comments on the new northern germany

[AirikrStrife]

Given today's dev diary reveals changes to Germany, I'm gonna give a few comments on northern Germany. It's an area I know better than central & south, though I believe those areas looks very good now.

County of Mark:
I would suggest to at least consider replacing Dortmund with the county of Mark (would include some redrawing) and give the province to Cleves, which now has been reduced to an OPM, a fate it doesn't deserve.

Prignitz:
Of all the possible border changes in Brandenburg & Neumark, making a province for Prignitz was the one to make the most sense, alas not, and with two new provinces in the area I understand a third might be too much, but it should definitly be considered!

Principality of Lippe:
I would suggest replacing the Bielefeld province with the Principality of Lippe (renaming it and making it it's own tag

County of Bentheim-Tecklenburg:
I would suggest to consider working in a province for the counties of Bentheim and Tecklenburg

Pomerania:
The big disappointment in the area though, is Pomerania. Not only did they not fix the borders of Pomerania towards Neumark. The Neumarkian panhandle (new Dramburg province) is in the wrong place.

Plz fix

Furthermore the "conservative" split of Pomerania into basically a vorpommern and hinterpommern duchy, is below the level of detail I'd expect from an overhaul which gave so much detail to other areas.

Without redrawing any provinces in pomerania with the exception of fixing the Neumark border, I will suggest a more appropiate Pomerania which will include one new tag:

First though, the current province of Wolgast doe not include the city of Wolgast. The city of Wolgast is located opposite island of Usedom, i.e. in the Greifswald province. I can't figure out which city Anklam province would be in, otherwise Passewalk is a good choice.

The issue though with the tags are really that they're basically wrong. Pomerania-wolgast didn't control "Passewalk" province, and pomerania stettin did not control Kolberg and Stolp.

Best option giving current province is following:
Wolgast: Rügen, Stralsund, Greifswald
Stettin: Passewalk, Stettin
Stolp: Kolberg, Stolp


Schleswig-Holstein:
I assume they don't change anything here because they'll consider it for another patch, since the area is terribly poorly drawn, by current standards.

@Caligula Caesar

 

[Caligula Caesar]

A few comments:

-Prignitz: I've seen some people say "I want Prignitz". But I have never seen anyone say why exactly. It is a place with one of the lowest population densities in Germany, and there are plenty of areas with bigger cities that are not on the map because they are too close to others. (If you can present evidence that this was once not the case, I might reconsider).
-In general, we didn't want to make any province that was not a free city too small. The Pomeranian ones are already quite small, at least in Vorpommern. Wolgast the city had to move a few kilometres or Greifswald would not have fit. I am afraid it is not a unique case on the map - sometimes the vision you want to present must take precedence over total geographic accuracy.
-I saw no real reason in splitting Pomerania into too many pieces as that just means they will get swallowed.
-Lippe: Actually, if Bielefeld revolts, the revolter tag is Lippe and the province gets renamed to that too

 

[AirikrStrife]

Prignitz

Ruppiner land was a Herrschaft within the HRE, which enjoyed Imperial Immidiacy, while I don't feel it's necessary to have it independent, it would make sense to have it as it's own province split from Prignitz.

There is also an event for then the Herrschaft is inherited by Brandenburg (get's more development). I would suggest Ruppin becomes a 1/1/1 owned by nobility and extra autonomy, which then has this event giving some more developmet.

From a map perspective I feel this would also make sense as Ruppin is the largest province in the area. In general also a reasonable split if one wants to avoid adding too much development or spreading it out too much

So it's not about finding the largest cities in the area and make them provinces, but the provinces which has historical reasons to be distinct, that I and I would assume others argue based on.

In general, we didn't want to make any province that was not a free city too small

I didn't suggest any new provinces in pomerania, just more accurate borders and in the case of Wolgast, accurate name, I figure the city of Wolgast is not particularly close to the current Wolgast province (definitly more than a few kilometers missplaced) more suitable name would be Passewalk or Uckermunde.

I understand if for example Bentheim-Tecklenburg would be demmed too small, but I hope it was at least considered (could also be debatted if Bentheim-Tecklenburg is worth replacing Meppen)

I saw no real reason in splitting Pomerania into too many pieces as that just means they will get swallowed.

The case now is that the partition is just not accurate in 1444.

I can see that we don't want all 4 pomeranian duchies (Barth, Wolgast, Stolp, Stettin) and the Cammin bishopry into the game. I'm completly onboard with

sometimes the vision you want to present must take precedence over total geographic accuracy

Atm it's just a geographical split between Vorpommern and Hinterpommern (admittedly, it does roughly correspond to the partition in the 1530's, but that's so much later I don't consider that)

A more accurate partition would be to start with the base partition of Pomerania-Stettin (controlling Stettin and Wolgast (using the the name of the province as it is in todays diary)) and Pomerania-Wolgast owning the rest (Rügen, Stralsund, Greifswald, Kolberg Stolp) that might make Wolgast too large though and anyway wolgast would be split into Pomerania-Stolp (controlling the east) and Pomerania-Barth (controlling the west).

I think the 3 way partition, Wolgast, Stolp, Stettin is the best, best balanced and most aesthetic pleasing while being accurate enough.

To break it down as historically accurate as possible:
Pomerania no partition
all provinces

Pomerania 2 way partition:
Wolgast (Rügen, Stralsund, Greifswald, Kolberg, Stolp)
Stettin (Wolgast, Stettin)

Pomerania 3 way partition:
Stettin (same)
Wolgast (Rügen, Stralsund, Greifswald)
Stolp (Kolberg, Stolp)

(above three way is my preferred partition)

Pomerania 4 way partition:
Stettin (same)
Stolp (same)
Barth (Rügen, Stralsund)
Wolgast (Greifswald)

(and here I agree it's too heavily partitioned, and there actually also existed a Pomerania-Stargard in 1444, which would be too small for a province)

Doing the three way partion would render 2 2-province tags and one 3-province tag

Lippe

sounds good


Thank you for replying to my thread, I appreciate that you take your time to do so, and I hope you find my reasoning sound, though I don't expect everything to be done as I suggest I'd appreciate it be considered and there it make the most sense also be implemented.


EDIT: any thoughts on the question of Dortmund vs county of Mark?
And is Schleswig-Holstein saved for another patch, or is it considered to be "done"? I write about this in my scandinavia thread, as the borders of Holstein are very erroneous, I could make a new thread about Schleswig-Holstein, if that would be considered for an update

 

[Mingmung]

@AirikrStrife You make some good points about edits to Pomerania without new provincial additions.

 

[AirikrStrife]

@AirikrStrife You make some good points about edits to Pomerania without new provincial additions.

Thx in terms of provinces I think the update is good, it's only the Neumark border that annoys me on the map.

I'm also not that happy with using these city names (Wolgast,Stettin) but I assume Bavaria set a precedent (guess there existed no alternatives to those names). Saxony made use of the Thuringia tag.

Hadn't it been for Rügen being made it's own tag now, I would have suggested that as the name for Wolgast, and Wenden or Kashubia for Stolp.

 

[AirikrStrife]

And is Schleswig-Holstein saved for another patch

This is what I'm talking about, my map cleaning up the borders of Holstein a bit. Sleswig extends slightely further south, but Holstein proper has taken a lot of territory from Dithmarshen, Lübeck, Hamburg and Lauenburg, + the island of Fehmarn, making room to split it into more provinces (In my suggestion I make it into 3 provinces, but 2 might be enough)

Sleswig I might be pushing it a little bit too hard, but I really want it to be it's own area, on my map I drawn what I consider 4 options, for provinces, of which three would reasonably be choosen (since it's quite clearly hinted frisian will be an added culture in next patch, making a north frisia province has now become feasable)

 

[Caligula Caesar]

Schleswig: It is out of scope for this update. But we might look at it in future, who knows

Mark/Dortmund: My research suggested that Dortmund was a very wealthy and influential city at the time. Mark basically fell foul of us not wanting too many OPMs that are not Free Cities or subject and do not have specific reasons to exist.

Thanks for your feedback on Pomerania I will admit that I hated researching Pomerania, there are simply too many sub-duchies... It really is hard to work out who is who

I think, bearing in mind game balance too, that the best solution would be to keep Wolgast and Stettin but change a couple of things:
-Greifswald province should become Wolgast. The cities were next to each other, and it would be weird to call the tag Wolgast when the capital is not Wolgast.
-Wolgast province will be transferred to Stettin and renamed to Stettin (and become the capital). The city will be moved to border the river, Stettin was on the left bank.
-Stettin province will be renamed to Stargard, with the city moved a bit and some borders adjusted if need be (also in Dramburg-Stolp),
-Kolberg and Stolp will go to Wolgast. Wolgast then has 5 provinces vs Stettin's two, but Stettin's two should be more prosperous than Wolgast's.

 

[Mingmung]

Schleswig: It is out of scope for this update. But we might look at it in future, who knows

Mark/Dortmund: My research suggested that Dortmund was a very wealthy and influential city at the time. Mark basically fell foul of us not wanting too many OPMs that are not Free Cities or subject and do not have specific reasons to exist.

Thanks for your feedback on Pomerania I will admit that I hated researching Pomerania, there are simply too many sub-duchies... It really is hard to work out who is who

I think, bearing in mind game balance too, that the best solution would be to keep Wolgast and Stettin but change a couple of things:
-Greifswald province should become Wolgast. The cities were next to each other, and it would be weird to call the tag Wolgast when the capital is not Wolgast.
-Wolgast province will be transferred to Stettin and renamed to Stettin (and become the capital). The city will be moved to border the river, Stettin was on the left bank.
-Stettin province will be renamed to Stargard, with the city moved a bit and some borders adjusted if need be (also in Dramburg-Stolp),
-Kolberg and Stolp will go to Wolgast. Wolgast then has 5 provinces vs Stettin's two, but Stettin's two should be more prosperous than Wolgast's.

That would be awesome. The suggestion I and @Paland0 made (complete with map) was based on the partitions as well.

 

[Canute VII]

I wonder, why no strait between Greifswald and Stettin?

After all, Usedom (not represented as an island on the EUIV map) is the second largest German island after Rügen. I'm not arguing to include Usedom as a separate province, but can we have a strait there, please?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usedom

 

[AirikrStrife]

Thanks for your feedback on Pomerania I will admit that I hated researching Pomerania, there are simply too many sub-duchies... It really is hard to work out who is who

I think these new map changes are great! Balancing well the historical duchy at the time and accomodating the sweden-brandenburg border of 1648

Thank you for considering the feedback and improving the game.

I know pomerania, like much of hre are tricky ones to grasp.

I did a pomeeania mission tree a while back, I'm gonna see if I can find it and update it.

The point of using Mark is to get less OPM's, as it was part of Cleves and I feel Cleves deserves to be more than an OPM. So instead of using Cleves and Dortmund as seperate OPM's, we get Cleves as a 2 province duchy, would also create nicer borders, taking some land from cleves

 

[ZomgK3tchup]

Schleswig: It is out of scope for this update. But we might look at it in future, who knows

Mark/Dortmund: My research suggested that Dortmund was a very wealthy and influential city at the time. Mark basically fell foul of us not wanting too many OPMs that are not Free Cities or subject and do not have specific reasons to exist.

Thanks for your feedback on Pomerania I will admit that I hated researching Pomerania, there are simply too many sub-duchies... It really is hard to work out who is who

I think, bearing in mind game balance too, that the best solution would be to keep Wolgast and Stettin but change a couple of things:
-Greifswald province should become Wolgast. The cities were next to each other, and it would be weird to call the tag Wolgast when the capital is not Wolgast.
-Wolgast province will be transferred to Stettin and renamed to Stettin (and become the capital). The city will be moved to border the river, Stettin was on the left bank.
-Stettin province will be renamed to Stargard, with the city moved a bit and some borders adjusted if need be (also in Dramburg-Stolp),
-Kolberg and Stolp will go to Wolgast. Wolgast then has 5 provinces vs Stettin's two, but Stettin's two should be more prosperous than Wolgast's.

I don't know anything about any of the stuff you're talking about, but this kind of developer feedback is fantastic!

 

[Gustav91]

Schleswig: It is out of scope for this update. But we might look at it in future, who knows

Mark/Dortmund: My research suggested that Dortmund was a very wealthy and influential city at the time. Mark basically fell foul of us not wanting too many OPMs that are not Free Cities or subject and do not have specific reasons to exist.

Thanks for your feedback on Pomerania I will admit that I hated researching Pomerania, there are simply too many sub-duchies... It really is hard to work out who is who

I think, bearing in mind game balance too, that the best solution would be to keep Wolgast and Stettin but change a couple of things:
-Greifswald province should become Wolgast. The cities were next to each other, and it would be weird to call the tag Wolgast when the capital is not Wolgast.
-Wolgast province will be transferred to Stettin and renamed to Stettin (and become the capital). The city will be moved to border the river, Stettin was on the left bank.
-Stettin province will be renamed to Stargard, with the city moved a bit and some borders adjusted if need be (also in Dramburg-Stolp),
-Kolberg and Stolp will go to Wolgast. Wolgast then has 5 provinces vs Stettin's two, but Stettin's two should be more prosperous than Wolgast's.

I am just curios why you leave Schleswig out from the update? Part of a future Scandinavian overhaul?
Otherwise I think it looks silly on the map to leave Schleswig out, at least a north/south division would improve it enough for now.

 

[AirikrStrife]

So then this game was first made, the map was very....generalized; square memel and so on. Often just making provinces simple squares with little regard to historical detail as the game was not that much about detail anyway. With patch after patch, the game is made increeasingly detailed and has reach a fantastic level. Having been part of this journey since the game was released (and the original EUIII too) has been awesome.

Sometimes though when the game is updated and updated, certain areas still suffers from having been set during the initial days of the game, and then for later updates, updated based on previous, heavily simplified representation of the area instead of a proper overhaul (Kashmir-Ladakh-Baltistan is such an area plz fix)

Is Brandenburg also one of these areas? I previously never bothered looking that deeply into Brandenburg, but after this recent map change I decided to do just that (the life of a map lover indeed) and come to realize how sort of strange and arbitary the borders of Brandenburg seemed to be, for example the city of berlin, straddling the Spree river is basically not located in the province of Berlin which ends at the northern banks of Spree.

I went into the tedious task of making sense of rivers and cities and plateaus to come up with a from the scratch overhaul of Brandenburg, basing my new provinces in part of historical regions, scratches of historical development, a little bit on the later Brandenburg province to try and make a Brandenburg which would feel more historical than the current or future 1.29 update.

I have looked at many region specific maps, though this has been my main map to go after:

I have made approximate borders primarily focusing on rivers as guidlines, I'm not good at drawing, so when I can't follow a river or in game border I mostly draw straigh-isch lines to mark. If @Caligula Caesar is still open to look at Brandenburg, he would still have to deal with some of the minutia himself (or ask @Mingmung who tends to be really good at this)

I will post a map of the Brandenburg province later down, and refer to it's administrative division what kreiser I include in each of my own provinces

My map:

Niederlauzitz: I redrew it's borders a bit, taking some pixels from Sternberg, the northwestern part of the current province, are in reality a number of smallish states which in history variously associated with either Lauzits/Bohemia or Brandenburg. The area in question are marked with a dotted line and includes the territories of Beskow and Storkow (part of Lebus prince bishopric until inherited by Brandenburg, Lordship of Teupitz and and duchy of Zossen. I suggest adding this area to Berlin province, which has been moved largely south (note approximate location of Berlin-Cölln on the Spree river as a purple spot).

Duchy of Crossen (yellow circle): Most of later Neumark started out as part of SIlesia and were gradually acquired by the Margraves of Brandenburg, the duchy of Crossen (here also including the territory of Schwiebus) would not be permanently annexed by Brandenburg until late 15th century, but be under the control of the dukes of Glogau and have Silesian culture, but can remain in the Neumark area
Crossen would incorporate the kreiser of Crossen and Züllichau-Schwielbus. I realize this is the trickiest province to include, and my province is not perfect, I still think if they managed to make room for Dramburg, they could do for Crossen, which have more reason to exist than Dramburg.

Sternberg and Neumark have been adjusted to be more historical, meaning Neumark get's a new border on the Warte river. Sternberg has become quite small, but can retain it's development due to what should be it's capitol city, Frankfurt and der Oder (in below map, Sternberg should correspond to west and east sternberg, + lebuser land and frankfurt city)
I did sort of like Dramburg province for aestetic reasons, and I can make nicer pomeranian borders using it, but tbh I would probably scrap the province as their are more interesting provinces to make

Barnim (Blue circle): I did make a province for Barnim, pushing Berlin province to the south, with the capitol of Eberswalde. The region is sparsely populated.

I split Ruppin into Prignitz (Brown circle) and Ruppin (light green circle) and I don't think they need much introduction.

The western part of Brandenburg, the historic Havelland (red) and Zauche (teal), I did them in north-south split, and overlapped the borders to imply that one would use Brandenburg and the othe Potsdam as main city, from a geographic POW it makes sense to use this split It would also be possible to have one rich Havelland province containing both of those cities, with a much poorer, rural Zauche province.

Berlin has been quite reworked, moved farther south to incorporate the whole city around Spree and the Teltow area.

In general applying at least some of these map changes, such as reworking Berlin, would allow for greater historic accuracy, and create a strategically more interesting region. Most of the development would be applied

 

[AirikrStrife]

Some random add notes:

Above picture is Brandenburg in 1320, note how Fürstenwalde is just on the border of Brandenburg to Lauzits, on second image Brandenburg has expanded south during 200 years, corresponding roughly to the area I marked with dots, currently parts of Niederlauzits

Map showing of the expansion of Brandenburg during the Askanian dynasty. Shows of some of the different territories quite well, if Neumark remains split, I'd rather suggest to copy the later additions to Neumark (in yellow, conquered from Pomerania)

Basically I'd suggest Making a Havelland province with Potsdam, a Zauche province with Brandenburg an der Havel, Make Berlin a province largely based on Teltow and some Lauzits land, a Barnim province
A Ruppin province
A Crossen-Schwiebus province
and more accurate borders for Sternberg and Neumarck.

 

[AirikrStrife]

Prignitz

How about; Make Prignitz the base name of the province, and changed the name to Ruppin after the event fires?

 

[AirikrStrife]

More about the territorial structure of Mark Brandenburg @Caligula Caesar I remember you said you read german?

Im Herbst 1373 wurde für Karl IV., Kaiser des Heiligen Römischen Reichs (1355–1378) die Landesbeschreibung der Mark Brandenburg angefertigt. Dort stand: „Marchia Brandemburgensis est distincta in quator dominia sive provincias, quarum provinciarum una vocatur Nova Marchia Brandemburgensis, altera Antiqua Marchia Brandemburgensis, tercia Prignicz, quarta Ukara et quinta Marchia trans Oderam.“[136] – Die Mark Brandenburg besteht aus fünf Herrschaftenoder Provinzen, darunter Provinz eins genannt Neumark Brandenburgs, zweitens Altmark Brandenburgs, drittens Prignitz, viertens Uckerland und fünftens Mark über Oder. Für jede Provinz wurden Städte, Burgen, Klöster und Stifte sowie der schlossgesessene Adelangegeben. Die reichsunmittelbaren Stellungen der Herrschaft Ruppin, der Hochstifte Brandenburg, Havelberg und Lebus wurden stillschweigend übergangen, teilweise zu erklären mit ihrer Einbindung als märkische Landstände.

Nur wenig später unterschied das Landbuch Kaiser Karls IV. von 1375 drei Hauptteile: die Mark über Elbe oder Altmark (Marchia transalbeana alio nomine antiqua Marchia), die Mittelmark (Marchia media) und die Mark über Oder (Marchia transoderana). Die Mittelmark bestand mit Land Lebus, Barnim, Zauche, Teltow, Havelland, Glien (Ländchen Löwenberg nicht erwähnt),[A 6] Prignitz, Uckerland und Herrschaft Ruppin aus neun Territorien. Diese, die Altmark und die Mark über Oder wurden zumeist weiter untergliedert (Bezirke, Kreise).

Zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts bestand die Mark Brandenburg aus den Landesteilen Kurmark und Neumark. Jeder Landesteil war in Kreise unterteilt. Die Kurmark war darüber hinaus teilweise in Landschaften unterteilt, die mehrere Kreise zusammenfassten.

• Landesteil Kurmark[143]
  • Altmark
    • Stendalscher Kreis, Tangermündescher Kreis, Arneburgischer Kreis, Seehausenscher Kreis, Arendseeischer Kreis, Salzwedelscher Kreis
  • Prignitz
    • Perlebergischer Kreis, Pritzwalkischer Kreis, Wittstockischer Kreis, Kyritzischer Kreis, Havelbergischer Kreis, Plattenburgischer Kreis, Lenzenscher Kreis
  • Mittelmark
    • Havelländischer Kreis, Ruppinscher Kreis, Glien-Löwenbergischer Kreis, Oberbarnimischer Kreis, Niederbarnimischer Kreis, Teltowischer Kreis, Lebusischer Kreis, Zauchescher Kreis
  • Luckenwaldescher Kreis[144]
  • Beeskow-Storkowischer Kreis[145]
  • Uckermark
    • Uckermärkischer Kreis, Stolpirischer Kreis (Land zu Stolpe)

Landesteil Neumark[146]

• Ursprüngliche Kreise
  • Vorderkreise: Königsbergischer Kreis, Soldinischer Kreis, Landsbergischer Kreis
  • Hinterkreise: Friedebergischer Kreis, Arenswaldischer Kreis, Dramburgischer Kreis, Schievelbeinischer Kreis
• Inkorporierte Kreise: Sternbergischer Kreis, Crossenscher Kreis, Züllichauischer Kreis, Cottbuser Kreis

quellen: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Brandenburg#Territoriale_Landesverwaltung

Prignitz is distincly refered to as a territory outside mittelpark, and after Land Ruppin were added to Mark Brandenburg it became part of Mittelmark, not Prignitz (though today we have a kreis in Brandenburg called ostprignitz-ruppin)

It stands to argue that the west-east split with Brandenburg vs Potsdam is not accurate in how these lands were administered or thought of in contemporary thought, that's why I would argue making those two provinces, as they look now to be redrawn in a north-south split instead (Havelland, Zauche), possibly still using the same names/capitols for simplicitys sake

Luckerwaldescher kreis is created after the napoleonic wars from enclaves previously part of Magdeburg and Kursachsen, exactly which pixels this correspond to I haven't figured out

pushing Berlin province south (Teltow, beeskow-storkow) would make room for a barnim province.

 

[Twoflower]

Mark/Dortmund: My research suggested that Dortmund was a very wealthy and influential city at the time. Mark basically fell foul of us not wanting too many OPMs that are not Free Cities or subject and do not have specific reasons to exist.

First off, kudos for the excellent feedback and for the very promising changes to the map in Germany. I'm still pretty much over the moon about the inclusion of Jülich and of Jülich-Berg as an independent country.

But flattery - or more correctly, honest appreciation of your work - aside, I have to say I would like you to reconsider this decision. For the following reasons:

1. Mark would not be an OPM, it would be part of Kleve. It could have a tag in order to make it a possible revolter/releasable, but that is really not necessary.

2. Dortmund was a very important and wealthy Hanseatic city, yes. It was a major hub of wool trade to Flanders and England, and merchants from Dortmund basically bankrolled the Kings of England in the early stages of the Hundred Years' War.
But that was in medieval times. In the second half of the 14th century, the constant attempts of the Counts of Mark and the Archbishop of Cologne to subdue the free city of Dortmund culminated in the Great Feud of Dortmund 1388-1389. The city of Dortmund resisted the siege of the city, basically won the feud and had thus confirmed its status as a free city, however this came at a great financial cost.
It is a matter of dispute among historians whether the debt incurred during the Great Feud - 60.000 Guilders - was the sole/main cause for the city's subsequent decline, but there is no dispute about the fact that the city did decline after the feud and was a backwater by the end of the 15th century (Wikipedia is not a perfect source, but I'll quote it here nonetheless

"Somit stand Dortmund am Ende des Mittelalters zwar als vollkommen freie, mittlerweile dem Westfälischen Reichskreis angehörende, aber bedeutungslos gewordene Stadt da"
Thus Dortmund, towards the end of the Middle Ages, stood as a completely free city that was part of the Westphalian Circle, but had become irrelevant.

After the Thirty Years' War, Dortmund had only 2000 inhabitants. In 1793, it had 4.500. It would become a big and important city again in the 19th century as part of the general economic expansion of the Ruhr area.
My point being: Dortmund was important, wealthy and powerful until the end of the 14th century. It played a huge part in the industrialization of the Ruhr area and of Germany in general, and it is a large city today that is a household name in all of Europe especially because of its football club.
It was, however, not a particularly important city in the EU4 timespan and therefore does not merit inclusion over Mark.

3. By including Mark, you are not adding an OPM, your are avoiding leaving Kleve as an OPM.

4.Kleve was the country that ended up unifying the Duchies of Kleve, Jülich and Berg. It soundly defeated its rival, the Archbishop of Cologne in the Feud of Soest, which happened in the first five years of the EU4 timespan, 1444 to 1449. I know that balance is not all about province count, but having Jülich-Berg and Cologne with three provinces and their rival Kleve - which dominated the whole region in the beginning of the 16th century until its defeat by the Habsburgs in the Guelders Wars - as an OPM doesn't seem optimal balance-wise.