The third Friday Update in our series on random maps, picked this week by you, the public, is going to be about the map Rhodopes. I'm reasonably sure the name doesn't ring any bells with most people, but if I give away that it's yet another map in the Greece-Rumelia-Balkans collection, that may give you a clue. The Rhodope Mountains are actually a mountain range that makes up a large part of Rumelia, sitting between the Aegean coast at Thessalonica and the Balkan Mountains of Bulgaria. The name of the Rhodopes is rather misleading, as while the region does contain some rather large mountains, it also contains some rather large natural lakes. The Rhodopes are located these days in Bulgaria, though the southernmost parts of it are in Greece, and it will not surprise you that due to the natural lakes, the region is now a prime location for hydroelectic power plants.
Apart from the fact that they were located in Rumelia, the Rhodopes aren't known to be an area of great strategic or economic importance, though they did host the occasional fight between the Byzantine and Bulgarian Empires. They are an area of truly outstanding beauty though, and that made us decide to use this region and turn it into a random map. The first person to name the Rhodopes as a possible map was AOE_Fan, after which I carved the available information into an idea of the map. Actually, this maps owes a lot to two pictures that I found on the Wikipedia page covering the Rhodopes, which are in fact this rather excellent picture and this even more stunning picture. The whole map is set in an autumn theme, and this is not because the Rhodopes are a Great Lakes-like region where it always seems to be autumn, but to best recreate those stunning images. If I may say so at this point, I'm not disappointed by the map, and I think it looks almost exactly as wonderful as the two pictures I used for the outline. All credit for actually turning the map to life goes, as usual, to AOE_Fan.
The main feature of the map is a large lake
In the last two weeks, we've done a linear scan of the map, highlighting some of the more interesting things to come across while doing so. This week, we're going to start in the middle of the map, and move outwards, in a sort of circular fashion. This is not to daze or confuse anybody, but because that's how the map's best described. Our starting position on the middle of the map is a bit wet. The main feature of the Rhodopes map, not unlike the Rhodopes in reality, is a frankly enormous natural lake, surrounded by hills on each end. Apart from water-powered electricity generation, which, I've just checked, is a bit outside our timeline, there's not much to do with or on the lake, and as such it merely serves as a barrier. The lake doesn't contain any fish, nor does it hold an HC Water Flag, and to make matters even worse, or actually better, the building of a Docks is disabled. The lake then would seem to be merely decorational, and of little use, but actually, it serves a major strategic purpose that we'll get to talk about later.
Dense forests have grown like carpets over the lower mountains
Stepping a bit further from the center of the map, onto the shores, we immediately see a thick forest approaching. Clumps of forest are placed close together on Rhodopes, and altogether they cover something like three quarters of the land on the map. The terrain of the entire map is hilly, not unlike the real Rhodopes, which are after all mountains, and the trees grow over these hills, creating what I think is a spectacular sight. Occasionally the trees may give away to a little open area, but they are few and far between.
From a strategic point of view, all these forests look very good, and to a degree they are. The sheer number of them makes sure you'll never run out of wood, even if you were to spend it like a maniac. This ready availability of wood is something to consider when playing on Rhodopes, as it may be beneficial in both base building and the training of troops, if you choose those whose cost consists mainly of wood. Moreover, the villagers you have ordered to collect wood will never have to wander far from your base, as the base itself will be surrounded by enough trees to keep up wood supply for the entire game. The forests, while excellent from a resources point of view, also have a downside though. Because they are so very dense, and leave little room in between them, they don't provide nice open plains for extensive base building, and probably more importantly, they don't give you any chance to fight out a battle on a nice open battlefield. Instead, the trees will cause your troops to break formation while moving, and micromanaging your armies while they fight may be more difficult. A thing to consider though is that your enemies will have exactly the same problems, and if you make wise use of them, you might just turn it all to your advantage.
Is this the end of the world? No, it's the ends of the map
The forests I mentioned above are only a part of the map. The central lake isn't round, and to the north and south of the map, it continues, until finally, and rather close to the edge of the map, it passes into land again. This shape of the lake, which looks vaguely like that of a human eye, may not look like much important, but it affects the map to an enormous extent. As I've said before, the lake is not passable, it is as much a barrier for troop movement as it is a decorative piece of the map. The fact that troops can't use the lake to get about forces all movement to occur through the passes north and south of the lake. Holding these is of extreme strategic importance, as controlling the passes means that the area behind it is completely safe from enemy attacks, and doesn't need to be defended. This may remind some people of the way the New England map from unmodded Age of Empires III works, and Rhodopes does indeed share a number of strategic features with New England. Fortifying the passes makes excellent sense, and given the plenty of wood around the map, one is unlikely to run out of the resources required to do so.
Have you seen the bears? Well, they're the main huntable on Rhodopes. It may all be beautiful, but the Rhodope Mountains are quite a rough place, and bears are all that you are going to find. Bears, and most other predatory huntables in K&B, behave slightly differently from the usual animal. They won't necessarily attack you because they don't like the look of your new suit of armour, but they will give you a slight beating if you take the fight to them. A group of Peasants can handle them without too many issues, so there's no explicit need to worry, but bears require a bit more 'handle with care' than, say, Deer.
Good Highway Code dictates to always build your Town Center on top of a hill
In between the forests, several more things are happening. First of all, there's a Barbarian settlement on either side of the lake. This should make it rather easy for each team to secure one settlement, and as such they aren't a strategic hotspot, though they might of course serve rather a useful purpose in an armed conflict. In Free-for-All games though, it's something different entirely. The Barbarians are still there, but as you now share their accesibility with some of your enemies, trying to build and maintain a Trading Post on them is far more important, and also far more difficult.
Further to the edges of the map, player placement takes place. All players in the same team always get placed on the same side of the lake, close to one another. In FFA games, players get placed in a circular manner, though the lake is still present, so some enemies will be closer than others. Team games give an excellent opportunity for multiple players to adopt multiple strategies. In a 2v2 game for instance, one player on the team could focus on the defense of the two passes, while the other, not having to be bothered with defense, could do an effective boom. Rushers aren't completely unwelcome on this map though, an early rush could take out an enemy before either of the passes becomes walled shut, which would of course give your team an enormous advantage over the enemy. On FFA games the map hasn't got any particular strategic points of interest, and all main strategies can be applied.
Something of extra note is perhaps that we learn from our earlier maps. I'll not name the map here, but in another map with hilly terrain in K&B, the area around the Town Center is as hilly as the rest of the map, which makes base building rather unpractical. What we decided to do with Rhodopes is put all the player areas on a large hill with a flat top, so that there is always enough space for the first few buildings of your base, and it will certainly look better. The player areas are also the highest areas on the map, their hill being larger in all dimensions than the hills that make up the rest of the landscape.
The map has plenty of Sheep wandering about
Coal mines provide the needed coin
Rhodopes is, not unlike the previous maps we've been through, rather focused on a single resource, this being wood. The forests of beech and pine trees that fill most of the map provide more than enough wood for even the most outrageous wood spender, and it is then a resource you don't really need to worry about. Food is something else. As Bears are the only huntable on the map, and there aren't too many of them about, food gathering on Rhodopes mostly depends on herdables and agriculture. Agriculture is obviously the easier option, but having your Lord walk around the map in the early stages to collect as many Sheep as he can (and there are a lot on this map) may be very beneficial later on in the game, when the Sheep have fattened. Since you're undoubtedly going to build one or more Manors to fatten them at, it may also prove a good idea to train some more herdables from there yourself, as an alternative way of collecting food. The degree to which you do this is free though, so you could base all your food gathering on agriculture, you could make a mix, or you could even build it entirely on herdables. Coin on Rhodopes cannot be found through metal, but instead through coal. Coal Mines will feature on many maps in K&B, but in Rhodopes, they completely replace any metal Mines. Coal Mines offer a similar amount of resources but look quite different from ordinary Mines. The number of Coal Mines is average, so while there is no shortage of coin on Rhodopes, it isn't too plentiful either.
A typical minimap for Rhodopes on a four player FFA game, just after game start.
Just like we did last week, I leave you with a minimap. I feel that particularly on this map it's important to have one, to really see the importance of the many forests and the large central lake. Words just don't cut it where Rhodopes is concerned, and my descriptions count for nothing against the excellent visual impression given by a minimap. I do hope you'll enjoy playing on Rhodopes by the time you'll be able to, as I personally think it's one of the more strategically unique and aesthetically pleasing maps ever made for Age of Empires III.
it looks beautiful but do you change a little bit gameplay, I mean this mod will be more like Age Of Empire 3 or Asian Dynasties ? Because in expansion cavalry was lame and combat was lame and IQ was lame
Well, we're certainly not aiming for lameless. Whether or not it'll turn out to be, nobody knows, but if we think something isn't useful enough, we'll change it so that it is.