Overview
Valley of Kings is a slightly larger-than-average desert map dotted with impassable cliff outcroppings. Ten cliffs lean toward the perimeter and six can occupy the interior; both groups always belong to the same layout, while the seed determines which areas fit and how the open lanes connect.
The economy spreads around those outcroppings. Close boar and two mirrored large mines begin at 50 meters, the safer settlement starts at 60 meters, and two more heavy hunts begin at 70 meters. Outer gold, relics, lions, and the aggressive settlement sit deeper in the same contested lanes.
Cliffs do not create ownership by themselves. They redirect reinforcement routes and hide cliff-edge wood and relic landmarks, so control depends on scouting both sides of each outcropping.
Cliffs & Open Lanes
Standard 1v1 can attempt sixteen impassable cliff areas. Ten are pushed toward the outer 10% bands of the map; six can appear through the interior. Perimeter cliff origins remain 60 meters apart, while interior origins use 50-meter spacing.
Every cliff is designed around a 20-meter radius with four to eight connected blobs, stands four meters above the surrounding desert, and keeps 25 meters from buildings and farm-capable settlement space. No ramps are added, so movement flows around the outcroppings rather than across them.
This overhead shows one seed in which several large outcroppings frame wide lanes. It is not a count guarantee: some of the sixteen terrain attempts can fail to fit, and their exact shapes and passages change every generation.
Food
A successful Standard 1v1 layout contains 17,200–24,700 initial finite food, with about 20,863 expected. That total includes goats at their initial value and lion carcasses; lions are risky bonus food rather than a substitute for the three hunt layers.
Opening food
| Package | Per player | Food on map |
|---|---|---|
| Starting gazelles | 7–8 | 2,800–3,200 · 3,000 expected |
| Starting berries | 4–6 bushes | 1,200–1,800 · 1,500 expected |
| Starting chickens | 4–6 | 800–1,200 · 1,000 expected |
| Starting goats | 2–4 owned goats | 200–400 initial |
Each opening count is shared between the two players. Gazelles begin within tower vision; berries, chickens, and owned goats complete a stable opening without adding a separate random species branch.
Expansion food
| Package | Possible animals per player | Distance | Food on map |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close hunt | 4–6 boars | 50–70 m | 3,200–4,800 · 4,000 expected |
| First outer hunt · 50/50 | 2–3 elephants or 5–7 boars | 70+ m | 3,600–5,600 · 4,650 expected |
| Second outer hunt · 50/50 | 10–12 gazelles or 3–4 rhinos | 70+ m | 3,900–5,200 · 4,475 expected |
| Lions | 1–2 groups of 2–3 | 80+ m | 500–1,500 · 938 expected |
The two outer hunt rows roll independently, but each row gives both players the same species and count. All three hunt layers remain 50 meters apart and avoid cliff terrain, tower vision, settlement space, edges, and other food.
Herdables
Each player receives two close groups of two goats at 50–70 meters and three outer groups of two at 70 meters or farther, in addition to two to four owned starting goats. That makes 24–28 goats across the map: 1,200–1,400 initial food or 7,200–8,400 at full fattening.
The close boar is the dependable bridge from the opening. The 70-meter elephant/boar and gazelle/rhinoceros layers carry the larger payoff, often on different sides of a cliff.
Wood
Valley of Kings can generate six symmetric starting forests and eighteen later player-side forests, up to twenty-four 50–60-tile areas. The later forests stay within 10 meters of impassable land, concentrating replacement wood around cliff edges.
Forest areas remain 30 meters apart and avoid cliffs themselves, Town Centers, farm-capable settlement space, and owner paths. Starting stragglers and ten scattered palms add smaller sources. Varying area shape and tree density prevent a fixed wood total.
Replacement wood is predictable in relationship, not position: look beside cliffs, then check which side has the safer reinforcement lane.
Gold Mines
A complete successful stock layout contains a fixed 54,000 gold. Two 3,000-gold starting mines and eight 6,000-gold large mines make up the full reserve.
| Reserve | Per player | Distance | Map gold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting reserves | 1 medium mine | Opening tower area | 6,000 |
| Close expansion reserves | 2 mirrored large mines | 50–70 m | 24,000 |
| Outer reserves | 2 large mines | 80+ m | 24,000 |
Close and outer mines also remain at least as far from every other player start as their listed minimum. Mine positions stay 50 meters apart and avoid cliff terrain, tower vision, settlements, corners, and edges.
Only 6,000 of the map's 54,000 gold is in starting reserves. The mirrored close pair is the first control test; the 80-meter mines make long-term gold a lane-control problem.
Settlements & Map Control
Each player is designed to receive two symmetrically paired settlement positions. The backward-biased settlement lies 60–80 meters from the base; the aggressive one lies 80–120 meters away. Both avoid tower vision, the edge, and 40-meter corner zones, while the aggressive position also avoids King of the Hill space.
Cliffs keep 25 meters from buildings and avoid farm-capable settlement space, preserving room to build around successful sites. The first settlement overlaps the 50–70-meter boar and gold layer; the second reaches toward outer mines and cliff-edge relics.
Relics
Standard 1v1 can place up to three relic sites per player before the global relic limit, for a ceiling of six clusters. Sites begin at least 80 meters from every player start, have no maximum distance, remain 80 meters apart, and sit immediately outside impassable cliff terrain.
Shrines mark the relics
Every accepted site receives one Shrine, two Major God statues five meters to its sides, and one relic five meters outward from the nearest cliff center. The accepted-site count controls the result, so a generation can finish with fewer clusters than the ceiling.
The stock object is simply named Shrine and described in game as a small place of worship. It is a physical landmark, not a capture point or economic generator; the relic beside it is the strategic reward. Sites also avoid tower vision, settlement space, and edges.
Search cliff edges rather than the empty center. A Shrine-and-statue silhouette reveals a relic cluster, but the cliff can make the shortest visible route the slowest safe route.
Scope is the current stock Valley of Kings script at Standard size in 1v1. Food expectations use canonical capacities from maps/data/resources.py. Each object definition is created once before per-player placement, so its branch and animal-count rolls are shared between both players; the two outer hunt definitions roll independently of one another. Goat and lion group/count expectations preserve their independent calls. Goats use initial value, with fully fattened capacity separate; predators remain separate from dependable hunt. Larger-map definitions are excluded. The supplied archive omits lib2/rm_core.xs, including cMaxRelics and helper-owned opening distances, default clearances, settlement spacing, and retry behavior. The public relic ceiling therefore follows the visible three-per-player configuration while preserving the cap and actual accepted-site count rather than claiming six guaranteed placements. The Shrine identity and lack of a special objective action come from current proto.xml and official strings. The workbook and overhead are single Scenario Editor observations used only for reconciliation; no alternate Valley of Kings source was found or used.
- Official game stringQuoted game copy
- Game script inspectionPlacement rules and requested ranges
- Scenario Editor observationScenario Editor totals and layout
- Derived calculationTransparent calculations from sourced values
- Strategic analysisPlayer-facing interpretation