So it seems that option two is the only real option.
Problem with Aachen is, although it was Charlemagne's capital, that's all it every really was, and to have it be the primary city in the low countries until someone founds Amsterdam is worse than not having it at all. Burgundy should start with Dijon and Antwerp/Brussels no earlier than 843 and flip Strasbourg. The built in collapse/re-spawn idea is good, and giving Burgundy Antwerp/Brussels rather than Lyon would probably cause it to collapse for good once the Netherlands spawn.
Speaking of the low countries, how is it that Groningen was deemed important enough to get spawned on its own but Brussels wasn't? Brussels was always an important economic center (such as they were in the period) and certainly more influential than Groningen. And that square should be Emden rather than Groningen anyway, which also fits in historically with the inevitable conflict between the Netherlands and Germany over that city.
As for Germany, UHV #1 could be based on the electoral principalities, as much as it can be, which would mean the oversized Saxony (I'll return to that later), Brandenburg, and Bohemia. Yes, that's only three, and that's where Saxony comes in. It's way too big and inaccurate besides. It can easily be split into Westphalia (Cologne), Hanover (Hanover/Hamburg) and Saxony (Leipzig), with other pieces going to Pomerania (Luebeck) and the other existing provinces. Yes, the Duchy of Saxony was that big in the earlier time periods that the mod covers, but for the later parts its too big and ignores the subsequent subdivisions of the province (pesky salic patrimony). Bavaria could also be added to UHV #1 with the new Westphalia, so that's five provinces (Brandenburg, Bavaria, Bohemia, Westphalia and Saxony) for UHV #1 plus the capital in Franconia which seems fair for the early 13th century.
Founding corporations for a German UHV is a good idea as well, but the Hanseatic league and the Teutonic knights should be part of it too. Maybe the goal could be staggered? Something like, found the Teutonic Knights by 1000, the Hanseatic league by 1200 and the Augsburg bankers by 1400, whatever works. Also, I preferred to switch Augsburg for Munich via the WorldBuilder (I just deleted Augsburg and created Munich with all the same stats to keep things balanced) but lost Munich with Austria's spawn, which shouldn't happen. Bavaria's capital is Munich and though Bavaria occasionally allied with Austria, it was never a Hapsburg territory and shouldn't be part of their spawn zone. I'm also not entirely sure why Augsburg is there from the very beginning, Munich would be a better choice though it might be best to move it a little bit further north or west to distance it from Austria.
Is there anyway to compel the AI to found cities in certain plots? I almost never see Madrid/Warsaw/St. Petersburg unless I found them myself. More of an aesthetic/accuracy thing, but still.
afaik there is work being done on the map
I don't know how extensive however and/or if provinces will be changed, I had already mentioned that Saxony is a bit large.
But there are a few things that you mentioned which i don't agree with.
1. Aachen: certainly was allot more than just simply a 'Capitol' for Charlemagne and unimportant before and after. Besides being settled since the stone-age and being an important Roman border town (imo Germania was one of the main threats to Rome, they certainly didn't build the Limes just for fun), from 936 - 1521 a total of 31 German Kings were crowned there, only after the Netherlands 'spawned' did this move to Frankfurt.
2. Augsburg: formerly Augusta Vindelicorum founded in 15 BC and is considered to be one of the oldest cities in Germany.
3. Hannover imo only really came up later under Prussia (before the 13th century you can pretty much ignore the area) I would simply call the province 'Lower Saxony' or in addition the coastal areas and possibly the coastal area of Schleswig-Holstein into 'Frisia' (Friesland)
4. Lübeck definitely shouldn't be in Pommern but in Mecklenburg if not in Saxony, Pommern starts further east. Map:
http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Karte-Mecklenburg.png&filetimestamp=20061214080828
5. I'b deem Antwerpen to have a higher 'right' to be preplaced than Brüssel simply due to location (I think Brüssel and Antwerpen exclude each other on the map)
But I also tend to agree about Groningen, It was placed a while back when the Netherlands still had large issues. But the area needs some counterbalancing to Germany (Hamburg's culture can push almost all the way to Amsterdam, Münster(if founded) crushes the Netherlands)
And come to think of it.. whales near Groningen? I've wondered if there might have been whales in the past that are now extinct.
Elsewise I've only heard of occasional whales getting lost and stranding in the area
or..
look more like Dolphins to me
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbour_porpoise
But once the revisions to the map are done there will be changes to the city names.
Imo the location for Augsburg is too far east, I would consider that location to be Munich.
And normally Augsburg/Munich doesn't flip to Austria, only Salzburg and Prag.(not sure what you did with the worldbuilder though)
btw @ Yogibere I'd pretty much vote for your 3rd option as being the best solution, but like you also noticed it's also probably the worst one at the same time due to the amount of work involved.
But maybe one could leave the whole start date at 500 ad, just have 3 civs spawn at the same time after Charlemagnes death.
With the addition of 'Burgundy' collapsing early (being crushed by germany/france) and respawning later.
I don't see a problem with having a few civs that play 'alone' for a while (i.e. China in RFC 3000BC) you only need something to do if thats the case
barbs/build stuff etc.
Not really sure on what to base this but from what I think to remember from history class was that there has been quite a bit of rivalry between germany and france ever since charlemagne. One thing being that pretty much every german king kinda got wet dreams about being able to recreate charlemagnes empire which usually meant that france had to go. Finally achieved in 1870ish under Prussia. But the french didn't quite have the same ambitions.
The whole point being an idea for UHV's
Germany (more or less)tried for about 1000 years to recreate charlemagnes empire. How about having Germany have to conquer france/italy etc.? That way the historical alliances between england and germany would be strengthened (mutual enemy)
The whole expansion could lead to massive german stability problems, which is also a bonus(preventing the historical splittering of the empire as a further challenge)
The french on the other side (not really sure what their UHV's currently are) I don't really know much about them to be honest
But they give the impression that their priorities were on culture and wealth. I'm thinking Notre Dame, Versailles, Louis XIV, huge catholic influence/papal influence faith points?/build x catholic cathedrals?(requiring large expansion, either founding cities densely or conquest of italy and more, say 5 Cathedrals which would require 20 cities.. allot imo)
The expansion goal could also lead them into conflict with germany over 'former' territory.