Skip to content

Guide to Anatolia

Published 3/14/04, AoM: TT v1.02

By Tom Barak

Anatolia - Map Guide

Image
______________________________________________________

Anatolia of fact and history was a hotly contested area located in Asian Minor, and in 1923, was declared the republic of Turkey. Since the 18th century, BC, civilizations have conquered, and lost the Anatolian territories. Hittites, Phrygains, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Mongols and eventually Turks fought and died for supremecy of the anatolian boarders. It is fitting, therefore, that ES named one of their original RMs after such a region, only now Norse, Greek, Egypian and Atlanteans battle for supremacy! First appearing in AOM, anatolia- the RM- combines the strong fishing boost normally associated with water maps, with bountiful hunting resources that players expect to find in land maps. Because players can employ either water and land map builds during a single game, is why anatolia is one of the most popular of the RM maps. With it's other worldly lighting, vicious wolves, and pronounced ridges, the map can be tricky to master. As we'll see in this discussion, by understanding a few key points, players can increase their tactical skills when playing this flexible and fun map.

An overview of a 1 v 1 Anatolia Supremacy map reveals a striking feature that is unique to this map: notice the yellow, brown and purple serpentine form in the middle of the picture above? Basically, this is a giant depression that is defined by ridges and elevations. Note that this map does not include the water that is on either side of land.

This water is quite crucial, as controlling the seas means controlling one of the fastest source of food in the game. This map requires the players to think out many things from the start. The player will have to choose either to build towards the center or take the sea(s) - neither an easy task, for the opponent will attempt the same. The map also has bugs: the Gold Mine placement will sometimes be in favour of the other player, which means that control of the "center" is extremely important.

The anatolia ridges have certain features that are important to note:

  • Units cannot pass over them.
  • They cannot be built upon.
  • Their placement is random.
  • They can be used for tactical advantage;



As we'll see in a moment, these ridges can be a blessing or a curse. The ridges in Anatolia are either yellow or brown in colour, and depending on their direction- and the way the lighting hits them- they can be hard to read. In its most clear form, a typical ridge looks like the one pictured far left. So why is this important?




In the following two pictures, note where I am allowed and not allowed to build walls. This wall placement is for illustrative purposes only, but clearly wasting time trying to build in certain areas, where it's hard to tell where the ridges start and stop, can be frustrating.





Now, let's look at these two pictures. If you look carefully, the ridge (picture to the right) has black cracks on it while the elevation is simply a darkened region of the surrounding landscape. Although in these examples the differences are apparent; in the thick of battle, or with a limited LOS, it can be hard to discern a ridge from an elevation.

Knowing how to make this distinction quickly and accurately will increase your speed and ultimately improve your "Anatolia game."




Game Situations

Now let's take a look at two typical game examples of how these ridges may be used for tactical advantage. In the picture directly below, note how by using small sections of wall (highlighted by white lines), this Eggie player has effectively used a ridge to protect their slingers and TC from an attacking squad of hoplites (blue circle). The Greek player must either walk all the way around to close with the slingers, must destroy the wall sections, or could use a transport ship to land behind the little section of wall nearest to the water. Either way, it's difficult and time and resource consuming to get at the Eggie's slingers.

The left pic shows a close-up of what happens below : the attacking squad of hoplites are pelted with impunity by the slingers. But watch how quickly the tide can suddenly turn. Notice in the right picture below the Greek player has brought up his Petroboli. The Eggie player should have built his wall sections a little longer to accommodate gates, so his hacking units could have easy access to the seige engines. As it is the Eggie units have a long way to travel to get to the cats, and there is probably no other choice than to destroy one of the wall sections to do so. In the mean time Eggie's TC will be heavily damaged or even destroyed.

Looking at the picture on the left below, see how the ridges create an awesome defensive opening TC placement for the Norse player? Other than a small opening in the ridge line, the norse player's town is almost completely sheltered from easy access. Referring to the picture at right below, it is important, however, for the Norse player to place their rax carefully. Note the ridges (red lines) and elevations (blue lines). If the Norse player was to place his rax at the green x positions, his line of travel to the critical centre map area is too long. Placing the raxs (black x positions) here would be better. Alternatively, placement of the rax nearer to the centre of the map would provide good control of those juicy centre gold piles.



Quantitative Analysis

Map Gold Huntables Herdables Berries Fish Patches Wood Town Centers Relics
1 36,000 6,225 950 3,200 36 87,500+ 6 2
2 36,000 6,150 700 3,600 36 87,500+ 6 1
3 48,000 4,500 1,100 3,600 36 87,500+ 6 2
Average 42,000 5,625 950 3,500 36 87,500+ 6 2
Herdables calculated before fattening.
Huntables include deer, boars and chickens.
Based on 3 randomly generated 1 v 1 anatolia maps.

Notes:

  • Sheep : groups of 2 - 6 near first TC, others scattered 2 at a time.
  • Boars : 1-3 usually around each opening TC, sometimes within LOS.
  • Wolves : Packs of 3 - 4, usually at sides of opening town near water.
  • Herdables : Either Chickens (3 - 6) or Berry Bushes (2 - 6) in opening TC LOS.
  • Gold mines : Two medium gold piles (3000 per) within opening TC LOS, 4 - 6 large gold piles (6000 per) in middle.
  • Berry bushes: usually two groups (other than in opening TC) of 8 - 10 in each group, plus 2 - 6 in opening LOS instead of chickens.
  • Town Centers: One at side of each player's opening town near the water and two in middle.

________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

Expert's Corner - Josey Wales

You'll want to get a dock up as early as you can without sacrificing your TC vil flow. Remember to avoid those wolves on the way to the water as they kill (non-Atlantean) vils pretty fast if you just try to blitz through them. Fishing can be very important on this map, however, in general, the middle of the map is far more critical. It's never a bad idea to fight on both sides of the water if your enemy has fishing on both sides, but don't forget about the land! I can't stress this enough as the middle of the map is so incredibly important. If you find that you are going to eventually lose the water battle, then keep defensive and start your forward base making sure to use everything available to you. As Norse you should gain favour fairly quickly by fighting on the water so try to get some myth units out. Make sure you are always scouting your enemy to see if they are starting to gear up for a land attack. If they get a good head start on you, you may be sunk before you even start to build a land army.

Gold control can play a big part on this map. Keep in mind where fresh sources of gold are located, as well watch the piles you are mining, and if they are starting to run low then chances are your enemy's gold mines are depleting as well. It's then time to check those fresh gold mines, and keeping your opponent off of the middle ones is an easy way to win- although still not a sure fire way. An easy way to keep track of the unused mines is to simply place a building next to the ones most likely to be used by your enemy. It's a relatively cheap way to keep track of the gold mines and will alert you as to where to concentrate your attack. Egypt of course can build obelisks at a much cheaper price than Norse and Greek- this can be very handy even if the obelisks are easily destroyed.

Although going all out land can be a valid option on this map, always fish in the first place, and don't strike until you have a sufficient army to do damage to your undefended opponent. There is absolutely no point in giving away your plan by attacking with the first four units you get out- they will do very little damage to their economy and give enough of a warning that the advantage of surprise is lost. Even if your opponent does have tons of fishing it is relatively easy to destroy their docks as they are very limited to their placement, and are usually far away from the protection of their home bases.

The key to this map is definitely the middle. I really can't stress it enough. If you can control the middle of the map fairly well, chances are very good that you will win the game.

MOTM/AOMH Map Guide - Anatolia

Editor/Writer: Tom Barak

Experts Coordinator: Myll_Erik
Contributing Expert: Josey Wales
Technical Assistance:
DoV_Crys
DoV_Raistlin
Myll_Slaghter

DoV Clan
Myll Clan