| โ | Take control of the deep mountain clearing - with limited space and resource; fighting will be fierce. | โ |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
Mountain Clearing is a random map in Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition. It is a 'cage-match' style land map where the playing area is restricted around the outside by impassable terrain, and where tend to be highly aggressive and quick.
Features[]
The edges of the map are completely blocked off by mountainous terrain, creating a roughly circle- or rounded square-shaped playing area. Forests line these edges to further restrict the playing area, resulting in all players spawning in a tight circle, close together, with most map features packed closely around the center in between players. Due to its small size, this map has no Trade Posts, but is one of the only maps in which the number of Sacred Sites varies with increasing team sizes. Only a single site lies in the center of the map in 1 vs 1 games, but this increases to two sites in 2 vs 2 and three sites in 6- and 8-player games. However, even in team games, their very close proximity to each other still results in a 'King of the Hill' style situation where control of the center can dictate games. Relic spawns are unique on this map, with one contestable Relic next to each Sacred Site, and two Relics in close proximity to each player.
Resources[]
All the wood on this map is distributed around the edges, behind the players' Capital Town Centers, leaving the center of the map open. Each player starts out with one medium Berry Bush patch, two Large Gold Mines, two Small Stone Outcroppings, and one large Deer pack in close proximity to their Town Center. They also each start out with 10 Sheep in relatively close proximity, and there are no additional 'contested' Sheep. Realistically though, the small size of the map means that some of the players' Sheep will be closer to the center in potentially contested area. The stone and gold are almost always distributed such that one of each is behind the player, and one of each is towards the center. The rest of the Deer, Berry Bushes, and Small Gold Mines are all in the contestable area between players, with each Boar always adjacent to a Sacred Site.
Trivia[]
- The map is similar in concept to Socotra, with both maps being a circle of playable area in the middle, surrounded by inaccessible terrain.
- In the game files, Mountain Clearing is simply referred to as 'Clearing'.
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