OTTOMAN TURKS
The Ottoman Empire is one of the success stories in history. They rose from a tribe of asian steppes nomads to a world power dominating the Mediterranean and Middle East in 300 years, and remained in power through the end of WWI, some 300 years after that. During this time, numerous stories came out of the Ottoman Empire, the most well known being the Thousand and One Arabian Knights. If these tales of genies and sorcerors were true, they would have certainly added an extra punch to the already varied Ottoman forces.... This list is designed to be representative of an Ottoman force circa mid-1700's, well after the introduction of regular musket armed units but before contact with Napoleon. Stronghold: Arabian city gateway or Tower.
| Knight General (the Sultan and his Guards) @ 2AP | | | | | 1 |
| Riders (Sipahis or Delis) @ 2AP | | | | | 5 |
| Shooters (Janissaries) @ 2AP | | | | | 2 |
| Artillery (foreign made cannons) @ 3AP | | | | | 2 |
| Hordes (levy militia from conquered lands) @ 1AP | | | | | 2 |
Alternatives: Blade General (Jannisary Command) @ 2AP, Hero (Kapikulu) @ 4AP, God (Genie of the Lamp) @ 4AP, Lurkers (Forty Thieves) @ 1AP
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
My original plan or the Ottoman Turks was as an army for Napoleon's Battles from Avalon Hill. After considering the prospect of painting thousands of figures that had six or seven colors each, I decided they could be a late period DBA army. And then I decided maybe they could be my first dedicated HotT army. And then I moved to Las Vegas and ignored them for five years. But now, they are back in my life, and it's time for the list. Well, since half of my figures for this army are Napoleonic, I figured on organizing the army along those lines. Which gives a lot of latitude, since the Napoleon's Battles rules state that there was no standard organization for the Ottomans at that time; literally, there could be whole armies of light horsemen, or Jannisaries, or even an army consisting of mostly artillery pieces. So what I set up was mostly based on the figures that I had available, while at the same time trying to build a force a little different from the other ones that I have.
One particular deviation from the norm that I made on this list is the classificatio of The Genie of the Lamp as a God. Many points of the HotT rules suggest genies as Behemoths, but my personal opinion is that they are not a regular troop type; they need to be summoned (usually by someone in power, such as a General,) they are all powerful and they are most fickle. That sounds more like a God to me, not in terms of the religious aspect but rather in the specific game rules that apply to the element.
STATUS
The core army is painted, and Ihave a Genie painted as well. No stronghold yet.
BATTLES
29APR2001: I got beaten soundly and squarely by a Generic Medieval army. My Artllery accounted for every casualty I caused (all two of them; 1 Knight and 1 Hero.) Unfortunately, armies whose core is Riders seem little match for armies of Knights and Heroes. Of course, I had previously played a similar army in DBA 1.0, so I was playing by a slightly different mindset...
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