• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

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...

Country Selection.png

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

Ottomans1.png

Ottomans2.png

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:
Estates1.png

Estates2.png

Reform Anatolian Beylik.png

Privilege Ghazi Lords.png

They also start with a unique and troublesome succession law:
Fratricide.png

And this policy:
Royal Harem.png

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

Subject Uc Bey2.png

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 :
image (36).png

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!

image (40).png

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

image (41).png

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…?

image (43).png

  • 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!

image (48).png

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!
 

Attachments

  • image (37).png
    image (37).png
    870,4 KB · Views: 0
  • 119Like
  • 106Love
  • 4
  • 4
  • 3
Reactions:
Yelkenler biçilecek, yelkenler dikilecek;
Dağlardan çektiriler, kalyonlar çekilecek;
Elde sensin, dilde sen, gönüldesin baştasın;
Fatih'in İstanbul'u fethettiği yaştasın!;
 
  • 6Like
  • 5Love
  • 2Haha
Reactions:
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!
 
  • 28Like
  • 8Love
  • 2
Reactions:
These Turks? Take over Constantinople? Bah! Gah! Pah! Preposterous! The Romans will ruin it way before they can.

Jokes aside, I like that we have development options for other Turkish imperial identities, so it won't just always be the Ottoman way of doing things that rises supreme in Anatolia. Hopefully that's the Modus Operandi for other regions of rising powers of alternate starting nations.
 
Last edited:
  • 18Like
  • 2Haha
  • 2
Reactions:
Sorry about the delay, we had some issues coordinating the screenshots for this Tinto Flavour. Not a Friday without an issue!
 
  • 52Like
  • 4
  • 2Haha
Reactions:
Did you get caught up playing HOI4 and lost track of the time?
Or the Eastern Roman gang was keeping him hostage to try to stop the ottomans from coming to the new game
 
  • 14Haha
  • 3Like
Reactions:


How often do the other Beyliks come out on top in the Turkish thunderdome? Or are the Ottomans akin to the Timurids in terms of expansion speed?

The Eretnids were probably the most powerful beylik in Anatolia at this time due to inheriting the Ilkhanate viceroyalty over Rüm, and were recognized by the Mamluks.


 
Last edited:
  • 12Like
  • 2
Reactions:
Historically, the Ottomans avoided declaring war on the Anatolian Beyliks in the 14th century. (Except for the period of Bayezid I) After the Ottomans annexed the Karasids, their target was mostly the Balkans for a long time. They hesitated to declare war in Anatolia for a while in order to prevent the decrease of the Turkish pops by going to war with the other Beyliks who has Turkish army and pops. In the 15th century, they continued their conquests in the Balkans and uniting Anatolia equally. When we watch the game in spectator mode or while we're playing with the other countrys/beyliks/etc., will we see an AI Ottomans who fought mostly in Anatolia and then "maybe" turned to the Balkans? or an Ottomans with more historical goals and mostly aiming to expand to the Balkans, and slowly uniting the Anatolian Beyliks? Of course EU5 is a game with a dynamic world and mechanics, but the "Rise of the Turks" situation could be more focused on the Balkans, non-Turkic and/or heathen countrys or provinces. Also, a modifier like "Army morale damage to the heathens/heretics" could be given. Maybe in this way, it could be more fun to play with other Anatolian Beyliks that could replace the "Turkish Empire" instead of Ottomans.
 
Last edited:
  • 21Like
  • 4
Reactions:
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!



View attachment 1314014
As usual, please consider all UI, 2D and 3D art as WIP.

View attachment 1314022
View attachment 1314024
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:

They also start with a unique and troublesome succession law:

And this policy:

These are some of the advances available, which you may notice are quite relevant:

Although the most important advances for the Ottomans are:

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

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 :

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!
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!

View attachment 1314077
This unique reform is granted to the strongest Beylik, if they are the Ottomans.

View attachment 1314078
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.
View attachment 1314081
The Ottomans are by far not domineering across the region, let alone beyond it, in 1337. Foreshadowing or…?

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…
View attachment 1314087
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:View attachment 1314091
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…

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:
View attachment 1314065
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:

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.:
View attachment 1314055
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…

View attachment 1314052

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 Seljuk Sultanate....

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.
View attachment 1314050
Germiyanids Ruler perishes, who is 79 at game start. A nasty event, reminiscent of Shah Rukh

View attachment 1314049
The Eretnids are displeased with Jalayrid rule, trouble steers!

View attachment 1314098
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!
Interesting choice that if you prevail as other Beylik, you can either inherit Ottoman content or become Seljuks!

Will it work similarly with Mamluks? Like, if you take over Egypt (or is it possible to have a revolt that would depose Mamluks?) you can either inherit the Mamluk system or create a separate tag as simply Egypt instead of Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt?
 
  • 7Like
Reactions:
Love all this ottoman-byzantine Flavour. :)
Say will there also be a traumatic jump-scare-like Soundtrac playing when getting war declared?
I love my byzantium playthrough extra traumatic :D

Eu4Trauma2.png


Not gonna lie, the the Eu4 Soundtrack has this ring to it of "doom" that none of its following games had.
I hope Eu5 will continue where Eu4 was :)
 
  • 22Haha
  • 3Like
Reactions:


How often do the other Beyliks come out on top in the Turkish thunderdome? Or are the Ottomans akin to the Timurids in terms of expansion speed?

The Eretnids were probably the most powerful beylik in Anatolia at this time due to inheriting the Ilkhanate viceroyalty over Rüm, and were recognized by the Mamluks.


All AI is WIP, although the most common outcome is the Ottomans being the Top Beylik. We're also working currently towards making the Ottoman AI expand at a more or less historical pace when it succeeds, but it's not 100% granted yet; we're balancing the situation mostly around making a correct pace for a human player.
 
  • 61Like
  • 5Love
  • 5
Reactions:
There's a lot to digest here!
One issue I did immediately notice is the direction of portrayal of the Ghazi.

Privilege%20Ghazi%20Lords.png

Advance%20Ghazi.png


Every description emphasizes their faith and some mention their devotion to spread Islam.

What you have here lines up with an older portrayal than most modern scholarship seems to suggest, and one which is usually part of the Ghaza Thesis, which is not accepted by most scholars today. The more modern scholarly understanding seems to be that the Ghazi were not notably zealous, religious warriors in this period, but rather raiders of any kind.

I imagine this shouldn't take too much work to fix, luckily. The modifiers seem secular enough.
 
Last edited:
  • 12Like
  • 11
  • 4
  • 2
Reactions: