Suggestion: Introduce National Decision to reach Tier II government

[Mordkalb]

Having recently played several nations that start with a Tier I government in the grand campaign (Flanders, Gascony, Portugal), I can say that gameplay for them is very formulaic. If they have larger formables, rush those. If they don't, expect to be in the National Authority bottom third for the first 70-90 turns, as their capital building only gives one NA, their domain limit is small and it takes time to rev up the economy required to build all the NA-generating structures. This (along with outsourcing regions to vassals) is the only possible way to play them.

Along with being suboptimal from a gameplay standpoint, it is also historically inaccurate. The medieval era very much was a time of warlords, where military power and naked violence were the driver of government, not laws or bureaucracy. William the Conqueror became King of England by killing everyone who could oppose him. Same goes for Roger de Hauteville in Sicily, Afonso the Founder in Portugal etc. etc.

Some of these are represented through formable states, like Sicily or Al-Andalus, and I'm certainly not opposed to adding more as time goes on. However, this is about a genericised and broadly applicable version of such events.

Give all states with Tier I government the following national decision: Proclaim Kingdom/Dynasty/(insert cultural equivalent)

The requirements are: Army with at least 300 Combat Power, 1000 Money
If you take the decision, it upgrades your government to the lowest Tier II (Petty Kingdom, Minor Dynasty etc.). But it also spawns several large rebel stacks in your lands, decreases loyalty for your non-dynastic nobles, costs you the 1000 money (for coronation expenses), severely decreases relations with all neighbours and perhaps even grants some of them claims on your lands.

All of the values above are open to rebalancing, of course. I hope that this will make small starting states more fun to play, as you have a clear goal to work towards and their gameplay is less long-winded.

[SuitedQueens]

I think the most obvious solution would be to allow Civ 1 States 100% chance to gain a progress token for conquering objective like in Empires. Also, who stops you from going on the conquest? You say starting economy weak, but that means that Rebels are weak and LOYALTY doesnt matter at all. You can easily sit in -50 and hold 20 regions. Negative token gains as slow as for the positive one. Usually 40-50 turns for 5 tokens. Civ 1 states are not that challenging BECAUSE AI sucks at creating threatening stacks without my Custom AI mod.