Napoleonic Europe Map, in need of advice (MTW2 total conversion)

[Sirlion]

Fellow Napoleonic fans, please lend me your ears. I've been steadily working on a MTW2 total conversion called Rise of the Eagles for the past year and a half, aimed at a complete recreaton of Napoleonic Europe from 1806 onwards, from the onset of the Fourth Coalition war and the immediate consequences of the Third Coalition's destruction. At the moment I'm focusing all of my efforts on the campaign map itself, since MTW2's Romans Engine allows for a huge deal of modifications and the map itself is very versatile, easy to adapt to the modder's needs, I've been struggling to find a balance between provice density and accessibility.
So I'm here asking for advices, now that I've reached a very good point in the making of this map and I think that every needed region is set in place, searching for expert opinions. MTW2 allows for 200 regions, I have used 97, so there is a staggering possibility of 103 more regions to be added. This is the map itself:





The following are a list of the regions currently depicted in the game with the respective colour indexes. I urge any interested person to give his \ her opinion and, if not satisfied, provide a suitable solution before I finalize it. Any feedback is welcome as long as it takes into account what has been already done above.


FRANCE
Normandy - Rouen 255 97 0
Picardie - Amiens 255 191 0
Belgium - Bruxelles 214 160 0
Britanny - Nantes 163 122 0
Charente - Angoulême 96 72 0
Aquitaine - Bordeaux 96 0 0
Occitania - Toulouse 96 131 0
Provence - Marseilles 96 255 0
Champagne - Reims 96 255 167
Lyonnais - Lyon 0 255 110
Lorraine - Metz 173 255 208
Alsace - Strasburg 0 94 39
Île-de-France - Paris 228 48 0


ITALY
Piedmont - Turin 0 155 39
Tyrol - Innsbruk 128 128 128
Veneto - Venice 153 153 153
Liguria - Genoa 100 153 113
Lombardy - Milan 30 46 58
Tuscany - Florence 0 0 255
Papal States - Rome 255 124 38
Two Sicilies - Naples 255 226 165
Sicily - Palermo 255 137 227
Corsica - Ajaccio 81 14 0
Sardinia - Cagliari 81 14 89


CENTRAL EUROPE
Switzerland - Bern 153 41 115
Bavaria - Munich 136 142 153
Wurttemberg - Stuttgart 178 0 255
Baden - Karlsruhe 132 0 193
Pfalz (Palatinate) - Speyer 132 0 95
Bohemia - Prague 232 205 148
Austria - Wien 193 169 124
Croatia - Zagreb (Agram) 193 144 54
Dalmatia - Zadar 193 169 213
Holland - Amsterdam 211 95 57
Oldenburg - Oldenburg 188 84 52
Hannover - Hanover 99 0 3
Hessen - Darmstadt 126 54 193
Cleves-Mark (Grand Duchy of Berg) - Cleves 193 151 181
Holstein (Duchy of Holstein) - Gluckstadt 137 127 82
Jutland - Alborg 94 87 56
Zealand - Copenhagen 94 98 46
Götaland - Jönköping 229 10 76
Brandenburg - Berlin 157 98 158
Pomerania - Stettin 130 121 158
Mecklenburg - Sterlitz 61 55 91
Saxony - Dresden 28 214 0
Thuringia - Erfurt 28 210 0
Leipzig - Leipzig 35 205 5
Silesia - Breslau 154 82 155
West Prussia - Danzig 154 82 130
Prussia - Konigsberg 154 100 130
Greater Poland - Posen 179 100 130
Hungary - Pressburg 193 150 124
Galicia - Lemberg 193 130 124
Transylvania - Temesvar 193 115 124
Norway - Copenhagen (again)
Poland - Warsaw 179 110 140
Moravia - Olmutz 250 210 148


IRELAND AND ENGLAND
Ireland - Dublin 112 255 111
Munster - Cork 104 247 8
Northern Ireland - Belfast 112 255 16
Lowlands - Edinburgh 32 110 84
Highlands - Glasgow 32 85 84
Yorkshire - York 32 72 100
Midlands - Birmingham 32 72 120
Wales - Cardiff 32 72 140
Wessex - Winchester 32 80 150
East Anglia - Norwich 32 90 160
Kent - Dover 32 100 170
Greater London - London 32 72 84


SPAIN
Catalonia - Barcelona 255 225 0
Navarra - Pamplona 255 246 7
Zaragoza - Zaragoza 240 210 50
Old Castille - Burgos 240 190 50
Spanish Galicia - La Coruna 200 180 50
Asturias - Oviedo 220 200 50
Leon - Leon 180 170 50
Salamanca - Salamanca 160 140 50
Castilla la Mancha - Toledo 170 150 50
Madrid - Madrid 130 125 50
Murcia - Murcia 141 119 53
Andalusia - Seville 141 110 60
Gibraltair - Gibraltair 51 70 87


PORTUGAL
Lisbon - Lisbon 68 64 68


RUSSIA
Vilnius - Vilnius 0 64 39
Livonia - Riga 0 50 38
Estonia - Reval 0 40 38
Minsk - Minsk 0 30 38
Novgorod - Novgorod 0 20 30
Smolensk - Smolensk 0 30 30
Moscov - Moscov 0 35 30
Kiev - Kiev 0 38 30


OTTOMANS
Rumelia - Monastir 190 14 255
Greece - Athens 189 0 255
Anatolia - Ankara 195 0 255
Bosnia - Travnik 190 22 255
Silistra - Silistra 190 33 255

[Steph]

The big red in France center is "Ile de France"? I suggest naming it only France, as Ile de France is only the area near Paris. Or maybe add Auvergne.
Is it possible to expand the map a ittle further to the North, and have Stockholm, Oslo and Finland? It is strange not to have them, but have North Africa instead.
I'd cut Portugl in two at least (Porto/Lisbon)

I think the Russian provinces are too big

Ottomans : separate Bosnia / Serbia, and where is Istambul?

[Sirlion]

Oh my... I forgot about Istanbul, that's... sad. You're right, I think France's and the Ottoman Empire's adjustments can and need to be done. As for Finland I'm afraid for the moment it is a bit too late but who knows, in the future I could make another version.
As for the Russian provinces, I hear you, my intent was to make them large enough that the French player had to struggle to keep them. In that case, what do you suggest? How would you reduce their size? By adding more or other means?

[Steph]

The problem is the French player doesn't struggle to keep them... since he would have only one city to control to keep it!
So I'd make more.
You can add Courland.
Ingria is not really in the map I think?
And there were many more governorates.
Kovno, Grodno, Volhinyie, Podolie, Cherson, Tauride, Kouban, Iekarinosloav, Kharkov, Kursk, Tver, Vitebsk, Pskov, Tchernigov, Mohilev, Orel, Kaluga, Toula.

Suppposing you are not going further east then Moscow (although with the Caspian sea, you actually are)

[KmanBEAST]

As the other guy said, Russian and French settlements and Istanbul are for now the main priority. Since this is a mod focusing on the Napoleonic Wars, I'm not too sure you need to go and have half of your settlements in Africa and the Middle East. According to your map all of the Middle East and Africa will be under one region with one settlement (they're all red) but I'm assuming you will have a few settlements here and there.

Like I said above, don't worry TOO much about them for now. The aim of this mod is the conflict in Europe with Napoleon, and by looking at where you've placed settlements in Europe it looks great. Remember that the fewer settlements you put for each faction, the weaker they are on the campaign map. And having a lot of settlements for one faction means they have a LOT to recruit/get money from. This is common sense but it should be remembered. I'm glad to see the Ottomans already have a few settlements. As stated above, Istanbul definitely is a priority. Egypt should be a region with 1-2 settlements (or even more, it's up to you) because of the importance it had when Napoleon invaded it.

[Steph]

When I made this map (my "dream" map for Napoleon), I had a few keypoints in mind. They may not apply here since it's a different game, but maybe it can help.
1- Have own region for some pseudo-minors (Baden, Hessen-Kassel, Hessen- Darmstadt, Brunswick), so the units are recruited in this only with AOR, instead or having for exemple both Baden and Wurttemberg units in the same region.
2- Avoid a "medium" power to be eliminated with just one settlement captured--> Split Netherlands, Portugal, Bavaria, Saxony, Wurttemberg, Italy, in at least two.
3- Avoid region with two names like "picardie champagne", or "piemont - liguria" (I know, I still have Estonia and Livonia...)
4- Avoid "giant" region such as France, England, Spain or Austria, which are very big and can be captured in one battle only.
5- For Spain and England, they ave several ports in the same region (3) in the vanilla game, here I wanted only one port in each region
6- I wanted to expend a bit North (hence Bergen and Norrland), and South, with Egypt and North Africa. And add Anatolia for Ottomans
7- Added the Island (Crete, Cyprus, Malta).

[Sirlion]

MTW2 allows for one port only in each region so that is covered. As for unit recruitment I already have an AOR set in place which is based on resources just like NTW. Rest are valid points, didnt think about singular islands as possible points of interest, might be worth a try.

[KmanBEAST]

That is a great idea, Steph! I really like the balancing you had in mind with these factions and settlements because as you said you don't want any medium faction to die when they lose just one settlement. I think you made some very good points with how settlements should be spread out at the very least, even if Sirlion can't use your specific map.

[KmanBEAST]

So have you decided on what map you're going to use in the end? You've posted a picture here already, and you have seen Steph's version. I'm just curious on which one you're going to use in the end and what it'll look like.

[Sirlion]

For the first release I'll go with mine but I have increased the number of regions exponentially. The biggest difference is probably the inclusion of Persia. I wanted Russia attacked on multiple sides and give an opportunity to the French and the British players to struggle for an alliance with Persia as historically occurred. If France manages to supply and train them against the tsar things might go very differently in 1812.

[St Vincent]

As a primarily British and Naval player, I really appreciate the inclusion of much more around the eastern Mediterranean and Malta.l In vanilla to get a decent anchorage beyond the western 'Med involved either taking Sicily from your ally or taking mainland Greece. I always thought that you needed a North African coast like ETW, opportunity for Barbary pirates and suchlike, especially if you are looking at a 1792 start (which is what would really be interesting of course!).

StV