wilcoxchar said:
I'd also like to see much of South America at least redrawn so I can actually recognize the country borders. (I'm looking at you Paraguay!) Oh, and if possible I would like it if we added the other potential Central American canal spots (through Lake Nicaragua, on the present-day border of Panama and Colombia, can't remember where the other one is, I think somewhere in Guatemala) so that maybe in some games another canal may be built. At least the Nicaraguan Canal should be put in as that was the plan the US was going for until they bought the French interests.
Now, this is VERY serious, so pay attention. South American is Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition (hey, I got to to use the full version of FUBAR!).
Seriously. The borders of the countries are, for the most part, simply wrong. Very wrong. This is mainly because Brazil has a VERY odd shape and it ends up afecting the rest of the continent since there are only 2 countries in South America that don´t share a border with Brazil.
Also, I don´t know exactly the rest of the S.American inside geography and how they were modelled in the game, but taking from the brazilian condition, they should be pretty BAD. Brazil has a horrible division, it neither follows geographic lines nor it follows the political and administrative division of the country. Seriously, it looks like Paradox has hired a Uzbek to draw the brazilian map (and probably a brazilian to draw the uzbek map...). :wacko:
A very simple political map will show the deficiencies:
This is a modern political map, granted, but the configuration of the states is pretty much the same for the whole of the coastal area and much of the interior. Only the amazon basin saw some big changes from 1836 to today, and parts of the Centro-Oeste (Mato Grosso and Goiás). IMO, since that for most of Brazil there is very little chance of combat happening, we should stick with a political/administrative model for the internal borders, with the exception of the south (triple alliance war) and parts of the border with Paraguay. Now, compare it to this image:
First, the geography is WAY off. The country is "flattened", making it look like it is much bigger in the west-east axis than in the north-south one (when they are about the same). The boundaries with Bolivia and Paraguay are inflated to the south, like it was a "belly" or something. Really wrong. The northern border with the Guyanas, Venezuela and Colombia is also WAY wrong, mainly because the state of Roraima doesn´t seem to exist and that Amapá is very funny-looking. The South border agains Argentina and Uruguay is also wrong, but not that much. The scaterring of states and province also looks almost random to me. The real-life state of Minas Gerais got a state of it´s own in Vicky and it looks almost good, but Bahia is a monstrosity that has no link with it´s real-life part and the rest of the Northeast is a joke. São Paulo looks funny. The South looks actually ok (could be better, of course). The North is made up, but that´s mostly ok, since there wasn´t that much order in there IRL either. It goes without saying that the names are either wrong or misleading.
Also, answering OHGamer. The fact is that you CAN sail most 19th century warships into the Amazon (up to a certain point, of course). It´s a VERY large and deep river. You could also sail a pretty big ship up the River Plate, and that´s exactly what the brazilian navy did in the War of the Triple Alliance. Brazilian naval power was instrumental in defeating Paraguay (since the only way to resuply the armies was trough the river itself). I don´t see a ingame reason to make the Amazon a navigable (is that a word?) river, but we should really make the Plate and Paraguay river until Assuncion as sea provinces. Really. This would be VERY important to the nations there, given that the biggest war in the Americas after the ACW was the Triple Alliance war and that it involved a lot of sea power, I think it merits an inclusion in the game. One of the most important battles in the war as fought by the navies of the two countries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Riachuelo
Ah, as you can see, Paraguay is, theoretically, a land-locked country, but it has a navy composed of modern steamers (a little out-dated by the time, but warships nonetheless). I think this is a big case for a "sea-like" Plate river, up to until the paraguayan border, at least (or until Assuncion, if it´s possible).
