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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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Reform Anatolian Beylik.png

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.
image (42).png

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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Good Tinto Flavour on the Ottomans.
 
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View attachment 1314112

There's also more content related to it.

I want to clarify something beforehand since this seems to be often confused online and conflated together. There were two types of Sipahi, ones from Timars were the Provincial Cavalrymen, who were basically horse archers until end of 16th century and basically medium cavalry with retinues and equipment depended on their allocated income, these were a type of "noble levy", these were mostly Muslim Turks but certain Christians in frontier provinces were also allocated land for this purpose at times especially in early centuries, so this should be a function of noble levies. There were are also another Sipahi, which were the part of Palace household cavalry, also called Six-Division Cavalry established by Mehmed, these were heavy cavalry and a standing cavalry division, often recruited from important families, troops which showed merit in combat or Janissaries which had either promising prospects or had distinction in service.

Technically I feel both of these should be represented, one as a sort of household heavy cavalry and other as a type of levy medium horse archer cavalry. I also think Turcoman tribal pops should always raise as light horse archer cavalry if they are levied from. In general the fact that Ottoman armies was majority cavalry all the way until 17th century seems to be sidelined due to fame of janissaries and Ottoman artillery but it is important that Ottomans raise right type of troops both from their standing men-at-arms and levies alike.
 
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Thank you for another great TF. Our hype increases each day. So, as one of the Tier 1 countries, how content is handled in matters like:
1. The Imperial Harem
2. The Janissaries and their dominance in warfare in the 15th and 16th centuries. Also, their importance in political affairs
3. The Timar system, and Sipahi cavalry
4. The Construction of the Topkapi Palace
5. The Ottoman control of the Spice Trade to Europe after the conquest of Constantinople

I know it is a lot that have not beign shown, but could you shed some light in any of those topics? Are they only handled by DHEs or by unique mechanics too?
 
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Barbaros Hayreddin should be a event chain, he and Oruç Reis should first start as a Navy based country and if they manage to conquer any location in Algerian coast, they should send their request to join the Ottoman Empire, if they fail to take any land they can still join Ottomans but without any territory of course

(they could remain independent to depending on Player choice, and be a op Pirate nation :) )
 
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Another thing I forgot. How are the relationships between the beyliks and the Hospitallers? Historically the knights hold Bodrum and Smyrna for some years. I don't know if that is something you want to have content for or leave it to the game mechanics.

And obviously, there the infamous raiding by the Rhodes knights that soon becomes tiresome in EU4. Is a coastal beylik going to need to fortify its coast whilst fighting for supremacy in Anatolia?
 
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Also, Orhan Bey was of 100% turkmen descent so he should look more central asian. His first wife being also turkem while the other two should be greek.
 
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They aren't literal slave pops. They are soldier pops promoted from Zimmi peasants/laborers.
The picture of the janissary barracks building has slave pops working in it and producing manpower. I think its a good question - if the manpower turns into an army then dies, which pops die?
 
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Great job again Paradox! I specifically love that you are handling demographic change through migration mechanics (historical) rather than rapid assimilation mechanics (ahistorical).

I hope to see a historically diverse Levant in my playthroughs, beyond game start!
 
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For the most part, we won't have special unit models for any country-specific units on release, because our focus has been on getting a good base for the whole world first.

It is understandable. But that isn't what I mean. While Jannisary doesn't have a unqiue model make for it especially, it at least has a unit model composed of general art assets, isn't it? That's what I would like to take a look.
 
I am curious about evolution of Janissaries, historically their recruitment started with war captives to be guards for the Sultan but as devshirme became institutionalized they became nominalized as standard infantry troops. Janissary Guards and Janissary Musketeers are perfect for this. However what happens in the later phases where they started to become recruited first from Sons of Janissaries and then Muslim volunteers mostly from Balkans? Will the Barracks inputs change? Are there 3 or 4 types of Janissaries total. I believe 3rd type could represent a more regular line infantry from later 16th century and 4th type could represent a sort of paramilitary unit from 1750s onward.
 
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