Region:
Europe north of the Alps. Ranging from the Urals west to the British Isles and on down into northern 4/5th of France and the northwest portion of coastal Spain.
Characteristics:
- On the wet side with rolling hills, knobs, and plains with mixed conifer/deciduous broad-leafed forest.
- May be heavily forested or open.
- Marshlands on more open plains near watercourses or coastal Netherlands.
- May snow in winter; rains periodically at all other seasons of the year.
- Can have large rivers and some lakes.
- Can have some cliffs intersecting ranges of hills permitting the passage of rivers through cuts.
- Temperate may be heavy in wood and animals but is otherwise normally endowed with stone and ore.
- It is usually a reasonably good defensive map.
- This map also makes for an excellent water map for such as coastal, continental, and islands type maps.
Typical Temperate type variations:
- Fortress Eire & Albion (fortresses are sited atop mounds, access is normally open)
- Fortress Cantabrian Highlands (fortresses are sited atop hilltop heights, access may be reduced somewhat by adjacent forest on slopes)
- Fortress (any)
- Nomadic
- Herocide
Elevation
- Primary (Lowlands).
- Secondary (Midlands).
- Tertiary (Highlands).
- Quaternary (Ocean Floor).
Temperate Land types:
3.2.1. Cantabrian Highlands
- Characterized by mid to relatively high hill lands.
- Many heights have non-forested buildable space at their tops.
- Some valleys also good for building.
- Well wooded and watered
- Other resources good.
- Watercourses periodically shallowed or have rocky fords.
- Civilization Territories are divided as appropriate to the map.
3.2.2. Ardennes Forest
- Similar to Black Forest in Age of Kingdoms.
- Densely forested.
- Variable-sized pocket clearings and narrow passages hugely over-endowed with Wood.
- Other resources normal.
- Civilization Territories are divided as appropriate to the map via passageways through forested area.
3.2.3. Lorraine Plain
- Cut through the center by the Loire River traversing east-west with some shallows.
- Fairly open-wooded and basically flat
- Plenty of building room.
- Well balanced resources.
- Civilization Territories are divided by main river and tributaries (with necessary shallows for crossings).
Temperate Water types:
3.2.4. Eire & Albion
- Islands type map.
- Two main islands oriented north-south but east and west of one another, one slightly smaller than the other.
- Coastlines typically have a lot of cliffs with occasional breaks in them that may or may not be at river mouths.
- Some smaller islands spotted in the channel between and to the east and north.
- Nicely balanced for resources.
- Civilization Territories are allocated commensurate to space on the two larger islands.
3.2.5. English Channel
- Albion and Gaul juxtaposed across the English Channel.
- Coastlines typically have a lot of cliffs with occasional breaks in them that may or may not be at river mouths.
- Civilization Territories are divided between one landmass and the other with north-south separation provided by watercourses on land with occasional shallows.
- Civilization Territories divided by water features as appropriate.
3.2.6. Rhine Marshlands
- The Netherlands.
- Generally on an east-west orientation.
- The map has many shallows crossing marshes and limited building space.
- Open ocean lies to the west.
- There are few beaches with adjacent land where ports can be developed.
- Is a hard map to defend on so strategy must be aggressive.
- Civilization Territories are divided as appropriate to the map.