Improved Russia Map

[Mattymooz]

NOTE : Coming soon to the Steam Workshop : http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=451040975​

After my vision of a better England was so well recieved, I'm just going to start doing other places (mainly in Europe) that I think deserve more better provinces.

Please note that the idea of these changes is too add depth to an area and make it more accurate, but not to go completely indepth in certain areas with tiny provinces. They still need to be clickable and a reasonable size. I'm not going to make an area a mass of utrechts and maltas.

So, this time my focus was the Russia. Here is what I would change if I was Paradox:

The changes added a total of 7 new provinces, 3 for Novogbear, 2 for Muscovy, 1 for Pskov and 1 for a new tag, Rostov. Rostov also stole 1 province from Muscovy, as did Yaroslavl and the other new tag Rzhev.

All of the Vassals in this area have been reworked too. Perm is a Novgrodian vassal (in history it was just part of Novgorod, but was fairly autonomous), whereas Rzhev and Yaroslavl are Muscovian Vassals.

Spoiler: New Provinces Images

It is all Russian (as I could not find any good other cultures, Suggestions in the comments!)

I have also changed the Base Tax a bit. Overall there has been a reasonable amount of development added. This (along with the other vassal changes described above) means that Muscovy + vassals are approx. 1.5x stronger than Novgorod + Vassals.

Again I will be uploading it to the workshop soon, so you guys will be able to play with it. Any amendments would be great. My expertise is not in this area of the world so it could be horribly wrong!

 

[Basileios Makedon]

Good

 

[alertiu5]

Being from Smolensk myself, I believe you could say that Rzhev is a remnant of Smolensk principality, so it could be Smolensk tag which already exists ingame but not as a country. Would give Muscovy early reconquest CB on Lithuania for vassal's (Smolensk) core and former capital without having to fabricate claims. And Muscovy was really bent on reclaiming Smolensk in first 240 years of EU time.

But overall, map makes sense, as far as I remember history lessons (was in math specialization class though). Border gore was all over today's european part of Russia at EU timeline start.

 

[Mattymooz]

Being from Smolensk myself, I believe you could say that Rzhev is a remnant of Smolensk principality, so it could be Smolensk tag which already exists ingame but not as a country. Would give Muscovy early reconquest CB on Lithuania for vassal's (Smolensk) core and former capital without having to fabricate claims. And Muscovy was really bent on reclaiming Smolensk in first 240 years of EU time.

But overall, map makes sense, as far as I remember history lessons (was in math specialization class though). Border gore was all over today's european part of Russia at EU timeline start.

At this point it isn't too bad, but the maps I have seen from 1300 and 1400 are a mess (soo many tiny principalities with bits of muscovy in between them)

However, that is a massive bonus for coming up with releaseables. Novgorod has like none And with Smolensk maybe, but tbh they aren't that strong at the start given that there are 2 hordes plus novgobear plus plc on their back It's only really after 100/200 years ai muscovy is strong enough to take on PLC by which point the cores would have run out

 

[alertiu5]

Not really, Muscovy consolidated Russia by the end of 15th century and was easily on par with Lithuania back then. Historically a union over Lithuania was very fragile and only remained intact due to defeats suffered by Lithuanians vs Muscovy, so those Lithuanian aristocrats could not gather enough forces to break free and sought protection from Poles instead.

Smolensk was historically retaken in 1514, only 70 years after EU4 starts, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Smolensk_(1514). And it remained under the Grand Principality and later Tsardom until time of troubles, I believe it fell to Poles again somewhere around 1611. PLC was only formed in 1569. Before that, and a disastrous Livoinian war of 1558-1583, Muscovy has been steadily overwhelming Lithuania.

 

[Mattymooz]

Not really, Muscovy consolidated Russia by the end of 15th century and was easily on par with Lithuania back then. Historically a union over Lithuania was very fragile and only remained intact due to defeats suffered by Lithuanians vs Muscovy, so those Lithuanian aristocrats could not gather enough forces to break free and sought protection from Poles instead.

Smolensk was historically retaken in 1514, only 70 years after EU4 starts, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Smolensk_(1514). And it remained under the Grand Principality and later Tsardom until time of troubles, I believe it fell to Poles again somewhere around 1611. PLC was only formed in 1569. Before that, and a disastrous Livoinian war of 1558-1583, Muscovy has been steadily overwhelming Lithuania.

I meant in game. Historically, yes, Muscovy took on Lithuania and all the rest, but there is no way to represent this in game (as they are historically accurate base tax wise and manpower wise, but AI doesn't cope very well). I'm sure a player could easily do that. Declare on Rostov + Tver + Ryzan early and then focus Novgobear before allying sweden and helping them break free before declaring on PLC. Easy as pie.

 

[alertiu5]

My comment was trying to address the issue that Smolensk was a key city around which muscovite-lithuanian struggle was centered for like 200 years, so with OP's suggestions we could give a Muscovy more incentive to reconquer what rightfully belongs in russian hands.

On another side, the Grand Duchy of LIthuania was mostly a Russian state too (Belarusians and Ruthenians were hardly distinctive back then), only its nobility and couple of cities like Vilna were actually Lithuanian. But then, if we use rulers' ethnicity, we could call Russian Empire of 1762-1917 a German state as ruling dynasty was basicly German from Catherine II onwards. Myself I enjoyed greatly a EU run where I started as Lithuania, changed capital to Smolensk and formed Russia Euro-centric russian state is a an interesting twist of narrativium.

 

[Quaility]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscovite_civil_war this civil war should not be overlooked, I am not bothered to read and explain right so I will post link instead.

 

[Vaximillian]

„Opochkla“ should be just „Opochka“. Of course, it's just a typo.
Seeing „Onegaborg“ way before any Swedish influence seems awkward. It'd be probably better to call the province „Onega“ instead.
„Krestetsky“ is an adjective. Better to use the settlement's proper name, Kresttsy.

 

[Mattymooz]

„Opochkla“ should be just „Opochka“. Of course, it's just a typo.
Seeing „Onegaborg“ way before any Swedish influence seems awkward. It'd be probably better to call the province „Onega“ instead.
„Krestetsky“ is an adjective. Better to use the settlement's proper name, Kresttsy.

I read that Onegaborg was the name of the settlement around the lake Onega? Was that not correct then?

Ill change the others in a sec, Cheers

 

[Vaximillian]

Well, there was an „Onegaborg“ on Ortellius' 1592 map:

But the map itself is so damn mangled and is also almost the only proof Onegaborg might have existed. Onegaborg actually might have meant simply „Onegan fort“, as in a fort on Onega's shore. The land definitely belonged to Novgorodian Obonezhskaya pyatina (roughly, Onega district). Hence I suggest calling the province Onega and the city Solomennoye (which is probably derived from a Finnish or Karelian word for bay or strait — salmi — and not from Russian word for hay — soloma) or even Onegaborg if you insist.

 

[Secuter]

Well, there was an „Onegaborg“ on Ortellius' 1592 map:

But the map itself is so damn mangled and is also almost the only proof Onegaborg might have existed. Onegaborg actually might have meant simply „Onegan fort“, as in a fort on Onega's shore. The land definitely belonged to Novgorodian Obonezhskaya pyatina (roughly, Onega district). Hence I suggest calling the province Onega and the city Solomennoye (which is probably derived from a Finnish or Karelian word for bay or strait — salmi — and not from Russian word for hay — soloma) or even Onegaborg if you insist.

That tiny piece of land would hardly matter and wouldn't really yield anything except perhaps +1 fleet limit or so.

 

[Secuter]

What about the borders of Kazan and Goldenhorde, no principalities survived there?

 

[Mattymooz]

What about the borders of Kazan and Goldenhorde, no principalities survived there?

Ryazan was the only noticeable one