SSHIP - Original Thread (archived)

[ITC]

It was just an example with vikings. This applies to many other small ethnoses like Scots, Irelands, Sicilians and much more.

P.S. Serbians, Alans, Sweden etc, etc.

[KingCnut]

I agree with whoever said maybe shift the focus more towards Europe. Cut out alot of central asia, (maybe) remove Kwarezm and Cumans, I think the saturation of northern Italy should be shown more by adding duchy of Milan/republic of Florence. Also add Flanders, and lots more regions in northern Italy, France and Central Europe.

[Fair Prince]

Don't forget Marburg. Or Kassel. Also two of the oldest towns with HRE records going back into 1100s. Nicely situated as well to make the Central West area of Germany in HRE a bit more important as it was holding most of the important places in 1100s. Closer to 1300s the south and north became more important and in 1400s the east.

I don't know if Hamburg should be dropped but maybe if Lubeck is added and then also Ribe in Denmark instead of Aarhus how RW did it. If Hamburg is dropped then definitely Bremen added.
Meissen still not convinced about especially in any 1100 campaign, Leipzig could also work but both were under Polish control for some periods.
Trier or Metz- makes little difference to me. Trier is a bit further east so maybe better to make room for Bruges and Ghent.
Erfurt its possible but all the eastern German cities tended to be smaller and less important in 1100s.
Speyer is a good idea.
Augsburg is further north than Linz but could replace Innsbruck while Regensburg replaces Salzburg.
Staufen gone and Innsbruck gone seem good.

I see removing Innsbruck(replaced by Augsburg) and Staufen(replaced by Bremen) and only adding Lubeck(which is net + only if Hamburg kept). HRE should get at least +2. Marburg and Bremen seem the best candidates for new adds after Lubeck. Adding both Marburg and Erfurt... your call but looking on map Marburg/Kassel seems better situated as near Erfut there is already Magdeburg and Prague.

Modern population distribution in Germany... major changes from 1100s is Berlin and Hamburg as far as distribution anyway. Also Germany was still expanding North and East. Of course modern numbers way higher.
http://www.populationlabs.com/Germany_Population.asp

And attached a map of the larger political divisions under Barbarossa in late 1100s.
Political Power in 1100 was something like this;
1. Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria
2. Saxony, Thuringia, Lotharingia upper and lower
3. Bohemia
4. Lubeck and Brandenburg relatively new but quickly became important due to leading expansion into the NE- both into Livonia and Pomerania.
5. the rest had more or less importance at various times but not as constant as those above in HRE. Burgundy was nominally HRE but also owed France vassalage obligations for some of its territories and in practice paid little attention to the Kings of either. So it was quite important especially as Burgundy gained power through marriages and land acquisitions.

Also to use to estimate which cities should start most developed this might be useful- I don't agree with everything and probably most real historians wouldn't either but it can be handy since for gameplay reasons most regions won't start incredibly developed anyway but it would be nice to have some have a bit more differentiation at the start.

http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/urbanpop.html

Many thanks for your excellent map, mate!

In light of this, I reconsidered things a bit and now I firmly believe it would be possible to implement all historical regions/duchies that you mentioned. Here's a list of my proposed regions and their capitals (from North to South):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Holstein - Lubeck
Saxony - Bremen
Brandenburg - Magdeburg
Thuringia - Marburg, Kassel or Erfurt (?)
Meissen - Meissen
Lower Lorraine - Cologne
Upper Lorraine - Trier
Franconia - Frankfurt
Speyer - County Palatine of the Rhine
Bohemia - Prague
Swabia - Zurich (?)
Bavaria - Nuremberg
Austro-Bavaria - Linz
Austria - Vienna (to be discussed in a later Part)
Carinthia (including Styria and Carniola) - Triest (to be discussed in the next Part)

As you can see, I still got two question marks here:
1. What should be the capital of Thuringia? (this region doesn't correspond to the modern Thuringia)
2. Should Zurich be the capital of Swabia? (it was in the hands of Zahringen dukes, but unfortunately there aren't many suitable cities around for this role)

Also, if Nuremberg will be the capital of Bavaria, there's no place for Augsburg nor Regensburg. Furthermore, as Ichon pointed out before, Linz should also be preferred over Salzburg due to its importance as a trade center in the area.

[Fair Prince]

My two cents )
Giving central Europe such an advantage of population, we need to change also military parametres of less populated but strong ethnoses.

No worries pal, we will make sure they can still put up a fight!

@ Fair Prince

Good list :-)
I think Marburg would be a better choice over Meissen, but I think this is just a matter of personal taste...

The problem with Marburg is that it's located quite close to Frankfurt and its presence would make that section of the map very crowded, considering that Speyer also needs to be placed in the vicinity. That said, Kassel or Erfurt would be more suitable for inclusion.

I agree with whoever said maybe shift the focus more towards Europe. Cut out alot of central asia, (maybe) remove Kwarezm and Cumans, I think the saturation of northern Italy should be shown more by adding duchy of Milan/republic of Florence. Also add Flanders, and lots more regions in northern Italy, France and Central Europe.

I can promise we will place more settlements in areas where it's due, but no factions will be added or removed for the time being.

[Ichon]

Are you going to try and have every Duchy be represented by a region? I am not sure that is a good idea... The reason I listed the more powerful Duchies is that many of them could easily have 2 regions representing while many of the smaller ones unimportant individually.

Swabia could be represented by Worms, Heidelburg, Basel, Stuttgart, Baden, or Freiburg... looking at the map and in view of history I think Basel would be best.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Chmia_Adel.svg

Just to maintain perspective since it can be hard to imagine where a region and its capitol is here is map of modern central Europe- most of these cities are still there.

http://iguide.travel/Central_Europe/Cities#/Map

As far as Thuringia- Erfurt, Leipzig, or Marburg is best and looking at map Erfurt has the best placement.

I think any of the places in the top 2 spots in the list of political regions could easily have 2 regions to represent them. So Kassel could be Saxony or Thuringia- it was near enough the border to be either.

In the south if it were- Basel, Zurich, Linz then just to the north could be Regensburg, then Nuremburg would be on the border between Franconia and Bavaria which isn't a bad thing. Then it would be as if Kassel and Nurmeburg were split between some of the most powerful Duchies while Swabia is bordering Zurich etc thus giving representation to all and having the most powerful but like 1.5 regions with 1 region split between them.

[Fair Prince]

Are you going to try and have every Duchy be represented by a region? I am not sure that is a good idea... The reason I listed the more powerful Duchies is that many of them could easily have 2 regions representing while many of the smaller ones unimportant individually.

Swabia could be represented by Worms, Heidelburg, Basel, Stuttgart, Baden, or Freiburg... looking at the map and in view of history I think Basel would be best.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Chmia_Adel.svg

Just to maintain perspective since it can be hard to imagine where a region and its capitol is here is map of modern central Europe- most of these cities are still there.

http://iguide.travel/Central_Europe/Cities#/Map

As far as Thuringia- Erfurt, Leipzig, or Marburg is best and looking at map Erfurt has the best placement.

I think any of the places in the top 2 spots in the list of political regions could easily have 2 regions to represent them. So Kassel could be Saxony or Thuringia- it was near enough the border to be either.

In the south if it were- Basel, Zurich, Linz then just to the north could be Regensburg, then Nuremburg would be on the border between Franconia and Bavaria which isn't a bad thing. Then it would be as if Kassel and Nurmeburg were split between some of the most powerful Duchies while Swabia is bordering Zurich etc thus giving representation to all and having the most powerful but like 1.5 regions with 1 region split between them.

I believe it's definitely worth a try to represent the duchies by a region but only the important ones. Looking at your maps again, I think it's better to leave Meissen out for now and use that slot in the South instead. Adding both Erfurt and Kassel in the center would be a bit too many, so my vote is on Erfurt now.
As for Swabia, I checked your suggestions but I can't really see either of them as a potential capital. Perhaps Konstanz or Strasbourg could be an option but I'm not sure about them either, so I think it's better to select Zurich if you agree.

I see you're still insisting on including Regensburg, it must be a favourite of yours or something...
The problem is that it would be too close to Nuremberg and considering that the Frankfurt-Speyer pair is not that far from there, I don't really fancy putting in more 'twin cities', I hope you understand that. However, it's okay for me if Nuremberg starts as capital of Nordgau and we select a new capital for Bavaria - what about my favourite, Augsburg?

[Ichon]

I believe it's definitely worth a try to represent the duchies by a region but only the important ones. Looking at your maps again, I think it's better to leave Meissen out for now and use that slot in the South instead. Adding both Erfurt and Kassel in the center would be a bit too many, so my vote is on Erfurt now.
As for Swabia, I checked your suggestions but I can't really see either of them as a potential capital. Perhaps Konstanz or Strasbourg could be an option but I'm not sure about them either, so I think it's better to select Zurich if you agree.

I see you're still insisting on including Regensburg, it must be a favourite of yours or something...
The problem is that it would be too close to Nuremberg and considering that the Frankfurt-Speyer pair is not that far from there, I don't really fancy putting in more 'twin cities', I hope you understand that. However, it's okay for me if Nuremberg starts as capital of Nordgau and we select a new capital for Bavaria - what about my favourite, Augsburg?

Well the issue is that map I uploaded has only 8-10 major regions north of Alps whereas the whole point for me of redoing HRE is to strengthen it while staying historical and gameplay oriented. Just reducing Scandinavia a bit isn't enough to make HRE actually last awhile in a campaign so like I said earlier- having a few of the more important regions represented by 2 regions on the map or roughly 1.5 if another region is near border is the only way to make it work.

Current SS map has 9-10 regions for HRE north of Alps(some start rebel but basically the regions under HRE control usually before a Crusade ends it). If we just align those regions to be more historical the problem of HRE crumbling 40 turns into a campaign still remains and to me that is more unhistorical than having some regions especially if powerful shown by 2 regions on the map.

Basel is good to me because Swabia went through a rough time in 1200s when different families split up its regions and Burgundy took over parts. Mostly NW Swabia was important in 1100 but that is going to be a cluster with Trier and Frankfurt right there. The lands along the Rhine were the most populated and powerful in HRE but for gameplay while I don't mind clusters of 2 regions having a giant cluster of 5 regions around Rhineland despite showing historical correctness would be bad for gameplay. Basel was the seat of a powerful Bishopric and later an important Swiss Canton. Its location is also good on the map where Swabia was a bit isolated from HRE and nearer Burgundy, France, and Italy in many respects.

Erfurt in center of triangle roughly on SS map between Frankfurt, Magdeburg, and Prague. If you look at SS map and imagine Hamburg moved SE to where the border is right now and made Bremen there is a big empty spot on the map between Frankfurt, Magdeburg, and Bremen. Kassel fits there perfectly and is nearer the Rhine where majority of German population was and also helps represent Saxony, Hesse, and Franconia.

If you look on SS map now- Bern is not very well placed- Zurich would be almost due east only 4-5 tiles. Basel would be a bit SW of current Staufen. Speyer would be S of Frankfurt about same latitude as Metz. Trier would be NE of current Metz and almost south of Cologne on Frankfurt's latitude. The empty space of moving Metz would be taken by Troyes. Regensburg would be about that bridge crossing on current SS map just SW of Nuremburg. Linz would be roughly between current Prague and Salzburg. This would give HRE a good connection to Vienna and Prague which area should have more mountains and hills than it does on current SS map. If you put Augsburg in it would be way over south of Nuremburg north of current Innsbruck. There would be less of an empty space on the map there but also there weren't exactly as many campaign in the Alps as appears on the current SS map with Venice marching up to Salzburg every campaign nearly. To me that would allow HRE southern border to be more protected as it naturally was. Really though I can see Augsburg instead of either Linz or Regensburg. I just prefer Regensburg so HRE is better linked to Vienna and Prague which regions it loses in campaign quite quickly but in history were part of the backbone of HRE.

[Fair Prince]

All right, I hope we can come to an agreement as I'd like to move on to Italy soon...

After rechecking the maps for the umpteenth time, I accept your arguments about the North section, so I'm gonna also add Kassel to my proposals.
As for Swabia, Zurich indeed needs to moved into the right place but it also means there's little space left for Basel, so I reckon Strasbourg should be brought in as it could nicely fill the void left in Metz's absence. In the South, I still prefer Augsburg over Regensburg but I'm glad that you now seem to accept it.

Also, I guess you shouldn't worry about the Empire's defense for now - with these changes they should get more power both in North and in South, not to mention that there will also be new cities added in Italy, making a potential early Venetian assault less likely. What's more, the presence of some cool historical characters won't hurt them either.

[VINC.XXIII]

a big Verona province/coastal Venice is suitable for the Early Era. As the principal advantage of Venice was the estuary(salt), and his oriental traffics.
1000 AD

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

13th century:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

That don't change really before 1380~

no mention about Dalmatian Islands/Zara/Ragusa....its another story.

[Mbrabant]

On Italy i would suggest the remove of Ajaccio, and its region merging into Genoa. Since Ajaccio was not so important, and this should give a boost on the Genovese region.
Also Verona and Florence is a must to be added.

Also, on Germany i already sugested Cologne, but Lubeck should be a great adition.
On here i suggest to the mapmaker to draw prettier regions, since the last ones on germany was ugly and not so historical regions.
I also suggest another city on Bohemia, in addition to Praga.

[Ichon]

After rechecking the maps for the umpteenth time, I accept your arguments about the North section, so I'm gonna also add Kassel to my proposals.
As for Swabia, Zurich indeed needs to moved into the right place but it also means there's little space left for Basel, so I reckon Strasbourg should be brought in as it could nicely fill the void left in Metz's absence. In the South, I still prefer Augsburg over Regensburg but I'm glad that you now seem to accept it.

Also, I guess you shouldn't worry about the Empire's defense for now - with these changes they should get more power both in North and in South, not to mention that there will also be new cities added in Italy, making a potential early Venetian assault less likely. What's more, the presence of some cool historical characters won't hurt them either.

Well looking into Swabia more in depth it seems Augsburg was considered in eastern Swabia for awhile in 1100s before Bavaria was more in control there. So dropping Regensburg seems easier as long as HRE gets net gain +3 north of the Alps. + Trier + Kassel + Lubeck + Speyer + Erfrut + Bremen + Augsburg + Linz + Strasbourg/Basel/Freiburg -Hamburg -Innsbruck -Staufen -Metz. So that is +9 -4 for net +5. That seems a bit much to me...

I would think about not adding Erfurt and possibly not adding Linz if doing Augsburg. For every region + there will have to be others taken out later and it would suck to get to last part of the map and have to -20 or something crazy but it could easily happen. Net - from Isles and Scandinavia was only -4, France and Iberia added +6 so net +2. HRE should get +3 at least, Italy likely to get +2... so +7 overall before leaving Europe. It might be fine but need to keep track carefully. I think we can safely take out -3 from Africa, -2 Arabia, -2 the rest of the east(but major shift of regions). So that would be -7 there but not counting any additions to Balkans or Anatolia.

Strasbourg is good for Swabia but as I said with adding Speyer it would be a big clump of Strausbourg, Frankfurt, Speyer, and Trier. Trying to find something further south but not going into Burgundy and Swabia was controlling most of what became Swiss so Basel doesn't seem too bad. I would say Freiburg but it just doesn't fit well for 1100 but we could make an exception. We could leave Bern in but move it more west where it would be more correct anyway. Move it a coulpe tiles extra and adding Zurich and there would be enough space while representing Swabia, Swiss, and Burgundy well enough. Or we could simply cheat and put Strasbourg in but just move it a bit south from its actual position for game play reasons. On the map it would be in relatively the correct position and filling a needed spot so that might be fine as well.

On Italy i would suggest the remove of Ajaccio, and its region merging into Genoa. Since Ajaccio was not so important, and this should give a boost on the Genovese region.
Also Verona and Florence is a must to be added.

Also, on Germany i already sugested Cologne, but Lubeck should be a great adition.
On here i suggest to the mapmaker to draw prettier regions, since the last ones on germany was ugly and not so historical regions.
I also suggest another city on Bohemia, in addition to Praga.

Ajuccio removed with the other additions in Italy actually seems ok to me especially if Florence is added and Pisa stays in.

I don't get what you mean about Cologne? Its already on SS map. Did you mean something else? Well its up to the person who ends up doing the map to draw it prettier. I agree it doesn't reflect well German landscape. There should be really thick forest around Swabia while mountains and hills around Prague and south of Salzburg on current map should be more obvious. Other little details as well but those are the most obvious to me.

Brno could be added for Moravia but I think that is better on a map later than 1100. For now HRE is getting enough.

a big Verona province/coastal Venice is suitable for the Early Era. As the principal advantage of Venice was the estuary(salt), and his oriental traffics.

Seems good idea with Venice hugging coast but Venice did not achieve dominion over Ragusa until 1200s. I think Venice should start with just 1 city but maybe 5,000 starting population and a few more trade buildings and a larger fleet.

[Fair Prince]

Well looking into Swabia more in depth it seems Augsburg was considered in eastern Swabia for awhile in 1100s before Bavaria was more in control there. So dropping Regensburg seems easier as long as HRE gets net gain +3 north of the Alps. + Trier + Kassel + Lubeck + Speyer + Erfrut + Bremen + Augsburg + Linz + Strasbourg/Basel/Freiburg -Hamburg -Innsbruck -Staufen -Metz. So that is +9 -4 for net +5. That seems a bit much to me...

I would think about not adding Erfurt and possibly not adding Linz if doing Augsburg. For every region + there will have to be others taken out later and it would suck to get to last part of the map and have to -20 or something crazy but it could easily happen. Net - from Isles and Scandinavia was only -4, France and Iberia added +6 so net +2. HRE should get +3 at least, Italy likely to get +2... so +7 overall before leaving Europe. It might be fine but need to keep track carefully. I think we can safely take out -3 from Africa, -2 Arabia, -2 the rest of the east(but major shift of regions). So that would be -7 there but not counting any additions to Balkans or Anatolia.

Strasbourg is good for Swabia but as I said with adding Speyer it would be a big clump of Strausbourg, Frankfurt, Speyer, and Trier. Trying to find something further south but not going into Burgundy and Swabia was controlling most of what became Swiss so Basel doesn't seem too bad. I would say Freiburg but it just doesn't fit well for 1100 but we could make an exception. We could leave Bern in but move it more west where it would be more correct anyway. Move it a coulpe tiles extra and adding Zurich and there would be enough space while representing Swabia, Swiss, and Burgundy well enough. Or we could simply cheat and put Strasbourg in but just move it a bit south from its actual position for game play reasons. On the map it would be in relatively the correct position and filling a needed spot so that might be fine as well.

Okay, I guess we finally found an agreement here.
I'm gonna keep Kassel, Strasbourg and Augsburg in the list, with all of these we got +4 regions in Central Europe (not counting the Metz-Trier change as it belongs to Western Europe). I say we shouldn't worry about the used slots that much for now as we still have the rest of the map ahead of us. Even if we exceed the region slot limit at the end, we can return to review the proposals and I'll also create a poll where the players can vote for the expendable ones.
The design phase will only begin after that.

In light of this I consider Part 5 to be done, so we can now start debating about Italy, folks!

[Fair Prince]

Here's a list of the settlements belonging to this part of the map, from North to South:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Milan
Venice
Genoa
Bologna
Pisa
Ancona
Ajaccio
Rome
Naples
Bari
Cagliari
Palermo
Syracuse

Some potential additions, based on previous suggestions:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Turin
Verona
Trieste
Pula
Nice
Florence
Ravenna
Spoleto

Thanks again to everyone who provides me with ideas, without your support this work would surely be an uphill struggle!

[Ichon]

Florence and Verona are required. The addition of Nice and Trieste would be optimal.

Removing Ancona and Ajuccio seems good to me.

Verona would be on the SE corner of the lake W of Venice and especially with the location of the bridges over the Po and the removal of Innsbruck seems an ideal location.
Florence is a bit more difficult to fit in due to being relatively close to Bologna and Pisa but we could push Pisa over a couple tiles as its not right on the coast now and move Florence a bit SE of its actual position just to fit the map better.

Removing Ajuccio makes sense to me as it wasn't founded until 1492! Prior to that Ajuccio was nominally under Pisa then Genoa control but it was very lax with local nobles fighting and using outside interests to their benefit. Papal States formerly annexed Corsica in 1200s then returned it to Genoa before 1300. Most of the period saw small Genoa colonies only on the coasts. There could be a permanent stone fort on Corsica and Wool and Honey added as trade goods or at least 1 of those in addition to the wine there now.

Ancona and Ravenna... Ravenna was the larger and more important but is quite close to Bologna which is probably why Ancona was included on current map. However both Ravenna and Ancona were under control by the Church and sided with the Guelphs which was the anti-Imperial HRE party and then became one of earliest additions to the Papal States when Popes were powerful enough to exercise control. More importantly both cities were eclipsed by other Italian cities and the Papal States being in center Italy dividing North from South is an important theme in the development and politics of Italy. Having Papal States as 1 region centered on Rome but extending to the Adriatic coast will keep the separate North/South division of Italy and hopefully inspire Norman Sicily to go more into Greece or N Africa instead of driving up to Venice.

Spoleto could just be a permanent stone fort on the northern border of Papal States. I can't imagine it in the company of Florence, Genoa, Venice, Bologna, etc...

Trieste seems ideal to represent eastern edge of Italy and SE border to the HRE in the north and had a strong role in containing Venice until 1300s. Pula has some arguments for it as well but Trieste represents the Patriarchate of Aquileia which played important roles as one of the most powerful Italian states until Venice finally vanquished it in 1420.

Pula was early on nearly a colony of Venice having matching commercial interests and controlling the other side of the coast across from Venice but never established independent power and was more often a pawn in games of power between HRE, Venice, and Genoa. The only reason to include it would be to have smaller blank spot on the map between Trieste and Ragusa.

Nice and Turin would represent Savoy and lower Provence which is the western border of Italy and caused much fighting between HRE, Italy, Burgundy, France, and Swiss. I can't see including both in a 1100 campaign. Turin would actually fit on the map though pushed up against the west slope of the Alps latitude about midway between Milan and Genoa. However it would be be making a mess of the mountains there and likely require a pass opened to Bern/Swiss or Dijon/Lyons which could make Italy a bit more interesting but also cause more balance problems with Genoa potentially expanding into central Europe through that pass.

Nice managed to retain its status as an independent city despite attacks by Saracens, French, and other Italians until the Counts of Provence joined it to Savoy. Burgundy then gained nominal power but it remained largely independent until France subjugated it as a prelude to the Italian wars of 1500s. Nice would occupy a nice central spot on the coast closer to Italy than Marseilles and with Marsilles switched to Arles that part of the map needs a city which Nice neatly occupies. Closer to Italy but open to attack from France no new mountain passes are required so it should take some time before France arrives and tries to invade Italy. Also if Genoa expands its less likely to attack Toulouse and eastern France so quickly having to march its armies relatively further.

[Fair Prince]

All right, let's see then: removing Ajaccio and Ancona is okay for me, and although I'd like to keep a region to the East of Rome there's no slot for that right now. However, bringing in Florence and Verona is admittedly the most reasonable decision we can make.
Looking at other additions, I fancy the idea of putting Triest in, I actually even posted my proposal on its location in Rozanov's thread. Nice could also be a good choice, but I'm not sure about swapping Marseille for Arles - is the latter suitable for being the capital of Provence?

I can't really see the other proposed cities included right now and even though I'm a lifelong Juventus supporter, the same goes for Turin as well.

[Ichon]

Nice would work better as the capitol of Provence but Arles could work as well since it was nominally in Provence and was under the rule of the HRE and hosted the coronation of a HRE Emperor. It gradually fell more under the influence of France compared to the rest of Provence however. Provence and Burgundy are entwined and Arles was the former capitol of the Kingdom of Burgundy/Arles. Arles, Lyons, Nice, Geneve, Basel, and Turin were probably the most important cities in Provence/Burgundy/Savoy.

[Fair Prince]

Okay, let's see what we can do for the Italian Peninsula!

Part 6: Italy
EDIT: see the first post for details!

[Fair Prince]

I believe we can move on to the next part now - let's start discussing about East-Central Europe this time, focusing mostly on Poland and Hungary.
Here are the related settlements on the map, from North to South:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Stettin
Thorn
Plock
Wroclaw
Krakow
Halych
Vienna
Kassa
Esztergom
Várad
Baia
Brasov
Targoviste

Update: Palanga is to be discussed in a later Part.

Thanks in advance for your input, folks!

[Ichon]

I hope some others can contribute here because I know hardly anything of Poland before 1500s. I would just go off of the maps on wiki adjusted for gameplay and balance. Only thing I would change is religion in the east to bring in more Orthodox at start and perhaps shift a Rus province or 2 but Poland seems basically ok to me at least.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Greater_Poland

Hungary is much more difficult because its hard to know what was really going on in 1100 for me. Most of the resources I could find were in Hungarian or Turkish. There are maps I could find but I really don't know the relevance of many of the different cities and the political power of the various regions.

[Mbrabant]

I believe we can move on to the next part now - let's start discussing about East-Central Europe this time, focusing mostly on Poland and Hungary.
Here are the related settlements on the map, from North to South:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Stettin
Palanga
Thorn
Plock
Wroclaw
Krakow
Halych
Vienna
Kassa
Esztergom
Várad
Baia
Brasov
Targoviste

Thanks in advance for your input, folks!

My idea for Poland/Hugary are these settlements:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Poland
Stettin
Wroclaw
Gdansk
Thorn
Plock
Lublin
Krakow
(The adition of Gdansk and Thorn is to give more importance to the north part of Poland, that the polish fighted so hard to them. This also gives the space for the Teutonic Order and supports Poland against Lithuania, that take all of the north baltic coast and then attacks Poland with a huge massive force.
Also, the remove of Halych gives space to a Polish and a Kievan part of Galicia, liek it was on the medieval times. Lublin being the polish one.)

Hungary
Székesfehérvár (instead of Eztergom - It was the seat of the Hungarian King.)
Kassa
Pécs (instead of Várad, and Várad is BAAAAAADLY located on the map.)
Debrécen (this should be where Várad is on the map)
Bacau (instead of Baia)
Brasov
Bucaresti (instead of Targoviste)
Constanta (to occupy the Danube Delta)

I also think that Hungary start with too many cities, and this should be only 3 (Székesfehérvár, Pécs, Debrécen) And the RomanianRebels should start with some units to stop the hungarians/byzantines to expand.)

On the Serbian Region, should be the settlements of:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Zagreb
Belgrade
Ras
Ragusa/Dubrovnik

Only Belgrade and Zagreb are strange

This should add importance to the region, and open a space for a "Rebel Serbian State", like the Romanian one that i proposed.