I would like to say something. The mod is your creation so the decision is yours. I am not of balkan descent, but the truth is the balkans of the middle ages was an ethnicaly diverse area with magyars, greeks, albanians, slavs, bulgars and vlachs, the states of moldavia, wallachia, bulgaria, serbia, the latin greek states and others all existed at one point during the time period. These states entered into conflict with the byzantines, mongols, hungarians, poles and each other. Units of said nations took part not only in battles that were of local significance but also at nicopolis, ankara, and tannenberg. Serbian cavalry in particular turned the tide at nicopolis and distinguished themselves at ankara angainst timur.
At the present italy has 4 factions. The balkans have hungary and byzantium, but these factions will probably be preoccupied elsewhere in central europe and anatolia, so there does seem to be a vacuum in the balkans and not having any faction here seems to deprive the Venetian, hungarian, polish, turkish and byzantine player of the enjoyment of fighting a full-fledged faction here.
I have the following suggestion, it may take some imagination. The kipchaqs were involved politically in the creation of the second bulgarian empire and the creation of wallachia and moldavia i think the first ruler of moldavia was actually of kipchaq descent, bassarab if i"m not mistaken, so i think it would be a good idea to give the kipchaqs provinces in the balkans as victory conditions, as well as giving them names and titles that suggest a link to bulgaria and wallachia/moldavia. I think this would make gameplay a little more interesting for eastern europe and lessen the balkan snub.
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