• 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:
How do you calculate which beylik is the strongest? If you are, but slip, how long of a grace period do you have to catch back up before you lose the title?
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.
 
  • 34Like
  • 9
Reactions:
Does Anatolian situation only effect Turkish states or if a Greek tag rebelled/was released by the player would they also country for it?
Any country (from the setup or newly released) that has the Anatolian Beylik Government reform and a compatible culture, can partake in the situation as a contender
 
  • 33Like
  • 5
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
Wow, now the questions
1. Anything about Zahir Al Umar?
2. Anything about the ottomans invitations of Jews after the Spanish expulsion?
3. Anything about Hurrem Sultan?
4.and is there flavour regarding janissary characters who can rebel like Skanderbeg and Vlad Tepes?
Forgot to add: will there be flavour about the Sultanate of Women
 
  • 6Like
  • 2
Reactions:
As we are heading East, just wondering if there will be a Tinto flavour for the Majapahit at some point in future? EU5 starts at a very interesting time for them historically and I'm hoping there is at least some content around that.
Yes, soon.
 
  • 46Like
  • 3Love
  • 2
  • 1Haha
  • 1
Reactions:
Well for flavor I would immediately recommend these names:

Crown: Mirî
Nobility: Ümera
Clergy: Ülema
Burghers: Esnāf
Commoners: Re'aya
Tribes: Aşiret

These are the names Ottomans used for these properties and classes collectively.
 
  • 22
  • 5Like
  • 1
Reactions:
I'm not sure how I feel about the new UI for the events with the 3D characters shown within a frame. I don't like how it makes the background art behind the frame look so dark and washed up, and the 3D model appears too small (you can really only see the face) so we won't be able to see its clothing, a part of EU5's graphics I'm fairly excited about in the medium to long-term, considering it will eventually get more unique as more culturally distinct clothing and flavor packs get added to the game post-release.
 
Last edited:
  • 10
  • 4Like
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
Love the description, though I find it a bit annoying that you can have janissaries troops without the barracks available (i.e the separation of the barracks for slave to soldier conversion, and a different reform allowing you to recruit janissaries simply)... Maybe a better option could be a kind of special levy from rejected culture (if and only if the dhimmis have the "priviledge" enacted, which would be one giving less satisfaction and less power to them), at the cost of much worse relationships with said cultures / massive discontent ? And a later reform for janissaries building not from slave origin.
 
  • 3Like
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
IMG_9883.png


Will this events also able to move Turks to Balkans, not just Western Anatolia as Ottomans practiced a İskan policy there
 
  • 15Like
  • 2
Reactions:
Will Tımarlı Sipahis represented?

They were only called to war during wartime, so they should form a small fraction of levies as cavalry which has strength similar to regular regiments

Also I hope Mehteran is a unique advance for Ottomans as it was one of the oldest military bands in history
Reform Timar.png


There's also more content related to it.
 
  • 42Like
  • 5Love
  • 4
Reactions:
Will the Turkic migration action be extended to the Balkans? I read somewhere that some of the Balkan Turks originate from Anatolian Turks who were settled there by the Ottomans. I think it was especially modern day Bulgaria, Northern Greece and North Macedonia.
Yes, it can be extended to any province where the Beylik's primary culture is not holding a majority
 
  • 37Like
  • 8
  • 2Love
  • 1
Reactions:
This seems like a very flexible event, it reminds me of a similair event for balkan nations to invite German settlers
Is there a way for other countries to do this dinamically? Without having to move the pops from location to location like in I:R
You can migrate pops with a Cabinet Action.
 
  • 31Like
  • 6
  • 2
Reactions:
I feel that just referring to the Janissaries as formed "through the Devshirme child levy" doesn't make it clear that this was a levy specifically raised from non-Muslim subjects, and that the children were forcibly converted to Islam - both weakening their non-Muslim subjects (how can you rebel if all your strongest sons are taken to be turned into the Sultan's personal forces) and being the whole reason that the Janissaries were directly loyal to the Sultan himself, since they did not come from and thus have any loyalties to any other faction in the Ottoman court.
 
  • 7Like
  • 2
Reactions: