Huge Middle Earth map (with Oliphaunts)

Yes, it’s yet another Middle Earth map!
Although some of the already available maps are very good, none of them had the map size and geography I was looking for, so I decided to try to make my own map. As it turned out better than I had hoped I decided to share it with you. You may like it too.

Basically it’s a huge map (256x256) with plenty of space for the easterlings and southrons (see minimap below). There is space available too if you want to add Numenor.
As the 512 city limits is reached long before all land is settled on a map this big, cities are only allowed on grassland, plains, flood plains and hills.
There are 20 custom tribes you can play*. When you start a game, make sure there are no “random” AI civs, otherwise you may end up meeting “Egypt” and other weird tribes.

*If you want to play the 5CC as “Sindar” (Lorien/Rivendell/Mirkwood); you have to change the "scenario properties" with the editor. Set “Player 1” to be Sindar (and make sure it’s “human player”) and give it 0 settlers and 0 workers as starting units. Set “Player 2” to be “any” civ and give it 1 settler and 1 worker.

As you can see in the readme file, there are lots of tweaks and changes to the rules. This is in order for the game to feel more like LOTR than a game with the standard rules. There are no custom units or other fancy things though, as I’m eagerly waiting for the LOTM team to finish their mod. If it’s as good as I think it will be, I will adapt this map to that mod, to get the full LOTR experience. Besides, I don't even know how to mod the game properly

The zip file includes two versions of the map; one with standard rules (CI-LOTR.biq) and one with modded rules and the custom civs (CI-LOTR-mod.biq).

You need Civ3 conquests to play this map.

If you play this map with standard rules, I strongly advice you to first use the editor to disallow cities in desert, tundra, and forests, for better gameplay. You should also add in modern resources. The readme file contains map coordinates for those that are already placed.

Please note that the Civilopedia is NOT updated with any of these changes. Consult the readme file for (hopefully!) correct information.

Although I'm pleased with the results, I'm sure there are many things that could be improved. Suggestions and constructive criticism is appreciated. But please be polite, after all it took me more than an hour to prepare this map

The minimap:

Close-up of southern Gondor:

A funny thing that happened in one of the test-runs

Wow, this is great. I'm surprised no one else had replied yet. My only suggestion would be to not exend the map so far east, and take the terrain all the way to the edge. It bothers me to have an eastern coast for some reason.
btw, 1 hour???? It would take me DAYS to make a map like this!

Omg You Forgot The Western Hemisphere

There Are 2 Continents In Middle Earth!!!

Thanks guys for your comments!

Weasel: The eastern coast bothers me as well, even though it's in line with the map from the Atlas of Middle Earth (see picture). Originally, I had more lands to the east, like on the map from ICE, but the 512 city limit had some nasty effects on the gameplay. It seemed that as long as there was any unsettled land left in the far east, the western civs would keep building settlers (in vain) instead of troops and city improvements. As I don't know of any way to just move the entire map contents eastwards, making an east coast (with the terrain set up to prevent the AI from building naval units there) was the best option I could come up with. Otherwise I would have to remake the entire map from scratch, and I don't want to do that as it indeed took me more than 1 hour to make it. In fact it took me weeks


Tom Bombadil: I didn't forget it, I omitted it
The map was made with MERP (Middle Earth Role Playing) in mind, so I focused on the parts of the world that are "in the game" in the third age.

I know there is in fact an easter coast, I just don't like the map going over that far. But yes, it's too much work to redo the map just for that. Oh, and I'm glad to hear it took you more than an hour

@TB: Middle-earth is a continent. Valinor was another continent of Arda.

I don't mind having an East Coast at all, especially when it's moddelled after Fonstad's maps (which apparently were moddelled after some unpublished Tolkien manuscripts or something???).

Looks awesome. Vanilla compatible?

Tank_Guy#3 said:

Looks awesome. Vanilla compatible?

Click to expand...

Next time you post, read the first post first...

Tank Guy: It's made for Conquests. As far as I know, it's not possible to convert maps backwards to vanilla or PTW.


Regarding the eastern coast: Once you're in a game you won't really notice it anymore. In my current game, I'm much more concerned about how many Oliphaunts it will take to teach Gondor proper manners

Yes! This Looks Great! I Bet That You Could Have A Reverse... Watchamacallit game so you could bring Frodo To Mount Doom! ...SWEET! Looks Awesome!

Interesting map, I'll have to try it out one of these days.

Combat Ingrid said:

A funny thing that happened in one of the test-runs

Click to expand...

Hobbits are going to take a beating

Looks great i can see it wasn't easy.
You don't need the other continent

where should i unzip it to? scenarios?

Yep
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Good work, looks great.