I just did a clan game with the Ottos and I was pleasantly surprised. Now that abus are not the standard option in team games, I did an old-fashioned janny rush with good results. Since I love muskets, I could really get used to janny spamming Yes, they lost some HP, but the bonus vs. cav is great and the extra attack is handy for overwhelming units early on.
My old build in discovery involved a mosque and the millet system. Now, there are more options. A trade post is always nice on maps with TPs. But I find that a janny spam really benefits from a hunting upgrade. How about using the extra wood for a market and hunting dogs? Or should you just wait until you send 700 wood for that?
Now that abus are no longer "technically lame," I think I can officially lift my ban on weekly abus abuse. I will not impose a limit on myself for spamming jans at 4:50 :-P
Abus are still OP for what they do IMO.
They still beat Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Canon and Light Cavalry nicely, and have the range to back it up... Only LI in Colonial Age to really hurt em is LB, and considering they're in most senses of the word mirror units it's pretty annoying.
Jannisary rushing works good in some team games/vs someone you know will FF in my opinion, but most of the time I find it really easy to take down Jannisary, and the otto economy doesn't support the spam as well as most other musket civs. Then again it's doable and fun, also unexpected often.
ottos are better now as the colonial age goes on, weaker abus though and "different" janns(less hp, more attack by +1, cheaper upgrades).
throughout the colonial age you can easily afford adv arsenal, guarding your abus better etc., mostl through the arsenal change and the delivered settlers
however, i think their fortress age and on is remarkably weaker, in both miltiary and ecowise
spahis take now much longer to arrive, only 4 mams, abus upgrade costs much but not as strong as before, the deliverd settlers are unimportant if you got 2 or 3 tcs up, as you'll make up for it fast, while you had much cheaper church techs to support the vill spam.
they are a bit more like other euro civs now, but the new bonuses won't kick in before you really know how to handle them
like damnit said, you really have to know if you go more miltary or more eco/upgrade wise at some points
i liked the silk road type of ottos the best, to bad they don't boost them the classical way
I can finally do an ok Otto rush, last night I played as the ottos on the fan patch and through quick search managed to find a master sergeant who played as brits, and I almost got him, I almost took down his tc. Though I think I was too quic to go to age 3 cause then he massed a bunch of longbows and hussar, and while I was making his hussar run through my jans to get my albus, his lbs took out my janns too fast and my whole army was obliterated. If only on my initial push I had taken out his tc.
mass jans , harass with hussar , semi ff and ship falcs + spahi is fun to do vs brits , i have to disagree with the comments that ottos were boosted only for colonial , these vill techs have a major impact all the way thru game - if u can get an extra 5 vills in age 2 this means that your total resource intake will absolutely dwarf an otto eco w/o the added vills , these boosts are a HUGE gain to ottos that increases the longer the game progresses
[quote=""deadhanddan""]mass jans , harass with hussar , semi ff and ship falcs + spahi is fun to do vs brits , i have to disagree with the comments that ottos were boosted only for colonial , these vill techs have a major impact all the way thru game - if u can get an extra 5 vills in age 2 this means that your total resource intake will absolutely dwarf an otto eco w/o the added vills , these boosts are a HUGE gain to ottos that increases the longer the game progresses[/quote]
not huge if you got 2 or 3 tcs up in fortress, then you benefit way more from the church techs as they were before and especially more the longer the game goes ;-)
yes , it is huge , if you don't agree play a game on es patch or 1.0 , look at eco timelines , then play on 1.1 then look at the ''improved'' resource timeline , huge difference
Most games don't last past colonial so I don't think that faster villager creation rates are really worth it, compare this to civs we know have 5/4 villager cards in Colonial, eg - Iro, Brit and watch how good their econ can get if they use these vs most other civs in Colonial.
5 villagers is significant early game, once you hit colonial that'd be like an extra 1/3 economy...
[quote=""Cammel""]Most games don't last past colonial so I don't think that faster villager creation rates are really worth it, compare this to civs we know have 5/4 villager cards in Colonial, eg - Iro, Brit and watch how good their econ can get if they use these vs most other civs in Colonial.
5 villagers is significant early game, once you hit colonial that'd be like an extra 1/3 economy...[/quote]
very true man, but i think you meant "once you hit fortress"
[quote=""Aaryn_GenD""][quote=""Cammel""]Most games don't last past colonial so I don't think that faster villager creation rates are really worth it, compare this to civs we know have 5/4 villager cards in Colonial, eg - Iro, Brit and watch how good their econ can get if they use these vs most other civs in Colonial.
5 villagers is significant early game, once you hit colonial that'd be like an extra 1/3 economy...[/quote]
very true man, but i think you meant "once you hit fortress"
see dan :-P[/quote]
No, Dan said +5 vills in colonial, I'm saying you could get them straight away and have the econ boost.
What do you guys think of the TP/silk road option. Is it dead and buried now? I am thinking with a 400 wood start this could still be viable, with the trade route income paying for the mosque techs, making an even stronger boom!
Also, what do you think of 4 mams now? Is it still a must have card, or are there others (I'm looking at 6 stradiots in particular) which you would consider replacing it with?
[quote=""Cammel""][quote=""Aaryn_GenD""][quote=""Cammel""]Most games don't last past colonial so I don't think that faster villager creation rates are really worth it, compare this to civs we know have 5/4 villager cards in Colonial, eg - Iro, Brit and watch how good their econ can get if they use these vs most other civs in Colonial.
5 villagers is significant early game, once you hit colonial that'd be like an extra 1/3 economy...[/quote]
very true man, but i think you meant "once you hit fortress"
see dan :-P[/quote]
No, Dan said +5 vills in colonial, I'm saying you could get them straight away and have the econ boost.[/quote]
whoops i totally misread it then.
my opinion still stays the same though^^