Well I think I'll just do one map at a time to keep things simple for myself, when I'm done them all I put them all together in one grand post and put it up on my site or something. Anyways I'll start out with a fairly simple map Alfheim.

Keep in mind that a lot of what I'm putting down here is meant for new players to the game, and might be fairly obvious to many of you.

Here are some quick basics on the map

Everything stated here is assuming you are playing 1v1, for higher amounts of players things change a bit on this map I think.

-usually lots of food, the amount of hunting varies a fair amount on this map, and very often it isn't really worth getting the hunting tech at all. This game having as random of maps generated as it does it's rather hard to predict what you are going to get, so I wouldn't suggest ever getting the hunting tech unless you know for sure there are two decent sized groups of animals near enough to hunt. For set players attempting to convert animals, sometimes there are aurochs on this map, but usually not so I wouldn't count on this map being your best friend for offensive animals being found. On top of any hunting there is always a berry bush that is usually fair sized, as well as at least 6 chickens, so there should be plenty of food every time you play this map to make it to classical in a decent time.

-4+ relics every time. I don't remember ever seeing an alfheim map with less than 4 relics, most often they are spread right across the map in the middle, you can usually find one in each of the corners farthest from you and your enemies tc, but sometimes it scatters them crooked. The standard amount seems to be 4 relics however I have seen at least 6 on the map at times.

-there are lots of mountains on this map, this can be both a blessing and a curse. All those mountain ranges make it difficult to properly scout the map at times, however they also make it very easy to wall off portions of the map.

-wolves and bears are the only agressive animals that mother nature has control of on this map, and usually they don't come in to play, however you still better watch out for them.

How to play the map.

Well this map is your basic land map, but the map does have a few little quirks to it such as the hills. So about the only thing I can suggest is to use those hills to your advantage whenever possible. If your opponent is trying to do lots of raids and hit and runs, make him go through some walls to get to you from undefended areas. It's often very easy and cheap to do so as you really don't need more than a couple pieces of wall in most areas to slow down raiding. At the same time make sure not to wall out things that might be important to you later such as settlements or some valuable gold mines. Trade very often isn't very effective on this map due to all the trees and hills, as well your settlements aren't usually close to the edge which of course makes for better trading, so it's important to hold on to those gold mines whenever you can.

Find a good spot for your military base. Very often this map can be tight with all the hills and trees around making it hard to place all your military buildings in a good spot. In general it's a good idea to keep your military buildings close together so you can rally a new army to one spot very quickly if your enemy tries to take over your military base. Make sure to find a decent place where you won't have to have your barracks touching trees or hills, I remember some of my early games I got very mad when I'd find that my placement of buildings was poor because to have a good setpoint my barracks would place the unit inbetween some trees and the barracks making it useless. As well if you see your opponent is norse try not to build too closely to the trees in general as they may get the forest fire God Power which kills buildings touching the trees in no time flat.

The settlements on this map are very often spread very randomly, there ussually doesn't seem to be any real pattern to it, very often you will see tc screws on this map it seems like though. By tc screw I mean where your opponent has 2 extra tc's in and around their starting area, but you only have one near your starting area and the other one is just as close to him as it is to you.

What not to do

Don't wall yourself in completely and hope to just boom your way through the start of the game, in general this is a bad idea. It's so very tempting on this map at times but don't give in to temptation. I know that if I got some of the maps that alfheim ends up with aok/c I would have been happier than anything due to their easy wallability. The problem is that walls are so very weak in this, and walling yourself in early gives up lots of valuable map.

Don't just assume that because there is a nice group of hunting near your tc that there will be lots more on the map for you and you should therefore get the hunting upgrade right away. I see many players make the mistake of just getting this tech automatically. While it is worthwhile on some maps to get this every time, this isn't one of them where it's a guarantee that it will be worth the resources you spend. Scout first upgrade later is my rule of thumb on this map, I've been burned a couple of times where that big group of hunting near my tc is the only hunting on the map that's worth walking for and building a mill.

Well that's all I can think of, feel free to add hints/quirks about this map I'll edit them in and put your name at the bottom if they seem like decent suggestions.