In the annual specials, the game takes place on a map of Ancient Europe divided into 87 regions. Shores of War introduced navigable rivers and seas in 2023. You can see them on the map below:
The map above shows the battlefield of annual special servers. It is ancient Europe, divided into regions. The map shows all regions colour-coded by their ancient power. Each power type is shown in a different colour, with slight differences between small, big and unique versions, for better readability. The map also notes the Victory Points production per day of each region.
We have used short names for the ancient powers, here's an explanation of what they mean:
- Architect – stronger buildings
- Boots – faster troops
- Confusion – cranny + random aim
- Diet – less hungry troops
- Eyes – better spies
- Storage – great warehouse and great granary plans
- Trainer – faster troop training
The effects of ancient powers are the same as artefacts on gameworlds with Wonder of the World, however Annual Special servers do not have an artefact of the fool (random) power.