Ottoman (Civ6)

The Ottoman people represent a civilization in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm. They are led by Kanuni Suleiman, under whom their default colors are white and dark green; and Muhteşem Suleiman, under whom their default colors are dark green and pink. 
The Ottomans' civilization ability is Great Turkish Bombard, which allows them to train siege units 50% faster and gives their siege units a +5 Combat Strength bonus when attacking and defending against defenses. In addition, cities the Ottomans conquer do not lose Population and receive +1 and +4 Loyalty per turn. Their unique unit is the Barbary Corsair (which replaces the Privateer), and their unique building is the Grand Bazaar (which replaces the Bank).
== Strategy ==
Starting bias: Tier 5 towards 
All of the Ottomans' assets are built around solely one purpose: war. They are adept at harassing enemies at sea as well as conquering on land, and also experts at keeping their newly gained citizens happy and loyal.
=== Grand Vizier (Kanuni Suleiman) ===
This is a rather strange leader ability, as it does not offer any particular empire-wide bonus like others; instead, Suleiman gives his empire two (well, sort of) unique units.
==== Janissary ====
The Janissary is one of the most fearsome unique melee units in the game, thanks to its cheap cost, good Combat Strength and free starting .
The most outstanding feature of this unit is its appealing price tag. Standing at only half the cost of a normal Musketman, the Janissary is the cheapest unique unit in the game, if you only consider the cost ratio between the unit itself and the standard counterpart it replaces, similar to how the Grand Bazaar is also the cheapest unique building in the game. This 50% discount makes the Janissary so cheap that it becomes an anomaly, when it actually costs more to train a Man-At-Arms, the predecessor, than a Janissary. Therefore, for Suleiman, you should never train Men-At-Arms to take full advantage of your unique unit (more on this down below). Secondly, despite its cheap cost, the Janissary even has a Combat Strength edge over the Musketman, and a free when trained. On average, 5 Combat Strength difference results in 6-7 extra damage per attack, and the free applies even when an existing unit upgrades into a Janissary (in that case, the experience bar will be automatically filled and the newly created Janissary will have access to one next , if it already has some).
However, all of this power comes at a cost. Similar to training Settlers, any city founded by the Ottomans will lose 1 Population whenever they train a Janissary. This can be quite detrimental, but bypassing it is simple. There are two major options to minimize your losses when you want to train this unit:
* The first method is to invest some of your resources into early conquests. Although it is true that the Ottoman war machine is at its peak in the Renaissance Era, it is entirely possible to engage in conquest as early as the Classical Era and gain the conquered cities needed for Janissary production. By combining Ibrahim's innate ability of +20% towards units and the God of the Forge pantheon's +25%, the Ottomans can gain +45% towards all military units in the first two eras and +95% towards Catapults. With Ibrahim's Serasker title, Ottoman Catapults can gain an additional +10 Combat Strength bonus (which, in conjunction with the +5 from the Ottomans' Great Turkish Bombard ability, gives them a total Combat Strength bonus of +15) when attacking s, allowing them to destroy the defenses of even walled cities in the blink of an eye. This method should be considered against neighbors that play defensively and have potential to snowball if left alone, such as Korea, China, or Greece when led by Pericles. The April 2021 Update introduced the Trebuchet, a medieval siege unit that can act as a useful stepping stone between the Catapult and the Bombard, making the combat prowess of the Ottomans before their renaissance peak even more terrifying.
* The second method is to pre-train units and then upgrade them into Janissaries. If you spawn next to defensive powerhouse civilizations, or civilizations with their military power peaks in early eras, like Nubia, Vietnam or Gauls, you may want to play nice with them for the first few eras and wait for your true potential to unlock. The most cost efficient way to train Janissaries is to mass-produce Swordsmen and upgrade them when Gunpowder is unlocked. Again, not Men-At-Arms, but Swordsmen. As analyzed above, the Janissary is so cheap and even the Man-At-Arms is more expensive than them. Training Men-At-Arms when playing as Suleiman is wasteful and pointless, and it still costs you 10 more to upgrade a Man-At-Arms into a Janissary even after you already spent 40 extra . The Swordsman is the way to go because one, they are cheaper (90 only), require , which you don't need much of, and is affected by the God of the Forge pantheon if that is the one you pick. The bottleneck of training Janissaries lies neither in their potential Population cost (as it is easy to circumvent) nor in their cost (as it is 50% cheaper than the standard Musketman) but in availability. Since is unlocked very slightly sooner than Janissaries, you have little chance to stock up this resource beforehand, while more likely than not, you have a stockpile of lying around. Due to the Janissaries' low cost, combined with Professional Army and Retinues, upgrading is cheap in terms of both and . By doing it this way, you can have your army of Janissaries without having to make early conquests when they are not the most favorable to you, or having to wait for to start piling up so you can train Janissaries one by one and potentially missing your window of opportunity to use them. Remember to prioritize researching Military Engineering to locate where is, try to stockpile it as much as you can, before beelining for Gunpowder.
==== Ibrahim the Grand Vizier ====
Suleiman also comes with a unique Governor, Ibrahim, who is an expert in both military and diplomacy. He only needs 3 turns to be established in a city. In war, he can speed up unit training or strengthen the defense of a city. He can also provide a large combat bonus when attacking cities. In peace, he is the only Governor that can be sent to other civilizations to help them in times of need, or to stop them from spreading their Loyalty pressure to flip your newly conquered cities. For whatever purpose, Ibrahim is a crucial piece in Suleiman's toolkit to make the Ottomans an absolute powerhouse in domination.
=== The Magnificent (Muhteşem Suleiman) ===
The Magnificent removes both Ibrahim and the Janissary, leaving the Ottomans with less firepower for a Domination Victory, however two new paths open up for them: Culture and Science Victories. This ability grants extra and in every city as long as you are in a Golden Age. This is a massive bonus that is relatively easy to achieve. For comparison, Pingala gives the city he's assigned to a 15% bonus in and ; The Magnificent gives that ability to every city - and this stacks with Pingala for a 30% bonus. Add in Kilwa Kisiwani and you can potentially give 60% extra and to one city (or 45% to two cities, if Pingala is not in your Kilwa city) and every other city 30%!
Additionally, you are granted +4 Combat Strength if you and your opponent are in a Normal or Dark Age, a bonus that is kind of powerful in the beginning (as all civs start in a Normal Age), but begins to wane quickly, especially since it's counterintuitive to the previous ability.
===Great Turkish Bombard===
This is the only bonus in the game that helps speed up the construction of siege units specifically, and it stacks with Ibrahim's first title. Since siege units are always the prime target to get focus fired by districts and enemy units in wartime, the Ottomans get stronger and more siege units that can overwhelm a city quickly. The most important aspect of this ability, however, is that all conquered cities get to keep all of their Population, and even get a Loyalty and bonus, allowing them to swiftly become integrated into your empire. With intact high Population, Loyalty bonus and Ibrahim, it is impossible to flip back cities using Loyalty. To stop the Ottoman snowball, enemies may have to engage in a reconquest war against an empire at its peak, or lose an important part of their territory forever.
===Barbary Corsair===
Following the changes to pillaging in Gathering Storm, constant coastal harassment is now a viable strategy that does not require a lot of investment to have a large standing army, and the Ottomans have just the perfect vessel for that. The Barbary Corsair thrives on being an incessant annoyance more than a direct combat unit, as it has everything you can ask for to fulfill its role (very much like the Ottoman Sipahi in Civilization V): cheaper with standard invisibility for naval raider units, pillaging without costing , and most importantly, available before other civilizations unlock the standard Privateer to counter it. It is a rare unit that can actually benefit from the much undervalued Great Lighthouse Wonder and Great Admirals, since what it needs to do its job is not Combat Strength, but only . This unit alone makes the Ottomans the bane of every civilization that has coastal tile improvements or enjoys bonuses from coastal districts and settlements, such as the English, Australians, or Dutch. Technically, Indonesia, thanks to the Kampungs and their civilization ability which incentivizes coastal constructions, is also a good target; however, they are equipped with Jong, which are available at around the same time, and their ability to instantly invoke a huge armada of Jong (thanks to Gitarja's ability) can be quite a problem if you decide to pick on them.
The best aspect of this unit lies in its brilliant timing. Similar to the Indonesian Jong, the Barbary Corsair is available in the Medieval Era, before the standard Privateer is unlocked for other civilizations. The only other two naval units in play at this time are the Galley and the Quadrireme, both are underwhelming military units with obsolete stats. Also, by being a Privateer replacement, the Barbary Corsair ignores zone of control, so catching this unit with just Galleys is nigh impossible. This allows them to have a very high degree of freedom to raid coastal cities for quite a while. Try to make the most of the Medieval Era before other civilizations gain access to Privateers - combined with policy cards like Raid and Total War, you will be rewarded with a constant income of , and healing to sustain through any damage thrown back your way. You can combine this with the Grand Master's Chapel for even more from raiding, and then use this to purchase military units like the Janissaries or Bombards next era, which happens to be the peak of Ottoman power.
Overall, the Barbary Corsair is in a relatively weird place in the Ottoman arsenal, considering that the Ottomans is a land domination civilization, similar to what Dromons are to Byzantium. However, the main difference between the Barbary Corsair and the Dromon is that the Dromon is a naval domination vessel with its extra and Combat Strength while the Barbary Corsair is a support unit whose main role is to bring back as much and as it can to enable other more significant Ottoman strengths. This means while both Byzantium and Ottomans are land domination civilizations, the Barbary Corsair is much more likely to be able to contribute meaningfully on a land map than the Dromon.
===Grand Bazaar===
Anything a warmonger wants, the Grand Bazaar offers. With faster resource accumulation and an extra per Luxury resource at a cheaper cost than a regular Bank, the Grand Bazaar adds more fuel to the conquest machine of the Ottomans. Most importantly, this building is available at just the right time to increase accumulation for the Janissaries and Bombards, bringing the Ottoman army into its Renaissance peak.
In details, the Grand Bazaar boosts resource accumulation speed based on the level of Strategic Resource diversity in the city. For example, if a city has 3 sources improved, all mines will receive only +1 resource per turn faster, since the level of Strategic Resource diversity is 1. If later you improve one source with an Oil Well, all improved and sources will accumulate +2 resource per turn faster, regardless of the number of Mines and Oil Wells present. Similarly, extra from Luxury Resources count the number of Luxury types, not the actual number of improvements. Resources, Strategic or Luxury, that are outside the 3-tile workable range or placed under a count towards diversity and benefit from this building as if they were improved with their respective improvements. 
Overall, this is an incredible unique building, especially when you consider how underwhelming the Bank is compared to other tier 2 buildings in other s. The construction of the regular Bank is often delayed until much later in the game since the building is neither strong or important, but the Ottomans should definitely put more emphasis on their Grand Bazaar. And the best thing about the Grand Bazaar is that it is 70 cheaper than the standard Bank. Standing at approximately three quarters of the cost of the Bank, the Grand Bazaar represents the largest discount of all unique buildings in the game.
===Victory Types===
A Domination Victory is the Ottomans' best option, and overwhelmingly so under Kanuni Suleiman. They'll be at their strongest during the Renaissance Era, though their civilization ability will continue to benefit them as they research Steel and Guidance Systems and unlock more advanced siege units. Under Muhteşem, the Ottomans become less specialised and more able to pivot, but Domination often remains the best option - the extra and (especially) can help with war too, allowing you to maintain a modern military (and the Grand Bazaar will help). Similar to Mongolia under Kublai Khan (another land domination civilization with a generalist alternate leader ability), the Ottomans under Muhteşem should look to go to war early and then decide whether to stick to Domination or pivot towards Science Victory. The Grand Bazaar's extra resource accumulation can help out with the latter when Lagrange Laser Stations and Terrestrial Laser Stations need and respectively.
===Counter Strategy===
Despite the Ottomans being a land domination civ, they can sometimes be most vulnerable to other land domination civs. They're short on direct warfare benefits early on besides Muhteşem's initial Combat Strength bonus always applying in the Ancient Era, so you can potentially rush them before they can really build up. This is specifically easier for land domination civs rather than naval ones; siege units actually have defensive value against naval units, and Barbary Corsairs can eat most pre-Renaissance navies for breakfast and then devour your coastal infrastructure for lunch. If facing Muhteşem, delaying your attack until the Classical Era will ensure he doesn't get his strength bonus as long as either he or you is in a Golden Age.
Of course, things get tougher if you're further away from them and meet them as their snowball is already in progress. Light cavalry units tend to be your friend against the Ottomans; they have high mobility and can gain promotions that make them stronger against siege units.
==Civilopedia entry==
==Cities ==
==Citizens==
Males 	Females	Modern males	Modern females
Argun 	Acelya 	Abbott 	Galia
Artaç 	Adalet 	Eadric 	Pembe
Daan 	Behice 	Nuri 	Selin
Batuhan 	Ceylan 	Nihat 	Sila
Kaden 	Destan 	Gael 	Jacinta
Gavino 	Elçin 	Samson 	Tanyeli
Ibrahim 	Fusun 	Ichiro 	Rüya
Esad 	Emine 	Ichiro* 	Ülkü
Ertuğrul	Kevser 	Kaarle 	Sachi
Ozan 	Leyla 	Zane 	Verda
* The name "Ichiro" appears twice in the XML files.
==Trivia==
*The Ottoman civilization's symbol is three crescent moons, likely derived from the star and crescent that often appeared on the Ottoman Empire's flags.
*The Ottoman civilization ability references the siege cannon used in the Dardanelles Operation in 1807.
==Soundtrack==
==Gallery==
File:Civ6 Barbary Corsair In-Game.jpg|The Barbary Corsair, the Ottomans' unique unit
File:Civ6_Janissary In-Game.jpg|The Janissary, Suleiman's unique unit
File:Civ6 Grand Bazaar In-Game.jpg|The Grand Bazaar, the Ottomans' unique building
File:Ibrahim (Grand Vizier) (Civ6).png|Ibrahim, Suleiman's unique Governor
File:Ottoman capital in Classical Era.png|Ottoman capital in Classical Era
==Videos==
File:Civilization VI Gathering Storm - First Look Ottomans|First Look: Ottomans
File:Civilization VI- Gathering Storm - Ottomans Gameplay Premiere|Ottomans gameplay premiere with Pete Murray, Ed Beach, and Brian Feldges (beginning at 21:47)
==Related achievements==
==See also==
*Ottoman in other games
==External links==
*https://civilization.com/news/entries/civilization-vi-gathering-storm-first-look-ottomans-suileman-pc-release-date-february-14-2019/
ru:Османы (Civ6)
Category:Ottoman
Category:Civilization VI: Gathering Storm