Known 1: The standard Ottoman rush relies on shipments to power it.

Known 2: Colonial shipments end.

Known 3: Surviving until the Ottoman's shipments have been exhausted, is the key to suriving the rush itself.

Known 4: While shipments last, the Ottoman is able to nearly constantly stream Janissaries at his opponent, thanks to not having to pay food for villagers and not needing many miners.

Known 5: Once #3 is in effect, it is fairly easy to turn the tables on the Ottoman, as he is able to stream Janissaries no longer.

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Proposed: if one is able to extend the ability to stream Janissaries at one's opponent much longer, perhaps even indefinitely, there is next to nothing to stop said Ottoman player from slowly, gradually, but surely grinding his opponent down to death.

How to achieve the above? Quite simple, actually. Trade Route resource generation, and Silk Road. This is the strat I've been developing sine the time of that "Resign epidemic" discussion that I got so much flack for.

It doesn't just work on a few maps, it works on ALL maps where you can get even 2 trade posts set to resources. Infact, I just finished a game where I did it on Yukatan using just two 117XP trade posts (which translated to 152 food each with Silk Road).

Being able to set 2-5 trade posts to food, using 5-7 villagers to mine gold and 3-5 to chop wood (housing), we can have the rest of the villagers on food to nearly continuously pump Janissaries from two Barracks.

Now just imagine for a second, how you would deal with 10 Janissaries arriving in your base every 34 seconds? If you think you'd have enourmous trouble dealing with that even if you made it to Fortress, you're correct.
Now imagine that these are upgraded to 305HP and 26 ranged attack, 19 hand attack x2 vs cavalry Janissaries. Now imagine that they are supported by 2-4 Falconets as well, and you will begin to understand the threat such a "rush" poses.

But the strength of the rush doesn't end there. If you send Silk Road right after 5 Janissaries as you hit Colonial, every, single, crate that you send from that point on, is enhanced too. You are powering your rush not with a 700 food and 600 food crates, but with 910 and 780 food crates. Apply the same to gold, and even more valuable ... wood.

Infact, when you want to go to Fortress, all you need is to send your 600 gold crate, and it actually gets you there faster than had you sent a 700 gold crate normally. The power of Silk Road cannot be underestimated.

But, many people will tend to use it wrong. They will tend to delay their rush by making it their first Colonial card. They will delay their rush by not using the 400 age up wood to build a forward Barracks and research stage coach. No, delay the sending of Silk Road until after you have sent 5 Jans. Make sure the rush arrives exactly as a normal one would. Make sure you harass early and not give up. Not for a second. Do not let your opponent breath even one sigh of relief.

You will find your food income so huge, depending on the number of trade posts powering it, that you'll be able to get the first two Mosque upgrades for villager train time. You'll also find yourself with spare gold much of the time if you had more than 7 miners. This will allow you to research the first villager cap upgrade as well. Assuming you don't forget about it half the time like I do.

There is the drawback that your trade posts will not be generating XP. This, however, is almost made up by the amount of units you end up training locally, and by the amount of enemy villager, units and buildings you will destroy. For example, in the game stats linked to above, I had produced 106 Janissaries through the course of the game. And that's with me forgetting to train reinforcements half the time.

Know that Skirmishers are no threat, if you have enough Janissaries (note that I built no Abus Guns, they weren't necessary). 305HP Janissaries put in melee mode and upgraded with Military Drummers (I have Advanced Arsenal in my deck) catch up to and rip apart small to medium groups of light infantry.

Know that cannons are no trouble either. Here's how you handle them. You set your Janissaries to stagger formation, and you manually move them right next to the Falconets. Just as you are about come upon them, switch the Jans to melee mode and immidiately click on the closest Falconet, to break the "pause" that occurs after a formation change.

Alternatively, you can use your massive wood crates (910 and 780) to power an insane fish boom WHILE you have your Silk Road trade posts working for you. If you get this going, you will be able to maintain a stream of Janissaries from three Barracks. Or if you just wish to stop an opponent's fish boom, these massive wood crates will allow you to construct 2-3 Outposts on each shore to make fishing extremely difficult.

There is a trick to leaving any starting or age up crates at 20 resources, until Silk Road arrives and gives +30 resources per each crate that originally contained 100. Normally this is alittle too micro intensive to bother with. My own attention is usually occupied with scouting, treasure hunting and even enemy explorer/scout assassination. But if you see no good treasure or think you can handle babysitting a villager while also scouting well, then go for it. It can yield you an additional 300 or so wood (depends on starting crates).

Lastly, note that when you take down the enemy TC and likely force him to relocate/scatter, do remember that you've just broken though the trade post "forcefield". You can now build trade posts that you weren't allowed to before, since they were too close to the starting enemy TC. This can make a difference in a close game. For example, on Carolina it can mean two additional trade posts, doubling your resource generation from the route.

I included no build orders, because frankly if you don't know how to perform a standard Ottoman rush, or Ottoman rush with a fish boom, then you need to learn those first. This strat is more of a modification of standard Ottoman thinking, rather than a detailed and strict build order.

And there you have it. A rush that unlike your standard Ottoman fair, does not become exhausted when the 700/600 crates are gone. How you use this newfound strength, is up to you.

[This message has been edited by Ender_Ward (edited 10-16-2006 @ 00:35 AM).]