I used to play alot of Odin between 1650-1700 and my answer to the Loki rush was:
- age as early as possible, with 2-3 guys on gold and 2 on wood maximum
- no upgrades, except for hunting dogs when there's hunting available as starting food
- first heavy on food for aging, switch some to wood during aging for longhouses and TA (which counter Hersir pretty good, because of bonus damage and "ranged vs. slow")
- train 1 Hersir from the temple so u have 2 builders
- make 2 longhouses ASAP and start training TA
- TA train faster than Hersir and Einherjars so u should be outnumbering him soon (don't be shocked when his first 2-3 Hersir start attacking your tower and try to take them out with your first TA, but wait for the right moment)
- move villies away from his army
- try to lure the battle towards TC-fire
- keep making villies!!!!
- build extra longhouse as soon as your eco can support a bigger flush of units
- don't overdo on building houses. Spend the wood on TA and watch your pop/popcap carefully.
Of course this didn't always work, but I got a fair percentage of games where I stopped the rush, destroyed his FB and ended up with a better eco. Then the usual raiding and trying to get to heroic earlier and Odin has a good chance of winning.
Good luck.
[This message has been edited by Xenophanes (edited 08-15-2003 @ 11:38 AM).]