The Ottomans are an artillery based civilization, with most of their units being considered as such.
Strengths
Ottoman artillery, along with the British and Russians, can be built at the Colonial Age, rather than the Fortress Age. This allows them to have a very strong anti-building and infantry force. Many of the Ottoman units are equal to other units, mainly compressed into that type of unit.
The Abus Gun is a powerful light anti-infantry unit which can deal massive damage against infantry and light cavalry such as Dragoons and War Wagons. Since their attacks are classified as siege rather than ranged, they also ignore the high ranged resistance of other artillery, they are just as good at taking them out. The Ottomans only have one infantry; the Janissary, which is comparable to the Musketeer. They also have fairly decent cavalry options. Their Grenadiers and Hussars also have the Royal Guard status. The Great Bombard is a powerful artillery piece which deals massive damage to anything it hits, being a mix of the Falconet and Mortar. They also have the Spahi, a unique Ottoman heavy cavalry unit which is capable of regenerating health. Spahi automatically upgrade whenever the player advances in Age.
Economically the Ottomans have the advantage of being able to spawn settlers at no cost. This limit can be increased with Mosque upgrades. Players are initially limited to 25 settlers, but increases to 45, 70 and 99 respectively. The train time can also be decreased significantly from the Mosque upgrades - essentially, as long as an Ottoman player still has their Town Hall or can construct one, they can still have a fighting chance.
Since the Ottomans have both Janissaries and Abus Guns available in the Colonial Age, they are the only nation that can field an extremely powerful infantry-artillery combo before the Fortress Age.
The Ottomans have unique church upgrades; however, it only sends military units - 12 Janissaries and 3 Great Bombards.
At level 25, the Ottomans can send the "Battlefield Construction" card, which allows Janissaries to build Barracks, Stables and Artillery Foundries. This can be used when starting or prolonging a siege at an enemy base, as there isn't any need to divert settlers to create a forward base of operations, and players can use military buildings at their colony for defense.
Weaknesses
The Ottomans are very artillery-intense, and thus many of their units will cost a substantial amount of coin. Due to this artillery-intense composition, the Ottomans have essentially no infantry or cavalry options, and since artillery is weak to cavalry, players must use Janissaries, Hussars and/or Cavalry Archers in order to protect them.
Essentially, any player who is able to muster powerful cavalry can easily wipe the Ottoman's military strength, as the Janissaries can be taken out with ease with protected artillery. Such examples include the Germans, who can use Falconets to pick off the Janissaries while the Uhlans stampede through their artillery.
Players playing in post-match Industrial/Imperial Ages must also kill off settlers periodically from their Town Centers because they will keep producing settlers, which can hamper an army's composition.
Ottoman rush
- The Ottomans usually do not get any food shipments at the beginning of the game, so they must rely on their free Settlers to gather enough food to advance.
- The player must immediately use his wood to build a Mosque and a House, and send the 3 settlers card and then the Furrier card.
- Advance and choose the "One outpost wagon and 200 coin" option. This would technically give the player 450 resources since an outpost costs 250 wood.
- Build the outpost close to the center of the map to control the area. Set this as your home city gather point.
- Send the five Janissaries card. Use them along with your Explorer to harass the enemy, who should not have advanced yet. Let the player's Explorer take the shots from the Town Center since he can recuperate.
- After a while, the enemy Settlers will leave their Town Center. Attack them.
- By this time the player should have almost 20 Settlers. Do not research the Galata Town District yet. Send the player's 20 Settlers to attack the enemy Town Center.
- Receive only military unit shipments.
- Send them all to attack the Town Center. If the enemy has advanced and has soldiers, these are generally going to be either weak Pikemen, which you can use your Settlers to kill (a settler can kill a Pikeman 1 on 1) or Hussars which the player can kill with Janissaries.
- Once the enemy Town Center is destroyed, which should take some time, destroy as many buildings and units as possible unless there are threats.
- The player can take a break and build up forces for the final blow.
Template:Strategies (Age of Empires III)