In Empire: Total War with DarthMod (especially versions 8.0 and later), the Ottoman Empire frequently suffers from extreme turn lag — sometimes lasting 2–5 minutes between turns. This is not standard game behavior; it’s caused by a combination of:
The AI’s navy gets stuck trying to sail from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean (or vice versa) through Istanbul. It recalculates this path 50 times per turn.
The Fix:
Manual alternative: As soon as you start a campaign, sail a single sloop of your own and block the Bosporus strait manually. This physically prevents the Ottoman AI from trying to pathfind through it.
A dedicated modder on Total War Center created a standalone pack file that overwrites the Ottoman AI personality scripts. This is the cleanest fix.
Installation:
What this fix does: