Here is what Greenland looks like in EU5 now:
I've gone ahead and highlighted the provinces currently present in-game, featuring the 3 medieval Nordic settlements of Greenland: The Western, Middle, and Eastern Settlements. This is a good start, but there were other habitable locations, notably the Norðrsetur (meaning North Place) hunting grounds in modern-day Disko Bay and the surrounding areas, which were critical to Nordic Greenland's economy.
Here is a map showcasing Norðrsetur - as well as Óbygðir (meaning uninhabited), aka the lesser-used eastern hunting grounds (due to bad currents and worse ice) - as well as lots of other cool map data points like runes and Inuit artifacts, which should give you an idea of the extent of Norse exploration.
It should be noted that by EU5's start date, the Inuit were still in the process of colonizing Greenland themselves. Around this time, the Inuit had firmly settled themselves in Norðrsetur and had traded with the Norse for many years. In 1337, they were in the process of migrating southwards towards the now-abandoned Western Settlement, likely motivated by the dropping temperatures of the Little Ice Age, which was the cause of the Middle and Western Settlement's abandonment, and would be the cause of the abandonment of the Eastern Settlement as well come ~1450.
A few centuries later in the 1700s, the Danish-Norwegian crown began funding the re-exploration of Greenland. They started setting up several trading posts across Greenland, beginning with Godthåb (Nuuk) in 1728. All in all, over a dozen towns were established in western Greenland during the 1700s. This should give you an idea of which territories should realistically be colonizable during EU5's timeframe. Here is a map:
Notice the very large presence of settlement in the Disko Bay (Norðrsetur) area. Even centuries later, these hunting grounds remain extremely rich and profitable for whalers and ivory prospectors.
So, with both the medieval and colonial situations considered, here is my conception of all the provinces which should realistically be colonizable in Greenland in EU5.
In white, I've added 7 new provinces, I've expanded the size of the Middle Settlement zone to include the Paamiut area, and I've also done a small adjustment of the borders of the Eastern Settlement just to make it prettier and follow the geography of the fjords a little better.
And if you want to get really detailed, using the Russian and Canadian Arctic for example:
It seems the devs have been very generous with the amount of locations in the Arctic, even including many places that wouldn't be settled by Europeans until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as most of Chukotka and parts of Baffin Island. And that's awesome - we love more locations and more opportunity for alternative history. With that it mind, I don't think it would be entirely unreasonable to include a few such locations in eastern Greenland:
...but now that's a LOT of new provinces. Too many, perhaps. So, to consolidate things, I've come up with this suggestion as my final map:
I removed 4 of the less-populated provinces on the west coast, and I've also gotten rid of the far eastern province. I decided to keep the central eastern province (coincidentally the Óbygðir hunting grounds from medieval times), as while Europeans wouldn't settle this place until 1894, Inuits from southern Greenland actually settled here during the 1700s, so that redeemed it as a realistic province during the game's timeframe in my eyes.
The northernmost province will require adding a couple additional sea tiles in Baffin Bay, but hopefully this is not too hard to add. Aside from that, I really hope the devs also use events to model the southward migration of the Inuit and the contact between them and the Norse.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
Devs, what do you think?
I've gone ahead and highlighted the provinces currently present in-game, featuring the 3 medieval Nordic settlements of Greenland: The Western, Middle, and Eastern Settlements. This is a good start, but there were other habitable locations, notably the Norðrsetur (meaning North Place) hunting grounds in modern-day Disko Bay and the surrounding areas, which were critical to Nordic Greenland's economy.
Here is a map showcasing Norðrsetur - as well as Óbygðir (meaning uninhabited), aka the lesser-used eastern hunting grounds (due to bad currents and worse ice) - as well as lots of other cool map data points like runes and Inuit artifacts, which should give you an idea of the extent of Norse exploration.
It should be noted that by EU5's start date, the Inuit were still in the process of colonizing Greenland themselves. Around this time, the Inuit had firmly settled themselves in Norðrsetur and had traded with the Norse for many years. In 1337, they were in the process of migrating southwards towards the now-abandoned Western Settlement, likely motivated by the dropping temperatures of the Little Ice Age, which was the cause of the Middle and Western Settlement's abandonment, and would be the cause of the abandonment of the Eastern Settlement as well come ~1450.
A few centuries later in the 1700s, the Danish-Norwegian crown began funding the re-exploration of Greenland. They started setting up several trading posts across Greenland, beginning with Godthåb (Nuuk) in 1728. All in all, over a dozen towns were established in western Greenland during the 1700s. This should give you an idea of which territories should realistically be colonizable during EU5's timeframe. Here is a map:
Notice the very large presence of settlement in the Disko Bay (Norðrsetur) area. Even centuries later, these hunting grounds remain extremely rich and profitable for whalers and ivory prospectors.
So, with both the medieval and colonial situations considered, here is my conception of all the provinces which should realistically be colonizable in Greenland in EU5.
In white, I've added 7 new provinces, I've expanded the size of the Middle Settlement zone to include the Paamiut area, and I've also done a small adjustment of the borders of the Eastern Settlement just to make it prettier and follow the geography of the fjords a little better.
And if you want to get really detailed, using the Russian and Canadian Arctic for example:
It seems the devs have been very generous with the amount of locations in the Arctic, even including many places that wouldn't be settled by Europeans until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as most of Chukotka and parts of Baffin Island. And that's awesome - we love more locations and more opportunity for alternative history. With that it mind, I don't think it would be entirely unreasonable to include a few such locations in eastern Greenland:
...but now that's a LOT of new provinces. Too many, perhaps. So, to consolidate things, I've come up with this suggestion as my final map:
I removed 4 of the less-populated provinces on the west coast, and I've also gotten rid of the far eastern province. I decided to keep the central eastern province (coincidentally the Óbygðir hunting grounds from medieval times), as while Europeans wouldn't settle this place until 1894, Inuits from southern Greenland actually settled here during the 1700s, so that redeemed it as a realistic province during the game's timeframe in my eyes.
The northernmost province will require adding a couple additional sea tiles in Baffin Bay, but hopefully this is not too hard to add. Aside from that, I really hope the devs also use events to model the southward migration of the Inuit and the contact between them and the Norse.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
Devs, what do you think?
Last edited:
- 48
- 12
- 10
- 4
- 1
.png "Screenshot (157).png")
