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This article is about the map. For other uses, see Nomad. |
Nomad is a random map featured in Return of Rome, Age of Empires II: The Conquerors, and Age of Mythology. "Nomad" denotes the period before the Dark Age and Archaic Age respectively. In both games, players do not begin with any buildings and need to build a Town Center in a location of their choosing before they can advance technologically.
In Age of Empires II, there are some maps with the same type of start, like African Clearing. They are differentiated in the map selection icons by using a Foot icon instead of a square to designate the starting positions.
In Age of Empires III and Age of Empires IV, Nomad is not a particular map, but is instead a setting that can be enabled for any map. If enabled, players will begin without any buildings and with just enough units to establish a settlement.
Age of Empires[]
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Nomad selection
| โ | Stranded on a hilly island with no Town Center, players must be quick to settle and expand as they compete for resources and limited space. | โ |
| —In-game description | ||
The map is mostly the same as the Age of Empires II version: a version of Coastal with a different start.
Age of Empires II[]
| โ | Your villagers begin scattered without a Town Center or Scout Cavalry. Will you build a town immediately or struggle to find the perfect location to settle? | โ |
| —In-game description | ||
Description[]
Players begin with three scattered Villagers and no initial Scout or Town Center, but each player starts with an additional 275 wood and 100 stone in order to afford their starting Town Center. Players tend to place their first Town Center in an area between their two closest Villagers; the third Villager will then typically build a House before placing a Dock next to Shore Fish.
The map consists of a large landmass surrounded by water. Occasionally, lakes and rivers, and on larger maps, even a sea may be present in the center of the map. The land may feature temperate terrain with Pine Trees and grass, or desert terrain with Palm Trees and sand. Since players do not start at fixed positions like in other maps, resources like Wild Boars, Sheep, Berry Bushes, and herds of Deer appear scattered all around the map as well as the Gold and Stone Mines, and animals like Wolves are absent from the map. Relics are present in normal numbers. Hills of various elevations can be found across the land mass; however, cliffs are completely absent from the map.
Playing the Dark Age[]
The very beginning of Nomad matches is when players unfamiliar with the unusual start can struggle the most. A standard start on Nomad goes:
- Two Villagers build a Town Center between them. The third Villager builds a House and a Dock near Shore Fish.
- Once the Town Center is completed, the two Villagers, and all new ones, should be sent to gather wood until the player can afford a Fishing Ship and another House. The Villagers should then be sent to food in order keep up production of Villagers; there will need to be at least 6 units (including Fishing Ships) collecting food to maintain production.
- Once there are enough units on food, the player can begin assigning Villagers to wood again to create more Fish Ships and Houses. Because of the Dock, the player will be producing units at a much higher rate than usual, and must be attentive to add a new House every time a Fishing Ship is produced to avoid becoming population locked (often referred to as getting "Housed").
- As the economy grows to be able to maintain Villager and Fishing Ship production there will soon be enough villagers on wood to create the second building required to advance, and enough on food to advance to the Feudal Age. At this point, the player will need to make decisions about what to do in the Feudal Age. If they use Fishing Ships to scout for enemy Docks and they find one nearby, they might decide to go up to the Feudal Age early in order to produce a navy. If their Town Center is close to an enemy's base, they may decide to go up early in order to tower rush their opponent. If they find themselves to be in a safe position on the map, they may choose to delay advancing to the Feudal Age in order to strengthen their economy and execute a fast Castle.
Viable tactics[]
Ideally, when picking where to build their Town Center, players should vie for a settlement that includes an abundance of every resource, but food and wood are top priorities, since without them the player cannot build Houses or train Villagers. For this reason, finding a secure location with enough resources early and creating the Town Center as fast as possible is of key importance. The player should try to explore as much of the map as possible with the one or even two Villagers, and also build a Town Center as soon as possible. If the player finds a Sheep early, they may consider to use it for scouting so all the Villagers can focus on building the Town Center. The same logic can apply after the Town Center is finished; this of course at the risk of losing the Sheep to an opponent. Making a Militia early is also useful for scouting on Nomad, but the cost of Barracks makes this an expensive strategy.
Building a Dock early is of key importance. Civilizations like Vikings, Malians, Dravidians, and Italians are very fast on Nomad because of their Dock related bonuses. The Malians and the Persians are very popular because they can create a Dock, a Fishing Ship and a House before they finish their Town Center, and this can boost their economy very early. The Spanish used to be especially popular on Nomad because they would get their Town Center up earlier than other civilizations, roughly gaining a one Villager advantage; however, this advantage has been removed. The Huns are really unfortunate in this case, because they cannot afford a Dock with their -100 wood start, though they do now receive a Hunnic Horse upon completion of the Town Center which can scout and convert Sheep.
In a team game, if a player discovers themselves to be sandwiched between opponents, they should prioritize disrupting both opponents as much and as soon as possible. This means building towers, walling up key resources, killing nearby huntables, and Villager fighting enemies milling Deer patches. The player needs to buy their team time, as they will likely be effectively knocked out of the game early on. Two slowed players can often be more of a disadvantage than one crippled player.
Once the players have finished construction of their Town Centers, things start to become more interesting. Sometimes players from opposing teams selected locations too close to each other; sometimes one teammate realizes that the opposing team placed their settlements around him, isolating the player from the team; sometimes teams or players are more or less dominating one side of the map. Depending on how players placed their settlements, the strategies will have to be adapted. Usually, if a player is isolated from the team, that player becomes the primary target of the opponents, since this way, they can get rid of the player, so the other team can get numeric advantage and more map control.
Rushing strategies can work on Nomad, depending on the distance between the bases. Natural resources, especially Stone, on Nomad are plentiful and matches on Nomad tend to end soon, so trash wars are very rare on this map. If the players are very close to each other, they will typically rush Feudal Age to perform a Tower-rush. If they are modestly far apart, a fast Castle into Knight-rush, or Castle-drop into Unique unit play is common. If the players are very far, they may prefer turtling and booming.
Viable civilizations[]
- Civilizations with bonuses regarding Villager raw stats: Berbers and Koreans for example.
- Civilizations with bonuses for Fishing Ships or Docks: Vikings, Malay, Japanese, Italians, etc.
- Civilizations with extra starting resources: Persians (+50 food, +50 wood), Malians (+63 wood from wood savings on Town Center and Dock), Lithuanians (+100 food), and Dravidians (25 wood and 25 seconds of Villager work time by having 1 free House).
- Civilization with strong Tower-rushes/Castle drops: Spanish (faster builders, great unique unit), Koreans (faster Stone Miners, free Tower upgrades).
- Special mentions: Vietnamese (can spot enemy first Town Centers as soon as they finish building them), Burmese (can spot Relics from the beginning of the match, which can facilitate players to select a location), Khmer (do not require to unlock buildings and farmers do not need to drop off food on Mills or Town Centers, enabling them to place much more freely).
In the Sudden Death game mode on nomad, the Cumans are the only civilization who can have more than one Town Center, as they can build the second one starting in Feudal Age.[1]
Changelog[]
- With update 34699, Chinese and Mayan extra Villagers don't spawn until the Town Center is complete.
- With update 56005, the 5 minute treaty was added, eliminating Town Center drops and Villager fighting at the very start of the game.
- With update 81058:
- Aztecs: 50 extra starting gold is received after completing the first Town Center
- Bulgarians: Stone discount does not apply to starting Town Center
- Incas: Stone discount does not apply to starting Town Center
- Malians: Wood discount does not apply to starting Town Center
- Persians: 50 extra starting food and wood are received after completing the first Town Center
- Sicilians: 100 extra starting stone is received after completing the first Town Center
- Spanish: Build speed bonus does not apply to starting Town Center
Trivia[]
- As revealed by Ensemble Studios employee and Age of Empires series designer Sandy Petersen, the Nomad map style was originally included in the original The Age of Kings, but was removed due to lack of balance from the Chinese being present. A fan asked Petersen where the Nomad start was, but he revealed that it was removed, later admitting that they could add it back.[2]
- The Huns are the only civilization with a specific bonus for Nomad-type maps: The first Town Center spawns a Hunnic Horse
Age of Mythology[]
Nomad icon in Age of Mythology
Nomad icon in Retold
| โ | Your Villagers start scattered with no Town Center. You'll need to find a Settlement to occupy during the time that combat is prevented. | โ |
| —Map description. | ||
Nomad in Age of Mythology is very similar to its Age of Empires II counterpart. Since Heavenly Spear, it has many possible generations featuring different environments, resources, and embellishments, similar to The Unknown.
Each player begins with three workers (two for the Atlanteans) randomly scattered around the map, the game starting at nightfall. Norse players however start with three Berserks instead, as Gatherers cannot build anything except Ox Carts, Houses, and Farms.
At the start of the game, a special Ceasefire is cast by Mother Nature, and as it draws to its conclusion, the sun rises. As Town Centers can only be constructed on top of abandoned Settlements, players are more limited as to where they can construct their own settlements compared to Age of Empires II. Atlanteans have a huge advantage in this map as their Citizens can start to collect resources from the beginning of the game. Before Retold, worshipers of Oranos notably had the strongest advantage on the map, as they could see the location of all abandoned settlements.
Prior to Retold it is represented only as a semi-arid land with no rivers or lakes, with ocean waters on three sides of the map, being landlocked on one side. Huntables are typically African, including Baboons, Elephants, Giraffes, Rhinoceroses, and Zebras, and there are also plenty of stray Goats, alongside some Berry Bushes. Fish are present in the waters, and include Mahi. There are many chokepoints in the land, as there are neat numbers of cliffs, and decent amounts of mixed oak and palm forests.
With Retold, the map is changed to always generate as a complete island, and a new Mediterranean variant is added. Since Heavenly Spear, the map now has many different variations, including Asian, Atlantean, and Norse-themed generations, similar to the Land Nomad variant added with the expansion, but always taking the form of an island.
Trivia[]
- This map is the only one in the original game to alternate between unique lighting modes; the starting lighting is "Night", and as Mother Nature's Ceasefire goes on, the lighting changes to "Dawn".
- Nomad is one of the two maps where Mother Nature casts a god power, the other being Open Fields (in Tale of the Dragon).
- The Ceasefire never occurs during a Treaty Match as no player, including Mother Nature, can cast god powers during the Treaty's duration.
- In Tale of the Dragon, due to an oversight by the Forgotten Empires team, Peasants do not have their construction speed increased during the Ceasefire.
- The original shape and map balance elements of Nomad in Age of Mythology were based upon the map Coastal from Age of Empires II.
Gallery[]
