Arena
You start out with a base that is completely surrounded by either a thick forest or stone walls. Rus and Mongols would still start with stone walls even if they normally do not have access to them. All Sacred sites and relics would be placed in “neutral areas” which outside any player’s walls. So you cant just totally ignore the outside of your base. Neutral markets should be spawned opposite of the players.
This map would be real fun to passive players who love to wall up and boom. Stone walls compared to wooden would give you protection from things like fire lancer spam or scout spams.
Not Socotra
Players would be placed in a small clearing in the middle of the map. Everywhere else is surrounded by forests. Map also does not have stone deposits for defenses or town centers. There would only be one sacred site in the middle. You need to trade in the market if you want to get stone. Maybe let Mongols start with a single 600 stone deposit.
This map would be very fun for aggressive players since you would be very open plus stone defenses is almost impossible.
Chaos pit
Players are placed in the middle of a forest with a single stone deposit each, but the rest of the stone and all the gold would be placed outside. One sacred site would be in the middle of the map while the 2 others would be outside. Relics would be like that as well, one in the middle while the rest outside.
This would be another aggressive map but with the added bonus of having to cut your wood line to get to your gold.
Forest pond and Golden Pit would be interesting as well.