Weird Otto Dude

[Papist]

A couple of days ago I played one of the strangest games of my AoE3 career.

So I joined a lobby hosted by a sergeant (I am ms) named HoHiHoHi. He was Ottomans, so I picked Sioux, which is my normal response when I see lamers. He had chosen Texas as the map, but I was not alarmed, as this is fairly typical of Otto lamers - the towers on Texas make it easier to FF without being harassed.

So the game starts normally. I have decent hunt, get a couple gold treasures, and age fast. At around 5 minutes, I notive that HoHiHoHi has still not aged up. Puzzled, I check out his home city, and am suddenly face to face with one of the most bizarre decks I have ever seen. HoHiHoHi has an array of unusual cards, such as 2 tower wagons, 4 tower wagons, 8 cows, and 20 sheep. He also has no age 1 cards.

My br, which are out raiding, go into his base and find that he has built a livestock pen, and is gathering off of cows. Hypothesizing that he is trying to fast revolt, I start to mass up units to hit him when he ages up to 4. I continue raiding.

I am out raiding when all of a sudden, 5 spahi attack my vils. However, I am too slow, and lose 5 before my br get into position and kill all of his spahi. A minute later, I kill 3 spahi that are trying to run in for another raid.

At this point, I decide to kill him in 3, and mass br. I run into his base to find a fort foundation, and knock off half the hp before running out. He ages again, and ships 6 spahi' my 40 br easily kill them. I kill his fort and a shipment of 5 mams and 6 barbary corsairs. HoHiHoHi starts losing all his stuff, and resigns after a shipment of ronin and manchu get kited to death by my br.

After the game, I check the ladders and find out that he has actually been beating 2nd lieutenants with this strat lol.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So has anyone else encountered this guy? What do you remember?

[gibson]

Yea iv played him before. He always revolts after he sends both factories and a mercenary army. Basically the only way it works is if you overcommit under his fort when his cav pop or just play like shit.

[evilcheadar]

Don't call him weird Otto dude, call him pioneering Otto dude.

[Jaeger]

I've played vs a guy on nilla way back and I think he was aging with 4 cows and making a pen and shipping livestock with otto lol

[purplesquid]

I played vs him as french. Saw his deck and pushed in with 7 cannons 20 halbs and 20 goons soon after he hit 4th age. His strat sucks but could really catch some people off guard. The age 4 merc shipments are actually a pain to deal with. . .

[yemshi]

I have actually lost to him.

[yurashic]

He is a funny guy who only plays on large Texas as Ottomans and does this dumb build every game - ff, send 5 spahi, age with 3 spahi, send 6 spahi then merc armies.

[DerMaxinator]

Sounds very gold consuming... Did he send gold or just gather abnormally much?

[bobabu]

It's good that there are still people like him who try different things and perfect it.

[MCJim]

It''s good that there are still people like him who try different things and perfect it.

Ye, I call it the new meta soon.

[Papist]

I think the only way this would work is if someone didn't check his deck and assumed he was playing the way an Ottoman usually plays on Texas (standard mams/vet jans/cannons FF). Since his deck is all livestock, spahi, and mercs, it's not difficult to get a general idea of what he wants to do if you bother to check.

I didn't know he planned to FF towards the end - I just thought he was going to send all his merc armies and spahi and make a death push. I'm glad I was Sioux - br kiting hard countered his strat, and I think Sioux are the only civ with the age 2 potential to take him down. Instead of being forced to age for goons, I simply dumped all my resources into age 2 cav.