Evilprodigy
Donor
I have to wonder what Egypt is doing in all of this. There was some mention of despotate troops from there in the newest update but Egypt's gotta have more. Ottoman Egypt in 1600 had 5 million people.
Lombardy was just stated in the update to have a 3 to 1 advantage in population over Sicily, which controls OTL Kingdom of Naples and Sicily. In 1600 that had a population of 4.05 million people.
However ITTL both of these realms will have far higher populations and larger economies, from immigration from Germany, the Imperial Heartland, Russia, the Balkans, and other parts of Europe as well as the longer periods of peace, more advanced, efficient, and centralized government (Under the Despotates as opposed to being ignored tax farms for Spanish and Ottoman empires), social organization, lack of civil war (Mamluks did a lot of that), and a better trade network in the eastern Mediterranean increasing the profitability of their products and, thus, likelyhood of larger families.
It wouldn't be odd to throw in an additional million to each of them, and if even 1% of that population (a low number) was under arms Egypt could muster 50-60,000 people to throw against the 70,000 Ibrahim just sent into Syria while Sicily would have 40-50,000 to hold the line against Lombardy, plus whatever small amount Carthage can muster and any units still present in Sicily (I forget about the status of Latium and Umbria). Ethiopia could also send troops to assist if it wanted to, which could potentially turn the edge against the Ottomans if a combined army of Ethiopians, Egyptians, Tagma troops, and local allies in the Levant such as Arab tribes (Anizzah IIRC were a major roman ally but I don't recall much of them recently) and militias. It wouldn't be as good quality as a centralized force the Ottomans have but given what we saw of the Ottoman army's nitty-gritty at Nineveh they are far FAR more disparate in levels of quality, both in training and equipment, than even this coalition force would be.
Sicily would have to make do holding off in the Italian hills with whatever aid they can get from Carthage, Venice, and the Heartland. The Imperial Navy will be of most use here since they can harry the coasts of Lombardy, forcing Lombard units to remain away from the front to defend their coastal cities, and disrupt trade which would make it much more difficult to regularly pay Lombard soldiers.
There is also a possibility that the Romans could, if they can get their incomes increased a bit more with that graduated income tax among other things, hire mercenaries. Romans don't like mercenaries all that much at all but desperate times and all that.
Lombardy was just stated in the update to have a 3 to 1 advantage in population over Sicily, which controls OTL Kingdom of Naples and Sicily. In 1600 that had a population of 4.05 million people.
However ITTL both of these realms will have far higher populations and larger economies, from immigration from Germany, the Imperial Heartland, Russia, the Balkans, and other parts of Europe as well as the longer periods of peace, more advanced, efficient, and centralized government (Under the Despotates as opposed to being ignored tax farms for Spanish and Ottoman empires), social organization, lack of civil war (Mamluks did a lot of that), and a better trade network in the eastern Mediterranean increasing the profitability of their products and, thus, likelyhood of larger families.
It wouldn't be odd to throw in an additional million to each of them, and if even 1% of that population (a low number) was under arms Egypt could muster 50-60,000 people to throw against the 70,000 Ibrahim just sent into Syria while Sicily would have 40-50,000 to hold the line against Lombardy, plus whatever small amount Carthage can muster and any units still present in Sicily (I forget about the status of Latium and Umbria). Ethiopia could also send troops to assist if it wanted to, which could potentially turn the edge against the Ottomans if a combined army of Ethiopians, Egyptians, Tagma troops, and local allies in the Levant such as Arab tribes (Anizzah IIRC were a major roman ally but I don't recall much of them recently) and militias. It wouldn't be as good quality as a centralized force the Ottomans have but given what we saw of the Ottoman army's nitty-gritty at Nineveh they are far FAR more disparate in levels of quality, both in training and equipment, than even this coalition force would be.
Sicily would have to make do holding off in the Italian hills with whatever aid they can get from Carthage, Venice, and the Heartland. The Imperial Navy will be of most use here since they can harry the coasts of Lombardy, forcing Lombard units to remain away from the front to defend their coastal cities, and disrupt trade which would make it much more difficult to regularly pay Lombard soldiers.
There is also a possibility that the Romans could, if they can get their incomes increased a bit more with that graduated income tax among other things, hire mercenaries. Romans don't like mercenaries all that much at all but desperate times and all that.
