An Irish protest

[Populus Romanus]

I must say, I am impressed by how civil this debate has stayed. Oh crap I jinxed it.

[cmacq]

I must say, I am impressed by how civil this debate has stayed. Oh crap I jinxed it.

What no tongue of Bricriu???

[Cyclops]

Doesn't want to risk the "ban-mjollnir" (sorry don't know any mythical hammers in Celtic lore, just on the Averni shield)). Also I believe the Red Branch reforms take place after the EB period.

Clearly a lot of talk and thought has gone into the province delineation in EB2.

I'm guessing the decision against any more "midnight isles" factions is reflected in the province reduction. Can't wait to see the map previews so we can see where the extra provinces have gone in (guesses madly about Nabataea and India).

Is there any light that can be asked on he extremely salient point about eleutheroi stacks in Eremos? Will there be scripted armies in different slices of the province? Or just a howling empty waste?

[Populus Romanus]

(guesses madly about Nabataea and India).

There is a new Arabian province confirmed: Lihyan, where the southern part of Nabataia was.

[vartan]

There is a new Arabian province confirmed: Lihyan, where the southern part of Nabataia was.

I'm sorry but Lihyan was south of Nabatea, not southern Nabatea. At least that's what I see. In greater southern Nabatea I see the cities of Berenike (west), Pyunikon Kome (south) and Dumata (east). I see an independent Lihyan with its capital Egra. PR, did the EBII team mention if this province-town was going to be part of the Eleutheroi at game-start?

[Populus Romanus]

I'm sorry but Lihyan was south of Nabatea, not southern Nabatea. At least that's what I see. In greater southern Nabatea I see the cities of Berenike (west), Pyunikon Kome (south) and Dumata (east). I see an independent Lihyan with its capital Egra. PR, did the EBII team mention if this province-town was going to be part of the Eleutheroi at game-start?

I was speaking of the EB province of Nabataia. The capital is going to be Hegra. Moros did not mention whether or not it would be Eleutheroi. However, that would be expected, as the alternative would be a tad bit of a giveaway.

[bobbin]

I'm guessing the decision against any more "midnight isles" factions is reflected in the province reduction. Can't wait to see the map previews so we can see where the extra provinces have gone in (guesses madly about Nabataea and India).

There hasn't been a reduction, the provinces have just been shifted around and had their borders changed

[Moros]

Lihyan will be represented by the independent settlement of Dedan. Hegra only started to be of somewhat importance in the first century bc.

[vartan]

Lihyan will be represented by the independent settlement of Dedan. Hegra only started to be of somewhat importance in the first century bc.

Where can I find mentions of Dedan? Any special lit. on that town? Findings, etc.?

I brought up Egra as it's all I had for the Kgdm of Lihyan on my 80 BCE Armenian map (Lihyan is relatively small compared to others on the map scale-wise, especially its neighbor Nabatea, hence only Egra being pointed on the map).

[Moros]

For some basic information you can search for Lihyan, Lihyanite, Al-'Ula (modern name), Dedan on wiki and http://nabataea.net/dedan.html. There are some books about it but they usually concentrate more on the languages (Dedanite, Lihyanite,...). A book called 'Lihyan und Lihyanisch' by W. Caskel, which is in german, has some basic history on it I seem to remember. Die alten Kulturen von al-'Ula und Mada'in Salih. Bedeutende Städte an der Weihrauchstraße, by al-Ansary and Abu al-Hassan has some good information as well. When you research Tayma, which is an other settlement of the region (known for Nabonibus), you can also find quite a bit of information on it, as the history of both settlements are pretty much linked. A good site on Tayma is http://www.dainst.org/index_38ebc39c...000011_en.html which has a short bibliography at the end. But mostly if you want information on it, you'll have to rely on scientific articles.

[Cyclops]

There hasn't been a reduction, the provinces have just been shifted around and had their borders changed

Sorry I misunderstood, I thought the Isles were one down from EB1 with Ireland losing its southern province to Eremos.

The re-shaped Pritanoi provinces look a sweet fix, almost as neat as the Sardinia/Corsica solution. Just one less port, but its the starting province so its quite telling I imagine.

Of course how the neighbouring continental provinces work out wil be important too (eg if trhe Belgic area has been redrawn). I recall I never could get much trade out of the southern Indian port despite its great trade potential: I suspect the port distribuition as well as a lack of viable trading partners was part of the deal (hostile AS and all that): as rich as the Prytanoi get they'll need good ways into Europe to thrive.

There's so many little details to nut out in province slicing and dicing. Good work was done on the Baltic coast in EB I felt, would love to see the EB2 version (if my maths is right there will be one less Baltic port...but maths is not my strong suit) and the province re-shaping there prolly reflects the inclusion of the Lugiones...