Baltic is a map in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition. The latter was previously called Mediterranean.
An ocean with peninsulas and sheltered bays.
Age of Empires II[]
Baltic is a sea surrounded by a medium-sized piece of land on all sides. Baltic is a map which emphasizes good coordination between teammates and a player's navy and army. As noted on the map above, the strips of land separating the players are razor thin.
Fish is relatively abundant in the sea, so it is a highly reliable source of food and should be preferred over Farms in many situations. The start-up for each player is standard, with a standard set of resources (2 aggressive huntables, 3-4 passive huntables, 8 small herdables or 6 cows, 6 Berry Bushes, normal amounts of stone and gold). Wild predators are absent on the map and the set of Relics is standard (5 in a 2-player map). Notably, a Relic will always spawn in the body of water on a small patch of shallows.
It has the in-game map tags of "Water" and "Open".
Viable tactics[]
A player needs to focus on both land and water in order to emerge victorious from the battle. Focusing food production on Fishing Ships rather than Farms is a good way to prevent overstraining wood economy.
As the teams are divided on land by narrow strips of land, Walling those places can be a good way to limit the opponent. After walling off an opponent, a player should focus on cross sea attacks using transports and Galleons, or placing military facilities on the land border.
Booming and turtle strategies are very effective on Baltic. Early land rush standard strategies (infantry, cavalry or archer rushes) may work only if the opponent forgets to wall the narrow points. Because of this, Galley rushes and land-to-rush strategies may be preferred.
Civilizations with advantages include:
- Civilizations with good navy: Vikings, Spanish, Byzantines, Malay, Italians, Portuguese, Persians, Koreans, Japanese, etc.
- Civilizations with good defense and particularly good towers and Castles: Koreans, Incas, Teutons, Byzantines, Turks, etc.
- Civilizations with bonuses regarding Fishing ships, or better shore fish workrate: Japanese, Malay, Italians, Hindustanis.
Civilizations that may struggle:
Age of Empires IV[]
| “ | A large central lake creates a ring of surrounding open land. | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
Baltic is a random map in Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition, formerly called Mediterranean. It is a hybrid land/water map consisting of large lake/sea in the center of an open terrain.
Features[]
Baltic is a technically a hybrid map, since there are direct land connections to opponents' teams and building a navy is not strictly necessary. However, teams will always spawn within line-of-sight of the lake across from each other, meaning that the land distance between 1 vs 1 players or pocket players in team games can be considerable, and it can be quicker to apply pressure from the water. The land area is dotted with Stealth Forests and resources. Two Trade Posts will always spawn on opposite corners of the map, making it easy to establish a long trade route along the map edge, and two Coastal Trade Posts will spawn across from each other in the lake. There are always 2 Sacred Sites placed somewhere in the middle of the map between teams, but they are not always on opposing sides of the lake, and can appear in close proximity to one another on one side. Relic generation is standard.
Resources[]
Resource generation is fairly standard on Baltic. Despite the multitude of Deep Water Fish spread all across the lake and the Shoreline Fish all along the coast, there is plenty of food on land as well, with the standard amount of Berry Bush and Deer spawns per player, and even more Boar than usual, with 1 Boar per player. To fuel a strong navy, the player starts out with the standard two large circular woodlines, and additional large and small woodlines are spread out across the map, along with patches of Stealth Forest. Stone generation is standard, with 1 Large Outcropping per player, and 4/7/10/14 Small Outcroppings per team of 1/2/3/4 players. Baltic has slightly more Gold than other maps, with 4/7/10/14 Large Gold Mines on micro/small/medium/large maps respectively, and double those numbers of Small Gold Mines.
Gallery[]
