Central Lake REVIEWED

fish and whales ( I know - whales in a lake not real, but "gameplay>realism"), a water flag for delivery of units from the HC, 2 trade routes each with 2 trade post sockets, two mainland Native American villages and one Native American village on a central island. The two mainland villages are randomly (50/50 chance) either Cherokee or Iroquois, with the one on the island being the opposite tribe as the ones on the mainland. There are a few more sheep than on the New England map, and deer are plentiful. Each player is a little closer to one of the native villages than the other, each player starts out fairly close to one of the trading posts. The map size is somewhat larger than the usual New England but has a little less playable land due to the size of the lake. NOTE: this map may not play well for greater than 2 players due to its construction details - feel free to try, let me know if successful! REVIEWED BY SHIMANO55 ------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a very well done map. Though it isn't the most creative and interesting map, it is both layed-out and stocked quite well. The basic layout of the map is very much like AOE2's and AOM's baltic maps. Land surrounds a medium-sized body of water which is located in the center of the map. There is also a small island in the very middle of the body of water that contains an Native American settlement. This is a nice touch, but personally I think it would have been better if there were a slightly larger, empty island. That way one could been a stronghold if they were getting beaten back, but its not my map. As far as resources go, the creator did pretty well, though does have some things that could be improved. There are tons of animals to be hunted (deer, sheep, etc). There is also enough gold mines throughout the map to sustain the player until they reach the third age and can build plantations for their gold. The main shortcoming that I realized was the lack of wood on the map. There are only a couple pockets of wood on the map, and I had to go pretty far away from my main settlement to start chopping wood. As far as landscape and other factors go, pretty well done. My favorite landscape element was the defensive cliffs that one can build outposts and a fortress on. Also good for attacking the enemy since there are some cliffs near each settlement. I was also a big fan of the trading routes. I like the idea of 2 seperate routes as opposed to the original's 1, though I wish there were more than 2 posts per route. There are also enough treasures on the map to make anybody happy. Overall this is a pretty good map, and I do recommend that you download it to replace the original New England. Good job RF_Gandalf. ---shimano55 -------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a new style map for the AOE3 demo, really designed for 2 players only, designed to be similar to a mediterranean style map from the earlier ES games. The map has a central lake or sea, with