Hi folks.
I'm currently designing a "Reconquista" mod. This was started around 6 months ago but I never completed it as I was unhappy with the maps of Iberia I have at the time. Now (thanks to Komninos) I have a great satellite map and my interest has been piqued again. Therefore I want to finish this mod but I've come up against the same problems I had 6 months ago. My problems are twofold
1) where should province boundaries start and end for such a mod that covers a wide time frame and, consequently, boundaries chopped and changed every decade or so?
2) what should the names of such provinces be?
Whilst the full time period of 'muslim involvement' in Iberia lasted from 711 (the first influx of North African muslims into Spain) to 1502 (the expulsion of the last muslims from the Iberian peninsula), I suspect the main period associated with the Reconquista occured between the years 1030 to 1492.
This is the time period I'm looking at.
However, such time spans saw immense changes in the ownership and boundaries of Medieval Spain/Portugal (in fact it saw the emergence of both Portugal and Spain as independent Christian Nations.
Therefore, one of the problems in building an "accurate" Reconquista mod is dependent on certain areas/provinces within the Iberian peninsula being Historically accurate in terms of size/boundaries - whilst also being practible (from an MTW gaming viewpoint) in terms of ownership thoughout a period of 450 years.
How many provinces am I looking at? Well, considering the new campaign map size and the number of principal cities in Iberia throughout this period my initial thoughts are anywhere in the region of 25 to 40 provinces. For example, although Grenada was only really 1 large province I was considering splitting in into maybe 3 sub-provinces - purely for MTW gaming reasons.
My inclination is to go for smaller "City States", on the grounds that such cities would encompass the surrounding areas of land and would (presumeably) be consistent - even if later incorporated into larger provinces. However. such "city states" would encompass boundaries that would be realisable in later periods. For example, the boundaries of Leon in 1030 would not look so strange if viewed (and retained) 2 or 3 hundred years later.
Is this realistic? Is it practicable? What "principal" cities should be represented?
These are the problems I'm struggling with (and I struggled with them 6 months ago also), and any assistance/advice from Spanish/Portugeuse modders would be most welcome.
(BTW: I don't need too much info on the time spans of various Kingdoms - I know most of that - but advice regarding how such Kingdoms should be divided, province wise, is what I require).
Hopefully we'll get a good Reconquista mod eventually.
Welly
