Tankers!

Another fortnight has passed, and that means it's time for another Clan Spotlight. This time around, we have a look at Ottercratic Teutonic Theocrats of the Eternal Reich, the clan that somehow found an acronym to spell out [OTTER] for their Clan tag. This clan has shown that they have what it takes to be an elite Clan Wars Clan, and we celebrate their one-year birthday by putting them in the Spotlight.

We interviewed these players to learn more about [OTTER]:

Allurai [OTTER] - Commander, I do everything that is not actually fighting people in tanks and recruiting.

Huck_ [OTTER] - Deputy Commander, basically yells at everybody to focus fire in battle

Please visit the extended interview thread to see more from this interview

Absolute Tank Companies to win yourself some gold or watch it on You can challenge [OTTER] this Wednesday at 4:00PM PDT inTank Companies to win yourself some gold or watch it on Twitch to see how this Clan has achieved success in battle.

When and how did your Clan form?

Huck_ - Some of the senior officers in PBKAC wanted to start a sister clan and at the same time GSA and Black Berets were going through some internal issues. So it ended up being good timing and those three clans pulled some people together and went from there.

Allurai - Yeah our first birthday is March 11th.

How is your Clan structured? How do you delegate roles?

Huck_ - Well, that's you Allurai. You are the dictator so it starts with you.

Allurai - OTTER has generally just followed in the footsteps of Ziddy [PBKAC] and each OTTER CO has put their own spin on the "Benevolent Dictator" approach. This is where the Commander is solely in charge of clan direction/decision making and is responsible for everything the clan does to function and exist. I delegate some stuff out, specifically recruitment to other people because it is a massive time sink. I do all the diplomacy; I do all the talking between the clans; I plan all the chip movements; I organize who turns up to which battles etc. As long as I keep the DCs up to date on my plans the clan runs itself on the days I'm not there.

Hypnotik - With that kind of structure do you find members asking for more say in what goes on?

Allurai - Yes and no. For the most part, we find that the whole group has a discussion, works out what's going on and then has a vote or whatever system just doesn't work at all. We find that one person, one direction and everyone else working to implement their plan just makes for a much happier narrative for the Clan to operate in.

What is the dynamic between the Petco Clans?

Allurai - There is sort of actually two groups of Clans. There are Kitties, Otter, BADGR and FOXEY. Then the rest and that is run by KingAlphyn and his crew.

Hypnotik - What is the difference between the two groups?

Allurai - I think it's sort of that benevolent dictator approach that I was talking about. The four clans in our group are basically run by an individual and a bunch of people that implement their plan. Whereas their Clans are more of a democracy and there have been some diplomatic clashes in the past but we all live on the same TeamSpeak server. You know, a dysfunctional family.

Hypnotik - So you consider yourselves two halves of one group?

Allurai - Sure. One of the big things was that Alphyn was very clear that he was never going to take direction from some of the other groups that maybe prefer to be a little tighter knit and because of that there has always been friction. At this point it's like, "yep, well they are going to do their own thing." They really are. A bit of misconception from the outside really. I was talking with CHAI the other day and they asked "What's up with PUPEH?" and I said, "Whoa don't talk to me about them. I don't know."

What do you consider to be your Clan's greatest achievement?

Huck_ - I'd say fighting in the Purple Dawn War. We were only a month old fighting against Havok, SIMP and really good Clans that were much better than us on paper. Kind of coming together under pressure is what made our Clan stick and melded all these different parts together while the fire was going on.

What are your goals for your Clan's future?

Allurai - We don't really have any sort of long term goal. The Clan Wars map is very fluid and dynamic and changes pretty frequently with people pulling off and going other places. In between all that we have our own chaos of people wanting Gold versus people who are wanting to fight that we balance on a knife's edge by farming for a little bit and building up a treasury then going out and fighting people and continuing to be able to do full Gold payouts while we are away. Then coming back and farming Gold.

Huck_ - Basically, what Allurai said plus we would like to get Toronto back from the Kitties.

Allurai - Yeah that's important actually. Why don't you tell the history of that just so the world can know.

Huck_ - Well the Kitties kind of agreed to sit on Toronto while we went and fought a war. It's 8 months later and they are still sitting on Toronto so we'd kind of like it back.

Allurai - After Kitties lost it for themselves, we had to take it back for them but it was ransacked so we couldn't get anything from it. Then they wanted it back, sooooo maybe soon.

Do you think having players who had experience in Clan Wars and in other Clans when you began helped you get started?

Allurai - Yeah, I mean that is a difference between OTTER and a lot of the other Clans that are starting up. We had a lot of guys with a lot of Clan Wars Experience. You know DunxtonChexton and On3Sh0T were DC's over in the Kitties and we really brought over a lot of the "A teams" from GSA and Black Berets. So we had a lot of guys who were used to playing Clan Wars at a very high level every night. That definitely helped us hit the ground running and make a difference starting out versus starting from scratch.

What advice do you have for a Clan that is starting from scratch?

Allurai - One of my peeves about new Clans starting out is quite often their leadership has no experience of being within a Clan that's been on the map before. This holds back a lot of clans and gets a lot of soldiers frustrated because people are trying to jump into the "running a Clan business" before they understand what running a Clan actually entails. I consider running a clan like playing high stakes Texas Hold'em but the chips you're gambling and bluffing for is your personal time and sanity.

Huck_ - It's all about playing the game. The newer Clans should be in Landing Zones every night. They should be running Tank Companies when they are not in landing zones building that cohesion. That really is the most important thing, finding 15 guys that play well together. If you can, you will end up on the map somewhere.

What prior clan leadership decision do you regret the most?

Allurai - Oh my God I so do. Get this. This is how terrible at the game I used to be. When Rebellion, which was [-G-] subclan at the time, was breaking up and splitting off, I turned down an invitation to -G- to...go...to... Templars. Probably the worst decision of my tanks career.

Quemapueblos - Why do you think you chose that path?

Allurai - Ignorance. At the time, I would have much rather been a field commander in what I believed to be a good Clan than just a soldier in G. So dove head first into that with no idea of what I was doing. You know, going straight into leading a Clan that we then had to struggle to build and fight for to keep on the map. Blah Blah Blah and a big part of that was I didn't know what I was doing. Sure I came out after that, like a year later, knowing what I was doing but man was I burnt out from the game at that point.

Hypnotik - Do you think if had gone to G that you would be prepared for leading Otter?

Allurai - That's the thing. Probably not. I would just be a field caller. I'd probably be happier.

Quemapueblos - Any regrets Huck?

Huck_ - It's been good times and I really don't have regrets. We have fought nonstop for the last year and it's been a great time.

Have you played any of the maps that were changed in patch 8.11 in Clan Wars yet? How have the changes affected strategies on those maps?

Allurai - Well, we played on Northwest a bunch [in the CW Map Exhibition] and you may have heard about that.

Huck_ - canadianimpact gets most of the credit for that. Him and xsoldier1007 did all the calling. These two up and coming field commanders really put the exhibition teams and strats together and did a great job with it.

If you could change one element of Clan Wars, what would you do to give your Clan an unfair advantage?

Allurai - Let us have 200 chips instead of 100, while still maintaining 100 in the Clan. Then the game would be about who can field 4 teams instead of who can field 2 teams - we can field 4 teams, it'd be great. It would just mean we could hold twice as many provinces and still have enough chips to fight all the riots. Anything you can give me to get OTTER more fights would be an advantage.

Huck_ - Yeah, our attendance is really strong, so anything that would play to that.

What upcoming game change do you think will alter gameplay the most? Havok physics, turret blowoffs, destructible buildings, etc...?

Huck_ - I think there's always an adjustment period, but the better clans are better clans. When Tier X mediums came out, there was an adjustment period where it was a little bit chaotic until the meta changed with strategies and team compositions. Any change introduced I don't think will change the status quo, but there will just be an adjustment period where it takes a little bit of time for the game to catch up to the changes.

Allurai - I think maybe one change that will throw a big spanner in the works, and probably not for the better, but maybe, will be the circular draw distance. That'll be pretty big, but some maps that exist currently rely on that lack of east-west and north-south draw distance to be viable. Once you're going to have people sort of camping positions to set up the big cross-fires that will now be available, I think the game will slow down even more and favor alpha and stationary play much more than medium play. I am looking forward to this and also not looking forward to this at the same time.

Who do you think will be the top 5 for Campaign 3?

Huck_ - Can [-G-] get all 5 positions? Well, G will be right there, SIMP when they set their minds to it, I think Relic. And then there's a few fighting it out for 4/5th spots. Obviously Havok and Villain are fighting it out right now and are both wildcards; I'd say CHAI is right there as well.

Do you have any interesting traditions that are unique to your Clan?

Huck_ - We actually have a TeamSpeak icon that started out with us giving the MVP of Clan Wars for the night - somebody that carried the clan. That kinda changed over the course of the year, many people accumulated over the months, and we still give out the MVP award as a Gold bonus for excellence in Clan Wars. That's what Otter's always been about - Clan Wars and who performs under pressure to get us the win, so it's kind of a big deal to be recognized in front of the Clan for your performance.

Allurai - Clan Wars is serious business.

Huck_ - The other tradition is we try to encourage our battle callers to be the first to die, and preferably with 0 damage done.

Any shout outs to friends/allies that make your lives easier?

Allurai - I suppose I'd better mention Nemesis79[-G-]

Huck_ - I think the Kitties are generally terrible, but Ziddy is a great commander, and he deserves a lot of respect for helping the various Otter commanders throughout the year. We've had 4 commanders at this point.

Allurai - That loops back into what we said at the start - that we have one guy that is in charge, what he says goes and everyone works to that plan. When he's had enough, someone else takes Commander and they go and do that thing.

Any last comments?

Allurai - I think the main thing is that we want to thank our sub-clan PBKAC and sub-clan BADGR, and our parent clan FOXEY that have made us into the clan that we are today.

Absolute Tank Companies to win yourself some gold. To read the extended interview, please visit the Clan Spotlight: OTTER forum thread . You can challenge [OTTER] this Wednesday at 4:00PM PDT inTank Companies to win yourself some gold.

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