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Guide to Oasis

Published 5/20/04, AoM: TT v1.02

By Tom Barak

Oasis - Map Guide

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Anticipated by wary ancient desert travelers, these lush green islands, with their scarce supplies of water, offered welcome retreat admidst vast, desolate and trackless wastelands. Travelers along the trade routes of Alexandria, Egypt and Byblos came to rely on these precious Oasis for food, water, shelter and safety from desert marauders and bandits. And after a short respite in these desert paradises the harried travelers set out again to deliver their spice, perfumes, silk, glass and other valuable trade goods to the great civilizations in the West. Oasis, along with Midgard and Ghost Lake, remain the most challenging RMs for Age players. But perhaps, Oasis especially has earned the reputation for being slow and difficult to play, a struggle for players of all skill levels. In this map guide we'll look at some of the features of Oasis, and look at ways to mitigate the scarce hunting. So secure your trade cargo, and water up those camels, as we venture into the inhospitible and barren Oasis RM.

Generalities - 1 v 1 Maps

Our high point of view - pictured above left - shows little by way of outstanding features other than that signature ring of trees. The map is basically a piece of flat land with a great deal of wood and gold. Lots of open space for maneauvering. Note the water? Unfortunately no fish patches there, and other than as an aesthetic element, the water plays no practical role in games. Some Oasis RMs dicard the water altogether, generating solid stands instead. See the lower oblique angle- pictured above right- for a different angle of the landscape. As for the tree rings, there are three variations of this theme. The pictures below illustrate the three types- note the opening TC placement indicated by red dots.

A single, double or quadruple ring of trees characterize Oasis.

It is important to scout the tree line early to get a sense of the layout of the place. Establishing the tree pattern immediately tells you how many paths there are to the opponent's town. In the single tree ring variation there are two paths, and in the double and quadruple, three paths. In the double and quadruple, the fighting normally takes place along that central route- it is the most direct and hence shortest path to the opponent. Notice in the double tree ring map above that a settlement is located near the centre of the map- circled in blue? This settlement takes on great importance as the player who owns it will generally control that critical middle pathway. Settlements near the permiter of the tree lines are also important to capture since the perimeter of the treeline is the most direct path opponent's have to each other.

Another good rule to follow when the tree ring(s) are close to your TC(s), is to get wood gatherers to them early. Once there, if free of raiding, wood choppers may only have to be rallied once during an entire game. Of course a spot check should be done to insure choppers don't get too far away from their drop point. If the tree rings are far from your initial TC you may want to harvest nearer sources first.

Wall off choke points! Although not all maps offer nice, short runs between treelines, excellent features present themselves from time-to-time. Walls are relatively easy to knock down but they buy valuable time, and leave one avenue of attack guarded . Expect to find walls- including very long ones- on this map, even from higher-rated players, especially Eggys and Hades.



Game Situations

A quick look at our quantitative chart below clearly shows how little hunting Oasis actually has. In our study we found a dismal averge of 4,133 huntable food- inclucing hostile huntables lions and hyenas. This compares to an average 12,000 on highland and even 5,625 on anatolia (see their respective guides). While farms provide a strong alternative later in the gme, the rare hunting presents a problem for fast classical times and early military and villie production. So what to do?

Most higher rated players are aggressive scouters, concentrating their search outwards as pictured right. Of course that's what scouting normally does but on Oasis, what hunting there is, normally resides fairly far from your opening TC. Unlike tundra or highland, expect to hunt far from home. Although the hunting is scarce players should always seek it out before retreating to the abundant berry bushes. While berries are a slow food source, increasing the number of food gatherers on them still provides ample early game food. Furthermore, Oasis has at least 10 goats on your side of the map so grab them early. Again, aggressive scouting pays off.

On Oasis, some civilizations have less problems with food than others. Examples are Odin's animal multiplier great hunt, Poseidon's lure, Ra's farming boosts, and Set's animal converstion. Set's priests can convert animals on the far side of the map and send them home for slaughter. For civies with no food multiplier, assign more villies than usual to food in archiac and hit those berries and goats. Assign extra wood gatherers to stockpile for farms in classical. Gaia's forest can really help and the ample gold supply on Oasis means Eggys will never be short for farms.

The upgrade question of whether to get Hunting Dogs versus Husbandry in Archaic Age rages on, and I have seen either used successfully. If I find >1000 huntable food I will up with HDs, otherwise husbandry's fattening and villie food carry increase is a better investment. Husbandry's boosts really helps if your main sources of food are berries, goats and farms. Should you elect to get HDs early, always get husbandry next as soon as you can.

QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS </ tr></ tr>
Map Gold Huntables Herdables Berries Fish Patches Wood</ td> Town Centres Relics
1 42,000 5,300 1,000 2,100 N/A 125,000+</ td> 6 2
2 54,000 4,700 1,000 2,200 N/A 125,000+ 6 2
3 54,000 2,400 1,000 3,000 N/A 125,000+ 6 2
Average 50,000 4,133 1,000 2,400 N/A 125,000+ 6 2

Based on 3 randomly generated 1 v 1 Oasis maps.
Huntables include chickens, gazelles, giraffes, lions, monkeys and zebras.
Herdables calculated before fattening.

Notes:
  • Town Centers - One near opening town and two in middle (map screw occurs sometimes, roughly a 1/3 chance).
  • Gold - Two medium piles within opening town, 6-8 larger piles scattered around map.
  • Hunting - Sometimes Zebra are found in singles; all maps contain Giraffes and Zebras while some contain Gazelles and Monkeys. Gazelles are rare.
  • Hunting (hostile) - Two prides of Lions or three prides of Hyena scattered around map.
  • Berry bushes - Usually found in opening town instead of chicken, 2-3 groups of bushes may be found around the map.
  • Goats - Groups of 2-6 near first Settlement, others scattered.

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Expert's Corner - Vagabond_Lion

This map doesn't usually have that much hunting so most of the time you'll need husbandry first. However, make sure you have scouted a little bit before researching it as sometimes you will find enough hunting to make hunting dogs worth while - I tend to get it if there are two or more good hunting spots. Remember to take advantage of the fact that this map is pretty good for raiding as both trees and gold are usually outside TC and tower fire. Scout out all his gold piles and keep harassing his miners - if you're Norse I recommend sticking a few long houses down by his gold mines so you can keep track of the ones he is mining from. Also remember his hunting/berries are usually pretty far away from his TC so be sure to scout them out and send your first raiding party there.

Although this is a good map for raiding I wouldn't recommend advancing too early. As there is usually very little safe food you will often end up having to farm early so I suggest you advance to classical with a few extra on wood ready to farm when your "free" food runs out. Therefore I would recommend going for a fairly late classical at about 5:30-6:00 with a strong economy so you can afford to boom as well as raid ( unless of course vs. an aggressive civilization like Loki where you should aim to be classical a little earlier in case he rushes).

Settlement placement seems to be very random on this map, sometimes they will be right next to your main TC while other times they end up near the middle. Regardless of where they are, nine times out of ten, take the one furthest away from you first. The only exception is when you’re Egypt and playing versus an aggressive player, and the closest TC has a gold mine right by it. If your TCs are fairly close I would suggest walling off key areas and booming while raiding, then head to mythic age. It’s pretty easy to defend when your TCs are close and you can wall. However, if your settlements are fairly far away I would fight aggressively to try and secure them and at the same time try to stop the opponent from claiming his. Also remember, unlike most maps, Oasis is great for getting strong trade routes going. The landscape is open with very few obstacles which is especially good for Egypt, since once you have a good trade route established, you can't really lose.

Map Guide - Oasis

Editor/Writer: Tom Barak
Experts Coordinator: Myll_Erik
Quantitative Section: Drednout
Contributing Expert: Vagabond_Lion
Technical Assistance:
DoV_Crys
DoV_Raistlin
Myll_Slaghter

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