I agree with moving the Netherlands to the 1500s, but Germany to the 1700s is a bad idea. They basically represent the Holy Roman Empire during their medieval times, and we can't possibly lose that.
I once posted a proposal to fix the Germany =|= HRE problem
here (funny, now I realise it was my first post here), which I think would be a flavourful addition that doesn't rely on new graphics or changes the flow of the game significantly.
It does require another civ to be added to the game though, which isn't very likely to happen
I second the idea for the Netherlands' spawn in ~1500, for historical reasons. The deadlines for their UHV would have to be reworked then.
The Dutch are broken anyway, they are always 3 techs ahead of everyone when they spawn (and have more points than various bigger European powers).
Their second starting settler also annoys me, because they always use it to found a city in Denmark, which should be settling place for the Vikings or at least Germany. That their city name map reads "Groningen" at the area of Holstein is also ridiculous.
I know that settler is supposed to help the human player to settle Africa or Indonesia, but the AI can't handle it properly. Maybe we should try and make it spawn on a Galley, or scripted when they research Astronomy. But a second Dutch city in Europe is just wrong, given the scale of the map.
A later spawn would of course also solve this problem
