Ottoman Turkish, 1281AD to 1512AD

 Book 4, List 55

This army has come about as a result of 2 factors. Firstly moving to a more competitive gaming club (Reigate) and so entering competitions more frequently meant that I needed some more suitable armies; and secondly I picked up a large bag of old Mike's Models figures suitable for these at the 1999 Sheffield Triples.

Whilst in many respects the army contains pretty typical eastern horse army type troops - Cv, LH, etc - it also has 2 major differences that move it up a grade compared to many others. It has Janissary Reg Bw(S) and an optional Serbian ally who brings Kn(S) to the army. These troops with a Cv(S)/(O) base produce a combination that can deal with a large number of opponents by offering a suitable troop type to match up against the opposing ones. Couple this with an aggression of 4 and regular generals and you have an army that can easily dictate the pace of the game and where the important attack will occur.

However, all is not plain sailing as the support troops for the army are fairly weak. Most of the LH is (F) with a compulsory 10 minimum which means that they are in danger of being ridden down by better LH. 10, the usual number taken, can be an inconvenient number as it is not enough to swamp the enemy but a few too many to just act as a slowing force. Rough going troops are also a bit of a problem as there are really only Ps and Ax(O) for the job, and most of the Ps ends up as (O) rather than (S) due to AP considerations. One useful troop type that is often ignored is the Irr Bd(O) Voynuks. In certain circumstances these can be very useful and do have pretty good rough terrain capability.

The idea with this army is to use the high aggression and PIP swapping to combine the Bw(S), Kn(S) and Cv(S)/(O) into a concerted attack at a critical point. If these troops do not act in concert the army can be in real trouble; a bad day shooting with the Bw(S) is also a good indicator that things are not going to go for you. One thing to remember is to use the Janissaries very aggressively and get them up close quickly - they are so important for the army that you cannot waste time with them, remember, you can always bring up support troops later.

Overall this is one of the classic combined arms armies, but it needs quite a bit of practice to get the hang of. It did me pretty well at the 2000 IWF coming joint 53rd out of 123.

ottomanwithserbs.txt - a 400AP army including a Serbian ally.

ottoman.txt - a 400AP army with no allies.

ottoman500AP.txt - a 500AP army with Serbs.