Graveyards is a custom map in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.
Description[]
Graveyards is a modestly forested land map that features dead trees littered about haphazardly, as well as some lakes with fish, and the "graveyards" themselves being ever-prominent. These graveyards are large patches of dirt on hills littered with skeletons, gravestones, and the ruins of destroyed buildings. In these parts of the map, there are extra deposits of gold and stone, and extra Relics for the taking.
Vegetation on this map with average, with the dead trees sprinkling the map being modest for wood gathering, some huntables, herdable animals, and Berry Bushes. The aforementioned graveyards are hot spots for grabbing the extra stone and gold, as well as valuable Relics. A typical Graveyard map will have more Relics than standard to be found in these gravestone-littered hills.
Viable tactics[]
The main attraction of this map are the eponymous graveyards, which contain extra deposits of Boars, Stone Mines, Gold Mines, Relics, and other goodies. Said graveyards are also generally up in the hills. A smart and daring player may be the first to exploit these hallowed grounds and go "grave digging" to grab the extra resources before other players doโbut sooner or later, everyone will be fighting in the graveyards to establish territorial footholds and access the treasures within. As relics are more plentiful on this map, investing in Monks is a wonderful idea so that gold-hungry civilizations will have a better fighting chance in the late game.
Civilizations with the advantage on this map will have a combination of neediness for gold and some capable Monks to supply that need in the Relic abundance, such as the Saracens, Teutons, Byzantines, Spanish, Aztecs, and Lithuanians. For defending the hilly graveyards, some civilizations with excellent Castles or towers may have an easier time building bases there, such as the Teutons, Franks, Koreans, and Byzantines.