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I have recently played a few games on the Rainforest map type, and I think it is an interesting change of pace from other map types. I think the biggest difference is the resources. Lets have some screen shots:
Seven food sources, one city.
A particularly resource laden area. 16 natural, 17 with the popped gold. I just noticed the pig south of Pusan is still pastured, that shouldn't be...
8 food resources in one potential fat cross, which happens to be on a river. Pretty stupid. Also, I marked my territory on the mini map. I don't control a third of the map, most of that is Pacal.
It should be noted that these shots are the extreme, most cities have 2 or 3 resources, not 7 or eight. Of course, when 90% of the terrain is grassland, 2-3 resources go al long, long way. These shots also illustrate some of the ways resources work on the Rainforest map. Most of the resources are pig, banana, or rice. The strategic metals, oil, and coal are distributed approximately as in a regular map. Other resources, including the normally common cattle, corn, horses, and wheat, are limited to 3-5 instances on the entire (in my case huge) map. Interestingly for a rainforest map, Ivory isn't particularly common. In addition, sheep, crab, whale, fish, clam, and I believe wine are non-existent. This means that while a lot of food is available, it is difficult to acquire the happy and healthy resources needed to support a high population.
Further complicating the healthy situation is the lack of forest. There are no large scale forests on a rainforest map. The only forests there are have game or fur, with maybe 5 odd tiles across the map that are forested without a resource for some odd reason. In addition to eliminating a source of healthy, this eliminates chopping as an early source of hammers. However, this lack of forests doesn't really decrease the value of Bronze Working. For while you can't chop, you have plenty of food to whip, AND Bronze Working leads to Iron Working, which you desperately need to clear all the jungle.
In addition to its unique resource mix, the nature of the rainforest map itself alters gameplay. The fact that the entire map is land means start locations are more separated than normal. This fact, along with the inability to chop an early army, makes rushing difficult. Also, the large amount of land, combined with the reduced sight lines from the jungle, combined with slower expansion and production of culture buildings, mean barbarians are plentiful, even if they aren't raging. And the lack of chopped units makes these barbarians even more dangerous. Finally, the large amount of land means the already scarce resources are even more spread out and difficult to secure.
So, in summary, the rainforest map features lots of food, but a shortage of resources, and forces you to make optimal choices with your military in order to succeed.
I find Pacal to be the ideal leader for a rainforest map. The expansive trait helps with healthy, and helps me make workers to chop the jungle. The financial trait makes the cottages I spam more valuable. And the ball court helps keep all those people happy, even if I am having trouble getting happy resources.
Anyone else like the rainforest map? Thoughts? Questions? Insults?
Seven food sources, one city.
A particularly resource laden area. 16 natural, 17 with the popped gold. I just noticed the pig south of Pusan is still pastured, that shouldn't be...
8 food resources in one potential fat cross, which happens to be on a river. Pretty stupid. Also, I marked my territory on the mini map. I don't control a third of the map, most of that is Pacal.
It should be noted that these shots are the extreme, most cities have 2 or 3 resources, not 7 or eight. Of course, when 90% of the terrain is grassland, 2-3 resources go al long, long way. These shots also illustrate some of the ways resources work on the Rainforest map. Most of the resources are pig, banana, or rice. The strategic metals, oil, and coal are distributed approximately as in a regular map. Other resources, including the normally common cattle, corn, horses, and wheat, are limited to 3-5 instances on the entire (in my case huge) map. Interestingly for a rainforest map, Ivory isn't particularly common. In addition, sheep, crab, whale, fish, clam, and I believe wine are non-existent. This means that while a lot of food is available, it is difficult to acquire the happy and healthy resources needed to support a high population.
Further complicating the healthy situation is the lack of forest. There are no large scale forests on a rainforest map. The only forests there are have game or fur, with maybe 5 odd tiles across the map that are forested without a resource for some odd reason. In addition to eliminating a source of healthy, this eliminates chopping as an early source of hammers. However, this lack of forests doesn't really decrease the value of Bronze Working. For while you can't chop, you have plenty of food to whip, AND Bronze Working leads to Iron Working, which you desperately need to clear all the jungle.
In addition to its unique resource mix, the nature of the rainforest map itself alters gameplay. The fact that the entire map is land means start locations are more separated than normal. This fact, along with the inability to chop an early army, makes rushing difficult. Also, the large amount of land, combined with the reduced sight lines from the jungle, combined with slower expansion and production of culture buildings, mean barbarians are plentiful, even if they aren't raging. And the lack of chopped units makes these barbarians even more dangerous. Finally, the large amount of land means the already scarce resources are even more spread out and difficult to secure.
So, in summary, the rainforest map features lots of food, but a shortage of resources, and forces you to make optimal choices with your military in order to succeed.
I find Pacal to be the ideal leader for a rainforest map. The expansive trait helps with healthy, and helps me make workers to chop the jungle. The financial trait makes the cottages I spam more valuable. And the ball court helps keep all those people happy, even if I am having trouble getting happy resources.
Anyone else like the rainforest map? Thoughts? Questions? Insults?
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