N3O Age Of Empires and Starcraft 2 Clan

Hi everybody. One thing I like to do is learn strats to handle various situations involving different civs. Of course you need to be flexible in AOE3, but if you can internalize lots of different, distinct strats, you wind up having a "bag of tricks" that becomes second-nature. I brainstorm often and I have a basic idea of how to handle any civ with my Germans and most with the Brits and Russians. My question today is mainly for the Ottoman players, but I welcome everybody's comments about this:

How do you approach an Otto on a water map? Ottos' low settler count is a major weakness early game, but their TP and big shipments make up for it by providing a potent rush or FF. But they do not have the same problems on a water map, where they can supplement their settler count with schooners. That extra econ boost makes them really, really dangerous...they can get jans and abus in large numbers quite fast. Is a quick attack the way to go if you scout a fishboom? What should you expect?

Assuming a proper fish boom, Ottoman will have sent schooners as first card and taken 400 wood poli on aging. If you can therefore hit him early (Iroquois fast age up maybe?) he will have maybe 10 janns at best, very little econ and rely on MM to protect his base.

Scout his base and kill any settlers/troops then kill his dock rather than allowing garrisoned settlers to shoot you up in his base. Send caravels or equivalent to kill any fish boats he already has out. Camp outside his base and starve him of resources - a couple of hussars raiding his maybe 10-12 settlers could finish it.

lol i never used a schonners as ottos. thnks for the tip!

[quote=""dragonshinobi""]lol i never used a schonners as ottos. thnks for the tip![/quote]

Learn how to fish-boom. Guaranteed 2-3 pr bump just from that...

I think it all depends on the civ you're using yourself. If you have something like brits, which has a way bigger capacity to boom (land and sea) than ottos you can just boom along and fight him in both land and sea, using the space and time that he must give you at start.
Rushing with a civ like brits after spotting a boom on your oponent's side can cost you the game if not programmed to the detail becasue the very early rush capacity of a civ like brits (or dutch, or any boom civ) is quite crappy so you'd rather just do what your civ does best to beat him.

With Iros, for exemple, the best choice would probably be a well timed strong rush.

Using schooners as otto is good. You don't NEED to play it right away either. You can be hard on your opponent and sea boom later. Also be careful who you sea boom against (i.e. ports).

Sea booming is really really fun.

Specially because spamming upgraded janis with card with fishing eco behind is very hard to stop. Very strong.

otto is a civ where they have a weak econ offset by a supreme military force. kind of like sioux in some ways, so when they kick their eco a swift kick in the arse with schooners it gets pretty op :[

schooners is kind of like, uhm. giving sioux a good economy actually

Ship a galleon once u hit age 2 then spam jans-grens-abuses from it

[quote=""36drew""]Using schooners as otto is good. You don't NEED to play it right away either. You can be hard on your opponent and sea boom later. Also be careful who you sea boom against (i.e. ports).

Sea booming is really really fun.[/quote]

I agree that an early schooners boom it not necessarily the best route. However, when playing against otto and you scout a dock being built before they hit age 2 then (unless they are wasting wood) you have to assume the played schooners first. I think you have to raid in that instance.

Even 3 hussars followed by 2 caravels (or equiv) is a strat that almost all civs can follow and can stuff their econ real early.

[quote=""petevas""]Ship a galleon once u hit age 2 then spam jans-grens-abuses from it [/quote]

it slows you down tho, u need to wait for the shipment to arrive, then move the galleon to the right spot near the shore to be able to train units

it could be used for a surprise gren rush maybe

Thanks for the replies, guys. I know there is no clear answer to my questions; I like all the observations you're making. I don't play Otto myself, but I play against them often and have difficulty contending with pressure + schooners. Ruminator is right that schooners normally do not come first, but rather as a "kick in the pants" to the Otto colonial eco. Early pressure with Jans and abus THEN schooners really can kill slower-moving civs. First they damage you early, then they overboom you.

I remember a few QS games I played with Russia and I just couldn't beat a schooner-backed Otto econ. I killed all his early Jans and backed him up in his base, but the schooners brought in tons of coin and food. That let him get about 10 jan-protected abus together which wiped out my army.

With Germans I usually do my best to harass his villies to death with my uhlans, then either charge him in colonial or parry his jans until I get to fortress. Of course, my scouting will tell me what to do

As Russian, the hardest thing I usually face is actually a FF (yeah, it still exists) with Spahi, Mam's, Abus, and cannons...wipes Russia off the map..schooners or not.

[quote=""Soccerman771""]As Russian, the hardest thing I usually face is actually a FF (yeah, it still exists) with Spahi, Mam's, Abus, and cannons...wipes Russia off the map..schooners or not.[/quote]

You are so right. This was the strat that beat my Russia every time. I sometimes would win by sending Manchu, but most of the time I watched spahi devour my pitiful strelets and/or muskets in less then 2 seconds. And who the heck FFs with Russia?? Otto FF v. Russia is virtually a guaranteed win for Otto.

You can pressure him to death. All or nothing. 14 vills age up with russia and then build only troops, no vills. Get Muskets and raise his 2 houses. He might get 5 Hussars or 4 Abus from his FF. 5 Hussars you can beat with your Muskets /Cossacks and 4 Abus have no chance vs your Cossacks. Pressure him all the time that he can't gather the food or gold for Spahis /Mams.

But watch his Deck. If he plays CM it's tough. Then you have to go FF yourself (semi-FF actually). Try to get a TP soon.