Maps and Provinces

[caravel]

Note: gollum I haven't passed over you last post, but it's now 1:30 here and I need to be getting to sleep as any reply I make at this time will probably consist of "yes" and "no" only.

[gollum]

Hi,
no worries, often i think that yes/no type of answers to my posts are the best

!it burnsus!

[western]

I'm sure it's not top of the agenda at the moment, but I agree with Gollum about at least some of the islands. Sicily and Cyprus had strategic importance in the sense of being valuable bases which were both the targets and launchpads for invasions. That was not the case for Corsica, Sardinia, Crete where the story from 11th to !4th centuries is pretty much just localised rebellion. So in the search for a better MTW, I'd regard those 3 provinces as available for re-use where there are better opportunities. There's no shortage of historically based candidates which would be good for gameplay - Southern France and either Dalmatia or Albania already mentioned; in addition the giant Flanders and Lorraine could profitably be split (add Artois and Brabant) to better represent this very active area; Moravia could be split off from Bohemia; and adding Samogitia (main battleground on the Baltic) would make Lithuania an inland province as it should be. Just some ideas

[ULC]

Hmmm...to me, one of the things that should decide provincial availability it the overall faction "presence" in an area. We could have a very active or province heavy place in one area or another, but history at some point gives way to game balance. Increasing the provinces in the Lorriane/Flanders area is not as needed as say splitting Hungary or Poland. Also, based on the number of a faction in an area, we should have a certain number of provinces - IHMO, the number of provinces in a given theater should be equal to (number of participants)x3(+1). So if we have 4 factions crammed into one area, then we should have 13 provinces they should be fighting over.

[western]

You make a good point YLC. There's no shortage of good, available choices for historical provinces - and the ones actually chosen should be linked to choices about factions, with more provinces where there are more factions.

[caravel]

I'm sure it's not top of the agenda at the moment, but I agree with Gollum about at least some of the islands. Sicily and Cyprus had strategic importance in the sense of being valuable bases which were both the targets and launchpads for invasions. That was not the case for Corsica, Sardinia, Crete where the story from 11th to !4th centuries is pretty much just localised rebellion. So in the search for a better MTW, I'd regard those 3 provinces as available for re-use where there are better opportunities. There's no shortage of historically based candidates which would be good for gameplay - Southern France and either Dalmatia or Albania already mentioned; in addition the giant Flanders and Lorraine could profitably be split (add Artois and Brabant) to better represent this very active area; Moravia could be split off from Bohemia; and adding Samogitia (main battleground on the Baltic) would make Lithuania an inland province as it should be. Just some ideas

We already have Albania in the form of Epirus.

[western]

Hi Cynewulf

I had in mind the area north of Epirus, centred on Dyrrachium (western end of the Via Egnatia), that formed the Angevin kingdom of Albania in the 13th century and was earlier fought over between the Normans and the Byz. It would mean Thessaly didn't have a border on the Adriatic, and it would be harder for the Sicilians to get to Constantinople - but it's just one of many candidates, depending on where you feel gameplay needs a bit of a boost.

[naut]

I whole heartedly agree with YLC's post.