The fourth and last Friday Update to cover random maps in the current series is the one not picked by you for last week, it's Dalmatia. And to get straight down to business, there will not be 101 maps of the region, there will be just one. It's a good one though. Dalmatia is the region that makes up the majority of the Adriatic Coast in the Balkans. This long coastal region features an awful lot of islands, some large, others relatively small. Further inland to the East they give way to the hills of Croatia and Bosnia, to the west across the sea is Italy, to the South are the Ionian Islands and Albania, and to the North is Istria, Veneto, and eventually the Alps and Austria. There's something important in there, Veneto. Dalmatia, due to its many islands and long coastline, was always destined to be colonised by a naval superpower, and so they were. In the timeline of K&B the Dalmatian islands, as well as a number of cities inland, belonged to the Republic of Venice. Venice itself, being a city built on islands, did not have plenty of space, and a lot of activities that would normally take rather a lot of space, like agriculture, took place in Dalmatia instead. With the Adriatic Sea as a naval motorway to the capitol, La Serenissima was essentially kept running due to its possessions in Dalmatia. After the Middle Ages Venice lost most of its colonies in the Adriatic, and the region was instead divided between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, later the Austrian Empire. Today most of it is in Croatia, though the southernmost parts of it are ruled of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Player placement (and treasure gathering) goes on in the hilly inland part of the map
We find ourselves in the easternmost area of the Dalmatia map, surrounded by rolling hills. This hilly area away from the coast is where everything happens at the start of a game. Players are placed alongside the coast in a straight line, and get only very limited resources around them. This player placement is always the same, whether in FFA games or in Team Games, which makes Dalmatia a very tricky map to play. Your enemies will be right up your throat from the moment you start, and they really are something to reckon with. In the middle of the region is a single Barbarian settlement, regardless the number of players, and it belongs to the Avars. The Avars aren't a particularly good or bad Barbarian civ, they're just balanced, but having an alliance with any subciv is always beneficial, so the fight for the settlement will be on from the start, and it is not unlikely to switch hands often.
Concentrating on maintaining a Trading Post with the Avars is not the only possibility on this map, but if you want to, it may make sense to set up a secondary base (or a primary, if you play a Nomad game) right next to the Barbarian settlement, and build your town and all the defenses that come with it next to the settlement. This way at least you can be assured that you'll always have the no-population Barbarian units, as well as a better chance on a Trade Monopoly. There are more ways to get there though, and we'll go through them later. Building your base with the Avars does of course have its disadvantages, as you'll be cut out from the resource-rich seas, and have to rely on the more scarce inland resources.
The Coasts of Dalmatia are as much a maze as they are art
Dalmatia is a naval map, so there's HC Water Flags
Going slightly further west, the land starts to give out to the Adriatic Sea. One at a time, a dozen islands start to appear. Between these islands, each player gets an HC Water Flag, as you would expect, but contrary to what you might be expecting, Dalmatia does not come with a starting ship. Greek Archipelago, another naval map, gives each player a Cog from the start (except for the Italians, as they have the Merchant Ship instead of the Cog), but Dalmatia doesn't do this. The absence of naval transport from game start may not mean a lot in normal games, but in Nomad games, it makes a major difference, as it is now necessary to first settle down on the land, build a Docks and train a ship before any migration is possible to the many islands, which of course have a major defensive advantage over the mainland.
It's made of wood, and it's got a sail, and it floats!
Naval trade socket, in dire need of a retexture
The rest of the map is filled with islands, except for a strip down the middle, going from the North to the South of the map. Why? Well, this is where the naval trade route is. K&B will have multiple maps with a naval trade route, one of which, Bosphorus to be precise, has already been shown before. Naval trade routes work in exactly the same way as land trade routes, but instead of people and funny carts, there will be ships passing. On Bosphorus, the trade route is very much similar in fact to the usual fare, as the trade sockets are right besides the trade route, but on Dalmatia, that's slightly different. Dalmatia has many islands indeed, and on each one of those islands there may be a socket, no matter how far it is from the actual trade route itself. This makes for some really interesting strategic thinking, as the ones further away from the trade route will be much easier to defend than they would have been if they were right next to it. Either way, holding these sockets will give you a massive advantage over your enemies, and possession of the trade route is certainly something to aim for on Dalmatia.
Naval trade routes have sockets that look a bit different than those on land. Yes, it's an SPC Drydock, and before you ask, it's going to be retextured. What AOE_Fan and The Dude found out when they were trying to make the naval trade route work, and very interesting it is, is that a Trading Post fits perfectly in between the two parts of the building. This way, apart from looking quite nice, naval trade sockets are instantly recognisable, and look different than land trade sockets, making it easy to distinguish between them. At the moment we don't have any maps with both a naval and land trade route, but if we were to add any in the future (and who knows we might) this should be nice.
When the mainland starts running out of resources, turn to the islands for more
Coal Mines, Fallow Deer and some undefined Trees
Given what I wrote about previous maps, it'll be a delight to find that the number of resources on Dalmatia is actually quite well balanced. It must be said, none of them is too plentiful, but none of them is too scarce either. Most resources are on the islands though, so colonising at least some of the islands is nigh on a necessity. There are many of them around though, so the number of resources per island isn't entirely enormous in itself, and some good old island hopping might even be necessary. This ties in nicely with the possibility to build some Trading Posts along the naval trade route, so it is the recommended course of action. Might you want to stay inland, it is possible to do so, but you'll have to rely on autogatherers and agriculture for your resources, which is generally not ideal. If you are about to recreate history and play as the Italians on Dalmatia, it is especially recommended to use the sea and islands to your advantage, as the Italians have some major bonuses that they can only make use of on water.
The resources on Dalmatia are pretty simple. Like some other maps including last week's Rhodopes, coin gathering will be done at Coal Mines, particularly as there are no whales in the sea, only fish. These fish are your primary food source, but there are Fallow Deer on the mainland and the islands in case you need more. Wood isn't all that plentiful on the inland part of the map, but there's a decent amount to be had on the islands. Autogatherers, agriculture, treasures and the trade route are of course all possible ways of attaining more resources if you are in need, even though getting resources from treasures is surely one of the more desperate ways of running an economy.
A typical minimap for Dalmatia on a four player FFA game, just after game start.
- Quoted from peugeot407
LOOKS freaking good ! But dude where gonna be update, because it's the better mod I've ever seen and I would like to play it :D
ok I get it I must wait few weeks or months.