posted 10-28-08 06:04 PM EDT (US)
Yeah I know what yall are thinking. ZOMG, another stupid topic with a nooby build order that everybody knows. This time, its a little different though. This is definitely my favorite non-water strategy as Ottoman, and I have beaten plenty good players with it.
About me:
I've played Ottoman on and off since Aoe3. Some of you might remember my Ottoman Deporter or the Ottoman Winter guide. Since then, I've improved quite a bit. Now, I'm ranked as third highest Ottoman player, and my all round rate is top 50. My eso name is VooDoo_BoSs and I've had over 400 games with Otto.
When to use this:
I favour this strategy because you get those crucial abus out earlier than the standard 700 wood BO, allowing you to combat those high RI players. This strategy works against almost any civ, but especially well against all of the Euro civs, Japan, India (you need to be a bit defensive in this case though), and Iroquois. Only time I'd recommend not using this, is when your opponent is going defensive and a semi-ff/TP-boom would be a stronger strategy.
The Deck
LAND DECK
[JPEG, (184.15 KB)]
Water deck
[JPEG, (182.79 KB)]
The Build order
Discovery
Just build a house and put all villagers on hunts. Avoid gathering the extra 200/300 wood and the coin crates if you have it, but gather the food crate if you have that.
Obviously, scout and find treasures. Food, wood, coin, all have equal importance in this strategy.
Tip: I always start herding my two nearest hunts in age 1 as Ottoman, even if they are more than a screen away. It really pays off vs a German opponent (for example) where mid colonial you need to keep a spam going while watching out for uhlan raids.
ship 3 villagers as your first shipment.
Age up with the 400 wood politician.
Transition
Shift 2-3 settlers to coin depending on the amount of coin you got from starting crates and/or treasures. After a couple games, you should get the feel for the amount of coin you have.
Gather the rest of your remaining crates, and use all but 100 wood to make houses (for example, if you had 400 wood starting off, you should have 3 houses and 100 spare wood).
When you are about two thirds aged up, send 2 forward villagers. Don't be stupid and put them right in front of the opponents base. Do it tactically by putting them next to a spot of hunts and use your forward villagers to herd those away, or better yet, a mine, but make sure you are always scouting your opponents base, because 6 minute men can always spoil your plans.
Colonial
Gather the 400 wood ASAP with the nearest 2-3 settlers. Use your forward villagers to build a barracks, then an artillery foundry as soon as your done.
Ship 700 coin as your first colonial shipment as well.
Once your barracks is up, start training Janissaries, make sure you keep scouting your opponents base. Go for your opponents villagers, but don't leave yourself open to TC or infantry fire until you have abus for support.
By the time your artillery foundry is up, you should have 700 coin in, so start training abus guns ASAP. I like to keep a couple villagers on wood so I don't get housed. Ship 700 wood next, or 3 hussars if you want to be super aggressive.
Now you should have 10 Janissaries, with 5 abus on the way. If you micro right, you should be able to take on any army that a european civ can throw at you. Your first priority is to make sure your opponent is not gathering. After that you can focus on taking down houses, then barracks, then the TC, but by this point, the game is usually decided.
Tips: VS aggressive civs, like India, Russia, China, or Aztec (sometimes Sioux, but this is usually a tricky match up), don't build forward. Build in your base, and use MM + TC fire + regular army to beat back your opponent. I'd also recommend 3 hussars vs these RI heavy civs.
VARIATIONS
Once you get the hang of Ottomans, you don't follow BO's, and you always adapt to what your opponent is doing. I was always following strict BO's for the first 500 of my Ottoman games. Here are some of my favorite variations. The first, is the water variation. It's my favorite because it ensures a solid military stream even if your rush fails, and performs very well on the 2200+ level.
Discovery: Same layout, but send one villager to build a dock and ship schooners as your first card instead of 3 villagers. After you build your dock, you should have 1 villager on wood.
Colonial: Ship 700 wood first instead. You should have a few extra villagers with the fishing boats you've gained from your dock + schooners, so you should have at least a few abus out by the time your 700 coin (to be shipped after 700 wood) comes in.
I'll edit the semi-FF variation in this, but right now I need to finish homework xD. You should see this in my rec. A lot of my recs didn't follow the super strict BO, and I'd often variate by going fortress or fish booming/TP booming, but you should get the idea of it.
RECS: I couldn't upload them here for some reason, so I uploaded them at my clan site. Everybody still should be able to download it, but you need winrar to watch it.
Download Ottoman rec pack
Of course, I'll be happy to answer any questions in case I haven't been specific enough.
About me:
I've played Ottoman on and off since Aoe3. Some of you might remember my Ottoman Deporter or the Ottoman Winter guide. Since then, I've improved quite a bit. Now, I'm ranked as third highest Ottoman player, and my all round rate is top 50. My eso name is VooDoo_BoSs and I've had over 400 games with Otto.
When to use this:
I favour this strategy because you get those crucial abus out earlier than the standard 700 wood BO, allowing you to combat those high RI players. This strategy works against almost any civ, but especially well against all of the Euro civs, Japan, India (you need to be a bit defensive in this case though), and Iroquois. Only time I'd recommend not using this, is when your opponent is going defensive and a semi-ff/TP-boom would be a stronger strategy.
LAND DECK
Water deck
Just build a house and put all villagers on hunts. Avoid gathering the extra 200/300 wood and the coin crates if you have it, but gather the food crate if you have that.
Obviously, scout and find treasures. Food, wood, coin, all have equal importance in this strategy.
ship 3 villagers as your first shipment.
Age up with the 400 wood politician.
Shift 2-3 settlers to coin depending on the amount of coin you got from starting crates and/or treasures. After a couple games, you should get the feel for the amount of coin you have.
Gather the rest of your remaining crates, and use all but 100 wood to make houses (for example, if you had 400 wood starting off, you should have 3 houses and 100 spare wood).
When you are about two thirds aged up, send 2 forward villagers. Don't be stupid and put them right in front of the opponents base. Do it tactically by putting them next to a spot of hunts and use your forward villagers to herd those away, or better yet, a mine, but make sure you are always scouting your opponents base, because 6 minute men can always spoil your plans.
Gather the 400 wood ASAP with the nearest 2-3 settlers. Use your forward villagers to build a barracks, then an artillery foundry as soon as your done.
Ship 700 coin as your first colonial shipment as well.
Once your barracks is up, start training Janissaries, make sure you keep scouting your opponents base. Go for your opponents villagers, but don't leave yourself open to TC or infantry fire until you have abus for support.
By the time your artillery foundry is up, you should have 700 coin in, so start training abus guns ASAP. I like to keep a couple villagers on wood so I don't get housed. Ship 700 wood next, or 3 hussars if you want to be super aggressive.
Now you should have 10 Janissaries, with 5 abus on the way. If you micro right, you should be able to take on any army that a european civ can throw at you. Your first priority is to make sure your opponent is not gathering. After that you can focus on taking down houses, then barracks, then the TC, but by this point, the game is usually decided.
Once you get the hang of Ottomans, you don't follow BO's, and you always adapt to what your opponent is doing. I was always following strict BO's for the first 500 of my Ottoman games. Here are some of my favorite variations. The first, is the water variation. It's my favorite because it ensures a solid military stream even if your rush fails, and performs very well on the 2200+ level.
Discovery: Same layout, but send one villager to build a dock and ship schooners as your first card instead of 3 villagers. After you build your dock, you should have 1 villager on wood.
Colonial: Ship 700 wood first instead. You should have a few extra villagers with the fishing boats you've gained from your dock + schooners, so you should have at least a few abus out by the time your 700 coin (to be shipped after 700 wood) comes in.
I'll edit the semi-FF variation in this, but right now I need to finish homework xD. You should see this in my rec. A lot of my recs didn't follow the super strict BO, and I'd often variate by going fortress or fish booming/TP booming, but you should get the idea of it.
RECS: I couldn't upload them here for some reason, so I uploaded them at my clan site. Everybody still should be able to download it, but you need winrar to watch it.
Of course, I'll be happy to answer any questions in case I haven't been specific enough.
[This message has been edited by VooDoo o_O (edited 10-28-2008 @ 06:24 PM).]
(so hard getting a game this days!)
