Age of Mythology EE maps detailed guide

Lunatic -a rank 1 AoM EE player- documented what's important about the various maps in AoM, he looked into the scripts of each map and loaded them into the editor to investigate all relevant information. He also has tips on how to play in all of them.

 

Alfheim

Alfheim Info:

• 4 - 6 gold mines per player (not including starting gold)

 

• Very wall-able map.

 

• Lots of safe food, 875 - 1750 food of chickens/berries in your base.

 

• You will always start with 2-5 elk in your base.

 

• There is always a deer pack of 3-8 deer per player.

 

• 1-2 packs of “bonus hunt” that will either be 2-3 aurochs, 3-8 elk or 3-6 caribou.

 

• 2-4 starting cows and 2-6 extra cows on the map that can spawn either alone or in groups of 2.

 

• 4 relics for 1v1 spawns.

 

• 75% Chance of Forward TCs

 

 

Alfheim Tips:

• Typically boomy map because of the very high number of gold mines meaning it is very hard to gold starve, and low-ish amount of outside hunt to fight over.
  
  
• Look for good places to wall between cliffs and forests, you can wall up on Alfheim easily to stop raids.
  
  
• Pay attention to relics, with 4 relics there is a high chance there will be good ones.

 

Anatolia

 

Anatolia Info:

• 18 fish on each side of the water, spawning symmetrically in roughly evenly spread trios
  
  
• Always 2 starting gold mines
  
  
• There are always starting boar close-ish to your TC, 30% chance of 3, 60% chance of 4 and 10% chance of 1

 

• 2-4 gold mines (not including starting gold) per player for 1v1s, 2-3 in tgs

 

• Extra gold mines are always in the middle of the map

 

• You will have 1 TC to the side of your base, and 1 TC more towards the middle.
  

 

Anatolia Tips:

• You can’t go for a gold starve too early because of the high amount of base gold, but since all the gold is forward and trade routes are always short on anatolia, late game gold starves are common.
  
  
• Fish are always close to the shore so dock spamming to protect your fish is strong. When defending your fish, garrison into docks as enemy ships approach and eject when they leave.

 

• Early Land aggression to take out docks is effective on this map because the docks are far away from the base, but you will need ships on water as well to protect your land units from enemy arrow ships.

 

• Villagers building docks on the side are very vulnerable to harassment from other villagers or archaic units such as scouts or set animals, and successful harass is very disruptive.

 

• Avoid letting your opponent take over one side of the water for free, always try to establish a dock since it is more expensive to destroy a dock than to build one.

 

Ghost Lake 

 

Ghost Lake Info:

• Has 50% chance to spawn with 2 starting gold mines

 

• 52.5% chance for 2 gold mines, 40% chance for 3 gold mines, 7.5% chance for 4 gold mines per player (not including starting gold)

 

• 1-2 packs of starting hunt of either 1-2 aurochs or 1-3 boars
  
  
• 1-2 packs of “nearby” goats with either 1-2 goats in each pack, and 3-4 packs of “far” goats with always 2 goats in each pack
  
  
• 1-2 packs of 4-10 Caribou bonus hunt outside your base, and 1 pack of 1-2 Polar Bear
  
  
• 1 clump of 4-10 Berry Bushes

 

• Settlements spawn sideways instead of forwards

 

Ghost Lake Tips:

• Playstyle highly depends on how the Gold spawns which is extremely variable
  
  
• Scouting a bit further away from your base initially should give you more goats, especially on the frozen lake in the middle, which is a possible spawn point for the goats of both players.
• Early on it is usually worth contesting/raiding the bonus hunt spots outside the base.

 

Marsh

 

Marsh Info:

• 6-8 starting deer
• 4 starting pigs, and 2-3 packs of 2-3 pigs that spawn in centre per player

 

• 2-3 further-away (42-120 distance away from TC) Gold Mines not in centre for each player (not including starting gold), and a 15% chance to spawn a “safe” large Gold Mine in the base of both players (<30 distance away from TC) and 1-2 centre Gold Mines

• 4 large hunt packs of Boars/Aurochs (1200 food+) spawning in the centre per player, 2 hunt packs on the side of medium to large size (800 food+)
• 2 relics spawning per player, typically spawning around the edges of the centre
• 1 safe side settlement and 1 forward centre settlement per player

 

Marsh tips:

• Grabbing a forward town center quickly can let you secure a lot of hunt in the middle and is a good idea in certain matchups
  
  
• While there is some hunt on the side there is a lot more hunt in the centre, so the centre is more important for food income via hunting.
  
  
• The generally safe gold and large number of pigs means it is sometimes better to let your opponent take the centre and try to boom or contest it at a later timing where your civilization might be more powerful.

 

 

Mediterranean

 

Mediterranean Info:

• 4-5 packs of 3 mahi fish per player of which at least 2 are guaranteed to be near the shore (3 on a 5-pack spawn), and 1 pack of 2 perch fish per player
• 2-4 starting pigs, and 5 pairs of outside pigs per player

 

• Starting hunt of 1-3 boar/2-3 aurochs

 

• 3-4 extra gold mines not including starting gold

 

• 1 settlement will always be close to your town center, whereas the other one has a 50% chance to spawn much further out

 

• 1-2 packs of 5-9 deer, and 1 pack of 400-1200 food of boar/auroch further away, 1-2 clumps of 5-9 berry bushes (not including possible starting berry bushes) per player

 

Mediterranean Tips:

• The water is very open and the distance across it is short, so prepare for intense fighting for water. It is important to have very good build orders to give yourself the best edge possible in the fight for water.
• It is easy to get gold starved so make sure you have safe gold before committing too hard on water, and you can also use a gold starve to win despite losing water.
• Try to use the deer, berries, chickens, and pigs before investing too many resources into farms for extra food if you still have some fishing income on water.

 

Midgard

 

Midgard Info:

• 0-2 starting cows and 4-8 starting berries, 17.5% chance of having 1 starting boar, 7.5% chance of 2-4 starting boar
• 2-3 nearby trios of salmon fish per player (<80 distance from TC), 3-5 faraway trios of salmon fish (>90 distance from TC) and 4 singleton perch fishes

 

• 2-4 gold mines per player (not including starting gold)

 

• One pack of 4-8 deer, one pack of 4-9 caribou/elk, 2-3 packs of 2-6 walrus per player

 

• 75% chance of forward TCs

 

Midgard Tips:

• The gold mines are generally very aggressive on this map, scout well to know where they are and if a gold starve is possible or if you are at risk of being gold starved, and balance land and sea well.
• Take up as many uncontested fishing spots as possible to boost your economy, building docks on fish trios near the shore. When defending your fish, garrison into docks as enemy ships approach and ungarrison when they leave.
• If you need to do a lot of hunting because you aren’t getting enough food income from fish, hunting dogs is worth getting.
• Unless you can win overwhelmingly on land, don’t just give up water, the extra food income from fish is very important.

 

Oasis

 

Oasis Info:

• Always has: 2-5 starting zebra, with a 40% chance to be just outside starting vision, 1 hunt pack with either 2-5 Giraffes or 2-3 Giraffes and 0-4 Gazelle, at a distance of 70-95 away from your town center, 1 hunt pack 4-8 baboons/monkeys, 1 Clump of 4-10 Berries per player
  
  
• 2 packs of 1-3 goat 50-70 range away from your town center, and 3 pack of 2 goat much further away (80-150 range) per player, and 2 starting goat, so 12 is the average number of goats.
  
  
• 4 gold mines per player
  
  
• 30% chance of 1 centre forest, 30% of 2 centre forests, 40% of 4 centre forests

 

• TCs almost always defensively and safely positioned (40% chance of a “forward” tc spawn, but forward tc spawns are still generally defensive on oasis)

 

Oasis Tips:

• Due to the safe TC positions, high number of Gold Mines, low amount of hunt to fight over and large amounts of herdables to eat in base, it is recommend to go for a boomy economical playstyle on this map.
• If there are multiple forests, scouting the center usually yields more goats since the goat spawn areas for both players overlap there.

 

• Try to use hunt, berries and chickens before consuming goats, and make sure to build farms while consuming goats so you don’t suddenly run out.

 

• If booming, make sure to wall up the map after taking your town centers to stop raids and take control of the corners to deny trade routes for your opponent.

 

Savannah

 

Savannah Info:

• Starting hunt: 10% chance of 3-5 zebra and 2-5 gazelle, 20% chance of 2-3 zebra, 60% chance of 1-2 rhino, 10% chance of 4 rhino
  
  
• 1 pack of 3-9 gazelles/giraffes 52-70 distance away from town center per player
  
  
• 1 pack of hunt consisting of 400-1400 food of zebra/giraffe/gazelle/zebra and giraffe spawning 85-105 distance away from town center (note: this hunt often spawns closer to your opponent than you if you are unlucky!)
  
  
• 1 pack of rhinos/elephants averaging 1400 food 80-110 distance away from town center per player
  
  
• 1-3 starting goat and 1-8 extra goats spawning in packs of up to 3 per player.
• Gold mines often fail to spawn which can lead to an odd number of gold mines, usually 7-10 total (not including starting gold).

 

• 75% chance of forward settlements.

 

Savannah Tips:

• It is recommended to play very aggressive in the early Classical Age to fight for the large amount of forward hunt that will spawn on this map, especially since there is a low amount of base food and herdables.
  
  
• The trick of “counting gold mines” where counting an odd number of gold mines means you have missed scouting one doesn’t work here, since there is often an odd number of gold mines on this map.
  
  
• Although there is a large number of gold mines, sometimes the gold can spawn very aggressively so a gold starve is still possible.

 

Tundra

 

Tundra Info:

• 6-8 starting goats or berry bushes
  
  
• 6-7 starting caribou, and one very close hunt pack that has a 10% chance of being 5-6 caribou and elk, 20% of being 5-6 elk, 60% of being 2-3 aurochs and 10% of being 4 aurochs.
• 2 packs of 4-5 caribou and 1 pack of 5-9 elk at 50-80 distance away, and a packs of 2-3 aurochs at a distance of 80-110 away per player.

 

• 1 extra pack of 2-3 auroch and 1 extra pack of caribou/elks/aurochs/caribou+aurochs with an average of approximately 900 food that can spawn just about anywhere, per player.

 

• 3-5 gold mines per player (not including starting gold)

 

• 75% chance of forward settlements

 

Tundra Tips:

• Gold starves are very frequent with the aggressive map layout and sometimes low number of gold mines.
  
  
• You should try to hunt as much as possible, and raid or push on your opponents hunt whenever you have opportunities to.
  
  
• Forward settlements that protect gold and hunt are very valuable, and quickly taking them is often the right play against Gods that lack pushing power.

 

Watering Hole

 

Watering Hole Info:

• 3-8 gazelle starting hunt, and either 2-3 hippos or 2 rhinos.
  
  
• A pack of 6-10 gazelle or a pack of 6-10 zebra and 2-3 pigs just outside the base. 20% of the time both the Zebra and Gazelle will spawn.
  
  
• 6-8 cranes, 1 hunt pack of either elephants, giraffes or hippos further away from the base along the edge, averaging 1300 food, and 1-2 more pigs along the edge further away.
  
  
• 2 centre hunt packs per player. Hunt pack 1 has a 50% chance of being 2 elephants, 25% of being 5-6 water buffalo which spawns with 2-4 zebra half the time, and 25% of 6-9 gazelle. Hunt pack 2 has a 50% chance of being 3 hippos, 25% of being 4-6 zebra which spawns with 2-4 giraffe half the time and 25% chance of being 4 rhinoceros.
• 2-3 gold mines along the edge of the map per player (not including starting gold), and 2 gold mines in the centre per player.

 

 

Watering Hole Tips:

 

• Because the map is very large, being aggressive is difficult, but still possible with forward building and being able to hunt the middle.
  
  
• Because you usually get safe-ish gold near the edges of the map, gold starving is often difficult on watering hole. In the late-game, the water helps protect trade routes and the large map makes them efficient, so it can be difficult to stop. Instead, securing a 4-2 tc advantage is often a bigger threat.
  
  
• Look for opportunities to use transport ships to do side builds and raids through water bodies, and siege ships to take down town centers from the water.
  
  
• Because of the large amount of safe hunt, safe gold, and the big map, boomy play is very effective as long as you have a way later on to secure your forward town center
  
  
• If your forward settlement secures a lot of hunt, taking it quickly is usually a good choice, since the big map discourages aggression and the hunt in the centre is often insanely high.
  
  
• Because of the water, walling is cheap and effective on watering hole and should be used to prevent raids to your side of the map.

 

• This map will always have forward settlements.