What is your favorite map to play on?

Just what the title says.
mine is probably Italian Grassland. either that or Amazon Confluence.

Anything that is not flat ffs...

Homestead, Syrian, Prussian Hills, Italian Grass, Aosta Valley, all good maps.

I prefer syrian - it always provides good fair battles

Grassy

Like Carswell said, the best map is anything that is NOT flat and/or featureless. By going this route, you'll be able to counter the rampantly out of control skirmisher/light infantry "spam" army build. Simply "spam" the hell out of artillery and "camp" your ass off ("spam" howitzers if you haven't firgured out how to use cannons effectively yet)! Believe me, you won't have to "camp" for long before your "Leet" opponent will "rush" staright at you with what he thinks are "invincible" skirmishers and light infantry in skimisher mode, usually completely unsupported! Anyway, blast away at his hoard (usually 10 or more) of skirmishers and light infantry as it approaches. You won't kill hardly any of his troops (since they're all apparently wearing some type of high-tech flak jackets!), but you will eventually lower their morale, at which time you simply strike them in the flanks and rear with your stragically located lancer cavalry which you've hidden in wooded areas along the path of his his army's advance (which is normally straight at you)! After you've routed his hapless swarm of skirmishers and light infantry, counter-attack and destroy the rest of his depleted army which now consists of "crap", since you've already destroyed the units he spent all his gold and pinned all his hopes on! Of course, you'll be extremely lucky to actually finish the game before being called an "arty spamming noob camper" and being "rage-quit" on, but at least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you bested his "Leet", skirmisher/light infantry "spamming" ass in a "fair" fight!

Grassy Flatlands whilst not being a fully historical map, certainly has elements of history within it - not every single battle was held at the exact ridge in syria, the exact same plateau in Siberia, the exact same Pinnacle in Austria...

Whereas there is flat terrain just about everywhere you go (more or less). It would be nice to see maybe a few houses, patches of forests and slight rolling hills on Flatlands, which are RANDOMLY generated to change location each game. Why can't CA just take in public demand and script a few maps instead of using the same one for every game?

wow.. how is grassy flats winning against Italian?

Lets bring 3 old guard, put them in the house and make the rules no artillery.

Amazon Confluence cause all you have to do is defend the choke points with line infantry. Place some rifles to shoot anyone that comes near the river. Also have 2 cav in reserve to counter any enemy cavalry chages or any breakthroughs in your defence.

Syrian ridge is the most balanced and natural looking map without serious elevation but with enough obstacles to make room for maneuvering.

I for one prefer Aosta Valley over everything else. I think it is the most balanced map where something resembling urban combat occurs. The side paths create opportunities for creative persons to flank and infiltrate, and there are all kinds of little hills and mountain paths for the placement of art. The absolute variety of terrain means that no particular army is at a significant disadvantage, with cav, lights, line, and art all getting having some area of terrain that favors them.

My least favorite is anything with a river at which there is only one or two ways to cross. Such an absolute bottleneck results most often in a case of "Staring-Contest" total war, where both sides are completely reluctant to go anywhere near a bridge given the immense advantage the defending army has in these situations.

I think pyramids a pretty fun map.

lodi is by far the best map... it has everything I could ask for, a river with multible crossings, a large hill that dominates part of the map, a town for close combat and some forest and cliffs. No map will ever be cooler then lodi IMO

Pyramids 2v2 for me. The setting is above awesome, and it's not such a good skirmisher-spam map (due to the occurence of lots of terrain). It offers wider-scale flanking maneuvers on one side, and some close-combat and assault tactics on the other (at the hill).

Originally Posted by spiderman101

lodi is by far the best map... it has everything I could ask for, a river with multible crossings, a large hill that dominates part of the map, a town for close combat and some forest and cliffs. No map will ever be cooler then lodi IMO

I played on Lodi my third, fourth and fifth games online
all three times it was against 2 guys who i think now were part of a clan, and were working together extremely well. I kept attacking them up the hill, and they would slaughter me every time, while my ally camped across the river.
it has left me horribly scarred for life and unable to play lodi ever again

Originally Posted by Aanker

Pyramids 2v2 for me. The setting is above awesome, and it's not such a good skirmisher-spam map (due to the occurence of lots of terrain). It offers wider-scale flanking maneuvers on one side, and some close-combat and assault tactics on the other (at the hill).

Pyramids is quite a good one as well. its like grassy flatlands, but interesting.

Originally Posted by Bryanrows

It has left me horribly scarred for life and unable to play lodi ever again

Sounds like me and Grassy Flatlands... The heritage from E:TW and the first games of skirmisher hoards in N:TW did it for me. I still play it on larger games like 3v3 or 4v4, but only for the sheer joy of having a large and action-packed battle.

Originally Posted by Bryanrows

I played on Lodi my third, fourth and fifth games online
all three times it was against 2 guys who i think now were part of a clan, and were working together extremely well. I kept attacking them up the hill, and they would slaughter me every time, while my ally camped across the river.
it has left me horribly scarred for life and unable to play lodi ever again


Pyramids is quite a good one as well. its like grassy flatlands, but interesting.

lol, it was probaly agianst me and "(DH) Vulpes" the best thing you could do is retreat across the river and camp with your ally... thats what most of them do, of course we still pwn them anyway

Originally Posted by spiderman101

lol, it was probaly agianst me and "(DH) Vulpes" the best thing you could do is retreat across the river and camp with your ally... thats what most of them do, of course we still pwn them anyway

that was actually my plan in the first battle. although my ally decided instead to fortify the river crossing by his starting position.... from in front of the river, not taking advantage of the bottleneck crossing
being a fool i followed him, and eventually tried to position my army on the other side of the hill for a pincer movement, but i was caught out of position and assaulted. i managed to beat back the initial assault pretty well for a noob, and even started to do some real damage with my howitzers. but of course, once the full might of 2 armies converging downhill on my position really hit me, i crumbled.

although it can be said for my ally that he DID send a single unit of French fusiliers to flank my opponent before he was destroyed in half the time i was

Italian grassland

all these new map for art camper are crapp, flat grassland is very good for fight them... anyway in no art game Homestead, Syrian, Prussian Hills, Italian Grass, and pyramide are very good, open not too high relief, only desert one get ur inf tired quick.