Silver Bayonet homebrew nation Ottoman Empire

[EvilGod]

TLDR: I home-brewed the Ottoman Empire and the Dervish. The Dervish uses the Champion of Faith statline but decreases Courage by 2 and increases Melee by 2.

The Long Story:
When my friends and I got our hands on the Silver Bayonet rulebook we immediately started comparing the different nations and found that not all nations had a "signature soldier", a soldier choice only that nation could take.
Russia has the Werebear, Austria the Dhamphir etc. Spain and Prussia don't have one but share the Swordsman.
This seemed like an oversight or was it some kind of game balancing? Or even a fluff reason? Or were we just missing some other boon that those two nations get?
We were stumped, so i wrote to Joe McCullough over at his blog http://therenaissancetroll.blogspot.com/ and he answered within minutes.
And his answer was "I tried to give nations things that fit and didn't worry too much about exact balance (I'm not sure many people would think a Vivandiere and a Werebear are equal!)[...] It's just all meant to be fun.". =)
This gave me the final push to create my own nation, because I came across some very nice Afghan Tribesmen by Perry. Up until then I was planning to use the random nation my friends didn't pick.

So I looked at the models I would like to take and at all possible soldiers from the book and who could take what. My nation would get all the soldiers that any nation can take:
Artillerist, Doctor, Infantryman, Sapper, Grenadier, Light Cav, Junior Officer, Supernatural Investigator, Heavy Cav, Veteran Hunter
In addition my nation can take the Occultist, because what's more pulp than a Occultist in a turban.
Then I started on my signature soldier the Dervish. I got the idea from an old X-Box Game Gladius and several other games, where the Dervish is a quick sword fighter. So first i was planning to base him on the Swordsman maybe with Speed 7 or something.
But after reading up on the Dervishes I found that they are actually considered to be monks and holy men, known for performing miracles. The "Whirling Dervishes" are only one of many orders and their trance inducing dances are shown by dance troupes as tourist attractions.
So I switched to the Champion of Faith as a base for my Dervish but made him more melee centric to honour the original idea by decreasing Courage by 2 and increasing Melee by 2. I talked this through with my playgroup and they agreed that the Dervish could stay the same points cost as the Champion after loosing the attribute Supernatural Veteran. In addition i swapped to Fencing Weapon, because I feel that eastern sabres are more a Skill Weapon than Power. He doesn't get a pistol, same as the Champion.
This makes my army currently the only one that can take the Spells and Miracles Attribute at the same time. This makes them very versatile in their fight against the Harvest Men.

With the Dervish done I started thinking about, what to actually call my nation. Reading up on the Near and Middle East during the Napoleonic Era I found that Afghanistan started playing a larger role only after the Napoleonic Wars during the "Great Game", a proxy war between Britain and Russia.
But the Ottoman Empire had some influence on Napoleon and his wars. Especially during the Egyptian Expeditions.
So I went on Wiki binge about the Ottoman Empire and unearthed two facts that stuck with me:
1. The Silahdars were a bodyguard division for the Sultan, chosen from distinguished veterans and soldiers that volunteered for and survived suicide missions. So I added the Guard to the soldier choices.
2. The Ottoman Empire never had the largest or strongest army, but they made up for this with a well oiled logistics structure. So I opened up the Tacticians Attribute for the Ottomans. I am still unsure if they should get access only to the Tactician as a soldier or only the attribute, or both.

I hope you enjoyed this look into my design process. I have not played a game yet but hope to get some games in after Christmas.
As a thank you for reading until the end here is a handy spreadsheet of all soldiers and nation options and a minimal squad builder.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G-WQHqk44TABYe0OO-OuuiO4orQMuPq3zp1zEQZA6dw/edit?usp=sharing

[Grumpy Gnome]

Sounds good, I like your thought process and look forward to seeing you continue to develop this. I do find the Ottomans very interesting..

[Hitman]

Thanks for the spreadsheet. I was going to make one as well but you saved me some time. I was also planning on doing one for all the beasties too
Regards
Hitman
😎

[BZ]

Very nice idea, and it is very good to take a look in your development process!

[PullusPuer]

Thoroughly enjoyed this, and have just the figures.  Will post once table ready.