Quote Originally Posted by Kavhan Isbul
I think it sounds great, but it also sounds like a lot of work. Personally, I have always been a strong supporter of the homelands concept, because in my opinion it improves the game significantly. And I have also always been in favor of region-specific units. I love your idea, and I really want to see it implemented, if you do not go crazy creating all these units.
I tried hard to find something about factions in Eastern Europe, but in the early period there is nothing other than the Steppe Peoples. However, interestingly enough, there is something called Samo's Empire in the first half of the 7th century, which in territory was similar to the later Great Moravia. Samo was a Frank, who happened to rise to power over the Slavs in Central Europe after a successfull rebellion against the Avars. His Empire was at best a confederation of tribes with him on top, and it was gone quickly after his death, the Avars recovering all of their former lands and subjugating the Slavs again. I am not sure if including this short-lived "Empire" would help the overall balance, other than it would certainly create further problems for the Avars and maybe the Franks. Playtests should be made to see how its inclusion will affect the game, but if it causes the Eastern Romans to crush the Avars and steamroll from the Danube to the Baltic, it might be wiser to leave the Avars bigger and stronger.
For what I remember form the secondary school he was a Frankish merchant who somehow led or got involved in a fight against Avars.

Anyway for that period of time our part of Europe was pretty chaotic and almost impossible to find something for sure, though recently for example the birth of Poland was again revised to even earlier times - late 8th or early 9th century, but that is too little for your mod.

There was however - possibly - a Vistulan tribe state around Kraków which was built for sure no later than in the early 9th century which baceme a part of Great Moravia or at least a vassal of this 'empire' - it included Lesser Poland.

A suggestion. Mazovia was nothing more than a depopulated banch of forests at that time and te real Poland would consist from Lesser and Greater Poland and Silesia which is very important to remember as a fightng ground for the next 3 centuries between Poles, HRE and Bohemia.