1- Abus Gun
I do not know where even the name comes from. Turkish translators interpreted it as “obüs”, which is a word adopted in 19th century from French word obus which means “cannon ball”:
Ottomans had hand cannons from early times to late times. Obüs was a late era name of the gun. By the way, word obüs refers to howitzer in Turkish. All guns that were able to carry without help of wheels were called “tüfek” and still are called “tüfek”. So, most of abus gun or flintlocks were called tüfek even though they are not same. And since janissaries in game. are not called “tüfek” then why would abus gun unit is called abus gun? The soliders who used abus gun were normal ifantry themselves, they did not belonged to another ocak (barracks). I know that adding a secondary musketeer to Ottomans to balance them with other civs is important but still… Maybe call them “bashi-bazouk” (başı bozuk).
2- Ottoman Grenadier
Until after abolishment of janissaries, Ottomans never used grenades (el bombası in Turkish). And only wide spread use of grenades was in World War One. The reason was bombs (named humbara) was thrown at enemy using mortars. And grenadiers in the game, even though named humbaracı, never use the humbaracı equipment. They instead throw their grenades more similar to Chinese or European grenadiers.
3- Ottoman hussars?
So, Ottoman have got horse archers (akinji and deliler used horse archery if needed so it is accurate) and hussars. Hussars? Yeah I know Ottomans adopted Russian hussar uniforms on their short lived Hamidiye Cavalry (although they were just tribal cavalry) and in World War One, Ottoman officers used German hussar uniforms but hussars being a primary cavalry unit is so off. The fact is, Ottoman primary cavalry and army in classical era was sipahi. Janissaries were recruited in limited numbers because they only could be recruited from devshirme and not every devshirme in training passed the tests to be janissary. So, sipahi who were trained in timar (taxed farms) by a veteran from ordinary citizens was costituting large numbers of the army. In the game, sipahi are very rare and can not be even recruited. Ottomans used infantry in sieges, cavalry was used in every battle outside walls.
And upgraded hussars are called “cebeci”, cebeci were infantry bodyguards of the sultan. They were never a cavalry and they never intended to be employed to a battle field.
4- Something about nizam-i djedid
Nizam Fusiliers have a good in game model and a similar unit was needed in the game but my problem with nizam fusiliers is, they only joined one or to battles before disbanding. Only successful attempt of modernizing Ottoman army was Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye (Ever-victorious Army of Muhammad) or in short, Asakir. Nizam-ı Djedid was a failure. Egyptian revolution gives ability to recruit nizam fusiliers but they never got deployed in Egypt, Egyptian governors used eyalet (local recruits) troops instead.
5- Ashigaru…
In Tanegashima year 1543 Japanese army met the matchlock musket and these muskets were named tanegashima muskets. Ashigaru was constituting the majority of army and they always had secondary arms because tanegashima muskets were not designed with ability to fix bayonet on them. In game ashigaru walk and act like European musketeers but in fact they were spearmen with guns. And also gun usage was not limited to peasant army of ashigaru.
6- Fire arrow
Japanese army had fire arrows in real life but in-game fire arrows were never mentioned in any source. Fire arrow (bo-hiya, hiya taihou or hiya zutsu) were hand mortars that one infantry used against inflammable target. Samurai using it in sieges, Japanese sailors using it against enemy ships and wokou pirates using them in raids are mentioned. In-game fire arrow is looking more similar to European cannons. Japanese cannons until Satsuma Rebellion were foreign imports. Japanese instead preferred to climb walls using kaginawa grappling hooks and ladders instead of breaking walls and rebuilding them later.
7- Samurai misconceptions and yabusame
Samurai were not just swordsmen, they were very talented and trained in all fields. After several defeats against Emishi, Japanese army started recruiting samurai who trained to fight both on horse and on foot. They were proficient in archery, sword, spear and even in guns (during rule of Oda Nobunaga Battle of Nagashino 1575 - YouTube ). Yabusame was a sword archery training sport of the samurai, naming an unit yabusame is like naming British archers “target shooters”. Japanese word for swordsman is kenshi. In fact, against cavalry charge of elite samurai the peasant recruits named ashigaru used spears.
Thanks for reading.
Sorry if my language is too impolite and do not hesitate to correct me.