Screw it, I'm too tired to write up the narrative I wanted to and apparently I'm slotted to do yard work all day. So here is a brief summary of Turk ship performance.
I used the Uyumayan, Sadik, Cellat and five destroyers against Tsargrad, Severomorsk and Spiridoff (eek).
In terms of my battleship (Cellat -- a modified Machtigsten): The fire arrows made all the difference at first, as the warheads drew first blood on Spiridoff. I expended all of them at once and got four hits, 3 of them penetrating. Those quick 12 VPs helped, because from then on the damn thing just outgunned me (8D12s against 4D10s). The Turks should have decent BBs, but not unstoppable ones, and this held true.
Cellat had support in the way of my destroyers, who rushed it at near suicidal range. I expected to lose these guys and their life expectancy was indeed crap. I was able to get four out of the five Kovalas right at PB throughout the battle, launching 8 D6(X2) torpedoes and landing 2 hits. Four more points of hull damage, for 16 VPs, but then the Spiridoff's 30 FRIGGIN light guns and oodles of secondaries blew three of those little guys to dust, which means my opponent got 15 VPs in exchange. So a flat out draw in terms of those exchanges.
With the cruisers, I was a bit more lucky. Uyumayan and Sadik were outmaneuvered at first due to initiative rolls and the Russian's superior speed. But my gunnery rolls shone early on, landing a pair of hits on Tsargrad. Here, the fire arrows proved wildly unpredictable, 20 rolls and only ONE penetrating hit. But still, Tsargrad took some hull hits, lost engine speed and miserable Russian gunnery rolls gave me an edge. (I think fire arrows are great, flavor-wise, with the Ottoman fleet. But in terms of winning/losing, I strongly prefer powerful torps -- D10s and D8 weapons -- when going against capital ships). Each cruiser had five left after those first volleys, but the rockets never amounted to much here.
The Turks are a very colorful fleet, though, because Cellat has poison gas shells with its secondaries, and these were what killed Tsargrad, as a long range contribution from my battleship later in the battle saw billowing waves of chlorine gas slaughter the last surviving Russian crewmen -- the cruiser left to drift dead in space 8). Severomorsk was hurt bad, Tsargrad was dead, and Spiridoff ended up losing 10 hull points and a few secondary and light guns. Cellat was losing its ass by the end -- a dozen hull hits and some vaporized mounts, and I lost three destroyers. The turn limit helped me here. My cruisers took a few knocks, but came out on the winning side.
I may add a smallish cruiser to the Turk roster. But I like the theme so far, and I already know what kit they will NEVER see: lightning projectors, FACs or Hales.
I dunno if anyone else will get a chance to try them, but I'm happy with how they're working out. It'd make my day to see 'em get the nod and maybe (one day) some art work to go with the polished PDF.