Originally posted by Havard
Interresting... I kinda like the idea of introducing the Micmacs 
I like the idea too. And while we are on the subject, what does everyone think about the idea of breaking Vinland down into seperate Scandinavian kingdoms? For example, we could have Helluland, Markland, Vinland, etc. One could be catholic one could be Asatru, and all would have seperate leaders and shield graphics... This is probably more realistic, as they would be more decentralized. Of course the downside is it will require more tags and would make more work.. but it would make the diplomatic theatre here alot more interesting.
Originally posted by Havard
There are a few things we should try to settle on before we progress:
The Map - known and owned provinces
I suggest the following as owned provinces:
- Gander as capital. This suits well with the position of L'anse aux Meadows, and is a logic point to use as a base. City should ne "Leifsbudir" - this is the name Leir Eiríksson gave to the place he built, according to the saga. This should be a city of ~1000 pop?
- Colony in Wabana - also in Placentia?
- TPs in Caniapiscau and Belle Isle (Markland) - the Greenlanders and Icelanders went to Markland to find timber (fits nice with the naval supplies in Caniapiscau)
On knowledge:
- I agree with Languish in that they should know at least down to Micmac. I would say they should also know Massachusets bay and possibly Penibscot or Massachusets? (The sagas tell about a southern settlement - Hóp - maybe a TP???)
- I also agree that they should know from Manicouagan and up north to Nain.
- I suggest they have knowledge of Greenland, Iceland, the sea-route to Norway and coastal areas of Western Europe ("Viking" knowledge.) This will give the Vinlanders a posibility to contact Europe, but also to stay away (since Europe have "forgotten" where they are...)
You could give them a little more than what they had historically, after all we are going under the assumption that they survived for another 400 years. Certainly, they could have expanded a little. But this is all fine to me because we don't want to give them too much starting out.
We can give them a colony with 40 as the population.
this would keep the population the same level as a level 4 trading post, but it would allow the colony to grow over time.
I agree, they should know the sea zones leading to Europe, but not know what lies on land. The political map of Europe will have changed significantly between 1000ad and 1419ad. Norway and possibly Denmark should be the only ones to know of Greenland. They should know it is there, but I think the land provinces should be terra incognita to them, as Greenland was abandoned and not exploited during this time. The question should be, who owns the Greenland provinces? Vinland? or should Norway keep them, but have them in terra incognita?
Originally posted by Havard
The Religion
It is fairly known that the Greenlanders that discovered Vinland were Christian. Leifr Eiríksson was baptized in Norway before he returned to Greenland and converted them. The first Church was built at the time they discovered Vinland...
True, but look at Iceland during the same period. Didn't Asatru religion survive there for a long time? In fact, it is still practiced by some today. Consider that Vinland will be so far from Europe. This far from Europe, people could practice religion in secret, and could escape into the vast unexplored wilderness if they felt persecuted.
Originally posted by Havard
So, we have (IMO) two opportunities:
- If we make Vinland Christian from the beginning of we can just forget introducing the asa-believs after we start. There is no way after 400 years as good catholics they will revert to "the old ways".
- However! - you could make a case of the fact that the settlers in Vinland were "refugees" because they didn't want to convert, making the 1419 Vinlanders asa-believers. Then you can have the possibility to accept Christianity if/when they make contact with Europeans.
I must say I find the second option most intriguing...
In the IGC we see some provinces as Catholic and some as Pagan. Why not follow a similar course here?
Since not everyone can agree on this issue, why not have a startup event that gives you the choices "I prefer to play as Asa Vinland" and "I prefer to play as Christian Vinland". Christian Vinland should probably be choice A as Leif and the hierarchy would follow that, but just because the founders did doesn't mean all the peasants did.
An option to go either way at startup should make everyone happy. And of course, there will be more events later to change their religion, so if you don't like your initial choice, you can later change to the other.
And I think we should focus on the map first, we shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves with events until that is done. Once we have the map done we can put all the finished files into a zip and make it available for download somewhere. It will be perfectly playable, but it won't have any events yet, but those can be done in a later release....
