SER, BUL, CRO - Suggestion for Map Changes to Montenegro and Kosovo regions

[Tehrozer]

Quick questions HOI4 version: 1.10.8 Kaiserreich version: 0.19

Describe the specific change you would like:

1. Transferring State 765 'Kosovo' to Bulgaria, redoing the provinces of State 765 and transferring province 6940 of said state to State 108 'Morava' so that the borders of Bulgaria match the territory it was going to annex following the war.

2. Various changes to the shape of provinces in State 105 'Montenegro' so that they match the period accurate borders.

3. Changing the shape of province 7623 of State 841'Kotor' making it smaller so that it matches the borders of Austro-Hungarian region of Cattaro in the west (that is in the territories Austria-Hungary owned prior to the war) and in the east (newly gained territories) to match the Montenegrin Primorsko-Crmnica region. Furthermore enlarging the province with territories from province 9780 from State 44 'Albania' to remove traces of OTL WW2 administrative borders of occupied Montenegro.

4. Addition of 'Cetinje' as a victory point to province 9821 should the changes from point 3. be implemented.

(Suggestions 1-4 as they could look in game)

5. Addition of Lake Skadar

Explain the reasoning behind this actionable change:

1. During WW1 Bulgaria was granted the majority of the Kosovo region nevertheless this is not represented in the game. I suggest to transfer the region to Bulgaria and to redo it's provinces to match the Bulgarian occupation borders as they were the intended future borders of the country.

The following image contains a true scale image of the suggested changes to provinces from point 1. should KR team want to save a bit of time and simply use it instead of duplicating the exact same work at a later point:

Should this suggestion be accepted it would also open the way to expanding Kosovo by adding to it Albanian inhabited areas of Macedonia thus allowing Albania to be able to annex more of its claimed land without having to create a new state. I would also be free to draw up a proposal for that but as it is conditioned on point 1. being accepted I will wait.

2. For some reason the current borders of Montenegro state are based on the 2006 Montenegro borders which are as one can expect different compared to borders of Kingdom of Montenegro. Therefore I suggest changing them to something period accurate.

3. The province of Kotor in its current shape is a very weird construct and which doesn't really seem to be based on anything? I am quite unsure why it was drawn this way as it is so big as to include multiple cities like Cetinje (The period accurate capital of Montenegro) while the intent of Austria-Hungary seems to be simply to deny Serbia a coast. Furthermore the shape of Albanian province 9780 is in fact based on the WW2 Albania including a portion of territories annexed into Italian Albania from Montenegro after the invasion of Yugoslavia. Therefore I drew up borders that are on one hand accurate to the period and closer to the administrative borders of the region as I think smaller annexations by Austria-Hungary would be more inline with their plans and previous behaviour.

Left - current KR borders Right - My attempt at recreating the borders of Kingdom of Montenegro and new Kotor borders

The following image contains a true scale image of the suggested changes to provinces from point 2. and 3. should KR team want to save a bit of time and simply use it instead of duplicating the exact same work at a later point:

4. Simple enough the capital of Montenegro at the time was Cetinje while Podgorica was just the largest city in the country and only gained a administrative role when it became the capital of Montenegro Region within Yugoslavia in 1946.

5. This rather important geographical feature of the region is for some reason completely missing so I think these changes would be a good occasion to add it in.

The following image contains a true scale image of the suggested changes to provinces from point 5. should KR team want to save a bit of time and simply use it instead of duplicating the exact same work at a later point (I simply marked the shape of the lake with white it needs to be filled with a actual province and the map would also require all the other changes associated with adding lakes):

True Scale Image with all the Suggested Changes: This file has all of the previous suggestions in a single image as to save some trouble should they all be accepted:

[Vidyaorszag]

1. Bulgaria was never "granted" Kosovo; it was granted Macedonia and Nish. It occupied Kosovo against their agreement with the CPs and I do believe, after some serious wrangling, agreed to give up ambitions on Kosovo.
2. Montenegro is that shape for because it made Kosovo look absolutely horrid. It used to be the """proper""" shape many patches ago and it was changed on purpose. Besides, Montenegro has been annexed, so it doesn't have to have the pre-war border and this way prevents border gore.
3. It's based on descriptions of A-H demands on Montenegro, which included Mount Lovcen at minimum. It does not include Cetnje.
4. Cetnje loses importance after being annexed into Serbia and the incorporation of Lovcen into Illyria.
5. The lake was literally removed with this patch. It's too minor to be included and was completely useless gameplay-wise.

[Tehrozer]

1. Not sure what you are referring to but that isn't the case? What happened is that the borders laid out in the secret Bulgarian-German treaty didn't fully express Bulgarian claims nor did they align with the borders that Central Powers ended with after the invasion of Serbia not to mention involvement of Albania opened a whole new theatre of operations both military and diplomatic. The story of Austro-Bulgarian conflict is a long one and so is its Kosovian chapter so to shorten it essentially after the invasion of Serbia Bulgarian troops ended up west of the "treaty line" in Kosovo that is occupied Kosovian territories that according to the treaty were to go to Austria. Bulgaria then started creating a civilian administration in these territories and Austria of course took a issue with such moves. This resulted in two diplomatic crises between the countries in the course of which Bulgaria did agree to this "Radoslavov had stated Bulgarian désintéressement in Albania,323 but this excluded Kosovo and the Macedonian regions with Albanian populations." but as you can see it "gave up ambitions" on Albania not Kosovo. And not talk too much about how it ended I will copy a paragraph from from Austro-Hungarian War Aims in the Balkans During World War I by Marvin Benjamin Fried:

Whereas in Sofia Ferdinand remained intransigent and Radoslavov threatened resignation because Germany had sided with Austria, Jagow in Berlin feared that the only way to ‘avoid a conflict at this moment’ would be to force Austria-Hungary to accept Sofia’s proposal that a Bulgarian civilian administration in the disputed areas would not imply a precedent.365 This surrender to Bulgarian blackmail was avoided on March 27 when the AOK provisionally vacated the Pristina–Prizren area in exchange for the Bulgarians doing the same in Djakova and Elbassan, as Conrad had wished.366 This move came without prior knowledge in Berlin or Pless 367 or the MdÄ but did manage to satisfy the Bulgarian King.368 Having been circumvented without achieving the Bulgarian civilian administration’s withdrawal from Pristina–Prizren, Burián attempted to plead ignorance of the military deal.369 In the end, he was forced to acknowledge the AOK’s acceptance of the Falkenhayn division as a ‘military provisional arrangement,’ though this was done ‘against the objections of the MdÄ.’ Burián rejected Conrad’s accusations that his failings had whetted the appetite of the Bulgarians for Kosovo in the first place, pointing out that the MdÄ had repeatedly informed Bulgaria that the western portion of the treaty border was ‘an Austro-Hungarian sphere of interest.’370 The agreement between the Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian High Commands on their respective administrative zones was signed on April 1, with no further talks being held on the topics of Serbia and Albania.371

Jagow, fully aware that it would anyway be difficult to reduce Bulgarian demands on Serbia, Rumania, and possibly also on Greece to an acceptable degree, did not want to make new promises that could make the Bulgarians even more difficult to deal with.375 In the end, Burián and Jagow would have to work hard even to insist that the military agreement over Prizren–Pristina was a temporary one, and that the Austrian government ‘fully maintained its demands’ on Kosovo,376 a position which sent the Bulgarian King into ‘vehement lamentations,’ as he had clearly hoped the issue was settled in his favor.377

(Text of the Austro-Hungarian-Bulgarian Agreement from 1st April 1916 in Bulgarian)

Map of administrative division of Bulgaria in 1918 with Pristina and Prizren districts marked, note that it is also essentially a map of what they intended to get from the war.

Think I shown enough info to establish that eastern Kosovo was under Bulgarian control and that Bulgaria very much intended to annex it. Furthermore as per the current treaty of Wartholz the entirety of Kosovo is left to Serbia therefore Austro-Hungarian plans about greater Albania are not a issue and there wouldn't be anyone left to contest the Bulgarian claim to Pristina and Prizren. Therefore as it seems all of this is due to minor historical oversight I once again suggest to implement this change. Of course there are also other issues at stake and I could understand if Kosovo would be left to Serbia in its entirety if it was for gameplay reasons but there then I would also suggest adding something to the lore that recognises the conflict over Kosovo and explains why these two regions were abandoned by Bulgaria

2. Fair
3. I am perfectly aware of Austrian claims but that is not the issue the issue is that that mountain is literally on the border and it's annexation would make such a small change in the borders of the Austrian Cattaro region as to not be even visible on a HOI4 map as it would be sub-pixel. Here is a map of the provinces with the physical map overlaid on it You can clearly see the Kotor province in its current shape for some reason incorporates a lot of land deep into the country which is what I am complaining about as to Cetinje yeah I agree it shouldn't include Cetinje but as it is currently drawn it absolutely does. So it is not about the lore it is about the geography being wrong.
4. Still think it could get a VP
5. Okay