Playing Turkey in Soldier Kings
By Doug McNair
December 2005

Having cited a victory over John “Harpo” Morris, our plant manager, at Panzer Grenadier in my last article, it’s only fair that today I honor his request for an article on playing Turkey in Solder Kings.

Turkey: The Wolf at the Back Door

A Turkish “crazy head.” Bashi-bazouk, by Emile-Jean-Horace Vernet, 1860.

There are two Major Powers on the board which the Catholic and Orthodox powers really wish just weren’t there. Turkey is the greater of these. While Holland can be a huge annoyance to France and Spain, she is easily squashed if she fails to make the right alliances. Turkey is not. Hundreds of thousands of Bashi-Bazouks await the Sultan’s orders, and can flood the southeastern reaches of Austria, Russia and the Mediterranean at a moment’s notice. Unfortunately for Turkey, her huge army is also poorly led (the colloquial meaning of “Bashi-Bazouk” is “undisciplined bandit”), so she must place her forces wisely to prevent them being broken by the smaller but much tougher armies of her neighbors. She must also use diplomacy so that she doesn’t get the short end of the stick in alliances (due to geographical disadvantages), and so her own forces aren’t blocked from their best chance for victory: taking Northern Italy.

Major Power Alliances

Turkey doesn’t have the luxury of allying with a Major Power neighbor who can immediately stack with her armies and support her in battle. Austria and Russia are Turkey’s traditional enemies, so all she can do is fight them or make non-aggression pacts. Luckily, there are other alliance prospects over the hills and across the seas, and making the correct alliances (and coordinating maneuvers with them) is crucial to Turkish victory.

• Prussia: The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and Prussia is Turkey’s best friend from the get-go. Prussia must smash Austria fast if she’s going to win without sending her armies overseas, and Turkey is in the best position to help Prussia on that score. The problem for Turkey is getting her money’s worth out of a Prussian alliance. Prussia will want Turkey to attack Austria from the south to create a two-front war against Austria’s home forces. That’s a death sentence for Austria unless Russia scores a major blow against Prussia or Turkey, so on the surface it looks OK. However, Austria’s southern provinces are poor. Croatia, Transylvania and Hungary are only worth 3 VP together, while her northern provinces of Bohemia and Wien, plus her ally Saxony, are worth 9VP total. If Austria gets split in half this way, Prussia is almost two thirds of the way to victory, while Turkey is less than 1/3 of the way there. Turkey should therefore demand that Prussia let her have Wien. This evens things out, with Prussia and Turkey both getting 6 VP from their alliance against Austria. If Prussia balks at this, Turkey should point out that a non-aggression pact between Austria and Turkey (and maybe even Russia) would make a discussion of Prussian control of Wien irrelevant. Turkey should therefore have no trouble getting Prussia to see reason and share the wealth of the Austrian heartland.

The tugra, or calligraphic signature, of Sultan Mahmut II.

• Austria and Russia: If Prussia won’t commit to giving Turkey rights to Wien once Austria is conquered, she should definitely approach Austria and Russia with offers of non-aggression pacts. Austria will almost certainly jump at such an offer, and Russia will likely do the same, since it frees up both their armies to tackle Prussia. Prussia has a total of 12 VP sitting right on the Empresses’ doorsteps (with 2 more waiting in Mecklenburg), while Turkey is so poor that Austria and Russia would have to get all the way to Constantinople before they could pick up 12 VP from the Infidels. Such a pact will be a slam-dunk for Turkey, and will free her armies up for a total conquest of Italy, which is all she needs to win the game.

• Spain: After splitting the Austrian heartland with Prussia (or not . . .), Turkey must focus on Italy to win. The problem for Turkey is that her best shot at getting to Italy is by sea, but she only has two fleets, both of which are expensive to build and easy to sink (they both have defense strengths of 1). She will also need to build more armies to conquer Italy while defending her homelands, and balancing this with building fleets will be tough due to her overall poverty. She should therefore make an alliance with a seagoing Major Power who can give her Resources to build fleets and armies, while escorting them on the way to Italy. Spain is the best choice, for several reasons.

Spain is in a tough position from the game’s start, since she has a huge, rich global empire to defend, and only six armies to do it with. She has provincial armies for overseas duty, but she can’t build any of them without playing the “Spanish Provincial Armies” card. She’s also got British Gibraltar and Britain’s likely Minor Country Ally Portugal right on the Peninsula with her, so she’s got to keep a couple of her armies at home. Her #1 alliance priority must therefore be someone with numerous armies that are readily available for transport to Spain and overseas. Turkey is the obvious choice. Spain can get fleets to Turkey immediately, embark Turkish armies and take them right back for a sentimental journey to Al-Andalus. A couple of Turkish armies in Spain will keep the British and Portuguese under control so that Spain can send her own armies to the New World where they can do the most good. In exchange for this help with homeland security, Turkey should ask Spain for enough Resources to build several armies and an extra fleet of her own (Turkey has all the Manpower she’ll need for this), and should also ask Spain to keep a fleet in the Mediterranean to protect Turkish armies as they sail for Sicily and Naples. If Spain has designs on Lombardy and Tuscany, Turkey should be diplomatic about it, offering to split the territories with Spain, and using the presence of her armies on Spanish home soil as bargaining leverage.

Minor Country Alliances

Crimea is Turkey’s best Minor Country Ally. As Turkey’s client state, Crimea has a +3 automatic bonus to ally with Turkey, and she gets 3 armies right away. In a Prussian alliance situation, the Tartars can cover Turkey’s Russian flank so she can concentrate on Austria. In a non-aggression pact situation, they act as insurance against backstabs by the Empresses, and free up Turkey’s own armies to conquer Italy.

Other than Crimea, Sardinia is a good choice since she has a fleet which Turkey can use for transport to Italy, and armies that can start in Piedmont and support Turkish attacks on Lombardy and Tuscany.

Continental Strategy

Italy is Turkey’s Holy Grail. If Turkey can split Austria with Prussia and get 6 VP out of the deal, then all she needs to get 10 VP and the game are Sicily, Naples and the Papal States. Or, if Prussia won’t play ball and Turkey opts for the non-aggression pacts, she needs to take Sicily, Naples, the Papal States and Venetia, and then do a last-minute backstab of Austria and take Lombardy or Tuscany. If Austria is too powerful and backstabbing her looks too dangerous, then a trip around the boot by sea to Piedmont or Provence should do the job.

Soldier Sultan. Mahmut II in the European-style uniform of the Nizami Cedid new-model army.

Overseas Strategy

Turkey has no business leaving the Europe map, unless Spain is experiencing a disaster in her New World colonies. In exchange for lots of Spanish Resources, Turkey can allow Spain to transport Turkish armies to the New World and defend or retake Spanish territory there. This could give Turkey nice backstab possibilities against Spain later, so if Turkish advances in Italy get bogged down, it’s a good topic to discuss with Spain.

Event Card Strategy

When trading event cards, Turkey wants to acquire such cards as will give her advantages against Austria and Russia, negotiating leverage with Spain and Prussia, and extra combat capabilities to supplement her relatively weak armies. Examples of the first case are “Hungarian Revolt” and “Cossack Revolt.” Examples of the second case are “Spanish Provincial Armies,” “Caught at Anchor,” “Freibattalions” and “Freikorps.” Examples of combat-capability cards are “Winter Campaign,” Surprise Attack and Local Assistance.” Finally, “Debase Currency” can be a big help if Turkey needs to make a final push up the boot of Italy but doesn’t have the funds to finance Invasions.

Conclusion

Turkey is in the best position of any major power to make sweet diplomatic deals right from the get-go. She’s a huge threat to Austria and Russia, who have nothing to gain by attacking her. She’s also the key to a Prussian victory on the continent. Finally, she can give Spain exactly what she needs to defend her homeland and get huge amounts of money in return. She’s also got time. Austria and Russia would like nothing better than to ignore Turkey, and nobody but Spain is in a position to threaten her (and why would Spain want to, with smiling Janissaries ready to sail to the defense of Madrid and Granada . . .). So, she can act methodically, pre-negotiating her targets with allies and then getting their support in taking them. And with only 10 VP necessary for a Turkish victory, she can watch the troop movements of the other powers, and then send her forces to whatever spot on the Riviera is the least-well defended and ripest for the picking.