This is similar to an idea Chuk just suggested. Perhaps have the
civ level of a province be determined by the presence of cities
or structures, and also by the civ level of surrounding provinces.
Something like:
civ level = MAX(nbuildings, MAX(civ level of neighbors) - 1)
where nbuildings includes 1 for each city, and castles count for 2
So civilization would spread out automatically from buildings,
producing frontier areas. Perhaps different gradiations of wilderness,
i.e. frontier, wilderness, deep wilderness.
-- Rich Skrenta <skrenta@shadow.com>