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Tinto Flavour #25 - 6th of June 2025

Hello, and welcome one more Friday to Tinto Flavour, the happy days in which we take a look at the flavour content of Europa Universalis V!

Today, we will take a look at the flavour content for the Ottomans, one of our Tier 1 countries, the Turkish Beliks in general, and the Rise of the Turks situation, in which all of them are involved!

The Ottomans were founded by Osmanoglu Osman Bey, a chieftain of the Kayı tribe of the Oghuz Turks, around 1299. Residing around the Northwestern coast of Anatolia, they were initially one of the many Beyliks to occupy the border territory of Rûm, a once-powerful Sultanate. Under the leadership of Osmanoglu Gazi Orhan Bey, they have consolidated and greatly expanded their domain, securing vital land along the coast of the Bosphorus. Bountiful raids, victories, and diplomacy have secured them as one of the region's most powerful rising Beyliks...

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As usual, please consider all UI, 2D and 3D art as WIP.

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A lovely day in 1337 on the coast of the Bosphorus…

The Ottomans, like the other Anatolian Beyliks, start with some Reforms and Privileges, of which some are unique:
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Privilege Ghazi Lords.png

They also start with a unique and troublesome succession law:
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And this policy:
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These are some of the advances available, which you may notice are quite relevant:
Advance Ghazi.png

Advance Uc Bey.png

Subject Uc Bey1.png

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Advance Heirs of Rum.png

Advance Akincular.png

Unit Akincular.png

Advance Kanun.png

Policy Kanun.png

Advance Tulip Period.png

Advance Imperial School.png

Although the most important advances for the Ottomans are:
Advance Janissaries.png

Building Janissary Barracks.png

Advance Janissary Guards.png

Unit Janissay Guards.png

There’s a different Janissary unit available in each age; for example, this is the one available for Age of Reformation:
Janissary Musketeers.png

This is very relevant, as the key flavour content for the Ottomans, and the rest of the Anatolian Beyliks, is a situation that triggers a couple of months into the game; I'll let one of our Content Designers, @PDXBigBoss :
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The situation focuses on the rise of the Ottomans, in most cases. However, this does not mean that another Beylik cannot take their place, with their own unique flavor, reforms, and outcomes!

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This unique reform is granted to the strongest Beylik, if they are the Ottomans.

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This reform is only available for the Strongest Beylik, if they are NOT the Ottomans!

This is the panel of the situation. Many countries, beyond the "Strongest Beylik" can play a part in it, the ever-shifting environment of politics, diplomacy, and eventual war. While the Strongest will gain access to a few unique actions, most actions are available to any Beylik.
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The Ottomans are by far not domineering across the region, let alone beyond it, in 1337. Foreshadowing or…?

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  • Press Claims - The ability of the Strongest to fabricate a claim against an enemy in Anatolia.
  • Raise a Bey Fortress - It's a unique building that increases the Fort Level of a location and produces an ample, steady supply of manpower, much earlier than many other countries can. It can only be built in cities across Anatolia. Upon its construction, you will be greeted by a positive event, whose historical information is tailored specifically to the location you build it. This means that it will be different if you build it in Bursa, Izmit, Konya, Smyrna, etc... While this is good and all, these fortresses are a symbol of authority, for better or worse. This means that if a location with a Bey Fortress gets sieged down, you will suffer a blow to the stability and legitimacy of your rule, and your people will lose faith in your ability to win the war. The maluses will be far worse should the enemy even annex that location, so be careful…
image (44).png

Location Importance is a composite metric, tailored specifically to the Situation. It depends on many factors such as development, market access, road connectivity, and more. This is used to determine the volume of certain bonuses and utilizes a nice little “game concept” tooltip to explain its application and usage.

  • Seek Relations with the Byzantines - as long as the Romans hold Constantinople, and they are "relevant" any Beylik that is strong enough will be able to leverage diplomacy to extract gifts from the Empire. These gifts may be the hand of a daughter in marriage, ample coin, the recognition of a Beylik as legitimate sovereign of Anatolia, or the demand of capable characters to prop up your administration in exchange for relations and good faith. They can - and often do - decline, but are they really in a position to barter ?
  • Offer Diplomatic Protection - through marriage, the exchange of territory and diplomacy, as any Beylik we can offer an alliance and guarantees of sovereignty to another lesser Beylik. Of course, history has shown such friendships are short-lived…
  • Create Uc Bey - A unique subject type for the duration of the situation. A powerful weapon when used appropriately, the Uc Bey guards the frontier of the Beylik against foreign threats. They will be an army-based country with a powerful Government Reform, making them the perfect guardians. However, you will need to integrate them and centralize later on, should you survive and come out on top after the situation ends…
A couple of locations in the Situation map mode previously shown, are marked in red and yellow. This is for two reasons:
  • Anatolia in 1337 is traversed by a Great Trunk Road, controlling important points across it (Konya, Sivas, etc) unlocks a scaling Estate Privilege for your Merchant Estate, let's take a look:
    image (45).png
The privilege will grant 1% Trade Efficiency for each of these locations that we control directly…

  • Konya and Sivas are also home to Seljuk Mints, which were used by the former Sultanate to produce coinage and project an aura of legitimacy and authority. Owning and developing these locations will be vital when it comes to spreading our Control across the region through a unique building…
image (46).png

image (47).png

As the Strongest Beylik consolidates holdings with a majority of Greek Culture, this event will appear, heralding the beginning of a great Turkic Migration. It enables a unique action for our country to call upon Turkic migration from the East, to populate the coasts of the Aegean Sea and Anatolia. Historically, this was very vital and it carries the same importance in-game, as having a majority of our culture in locations will allow us to fully core them, thus increasing our control!

The number of migrants that will travel is dynamically balanced. The pops will always come from a province with an ample population, and the amount of pops will always be "relevant" to the target province we are trying to populate:
image (31).png

And a nice little short-term modifier to ensure a swifter cultural integration​

Once the strongest Beylik consolidates themselves, and crosses the Dardanelles, the Press Claims action will evolve, allowing the Beylik to declare war through a good Casus Belli across the Balkans, as well, posing a direct threat to the Kingdoms that populate that region:
image (30).png

Once the player conquers 300 locations, including at least 30 urban locations, and we own Konstantiniyye, we will be greeted by this event, which heralds in the Classical Era of your (now) Empire. In most cases, this will be the Ottomans.:
new classical era screenshot.png

This event will also grant us the rank of Empire, which comes with significant bonuses and some double edges in the form of a unique disaster for Empires…

image (28).png


But what happens if the Karamanids or another rises, instead? They are greeted by a different outcome, a choice. They will be able to adopt the Ottoman tag, inheriting the Ottoman content, events, reforms, everything they have to offer, whilst still holding on to their flag, name, color on the map, dynasty, history, etc. However, should you choose not to do this, you will be able to reform the Sultanate of Rum....

Moreover, other Beyliks across Anatolia have dedicated flavor content to themselves. The Germiyanids, Aydinids, Eretnids will have a few events associated with their history in the middle of the 14th century, onwards.
image (29).png

Germiyanids Ruler perishes, who is 79 at game start. A nasty event, reminiscent of Shah Rukh

image (27).png

The Eretnids are displeased with Jalayrid rule, trouble steers!

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On top of that, the Ottomans have around 200 DHEs, making it a proper Tier 1 country in terms of flavor…

… And much more, but that’s all for today, as it’s already very long! As today is Friday, this will be the schedule for next week, which will be completely on @Roger Corominas , as I’ll be off:
  • Monday -> Tinto Maps Feedback about Japan & Korea
  • Tuesday -> Tinto Flavour about Korea & Manchuria
  • Wednesday -> Tinto Talks about the Shinto religion & Shogunate IO
  • Thursday -> ‘Behind the Music of Europa Universalis V - Composing the Grandest Score’ video!
  • Friday -> Tinto Flavour about Japan & the Nanboku-chō Jidai & Sengoku Jidai situations

And also remember, you can wishlist Europa Universalis V now! Cheers!
 

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But what happens if the Karamanids or another rises, instead? They are greeted by a different outcome, a choice. They will be able to adopt the Ottoman tag, inheriting the Ottoman content, events, reforms, everything they have to offer, whilst still holding on to their flag, name, color on the map, dynasty, history, etc. However, should you choose not to do this, you will be able to reform the Sultanate of Rum....
Is the Sultanate of Rum also inheriting Ottoman missions, reforms, etc, or is it only the Ottoman tag if they keep their flag, name, and dynasty?

I love the ability of the player to keep their nation's name and color like the Ottomans do, and also allowing them to choose the Sultanate of Rum, but I think if one doesn't have equivalent (not necessarily identical but equally fleshed out) flavor/power the choice becomes obligated one way or the other.
 
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Still nice to see the accurate name change. It's Konstantînīyye, not Istanbul. It's a long way away, Istanbul.

(Obligatory.)
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Is there significant bonuses to having extra estates and is it easier or harder to play with more estates?

I hope there's drawbacks too!
 
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If Timur is successful enough to came knocking on Anatolia's doors, is there any narrative content about him making the Ottomans'/strongest beylik's insides become outsides at Ankara? And, if so, does the interregnum afterwards become worse than they are on average?
 
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1. It's a combination of Income and Military power, there is a screenshot for it
2. We used to have a grace period of 1 year, but found that would open the door to exploits as much or more than having it monthly, risking having a (recently) collapsed Beylik as the strongest. So right now it's monthly.
Would it be a possibility that the grace period keeps on giving access to the actions for the no longer first, but the title and access to actions are imediately transferred to the new claimant, AND classment is updated accordingly ? That way the grace period wouldn't have many "mechanical" impacts as far as I see, and player frustration of loosing their bright new toy for a temporary loss of power would be allieved as well, wouldn't it ?
 
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Is there anything regarding Enderun in the game? It was very important from about 1440s to 1600s that many of the military-administrative positions came from devshirme backgrounds. In general what is the situation of devshirme and how it works for not just Janissaries but also importantly both governor and cabinet positions?

Do Ottomans have any content regarding to corsair presence? Many of the corsairs of North Africa in the era Ottomans came to control North Africa were actually Turkish-speaking Muslims of mixed origins from coastal regions of Adriatic and Aegean, a similar feature of Turks moving to frontiers in Balkans could also actually be applied to sailors in North Africa.
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Some of these seem to have taken the stories later Ottomans tell about the heroic rise of their empire at face value, rather than looking at unbiased evidence. The Ottoman's secret power wasn't their fanaticism, it was their ability to make the most of the other religious groups in their empire. The Ottomans by Marc David Baer is a good summary of which parts actually happened. Some more detailed thoughts:
  1. Anatolian Beylik has the right type of modifiers for the Ottomans. However as they become more religiously pure (historically after the conquest of Mecca and Egypt gave them a Muslim majority) the effects should decline/decay. This should be a choice.
  2. Fratricide should also have bonuses making it more likely the best son is the next ruler, rather than the one born first in an accident of timing.
  3. It is only really after Suleman that the Ottoman court was so tied up in the Harem. Before Suleman they were much more likely to have children ruling key cities, and the ruler was likely to be with the army at war. I'd suggest rewording this to show the Harem changing over time (potentially with removing Fratricide).
  4. Also it's weird that royal harem doesn't give fertility bonuses.
  5. The flavour text for Akıncılar seems to think that they didn't raid Muslims.
  6. What about Janissaries that served the state in roles other than soldiers?
  7. It seems these effects will create Muslim majority provinces far to easily/early. The Ottomans were first a Muslim majority country after the conquest of Egypt under Selim I. I'd suggest instead of needing an unlikely 50% Turkish population, that they have an effect to reduce that requirement to 40% or 33%.
 
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I'm happy our Ottobros have finally received their Tinto Flavour thread. There's been a lot of joking and teasing in the past months, but jokes shouldn't be taken too seriously.
It's just a game and everyone is free to enjoy it however they wish. I admit I was never particularly interested in Ottoman history, Polish schools don't focus on it, it's mentioned only when we learn about Polish-Ottoman wars.
But even then, when thinking about the Ottomans, I always pictured them as a formidable and noble adversary. After the final partition of Poland in 1795,
Ottoman Empire has never recognized it and there's a widely circulating story in Poland that during ceremonies when various foreign emissaries were presented to the Sultan,
Ottoman officials were informing the Sultan that "emissary from Lechistan (Poland) has not arrived yet". The story is most likely fake, as there are no sources confirming it, but it has made many Poles view Turks kindly.

Happy conquests of Constantinople!

You probably know, but for others there is a Polish Village in Turkey founded during the Ottoman times by the leaders of the November Uprising

 
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If a beylik (I guess 99% of the time will be the ottomans), controls the land across from Gallipoli in 1354, will they get an event about the earthquake and an option to auto-conquer and settle it with Turks?
 
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What is the unique disaster for Empires you mentioned? I saw a couple of discussions in this forum about how keeping a large empire together should be really difficult, so if there are mechanics for that, I (and likely many others) would love to hear a bit more about it.
 
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2. Yes, a unique policy:
View attachment 1314127

Since it mentions pashas... Is the provincial government system/pashas/eyalets retooled? Technically and eyalet required a beylerbey, so we doesn't have coherent system if we have this policy but can't appoint pashas. In EUIV they were assigned manually by province with a bonus based on foreign culture which I think made not a lot of historical sense

I think it would be more immersive if we can appoint governors for a group of areas (to be chosen by the player). Maybe appointing the governor may give some bonuses and maluses depending on the eyalet size, so the player may have some tall-playing style option. The mechanic may be customized to other tags too to give some internal play depth.
 
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I'm happy our Ottobros have finally received their Tinto Flavour thread. There's been a lot of joking and teasing in the past months, but jokes shouldn't be taken too seriously.
It's just a game and everyone is free to enjoy it however they wish. I admit I was never particularly interested in Ottoman history, Polish schools don't focus on it, it's mentioned only when we learn about Polish-Ottoman wars.
But even then, when thinking about the Ottomans, I always pictured them as a formidable and noble adversary. After the final partition of Poland in 1795,
Ottoman Empire has never recognized it and there's a widely circulating story in Poland that during ceremonies when various foreign emissaries were presented to the Sultan,
Ottoman officials were informing the Sultan that "emissary from Lechistan (Poland) has not arrived yet". The story is most likely fake, as there are no sources confirming it, but it has made many Poles view Turks kindly.

Happy conquests of Constantinople!
Byzantium's biggest defender is a Pole? Not even Orthodox?
 
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Also, a request to clarify what "Many countries" that can take part in the situation means. Because other than Karaman, Eretna and Ottomans all other countries on the map, from other beyliks all the way to Hungary, are equally represented with grey stripes. Does that mean even Christian countries outside of Anatolia can take part in this situation in an opposing manner in some way? If so, how far into Europe does that extend?
 
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