this slot, you will have to choose which 'specialization' to upgrade it too.
If you double-click on a region capital it will give you an important breakdown of that region. It will show you the public order, region wealth and income, population growth and religious statistics.
Public Order
The public order is affected by buildings in the region, tax level, if you conquered the region recently, if your religion is different from the majority of the population's, garrisoned troops and people in your government. It is also affected by clamor for reform, which increases with the construction of schools and the researching of technology in the social tree. The Town Watch is something that kicks in automatically to help you control your region if the public order dips too low, but it's pretty expensive, so make sure you try to keep your people happy. An easy way to keep a region happy is to exempt it from taxes, especially for newly conquered ones. Some troop types, like the Dragoon, has an extra effect on public order, compared to normal troops, when they are garrisoned in a city.
If the happiness of one of the classes reaches -1, it will go on strike the first turn (writing letters of complaint for the sissy middle class and nobility), riot the second turn (damaging buildings) and if nothing has changed by the third turn, they will revolt. If this happens in a region that you have conquered from another faction, the revolt might 'belong' to that faction. If it's been destroyed, it can re-emerge. Some regions can also revolt and thus create their own independent nations. This is one of the ways in which the United States of America can emerge. (I've also seen Norway, Columbia, Mexico, Quebec, Scotland and Finland.)
Region Wealth
Region wealth is basically the amount of wealth that the buildings in the region produces (think of it as a sort of GDP for your region). This is then taxed to provide you with income. Thus, a mine (for example) will not generate pure income, it will generate a taxable amount of wealth. The wealth of your region will increase or decrease with time. Building and social technology will enhance the rate of increase, but very hard taxation will cause a decrease in wealth, which means that you will earn less money each turn.
Population
Population growth is decided by food production and tax level. More food and lesser taxes will increase the population growth. The growth rate of our population decides when the villages in your region will grow to become full towns that you can build in. You can see when the next village will develop under the population growth breakdown.
The religion square simply shows you how large portion of the region's population belongs to which religion. To increase the portion that belongs to your own, construct Church Schools or send a missionary to the region.
Agents
Gentlemen
The Gentlemen have three uses. They can be placed in your own schools to boost research, they can be placed in another nation's schools to try to steal their technology, or they can be used to duel other nation's gentlemen, a form of 'assassination'. They spawn randomly from Schools (and it's upgrades) and each school building increases the maximum number of gentlemen you can have by one. After spending a while researching technology of a specific tech-tree, they can gain traits that increases the rate at which they can research technology of that specific tree. Therefore you can have specialized schools that you use to only research a specific tree, such as one with a gentleman that is really good at researching military technology, one that takes care of industrial research etc.
A note on Scholars (The version of the Gentleman for Ottoman Empire/Persia/Mughal Empire/Maratha), they cannot duel. They can perform all the other functions of a gentleman though.
Rake
Rakes are essentially the spies and assassins of older Total War games combined into a single agent. They can infiltrate armies and cities to provide you with information about them, or assassinate other agents on the campaign map. They spawn randomly from Coaching Houses (and it's upgrades).
Missionary
The missionary is almost exactly what a priest is in M2:TW, simply park him in a region to have him convert the populace to your religion. The Missionary spawns randomly from Church Schools and it's upgrades. These buildings have different names for each religion.
Government, Government Types and Revolutions
Your nation is governed by a head of state and a few ministers forming up the cabinet. These can all acquire different traits and ancillaries that gives bonuses to everything from public order to research rate and economic growth. The amount of stars the ministers have represents how proficient they are at doing their respective jobs. For example, a really good army minister will grant you substantial discounts in unit training cost and upkeep. Some traits makes the ministers better or worse at holding certain positions, so you should check every minister's traits to make sure that everyone has the position he is most suited for. As an Absolute Monarchy or a Constitutional Monarchy you can have your ministers switch position (more on that further down). You can view the minster's and their effects in the 'Ministers' tab of the Government window. The 'Opposition' that you see at the bottom of the screen are the replacements for fired ministers. If you fire a minister, a random one from the opposition will take his place.
The 'Policies' window shows you if any region is unhappy, which regions you have exempted from taxes, and it allows you to set the tax level. Right-click on a region on the map to open that region's window, or left-click on the region to have the camera center on it. Note that you set the tax level individually for each theatre by flipping between them using the arrows under the map.
Government Types
There are three different kinds of government types in Empire: Total War. Absolute Monarchy, Constitutional Monarchy and Republic.
The Absolute Monarchy gives a happiness boost to the nobility, a public order penalty to the lower class and a high level of repression. Repression is just what it sounds like, enforced public order. The Absolute Monarchy also allows you to fire and appoint ministers to your hearts content by dragging and dropping them around to different posts. Your head of state is your King or Queen and sits for life.
The Constitutional Monarchy gives a small happiness bonus to the nobility as well as a moderate amount of repression. It also allows you to drag ministers around, but only allows you to fire one each turn. Your cabinet also has to suffer elections, one each 10 turns (or when you call for one). If you have a low government popularity (visible at the top of the government tab, and affected by amongst other things tax levels) your whole cabinet may be replaced. Your King or Queen, however, sits for life. The Constitutional Monarchy also offers small bonuses for research and economic growth.
The Republic gives a large happiness boost to your lower classes and replaces the nobility with the middle classes. It offers a low level of repression however. Your head of state is elected along with the cabinet every 8 turns. You can fire one minister per turn, but you cannot drag them around to assign them to different areas. The Republic offers the largest bonuses for research and economic growth.
Revolutions
To change your government type, you will have to instigate a revolution (these might also come along whether you wish it or not). When the population of one or both of the classes in a region gets angry (-1 or lower public order), they will go on strike/write complaint letters the first turn, riot the second and revolt the third if nothing has still been done. If this revolt happens in your nation's home region, it will become a revolution. When these occur, you will be given the choice of joining the revolutionaries or to stay loyal to your current government and keep your current form of government.
If the lower classes are the ones that starts the revolution, the result will be a Republic. If it's the middle classes, the result will be a Constitutional Monarchy. If it's the nobility, the result will be an Absolute Monarchy. Thus, if you want to go from an Absolute Monarchy to a Constitutional one, you will first have to angry the lower classes and become a Republic, then anger the middle classes to become a Constitutional Monarchy. If you are an Absolute Monarchy and you angry the nobility, you'll still be an Absolute Monarchy, but you'll get a new King or Queen.
Note that, as mentioned above, revolutions can only occur in your home region. If the population in another region gets angry, this will not start a revolution but merely a revolt that you will have to squash before it spreads.
A few tips concerning revolutions is to move any troops out of your home region before they happen if you want to join the revolutionaries, or to move them into the capital if you want to join the current government. Troops in the capital will stay loyal to your current government. If you want to join the revolutionaries, it can also be a good idea to destroy any walls you might have built in your capital. To create a revolution more easily, you can crank up the taxes for the class you wish to start the revolution to max, while exempting all other troublesome regions than your capital from taxes, so that they don't revolt while you're occupied with your revolution.
While the country is in this state of revolution, the rest of your nation will be completely grayed out until the revolution is concluded, and nothing will happen in your other regions. Therefore make sure you end each revolution as quickly as possible.
Flags before and after revolutions ...
Diplomacy
At the diplomacy screen you have a few very useful tools at your disposition. Perhaps the most useful one is to see what other nations think of you, and why they think as they do. To do this, simply select your own country in the list and then hover over a region on the map that is owned by the region who's opinion you're interested in. This will show you a breakdown of how and why that nation feels toward you. You can do this for other nations as well, simply select them instead of your own. Note that the bonus from state gifts can never exceed +100, no matter how much money you give away.
Some people have had difficulties in obtaining trade agreements with other major powers. To do this, it helps if you give them technology or military access. You can also simply offer money in return. It's almost always worth it, since they rarely want more than a few thousand, an amount easily made back in a few turns of trading. If you desperately want a peace treaty from an enemy, try offering them back a region that you've captured from them, or money. Most smaller nations also only want a few thousand in order to become protectorates, and that is also almost always worth it since they earn you that amount of money in a few turns, just like with trade agreements. Protectorates can also act as very valuable buffers between you and an enemy, and they are usually pretty hard to conquer since they like to keep one or two full stack armies around their capitals.
Trade
The trade system can be one of the hardest ones to really understand, since it's somewhat un-intuitive.
Let's start with the Trade tab in your Government window.
This tab gives you a breakdown of the world prices of the different resources (useful for deciding on different plantations, if not much else) as well as how much you produce, how they arrive to their destination, what you export to what nation and how much income each trade agreement gives you. You can also see if your trade routes to your trade partners are pirated. If it says in this window that one of your routes is being pirates, but you can't find a navy interrupting your trade anywhere, you've either missed a pirating navy (they like to hang out in the trade theatres), but most likely it's because the port of a nation you're trading with is damaged, occupied or blockaded, in which case you can't do much short of going to war. Note that you only produce a finite amount of resources of each type, so just because you have alot of trade agreements doesn't mean that you'll make buckets of money if you don't produce enough resources to export to them all.
Trade Ports
The trade ports have a number of impacts on your trade. The more trade ports you have in your nation's home region, the more trade partners you can have. You also need to construct a trade port in order to export the regions resources. If you are a European nation and you have a colony in the New World, that colony will not trade it's resource(s) unless you construct a trade port. Building trade ports in a region without a trade resource in it, but that is adjacent to a landlocked region that produces one of the resources, the trade port can export the landlocked region's goods. Otherwise, if a region does not produce a tradeable resource, it's trade ports will not generate a trade route and will thus not generate trade income (it still provides the standard bonus to region wealth though, so it will still make you money).
You can pirate the enemy's trade routes by attacking their trade routes that you see on the campaign map with your navies. This will steal part of their trade income to yourself. The more ships in the pirating navy, the more money will be stolen. The most effective way to starve an enemy economically is, however, to blockade the trade ports in his home region, though this will not give you any money it will completely shut down almost all of his trade. The AI can do the same thing to you of course.
Trade Theatres
There are four trade theatres, the Brazilian coast, the Ivory coast, the Strait of Madagascar and the East Indies. You can switch your view to these by clicking on them on the minimap in the bottom-left corner. These theatres have a number of yellow circles with anchors on them, called trade spots. To use these, recruit merchant ships (Indiamen) at your trade ports and park them on top of these circles.
Only one nation can occupy a trade port at a time, so hurry and send out your ships before they are all taken by the AI. These trade ports will supply you with different resources (for example Ivory from the Ivory coast) that you can export to your trade partners. The more Indiamen you have a trade port, the more resources it will produce. It's better to have one Indiaman each on two different ports than two on the same one though, plus you're denying a trade port from your enemies. Pirates and enemies can sink these ships just like any other ships, so protect them with warships if they're threatened.
Research
The research tree is divided in three main categories; Military, Industry and Social. The Military category is further divided into Infantry/Cavalry, Ordnance (Artillery) and Navy. These three trees consist of technologies that enables you to make use of new troop types, new formations and firing drills, as well as reduced upkeep costs and the like. The Industrial tree is divided into Agriculture, Metal Industry and Textile Industry. These technologies allows you to construct more advanced factories and farms which earns you more money, and to increase these buildings' effectiveness. The Social tree consists of technologies that increases your trade income, your research rate and turns your population into revolting malcontents.
Research is conducted out of schools. The more you upgrade your schools and fill them with Gentlemen, the faster the research will go. If you own multiple schools (from constructing them or from conquering regions with schools already built), you can research multiple technologies at the same time. You select which school should research what the the top of the research screen. Note that several schools can not team up on the same technology, they can only research different ones.
Naval Battles
In naval battles, grouping your ships helps tremendously. I generally group my ships together into a Line formation and toggle fire at will on. I then use only group movement commands to have my ships follow the lead ship. This still bugs out sometimes, but it's the easiest way of doing things in my experience.
A sound tactic is to have your line 'cross the T' of the enemy's line. The broadside of your ships should be facing the stern or front of the enemy's ships.
If you have experienced your ships sinking without apparent reason, there is a perfectly logical explanation to this. Sometimes the enemy will hit your ship slightly above or below the waterline and open a hole in the hull, which means that your ship will take in water if it turns rapidly in the direction that the hole is in, dipping it below water. This is shown by a 'taking in water' alert on the ship's tooltip that is incredibly hard to see and notice. The best way to save your ship when this happens is to simply run down the anchor and have the ship remain immobile.
When your ships catch fire, deactivate Fire at Will. This will free up men from the gun-crews to put out the fires.
Boarding other ships is pretty bugged at the moment, especially boarding a small ship with a large one. You will see suicidal sailors jumping from the rigging of the large ship to the deck of the small one, only to die by the fall.
Random Tips
If you conquer a European faction's all regions in Europe, that faction will be destroyed and all that faction's colonies in the Americas or India will emerge as independent nations (or become pirates/rebels). Same goes for Marathas, kick them out of India and they will be destroyed and their colonies will behave as the European ones (in the highly unlikely event that they have acquired colonies outside of India).
In the campaign, if you complete the victory objective before the turn limit, you'll still need to hold on to these and play to the end (1750 for short or 1799 for long campaigns) to really win and be rewarded with the cinematic and cheesy speech.
If you're having trouble with stuttering cinematics, turn off the SSAO option in the graphics options, this will make your cinematics almost lag free.
When obtaining trade agreements with minor factions, prioritize the bigger of these such as Persia, Savoy and Venice.
Landing troops from a navy to the coast of a region will make the army unable to move for the rest of that turn once it's on the ground. However, if you land your army in a port (yours or an occupied enemy's) it can move in the same turn it lands.
If you capture a region from one of the Native American tribes, you should destroy their buildings. This allows you to build your own in their stead, which are more productive and can be upgraded further.
When you replenish your armies with the '+' button, it will be completed in two turns if you don't move it around and if you have a land route open to a friendly territory. If you continue to fight and move the army around, it will not replenish to it's full numbers. It's possible that it will replenish a portion of the lost troops however, even if you move it around and perform combat operations with it.
When your army has been standing still at the same spot for one whole turn, when attacked, your troops can construct the defensive fortifications. Infantry can deploy the anti-cavalry hedges and trenches, artillery can construct defenses around themselves and Light Infantry can place fougasses. This is called being 'dug in' and is represented by sharpened stakes around your army on the campaign map.
In order to play as the United States of America in the campaign, play the Road to Independence. Chapter 4 of the RtI takes place on the full campaign map with all factions and regions and takes place between 1783 and 1810 (You can continue to play after this point if you wish , just like in the Grand Campaign). As it starts in 1783, alot of technology is already researched and some buildings are already upgraded to a pretty high level.
A nice trick you can perform to eradicate an enemy faction in a single turn is to simply get an alliance or military access with them. This will enable you to simply walk armies into his territories and park them outside every single one of his cities. When they're all placed, simply cancel the alliance by attacking him. Conquer every one of his cities this way in the same turn to wipe him out before he can even respond. If he has large armies, but they are away from his own regions, this will enable you to destroy the faction without fighting his most dangerous armies. It's almost an exploit, I know, the AI does nothing to counter it.
When moving your army on the campaign map, you can hold down the right mouse button, instead of just clicking it, to see which path the army will take and to change that path.
Contributors making this guide better:GR34
HMS Victory — The Royal Navy's most distinguished and formidable first rate ship of the line; Lord Nelson's 104 gun flagship is one of the most heavily armed ships of the 18th Century. Play as the British.
Rogers' Rangers — Major Robert Rogers' company of rangers are highly trained elite light infantry, specialising in reconnaissance and special operations. They are extremely mobile in even the most challenging environments. Play as the British.
Ottoman Organ Gun — A viciously powerful field gun, able to inflict incredible damage on the opposing army. Emphatic proof of the Ottoman Empire's advanced knowledge of gunpowder and firearms technology. Play as the Ottomans.
Ghoorkas — 'Better to die than be a coward' has been the motto of these elite Nepalese soldiers for centuries. Disciplined, tough and courageous, they carry a deadly 18-inch long, curved knife known as the kukri. Control the Kashmir territory.
Corso Terrestre Guerillas — An independent light infantry guerrilla regiment, experienced in skirmish and stealth tactics. Surprise raids and ambushes are the guerillas' favoured tactics, a way to compensate for their limited number and light armour. Play as Spain.
Bulkeley's Regiment — A French unit of Irish mercenaries with a fearsome reputation for hardiness. Exceptionally tough and resilient, they make for a highly flexible and dependable regiment. Play as the French.
Some Preorders contains these xtra units.
USS Constitution - this unit is available when playing as the USA and your technology has sufficiently advanced. It may also be captured by opposing factions.
Death’s Head Hussars - this unit is available when playing as Prussia and your technology has sufficiently advanced. Prussia must also hold Brandenburg.
Dahomey Amazons - this unit is available when holding territory in North Africa.
See All Results For This Question
Varegg wrote:
In order to play as the United States of America in the campaign, play the Road to Independence. Chapter 4 of the RtI takes place on the full campaign map with all factions and regions and takes place between 1783 and 1810 (You can continue to play after this point if you wish , just like in the Grand Campaign). As it starts in 1783, alot of technology is already researched and some buildings are already upgraded to a pretty high level.RavyGravy wrote:
Varegg wrote:
In order to play as the United States of America in the campaign, play the Road to Independence. Chapter 4 of the RtI takes place on the full campaign map with all factions and regions and takes place between 1783 and 1810 (You can continue to play after this point if you wish , just like in the Grand Campaign). As it starts in 1783, alot of technology is already researched and some buildings are already upgraded to a pretty high level.Short campaign: Play until 1750 and hold whatever provinces you have to at that point ...
Long campaign: Play until 1799 and hold whatever provinces you have to at that point ...
Road to independance: Finish the campaign to unlock United States as playable faction ...
RavyGravy wrote:
Varegg wrote:
In order to play as the United States of America in the campaign, play the Road to Independence. Chapter 4 of the RtI takes place on the full campaign map with all factions and regions and takes place between 1783 and 1810 (You can continue to play after this point if you wish , just like in the Grand Campaign). As it starts in 1783, alot of technology is already researched and some buildings are already upgraded to a pretty high level.Whenever I finish a chapter of the road to independence (can't remember which it is, it's the one where you have to hold 8 of the listed colonies and 15 total by 1815), I get the cutscene and then dumped back on the main menu. Continuing the campaign returns me to where I was on the turn before the cutscene. Is it bugged?
Bevo wrote:
RavyGravy wrote:
Varegg wrote:
In order to play as the United States of America in the campaign, play the Road to Independence. Chapter 4 of the RtI takes place on the full campaign map with all factions and regions and takes place between 1783 and 1810 (You can continue to play after this point if you wish , just like in the Grand Campaign). As it starts in 1783, alot of technology is already researched and some buildings are already upgraded to a pretty high level.Whenever I finish a chapter of the road to independence (can't remember which it is, it's the one where you have to hold 8 of the listed colonies and 15 total by 1815), I get the cutscene and then dumped back on the main menu. Continuing the campaign returns me to where I was on the turn before the cutscene. Is it bugged?I guess, because I finished my Road to... and the last chapter I play as US. with all what Grand campaign offers.
Bevo wrote:
RavyGravy wrote:
Varegg wrote:
In order to play as the United States of America in the campaign, play the Road to Independence. Chapter 4 of the RtI takes place on the full campaign map with all factions and regions and takes place between 1783 and 1810 (You can continue to play after this point if you wish , just like in the Grand Campaign). As it starts in 1783, alot of technology is already researched and some buildings are already upgraded to a pretty high level.Whenever I finish a chapter of the road to independence (can't remember which it is, it's the one where you have to hold 8 of the listed colonies and 15 total by 1815), I get the cutscene and then dumped back on the main menu. Continuing the campaign returns me to where I was on the turn before the cutscene. Is it bugged?happened to me when i finished too
Please send me a PM or post in this thread if you have additions or changes to the guide
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Go West, Young Man, Go West! : Ottoman Campaign Strategy for Western Expansion
By Bastworshiper
The Ottoman campaign is the most interesting, challenging, and entertaining campaign I have played. Their lack of European technology and quality line units, particularly in the early game, creates a unique campaign experience.
There are several different strategies to be found in the forums for expanding the Ottoman Empire, and this article will outline my personal approach and preference of expanding westward. I feel it is much more important to hamstring as many of your potential rivals in Europe, in the early game, as possible. While it is much easier to expand eastward in the early game, the European nations develop more quickly than the Eastern nations; so in the late game, it is much harder to capture territory in Europe than the Middle East or India, due to the differences in military technology. In addition, control of the Mediterranean is invaluable in limiting your opponents’ trade and expanding your own trade empire.
Of course, one of the wonderful things about Empire: Total War is there is no 'right move.' Each game plays out differently, and while there may be trends, early decisions by the AI and by you can have a dramatic impact on the direction the game takes.
Starting Position
You begin the game with most of the Greek Peninsula and control of the Mediterranean coast from Anatolia to Egypt, as well as Baghdad and Armenia. The Barbary States and the Crimean Khanate are your protectorates, and you have trade established with them, the Mughal Empire, Genoa, and Venice. You begin the game at war with Russia and, of course, the Pirates.
Not many friends, at least none suitable for polite society
Government and Diplomacy
There are few words to describe your starting Ministers. One of the kinder descriptions would be dreadful. Your Sultan, Mustafa II, cannot be described as politely. You can only hope he dies young, but you are probably stuck with him for a while.
You can improve your Ministers tremendously, though. Switch your Justice Minister with your Head Minister; then switch your Navy Minister with your new Justice Minister. Now, move Abdurahman Edhem to Army Administration, move Giritli Hakim to Treasury Administration, and move Cenaze Yahudi to the Naval Administration. (Put the remaining two alternates into the Treasury Minister position before you move Giritli Hakim into that position to get them out of the queue.)Reshuffling the house of cards
There, that’s better.
I usually drop taxes to the lowest level for the lower classes and the second lowest level for the nobility. It will only reduce your income by about 600 per turn, but it will benefit population growth and region wealth in the long run. You can, of course, raise taxes whenever necessary to fund your military.
Establish trade treaties with as many nations as you can, but you definitely want to establish trade with Great Britain. In my experience, Great Britain and Poland-Lithuania will accept trade treaties, and Prussia will accept a trade treaty if you throw in a little cash. You cannot establish trade with Sweden on the first turn, but you’ll want a trade agreement with them soon. They become a lucrative trade partner. If you can get Prussia to accept a trade of improved grenades and 1500 cash or less for plug bayonet, do it. If not, establish a trade treaty, wait a few turns for relations to improve, and try again.
Protectorates
You begin with two protectorates: the Crimean Khanate and the Barbary States. There are a lot of warmongers out there suggesting you cancel your alliance with both of these nations. I strongly disagree. Once you have assisted the Crimean Khanate in driving off the initial wave of Russian attacks, they become a valuable ally in checking Russian aggression in the early game. The Russian military build-up will eventually outpace the Crimean Khanate; so you’ll need to keep a small force near their capital to assist them when the time comes.
The Barbary States present more of a dilemma. Initially, you will not be able to make alliances with any European nations, because the Barbary States start the game at war with almost everyone; and no one will accept an alliance with you, as long as you are allied with an enemy of theirs. However, nations will eventually start making peace with the Barbary States. In the meantime, the Barbary States will hamper other nations’ Mediterranean trade without interfering with yours. In addition, like the Crimean Khanate, they provide reasonable trade income and pour half of their income into your coffers.
However, while I believe that the advantages of maintaining your alliances outweigh the benefits of canceling them, the choice is yours. Don’t forget, though, you receive a diplomacy penalty, if you choose to cancel an alliance.
Military
If you are used to playing as European nations, you’re in for a big surprise. You will definitely need to change your tactics. Developing good strategies with skirmishers and artillery are essential. These two areas are where your early units excel. I will address only units you can recruit or immediately employ in Europe. Try to build a dockyard in Antalya, Anatolia as soon as possible. You do not have access to Sixth Rates, and you want to be able to build Fourth and Fifth Rates early.
Infantry
Your starting line infantry, Isarelys, are relatively weak in comparison to European line infantry. Luckily, your first major opponent, Austria, has some of the weakest line infantry in Europe. However, the Austrian line infantry has more men in each unit. Do not write-off your Isarelys, though.
They will continue to be a staple of your armies until you can begin producing Nizam-I-Cedit in the middle game. Until then, Isarelys are your only infantry units that can use bayonets or form square.
Azzars are your starting skirmisher unit. You will want to learn to use them well, because they will win battles for you in the early game. Their most valuable trait is that they can stay concealed while moving. Unfortunately, they are no better than Austria’s starting skirmishers, Pandours. Regardless, hit-and-run tactics and ambushes staged with these units can turn the tide of battle.
Musellims don’t look like much, but they are useful melee units, mostly because of their large unit sizes. They can be used to mob your opponents from the flanks, or to occupy your opponent while you move skirmishers or line infantry for flanking fire.
Semenys are cheap and are used almost exclusively to garrison ports.
Bashi-Bazouks are completely useless. They can stay concealed while moving; but since they are melee units, they have to expose themselves before they can do any damage. They break so quickly as to be a liability in battle. You can dismiss most of them at the beginning of the campaign.
Cavalry
Deli Horsemen can be extremely effective. Being able to deploy missile cavalry in the early game is indispensable. Try to move them to the flank or rear of an engaged enemy and launch a charge, during which they will discharge their weapons. They can also be used to hunt undefended artillery. Do not let them get bogged down in melee, though.
Artillery
Did you get the Special Forces DLC? I hope so, because it gives you access to one of the most devastating artillery pieces in the game: The Ottoman Organ Gun. They are fairly expensive and require three turns to build, but they are impressive-looking. They are fixed cannon and can only fire round shot, but they are cavalry killers. A well-placed volley can wipe out almost an entire cavalry unit. While it is relatively inaccurate, each cannon fires about 12 cannonballs at once; so at least a few should find their mark. Regardless of physical impact, the impact on opponents' morale is significant.
Oh, dear. This could hurt.
The 18-pounder Foot Artillery is your basic artillery unit, though heavier than the European starting guns. You begin the game with canister shot; so you should use these artillery pieces in your army from the beginning of the campaign, particularly for defense.
Early Moves
Your starting scholar, Meshur Dede, in Anatolia needs to be moved into the school. He has +2 research bonus for enlightenment technologies; so that is where you want to start. I recommend researching empiricism to gain early access to the college improvement, but any of the enlightenment techs is fine. You have many major cities and you will want to build up to Sultan's Observatories in as many as possible for the additional scholars. Your scholars cannot duel; so the additional manpower (brainpower?) is needed to complete your research quickly and spare a scholar for espionage.
At the beginning of the campaign I focus my building improvements on farms and roads. Each of these can provide a reasonable boost to region wealth with little investment. Farms have the additional bonus of positively influencing population growth. Roads have the additional bonus of reducing travel times through provinces where they have been built, and they cannot be damaged or destroyed.
I suggest immediately trading Armenia to the Persian Empire for trade rights and an alliance. (You can probably get some money out of this, as well. I usually shoot for about 1200.) The benefits of this trade are many: Persia will maintain their alliance with you, as long as you play nice; and if you do not establish an early alliance, they will declare war on you and prevent you from moving trade ships out of the Persian Gulf. The trade also immediately creates a buffer territory between you and Georgia, otherwise Georgia will declare war on you. You have effectively secured your Middle Eastern territories; so you can focus on expanding in Europe. You will also be able to immediately start building dhows in Basra to trade spices in the East Indies trade theater and trade ivory in the Madagascar trade theater. You can produce one dhow every other turn in the Persian Gulf, giving you the opportunity to secure the trade nodes in these theaters before other nations. (This will help develop your economy. You will need a lot of money to support your early military.) You will want to keep a small security force in Baghdad, until relations improve with Persia, to help them avoid any temptation to betray you. The force evicted from Armenia, along with those already garrisoning Baghdad should be enough.
Send a small force to defend the Crimean Khanate from the inevitable attack by the Russians. I usually send Damat Aali’s force (located in Moldavia), except for the General and Bashi-Bazouks. Those three units should be sufficient. You will only need to reinforce the Crimean military to ensure the Russians do not win their initial battles and capture the Crimea. (Only reinforce. There is no need to enter battle on your own against the Russians.) This will stall them for five to fifteen (5 – 15) turns, as they will soon be occupied with Sweden. You do not want the Russians to gain a port with access to the Mediterranean. In most of the games I’ve played, after you help the Crimean Khanate repel the initial attack or two from Russia, they will go on the offensive, sometimes capturing Kiev from the Russians.
Prepare for war in Europe, but do not declare war on anyone. Let whoever (Austria, I’m looking at you) be the aggressor. Within the first few turns, any combination of Austria, Russia, Poland-Lithuania, Venice and the Italian States may declare war on you. When Austria declares war, you want to capture Croatia and Transylvania. However, do not call your allies to help. (They would not be able to provide significant assistance, anyway; and you want to stay on the best possible terms with Great Britain and the United Provinces, both allies of Austria.) Your early goals, here, are to protect your northern border, protect the Crimea, and gain control of the entire Greek Peninsula.
Empire Total War Ottoman Empire Guide Build
Long-Term Strategy
Once Venice declares war on you or you see an opportunity to declare war on them without drawing another major power (Spain) into the war, you should capture Patras, Morea. It is also important to capture Hungary; so you can provide a continual military threat to Vienna, Austria. Hopefully, by this time, you have pacified Austria, or at least established secure northern borders.
You will need to assemble a strong army for your next major goal – the subjugation of Italy. Of course, you cannot avoid war with Spain, once you start capturing Italy, but you want to delay that as long as possible. Italy, once secured, is easily defensible.
Watch out for latter-day Hannibals, or precocious Napoleons.
There are few entry points to Italy. You can place forts in the mountain passes, and leave a garrison in the port at Nice. Italy can be used as a staging point for raids into Vienna, Austria or to capture that territory. In addition, Italy is extremely wealthy.
Empire Total War Ottoman Empire Guide Series
Morocco will probably declare war on the Barbary States fairly early in the campaign. If you want to keep the Barbary States as your protectorate, you’ll need to enter the war on their side. Morocco is a required territory for victory in the long campaign; so whenever you are able to spare enough resources you should land an army in North Africa and capture Morocco. This also provides a good staging point to invade Spain, which is another requirement for victory in the long campaign.
It is important to build up your navy early. Start building Fourth and Fifth Rates as soon as you get your dockyard completed in Anatolia. I usually turn the dock that becomes available in Crete into a military producer, as well; so you can have two ports producing warships. It also helps to devote a scholar (or two) with no particular skills to espionage, and I use one almost exclusively to steal naval technologies. Use this navy to dominate the Mediterranean. Try not to allow any nation you do not call 'ally'? to sail into the Mediterranean. Once you’ve captured all of Italy, France and Spain should be the only nations besides you and your allies to have a port in the Mediterranean. Station a sizeable warfleet in the Straits of Gibraltar and nothing should get through.
If you purchased the Elite Units of the East DLC, you want to follow the Military Governor’s Encampment/Barracks track in Sofia, Bulgaria and Sarajevo, Bosnia. In Bulgaria, this will give you access to Wallachian Boyars, the best light cavalry unit you can produce. They have the same statistics as Mamelukes, though the Boyars have a higher morale and are less expensive to maintain or recruit. In Bosnia, the military track grants you access to Bosnian Panduks and Haydut Irregulars. These are both excellent skirmisher units (and you can recruit them with just the Military Governor’s Encampment; so they are available fairly early). The Haydut Irregulars have higher accuracy, but the Bosnian Panduks have a higher melee rating. Though the Panduks can stand up longer in melee, you should not allow these units engage in melee anyway; so I prefer the higher accuracy of the Haydut Irregulars.
Once you have built a city to the level that it can produce both Beylik Janissary Musketeers and Hand Mortar Boluks, you can employ the Ottoman infantry tactics suggested by Sargon II. You will need to continue to use supporting units in your armies, however. Besides, it is very expensive to keep large numbers of these units in your employ, and your opponent might not be so accommodating as to stand still and get shot down and blown up. The Beylik Janissaries do not use bayonets and cannot stand up long in melee with European line infantry. You will always want a couple of units of light cavalry, two to four (2-4) artillery units, two to four (2-4) units of skirmishers, and at least four units of Isarelys in a full-stack army, at least until you have researched European doctrine.
Once you have secured Greece and Italy and locked down the Mediterranean, you can expand wherever you want. I prefer to expand into India, rather than the Americas, because India is easier to reinforce from the Middle East. Once you have established good relations with Persia, you should be able to make a deal with them for indefinite military access. (I have generally been able to offer them 20 turns military access for indefinite military access to their lands and have them accept the trade.) You can then reinforce India by land, as well as through the Persian Gulf. You can also raid India from Persian territory and retreat safely back to their territory.
A note on trade ships: Dhows are very weak, but when used creatively, they can stand up to larger ships. A single dhow can take on a single galleon or other large, slow ship. Dhows have two guns facing aft (toward the rear of the ship); so you can maneuver the dhow to be racing away from the large ship and keep adjusting your course to keep your enemy in your cone of fire. As long as you stay right on the edge of your range, the opposing ship will not be able to turn a broadside towards you until you are out of their range. While dhows only carry three total guns, they are heavy guns; so you can eventually sink your opponent or force them to retreat. It is dull, and it takes a lot of micromanagement, but it works. If you are attacked by multiple ships, a sloop, a fifth rate, or a sixth rate, you should just retreat.
Try to ally with Great Britain and the United Provinces, since you spend most of your time at war with their natural enemies, France and Spain. It also helps to keep Austria in check, as they are less likely to go to war with allies of their allies, but they will. Take Greece, Italy, North Africa, and India or the Americas. Dominate the trade theaters and the Mediterranean and you will be well on your way to bringing glory to the Ottoman Empire and making it the greatest power in the world.
Ottoman Empire Game
This guide was created playing on hard battle difficulty and very hard campaign difficulty, but the concepts should be applicable regardless of difficulty level.