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Saph's Silk Road: The Crossroads of Empires (TSL)

A map stretching from Rome to China (162x43 Huge with TSL)



Can you build an empire that stands the test of time in this cradle of empires?

• Conquer the Silk Road:
  This map stretches from Italy in the west to China in the far east, also covering areas such as the Balkans, Anatolia, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Persia, Central Asia and Northern India.
  
  
• Balanced landmass sizes:
  Italy and the Balkans are enlarged while Asia is diminished to bring balance to the map, allowing plenty of space for every empire to develop.
  
  
• Navigable rivers:
  The rivers Danube, Euphrates, Tigris, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Yellow, Yangtze and Pearl are navigable to make traversing the map a bit more fun and challenging.
  
  
• Choke points:
  In addition to the presence of navigable rivers, choke points are also created by careful placement of mountain tiles. Don't think you can just steamroll across the continents!
  
  
• Accurate rivers:
  Almost 200 minor rivers are added to their real life locations (as accurately as it can be done on a hex grid).
  
  
• Accurate terrains:
  Mountains and hills are placed based on real elevation data[maps-for-free.com], and grass/plains/desert/tundra are placed based on USDA soil quality data[www.nrcs.usda.gov].
  
  
• True Start Locations:
  All the official civs, city states and natural wonders are placed at their real world location (apart from the Giant's Causeway which represents the Hukou Waterfall on the Yellow River).
  
  
• Custom civs & city states:
  TSL are included for 18 custom civs and 52 city states. (If you would like any other modded civs to be added, please leave a comment!)
  
  
• Map generated floodplains:
  This YnAMP-based map has map-generated river floodplains, so dam construction and flooding events are possible.

Map size: 162 x 43 (Huge)

Required Mod: Gedemon's Yet (not) Another Maps Pack

Recommended Mods:

• Religion Expanded: This adds enough beliefs to vanilla's 20 so that you won't get locked if you are playing with more than 20 civs but haven't chosen a belief.
  
• Prismatic - Color and Jersey Overhaul: This adds enough jersey colors so that you can play with more than 20 civs in one game. Otherwise some civs will get transparent colors.

• Arabia
  
• China (Qin OR Kublai)
  
• Egypt
  
• Greece (Gorgo OR Pericles)
  
• India (Gandhi OR Chandragupta)
  
• Macedon
  
• Rome
  
• Scythia
  
• Sumer OR Babylon
  
• Persia
  
• Georgia
  
• Mongolia (Genghis OR Kublai)
  
• Hungary (starting in Croatia because Budapest is out of the bound of this map and Matthias was the King of Croatia)
  
• Phoenicia
  
• Ottoman
  
• Byzantium
  
• Gaul
  
• Vietnam

Venice, Anshan (X Persia), Carthage, Hattusa, Hong Kong, Jerusalem (X Kingdom of Jerusalem), Kabul, Mohenjo Daro, Preslav, Valletta, Yerevan, Muscat, Akkad (X Sumeria/Babylon), Bologna, Lahore, Vatican City (X Rome), Nalanda (X Chandragupta), Samarkand (X Timurid)

Note: City states with (X civ/leader) will not spawn if the civ/leader specified is present

18 custom civs and 52 custom city states have TSL on this map. See this discussion thread for a list.

To play with advanced YnAMP settings, you need to

1. Have this mod and Yet (not) Another Map Pack installed and enabled ingame
   
2. Single Player --> Create Game --> Load Database (next to the BACK button) and wait for the game to load
   
3. Once loaded, you will be back to the main menu
   
4. Single Player --> Create Game (You should see a tick next to CREATE GAME at the top.) --> Choose Map Type --> Saph's Silk Road: Crossroads of Empires --> Advanced Setup

Recommended Settings

1. Turn on Only Civilizations/City States with TSL (or Turn off if you want to play with custom city states, details here)
   
2. Adjust the number of civs, city states & religions in the game to your liking.
   
3. Manually pick the civs to play as/against or leave them random.
   
4. Select Natural Wonders: Leave it at Everything / Uncheck the ones that you don't want to appear
   
5. Features Placement: Import for pre-placed woods & marshes / Map Generator for randomised woods, marshes, jungles & reefs
   
6. Coastal Lowland: Choose Map Generator for random placement / Matching flatlands for more dramatic flooding / Empty for no lowlands
   
7. Rivers Flooding: Choose Map Generator / Empty for no floodplains & flooding (and hence no dams)
   
8. Resource Quantity: Your own preference (Resources are map-generated; this map does not contain pre-placed resources.)
   
9. Resources Exclusion Zones: Activated to stop certain luxury resources from spawning in certain regions
   
10. Civilization Placement: Choose True Starting Locations for accurate historical placement / Map Generator for random placement
    
11. Enforce TSL: AI if you don't want the AI to stray from their TSLs
    
12. Use Leaders TSL when available & Use Alternative TSL if required and available: On
    
13. Allow random placement for civs without TSL: Off (You can turn it on if you want random placement for civs not in the list above)
    
14. Real City Naming: On (This is only for the capitals for several civs which do not start at their actual real life capitals e.g. Hungary / Mongolia or civs with two TSLs e.g. Ottoman or Arabia)

This map is made possible by Gedemon's YnAMP & Zobtzler's YnABMC.