How to get Ottoman Carpentry with destruction of Italy.

In this walkthrough you will learn about how to get Ottoman Carpentry Achievement by ramming through the Europe.

Greetings.

Hello, everyone.
I apologize in advance for possible mistakes and typos, English is not my native language.
I know, that it is a bit late to post guide like this, but better late, than never.
I also hope that this guide will help you win this match and will save you from most troubles on your way to the Achievement.

1. Scenario overview.

This scenario is built around global Victory Point race, in which different groups of civilizations get different bonuses for different achievements. There are 3 groups: europeans, north-africans and sub-saharans. Europeans earn points for discovering artifacts and for longest railroad, north-africans - for GPT amount every turn, and sub-saharans - for culture every turn. In this scenario you play as Ottoman empire of north-africans and, by default, you should be amassing fortune.
As you might have noticed, your position in this scenario is pretty good from the first look, but right when you attempt to do anything, the whole world starts to hate you and declares war. To make things worse, if you calculate, exactly how much GPT you must earn, it will, considering all circumstances, be about 2500 after turn 50, and before it you have almost no chances of getting more, than 200.

But in all this chaos you actually have only 3 true enemies: Italy from Europeans, Egypt from north-africans and Ethiopia of sub-saharans. And here is a strategy, which will allow you to beat them all.

2. Mastering the art of Hermes.

Hermes is the god of trade, heraldry, merchants, commerce, <...> Hermes was also "the divine trickster" ...
- Wikipedia

Have you ever wondered: "what all this "Give me 10 turns to prepare" about?", especially in case of marathon time games? Well, here you have 12 turns to prepare for destruction of Italy with its' overpowered Caio Duilio Classes.
This game can be rightfully called "Everyone hates Ottoman Empire", because from the very start everyone you know looks rather angry and wishes to destroy you for no reason. But it can be easily avoided, even though at 12th turn the whole Europe will declare war on you.
0th turn is most important, because all your soon be enemies are still kind of content with your existence. Key part in preventing instant world war against you, is: don't move. While you can give commands to workers and trade units, moving any of your military units will instantly cause Europe to aggro. So, let your soldiers rest for a turn.
Relocate cargo ship to Benghazi, then order Benghazian caravan to bring production to Tunis, and Tripolian caravan - to Benghazi. Send your worker to build improvement on one of luxury sources in the desert, you will need it, when Tripoli will start to grow, and it must grow large, to work all production-giving tiles around it.
Sell all harbors. You won't need them for about 1/3 of game, which means, that you will win about 297 gold + 30 for every harbor sold.
And now - trickery. Visit every known ruler, and sell Embassy in your capital for 1 GPT. Then, go to Guiseppe and sell all your horses one by one for 2 GPT each. Also, sell him any of your luxury resources for 8 GPT (he will propose 7, but sell for 8).
You might ask, why are we doing this? As you probably know, Italy always attacks with two types of very dangerous units, which are capable of obliterating your cities in one turn when they work in tandem: frigates and Caio Duilio Classes. By selling embassies, all your horses and one luxury resource, you will get about 15 GPT. And now, if you do reverse-horse trick, you can buy out all Italian coal and iron one by one, leaving Guiseppe with only two Caio Duilio Classes and two frigates, that he owned from the start. Of course, when he will declare war on you, he will get them back and build new ships, but prior to this he will be able to create only privateers, which is actually fine, considering their overall weakness, even if three of them attack city. But you won't be able to beat these ships back in the sea, if you won't prepare your own army. You should also keep in mind, that your other enemies, Egypt and Ethiopia are not sleeping either.

3. Fourth Punic War.

The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC. At the time, they were some of the largest wars that had ever taken place. The term Punic comes from the Latin word Punicus (or Poenicus), meaning "Carthaginian", with reference to the Carthaginians' Phoenician ancestry.
- Wikipedia
(There was actually no Fourth Punic War, but Tunis is located right next to ancient city ruins.)

3.1. Preparation.

Preparation to war consists of three parts: production of cannons, expansion in southern plains and scouting all northern and western parts of Africa.

Order Tripoli to build rifled cannon, Tunis - worker and Benghazi - settler. Adjust production in cities, so that settler will be finished in 10 turns, worker - in 3 and cannon - in 7. Don't forget, that Tripoli must also grow, and fast.
At the first turn you must send cargo ship with production from Benghazi to Tripoli. Also, sell lighthouse in Tripoli, you won't need it ever. Order your riflemen from Tripoli and Benghazi to advance towards border with France, and fortify them in desert and hills, making a living wall attached to the mountains south from Algeria. The last one must remain in Tunis and fortify there for a time being. Send western sipahi as far southwest in the desert as possible, until you find Mbanza-Kongo. This is needed to get bonus gold; when you earn 280 gold total, buy caravan in Tunis and send it with production to Tripoli. Order your eastern sipahi to go southeast, past Egypt and in the jungle, where you will find Ethiopia. Scout there as much as possible, but keep in mind, that your sipahi must return to Tripoli at 14th turn. Ethiopia is surrounded by 5 city-states, which you will later bribe into being your allies against Ethiopia. Always decline Ethiopian offerings of Friendship. Meanwhile, with all caravans and cargo ships you will be able to build a cannon every four turns in Tripoli, also one in Tunis, after worker is finished. Benghazi will build your first ship after it produces settler, it will take 7 turns.
Remember to save every turn at the start, so that you can recover in worst case scenario.
Also you must always keep giving the same bonuses, while promoting each unit, because unit with three promotions in one terrain type (either plain or rough terrain) will be able to receive bonus attack per turn, or bonus range, if it is ranged unit. Rifled cannon with double attack and bonus range will be destroying cities in 5 tiles away, which is totally awesome.
After worker is built in Tunis, send him to the farm and replace it with fort. This tile is one of key defense and offence positions against Italian Empire in next 50 turns. After fort is finished, build road there. Once other worker completes his luxury resource work, order him to build road at a tile to the west from first turn of the road from Tripoli to Tunis. This tile is considered a part of Tripoli's territory, and building road there would greatly improve mobility of your cannons in defense against Italian fleet, once it gets to the Capital. You should also build roads in every tile next to existing one, because your units will move there frequently, especially if someone will decide to attack your cannons.
When your first cannon is built, send it to three-tile road distance from Tunis, place second one to the right from the first. Key part of this strategy, is that you are not preparing to defend Tunis, but to recapture it, and to keep recapturing it for next 20-30 turns. So set up your cannons and point them at the city. After eastern sipahi finishes his scouting, send him to the cannons - he will be the main unit in melee part of liberation force.
Once Benghazi completes settler, send him to the south, and found new city near border of Egypt and three tiles to the south of your own borders. This is needed to prevent Egypt from expanding further west, in your Saharan plains (they are quite fertile for a desert). You can move city position only if then you will get coal, because you will need it both for your own Ironclads, and for captured Caio Duilio Classes. But remember, that you must always be very polite with Ismail Pasha and you should stop doing what he dislikes. You will need his help later on.

3.2. Action.

At 12th turn the global war will start, several Empires usually start even earlier. Tunis will finish building cannon, when city is already bombarded by Italian fleet. Send that cannon two tile to the southwest, set it up and strike back at enemy ships with all artillery in your possession, then lead infantry into the fort and fortify it there.

Defensive positions.
Red lines - must-have roads; orange lines - good spots for roads; yellow - anti-France road;
gray square - fort; gray star - citadel;
dark green stars - positions of infantry; light green stars - positions of cannons;
yellow lightning - initial position of sepahi; blue lines - attack route.

When Tunis is captured by Italy, bombard the city from all three cannons, and keep recapturing it with sipahi. Always consider using cavalry for city capture, because mobile units can bounce back in case, that city will surely fall next turn. This way you will keep your unit alive, while infantry or melee ships would surely perish inside the city, no matter how powerful they were. Most of Italian Caio Duilio Classes will be destroyed exactly that way.
When Tunis is captured for the first time, you will be able to send your caravan to another city. Put it in your newly found city (code name Sabha), and make it carry production to Benghazi, until first privateer is completed. The main role of this ship is to defend Tripoli, luckily he is in one turn travel reach from the Capital. Guiseppe is likely to send his navy to Tripoli at some point of time, and then you will need both privateer inside it for protection and cannons from Tunis to bombard incoming enemy ships. If you give two of your three cannons (two southern cannons) an anti-city promotion, any two cannons would be enough to remove all Tunis hp. And as long, as there is 0 hp in the city, it can be safely captured even by 1hp sipahi. If either French or Italian units will try to occupy any tiles near sipahi's liberation road, move your western infantry to block their way one turn earlier.
In case Italian fleet will reach Tripoli, don't attack badly damaged privateers with cannons or city shots, it will only cause them to heal back, or, in case ship sinks, to be replaced by fresh one, or even with Caio Duilio Class, which means certain defeat. Try to attack every privateer with your own instead, until you find combination of moves needed to capture it. After you get several ships this way, the pressure from Italy will start to subside, giving you first chances to strike back: send one of your privateers to mountain islands near Egypt to plunder Italian trade routes. It is rather low move, but considering that Italy can make more ships on that money, and you need gold to buy privateers and armory in Tripoli, it is the only way. It is also rather stable source of income, and you will soon be able to buy many things you need.

Golden spot.

When attack on Tripoli stops and Assault of Tunis begins to weaken, one of your anti-city promoted cannon to the fort, replacing of infantry. You can move infantry earlier, if it is put in grave danger by enemy attacks, in this case replace it with infantry from the desert.
Also, at some point of time Italian settlers will try to break through your lands to found new cities in the south. Be advised, that they can move instantly after landing, remaining all their moves from the sea, which is 4 or 5, and settlers can instantly vanish in the Fog of War. You must get them also to receive new workers, which will build roads to all newly found cities.
After Tripoli completes building the fourth cannon, build there two settlers and Heroic Epic, then either build or buy Armory and Military Academy, and then start producing Ironclads.


One of your settlers must advance further south from Sabha to found there a new city (code name Tobruk) between small lake and Egyptian border. Another settler must go towards southwest and found new city (code name Sfax) near desert part, to prevent advance of Morocco. At some point of time you should make one last settler and put him in the middle (code name Hun), claiming the whole Saharan plains.
If everything will go smoothly and enemies won't attack cannon in the fort, Palermo will soon be defenseless. Capture it and move all your cannons forward, to make even greater pressure on Cagliari from shoreline and Tunis. After that city falls as well, Guiseppe will be ready to do everything for truce.
At some point of time you will receive a Great General. When Italian fleet begins to crumble, lead your General to the south easternmost hill of Algeria and put citadel there. Remember to protect General with infantry, or he will get brutally murdered. After that, build roads through it and everywhere to the east, in preparation to war against France.

4. The Ottoman Empire strikes back.

In this scenario Morocco tends to like you, because he is usually attacked by several Europeans as well. At some point of time Hassan will propose declaration of Friendship. Accept it, and pay close attention to your new ally, because without it he will get sad and won't prolong your alliance. And you need it more than anyone, because this way you can buy his GPT for gold, sapping out all his Victory Points. The more GPT you get, the more you can buy. It should be noted, that Morocco usually manages to somehow get even more GPT from somewhere, so he would be fine anyway.
And now, the destruction of Italy. Use your trophy Caio Duilio Classes to play ultimate ironical joke on Guiseppe and destroy his last city with his own ships. At the same time, place your most dangerous cannon in the citadel and bombard Algeria, until it could be captured by any of your units. Keep applying more pressure on enemy frigates and privateers with your own ships, remember to keep Ironclads in front and promote them in "Boarding Party" way, to maximize the possibility of ship capture. This way your fleet will grow rapidly, and with it - your authority. Then send all your cannons to Sfax and confront the advancing German army.
Buy open borders from Morocco, to capture Gibraltar with little effort. You will also later need open borders in Morocco to repair your damaged ships and newly captured ones. You will have to promote privateers in "Coastal Rider" way until they get "Supply" promotion. It will be very useful much later, when your fleet gets past northern half of Africa. But now you capture Gibraltar, and can prepare to advance into the Atlantic Ocean.
Be careful, when sailing out, because there are large amounts of enemy ships scattered all over the ocean. Weaken their hoards a little, until you can advance your whole fleet and then attack Lisbon. Around this time most of Europeans will beg for forgiveness and will be ready to pay large tributes, varying from 80 to 160 GPT. France is usually first to give up, make peace with them to minimize the damage from their navy. If possible, capture any German city near your borders, and make peace with Germany. After that, instantly sell this city to Egypt for a large amount of gold. If left unchecked, Ismail Pasha would have already built a chain of his own cities up to this position, and he will be glad to make it even longer. Meanwhile, use your navy to capture Lisbon, and then make peace with Portugal, leaving only England and Belgium as your enemies in the sea. All this will give you about 650 - 750 GPT, making you ready for a final step.

5. Wicked. Tricksy. False.

Send all your cannons to Tobruk, buy open borders from Egypt, and get ready for the meanest part of this strategy, after which the combined hatred of all Europeans will suddenly become righteous. Buy any of Ethiopian cities for all your GPT and whatever else he asks for. If you can't buy any cities, sell Hun and Sabha to Egypt for GPT, Pasha will gladly pay a fortune for them. When city is bought, instantly declare war on Ethiopia and sell your new city to Morocco for anything he can give. Bribe Egypt into attacking Ethiopia as well, and then keep pushing them as long as you can. The best units to attack in Ethiopian territory are Cavalry and Infantry, promoted with rough terrain bonuses. You can also bring workers to remove forests on tiles, that prevent your cannons from bombarding Ethiopian cities. Be careful, because Belgium is somewhere nearby, and they might join the fight.

Don't mess with Belgium.

At some point of time Ismail Pasha will to get bored and will end the war. You should also make peace with Ethiopia, but not without robbing it of it's GPT first.
If your peace treaty with Germany had already expired, and you have 30 turns left or more, you can declare war on Germany for even more income. But keep an eye on his Brandenburg class ironclads and privateers roaming the middle part of Atlantic ocean.
Your Unstoppable Armada will continue pushing south through the ocean, increasing in numbers and damaging England and Belgium even more. In the end they will give up, and gladly pay you a fortune each. Instantly bribe Belgium into attacking Ethiopia. They won't make peace at all, having such a large military force. Then all you need to do, is wait, bribe city-states and keep buying out GPT of Morocco and, if Ismail Pasha will decide to form a Declaration of Friendship, Egypt also. When your peace treaty expires, repeat city stealing trick and declare war again. You can also use it on Boer or Zulu, in order to sell their cities to either England or Portugal.
City-states play a great role in this scheme for several reasons. First - they give you bonuses, such as happiness and luxury resources; second - they have large armies and do almost as much damage to Ethiopia as Belgium; third - some of them, especially Mogadishu, act as a great weeping boy, causing nearly half of Ethiopian army to attempt to capture city-state, that is protected by both it's army and a well-placed river.

Cunning plan.

Very soon Ethiopia will be divided, and captured. In this last war you should keep Ethiopian cities for yourself, to get more VP for land and population. To speed up your last enemy's destruction, you can damage several cities, surrounded by your allies, and then make peace with Ethiopia, only to buy their most intact city, if such still exists. Other cities will get captured the next turn, because Ethiopia always moves last in order (before city-states). With your main VP rival destroyed, nobody will be left to challenge your evil authority, especially because you either bought out or traded out all north-african nations' GPT.

6. Conclusion.

And that is all about how to turn the world around and make a loss into a victory. From heroic efforts in defending your cities you came to getting control over the whole Atlantic Ocean and large portion of Africa. You have learned how to use cunning and evil schemes of bankrupting your enemies and rivals in both PvP and AI matches. And now that you know how it's done .. don't do it.

Sincerely,
realGuybrush.

[Vombata]

yes and yes

[realGuybrush]

Did you place 1 citizen in workshop in Benghazi? Also, is your happiness level above 0?

[Vombata]

yes I have

[realGuybrush]

Hello, and sorry for a very late reply. Don't worry, you're not dumb, this achievement is really hard. Different seeds won't help much, as shoreline on this map is hardcoded, and only interior changes. Did you send caravans with production to help building cannon?

[Vombata]

Am I actually just dumb? I spent about 11 hours replaying (on 3 different seeds) the beginning and Im always ALWAYS overrun by Italy, by turn 16-18 I lose my main city (Tripoli). I have been able to recapture it , but by that time I fully lose hold on Tunis and Tripali has like 4 population if not less. I do everything exactly as the guide tells me. I have seen only 1 difference in my game from the guides statements. When on the 0th turn I set my cities to produce worker, cannon and settler. The worker does in fact get done in 3 turns, however, no matter if I put all my production to max and sending all the carravans to proper cities, on the 0th turn my cannon is minimum done in 9 turns instead of 7 and my settler absolutely always done in 11 instead of 10. What am I doing wrong? I dont get it

[realGuybrush]

I meant, that instead of selling unnecessary items 1 by 1 for most GPT you should buy needed items 1 by 1 for least GPT. In this scenario, reverse horse trick would be to buy all coal and all iron for 1 GPT each. Because they won't sell it otherwise.

[Chill]

what is the reverse horse trick

[realGuybrush]

At the end of 34th turn. I didn't sell it for several reasons:
- it gives coal to support your caio duillio classes, which you should've captured, because, obviously, they'll give massive boost to your military power
- it gives a lot of money over ~70 turn, gives luxury resources, and opens marine way from Tripoli, for the same reason you should capture european cities in Gibraltar and buy tiles to have a free way out of Mediterranean Sea
- selling cities to Egypt is profitable only as a mean to sap Egypt of their GPT; selling cities too early and/or too cheeply might bring them more profit, than they would lose on that purchase: your goal in this is both getting profit and making life difficult to your opponents, and Egypt is your main rival GPT term.

[Virran]

On which turn you captured Palermo? Why you didn't sell it to Egypt or Marocco because it is greatest boost for your economy?

[mycroft113]

Still works; this is a really hard one! Between this guide (which is awesome) for the first 60 - 70 moves, and mix in some tips from Robert Kalweit's guide (~ 2014), for the last 20 or so moves, I finally, just-made-it won on Turn 99! Took me 3 or 4 tries; however, I kept my same map throughout to ensure I knew the landscape. In the end, (for seas) captured Caio Duilio-class Ironclads & (on land, against Ethiopia) cannons, riflemen and cavalry all rule!!