Holy Line is a special random map introduced in Age of Empires II HD: Rise of the Rajas. Creating and utilizing Monks will be very crucial and useful for victory in this map.
Overview[]
As with most other maps featured in the expansion, Holy Line has a good amount of aquatic terrain. The map features a large landmass divided in half by 2 horseshoe shaped lakes on each side. The lakes do not contain shallows and therefore can only be traversed by ships. Fish and Box Turtles are not found in either lakes and the player must depend on hunting and farming for food.
Large islands will be found in each lake, each island takes up a large area. One island will have hoards of Gold to mine while the other will have bounties of Stone. The islands will also contain a fair amount trees providing a well source of wood. Taking control of these islands will prove to be advantageous as the player will have access to these resources and will become a stepping stone to advance into enemy lands and raid their settlements.
Between the 2 lakes will lie extremely large amounts of Relics. Relics will be lined singularly in numbers of 65-70. This will cause a blockage from accessing the other side of the map by land until the Castle Age when Monks are available. If the player is able to collect most of the Relics from their Monks fast enough, they will have a continuous and endless trickle of Gold which may ultimately help them win the game. There will be multiple conflicts over who collects the relics and many Monks will often end up dead as a result.
Separated by the Relics and 2 lakes lie the vast open flatland where the players start out. Resources will be scattered and thinned out however they will be found in fair amount of numbers and enough to not be considered sparse.
Environment[]
Players will start out with a large herd of around 7-8 Water Buffaloes nearby their Town Center. Similar to the map Jungle Lanes, herds of Rhinoceroses will be significantly further away and will be foraging near the edges of the map providing a food source to think twice about as they will viciously attack any one who hunts them. Deer will oddly be grazing next to the Rhinoceros and the two animals will be peacefully coexisting.
Large canopies of rainforest trees will be plentiful throughout the map. 4-5 individual trees will be standing right next to the player's Town Center. Larger stands of the trees will form small sized jungles. An enormous and thick jungle of rainforest trees will wrap around the edges of the map forming a frame of trees.
Gold Mines and Stone Mines will be found somewhat close to the player's Town Center. A very large number of over 30 individual Gold Mines and Stone Mines will appear in the large islands in the lakes. One island will contain only Gold Mines while the other will contain only Stone Mines. Having control of just one of these islands will end up with a monopoly of either resource.