Areas and gameplay.
On the map you can see core/birth areas of Poland (partly, in the west) and of potential civ of Lithuania, as desrcibed in the post about Poland.
There are two ways of defining
Rus core area. You can see the
bigger core area, stretching along the Varangian trade route with such crucial Rus cities as Kiev, Novgorod, Smolensk and Polotsk. Rus birth area is generally the same, extending a bit to north, south and to east. Bigger core area makes Rus very stable. Also, you can see
smaller core area - square centered on Kiev. There are two factors that should be considered in favour of the smaller core for Rus. Firstly, historically, alongside Rus as the name for entire region divided into several principalities, there also was region of Rus "proper" (compare to Ile de France in France) on the middle Dnieper, that included Principality of Kiev and cities of Chernigov and Pereyaslavl. More localised usage of term Rus for this region was especially common in XII-XIIIth centuries (attested in documents, alongside the broad usage for all principalities), when whole Rus desintegrated into several warring principalities, and name Rus was used for original domain of the Kievan grand princes. Another reason is gameplay. Historically, Rus was early feudal state (that is, feudals had full power in their domains, while ongoing land colonisation and development inevitably led to emergence of more and more local domains based in these lands), that had strong decentralizing tendencies that resulted in its desintegration into several major principalities in second half of XIth century. Rus civ represents both Kievan and all of its successor principalities. However, bigger core makes Rus too stable, while it should easily collapse with Mongol invasion, making space for Polish (and possibly Lithuanian) expansion-conquest in the west, and later also Russian expansion in the north-east. Alongside Kievan Rus and its successor principalities, Rus civ also represents another of these successor states - Novgorod republic, that existed well until late XVth century, setting control over all of Northern Russia for its fur trade. It can be represented by mechanic that makes Rus, if it loses its capital and only core city of Kiev, to move capital to Novgorod with Rus core area changing into square (or 5x3 space, to include more resources around) centered on Novgorod. However, it should be noted, that Novgorod was most independent among Kievan Rus successors and generally Novgorodians didn't regard themself as part of Rus in relation to its southern and eastern neighbours.
Rus city placement.
Rus starts in 882 in
Kiev (it can actually be changed to 862. While Rurik was famously invited to rule in Novgorod, two of his commanders, Askold and Dir, sailed south and established their principality in Kiev, later to be conquered by Oleg in 882. Anyway, it is generally agreed that some polity already existed by 862 in Kiev. Changing starting date to 862 will give Rus a bit more of so much needed turns). Already in my first playtests I noticed that Rus is not really eager to settle
Novgorod, so, due to such historical significance (P(le)skov and Ladoga are also historically important, but still overshadowed by Novgorod), Novgorod spawns as minor city in 862, to be quickly flipped to Rus. With Kiev and flipped Novgorod, Rus has 2 more settlers at start (one more than was before). Settling map was made so it most likely settles
Smolensk between Kiev and Novgorod. Smolensk also is a crucial city in Eastern European/Russian history. For centuries it was the largest city between Kiev and Novgorod and later Moscow and Wilno (and, according to some historians, the largest among all these cities in first half of XIVth century), right in the middle of Rus lands. Important regional center, it served as capital of one of major Rus principalities and later was focal point of territorial conflicts between Lithuania&Poland and Muscovite Russia, with major fortress built here. Since XVIIIth century its global importance gradually diminished, but it still remained important regional and cultural center just as before. Sometimes, instead of (or rarely along with) Smolensk Rus settles
Kursk - another historically important city in Russian history, that always was important regional center, with major WWII battle of Kursk fought in this region. Other historically important cities Rus civ is incentivised to settle early are
Minsk, that also always remained important regional center and currently is the capital of Belarus, and
Polotsk (Polish: Polock), the oldest and most important Rus era city in modern day Belarus, capital of major principality and later important city in G.D. of Lithuania, before its importance greatly diminished by late XVIIth century due to devastating wars between Poland-Lithuania and Russia. Also, Rus civ usually settles a city in modern day Western Ukraine with its starting settler. This city is usually
Lutsk (Polish:Luck), that has optimal position between Warsaw and Kiev. Lutsk also always was very important city, soon becoming main city in the region of Volhynia. Other than Lutsk, Rus often founds
Lvov (Lviv, Polish:Lwów) to south-west on border with Polish core area. Though Lvov was founded only in XIIIth century (before that, most important city on this plot was Zvenigorod), it quickly became capital of Galicia region and important center of Ruthenian and Polish culture. Other city to be found in this region is
Terebovl (Polish:Trembowla), one of most important, oldest and largest cities in South-Western Rus, capital of one of first principalities that later merged with Galicia. Terebovl remained important regional center until it diminished in XVIth-XVIIth centuries due to Tatar raids and Cossack rebellions, with Tarnopol (Ternopil) superseding it as main city on this plot. Also, among cities west of Kiev Rus can found Volodimer (Vladimir-Volynsky, Volodymyr, Polish:Wlodzimierz) the largest and most important city west of Kiev in Rus era, capital of principality of Volhynia, important regional city until XVI-XVIIth centuries. Finally, south of Lvov
Galich (Halych, Polish: Halicz) can be found, important city and capital of eponymous principality of Galicia, another important regional center until XVIIth century, later superseded by Stanislavov (Ivano-Frankivsk, Polish:Stanislawów) in this plot. Another region with several important cities of Rus is in north-east, in Volga-Oka basin, which later served as center of new Muscovite Russia. Oldest cities and principalities here are
Rostov and
Murom, that were followed by
Suzdal,
Yaroslavl,
Ryazan and
Vladimir. Rus is incentivised to found any of them (Murom a bit less, due to Nizhny Novgorod), but all of these cities would be removed with Russia spawning in Moscow, except Yaroslavl (that kept and keeps being most important of all these cities in following centuries as part of Muscovite Russian state. So Russia will keep Yaroslavl as closest city to Moscow ingame) and possibly Murom. Farther north, Rus (now mostly representing Novgorod republic) can found Ustyug, Kholmogory (that later becomes Arkhangelsk), Vologda or Totma, and also possibly Kem and Khlynov (Vyatka), maybe even Kola (->Murmansk) and Pustozersk (even though founded in Muscovite times in 1499, for centuries it was the most important city on Pechora river. With Soviet renaming it can become neighbouring Naryan-Mar).
As noted above, another civ would be nice to have to represent various Turkic nomadic peoples and states in the Volga, Don and Dnieper steppes. Main problem here is the fact that there's no single universal name all of them can be called (perhaps the most universal would be Tartary, as this region and people were called by Russians, other Europeans and in Middle East, but this names is not applicable for pre-Mongol Cumans and Khazars). Regardless of the name, general things about this civ are pretty clear. This civ shoulw start around 650 in Itil/Atil (later (on entering Medieval era?) renamed Saqsin for Kipchaks and Hajjitarkhan/Astrakhan for Tatars. Lower Volga always remained the center of power of nomadic empire in Pontic-Caspian steppes) to represent the first major of Turkic empires in the region - Khazar Khaganate. This civ should settle such cities as Bolghar or Qazan (Kazan) in Volga-Kama confluence and Azaq (Azov) or Tamatarkha/Samkarsh in Don delta to, together with military raids, prevent Rus and especially Russia from easy and early expansion to steppes and Volga. After Khazars diminished in X-XIth century, this civ should represent Kipchaks (aka Cumans and Polovtsy) with capital renamed to Saqsin. While Kipchaks lacked established state being divided into numerous clans, they were powerful force before Mongol conquest. Moreover, even after the Mongol conquest, Kipchak language became lingua franca and basis for written Turkic language used from Carpathians to Altay. It is not clear how relations of this civ to Mongols should be set. Should Mongols conquer it, with this civ respawning as Golden Horde (or, more properly called, Ulus Jochi), or somehow vassalise it? Ulus Jochi clearly should be represented by this civ as heyday of the imperial power in European steppes. Last great nomadic people to be represented by this civ should be Nogai, who dominated these steppes in XVI-XVIIth centuries.
Muscovite Russia coming up next…
