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Thread: Help with Russian Faction

  1. #1

    Default Help with Russian Faction

    I played as England the first go round, and relied heavily upon longbowmen. I'm now Russia and finding it hard to find an identity with my armies early on. They seem to lack early infantry, badly. The woodsmen get ripped to shreds by anything armored, or on horse. They're pretty worthless. I also only have peasent archers, pretty worthless IMO. I have finally gotten spearmen in a few castles.

    The Council has been rewarding me with alot of Heavy Cavalry. My armies are mostly all mounted units right now, but I'm having a hard time being effective. Should I line my Heavy Cav up and just charge them (unless they are spearmen) and then chip away from the flanks with my missle cavalry? How do you effectively use missle cavalry?

    I'm going to start experimenting with my spearmen. Probably just line them up and march toward their army as my missle cavalry chips away from the flanks. Then, I'll send a few Heavy Cavalry around the back. I'm currently at war with the Byzantines and they are very Horse Archer heavy usually. Should I just charge them with my cav?

    My current units are Woodsmen, Peasant Archers, Spearmen, Heavy Cav (Driz....something), Boyer Sons (Missle Cav) and Kazaks (Horse Archers). Also have catapults/ballistas.

    Any tips would help. Thanks.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Help with Russian Faction

    I would use several units of you woodsmen as your basic infantry screen. Use your heavy cav to take out their cavalry early in the battle, all the while using missile cav to pick apart their infantry. Once you have control of the cav situation, charge your woodsmen at their infantry, circle what is left of your heavy horse around behind the enemy and then charge. This will almost instantaneously break any unit, especially one that has been broken down by horse archer fire first and then a short bout of infantry combat.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Help with Russian Faction

    Missile cavalry:

    As the turks, I fielded them liberally, and my main army was entirely composed of them (minus 2-3 slots of general and heavy cavalry). Splitting them up into units of three, I used them to pretty much do what you outlined - whittle away on the flanks, harass and drag away their cavalry, and just cause havoc.

    If you can afford it, I'd field a sizable force of purely cavalry, with a focus on archers (Preferably heavy-archers, so they can charge and attack when needed). They will suffer casualities, but also be able to take on forces much larger than they. I wiped out entire Crusader armies with them, and you should be able to with the Russian counterpart to Sipahi Archers (They have roughly 15-16 defense, I think, and wield the bow).

    For spearmen...I don't think Russia gets any heavy spearmen. All you need is for a force of infantry to hold the enemy and allow time for your heavy cavalry to set up behind them and charge home - it almost always causes a rout for me.

  4. #4
    kendal000's Avatar Libertus
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    Default Re: Help with Russian Faction

    hmmm i see your point russia has a hard time. i find hit and run tactics to be most of use. i usually use my missle cavalry first as a lure then when the enemy attacks i bring in my light infantry from the flanks then to top it off i charge them with my cavalry. but make sure you have some reserves otherwise your toast
    if at first you dont succeed, maybe bomb disposal isnt for you.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Help with Russian Faction

    I am viewing this as someone with no experience with Russia, but if he doesn't have infantry that can get the job done...how on earth does he seige? Your strategies look great for field battles but in the case of a seige an all cavalry or 90% cavalry force isn't going to win a hard seige.

  6. #6
    kendal000's Avatar Libertus
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    Default Re: Help with Russian Faction

    yes i understand that sieges are hard with a mostly cavalry force but you can pull it off. use your missle cavalry to cantabarian circle in front of the walls to distract any missle units they have on the walls then. send your infantry units you have to attack one of the less gaurded walls then once your over capture the gate and then march the rest of your force in. and the rest from there is really hit and miss but most of the time a successful siege is possible if you think about how best to use your forces to there fullest. hope this helps.
    if at first you dont succeed, maybe bomb disposal isnt for you.

  7. #7
    Kalis's Avatar Civis
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    Default Re: Help with Russian Faction

    # 1. get a blacksmith, and ideally armourer up asap.
    2-3 armour is HUGE compared to 0 armour. This applies especially to spearmen (maybe woodsmen, dunno what their max armour upgrade is).

    # 2. Horse archers and cavalry are the main armies of the russians though, especially considering what you're fighting And don't underestimate the power of peasant archers shooting fire arrows + heavy cavalry charge to force the enemy to rout (although to be honest, skirmishing with the horse archers, kill off enough to make their morale shaken/wavering, then charge works fine without peasant archers)!

    # 3. When siegeing, hire a few mercenaries before the assault begins. Mercenary spearmen are awesome for charging into a settle and dealing with their spearmen / cavalry. After the initial group of spears have been cleared, your cavalry can rush in and finish the job.

    With 90% cavalry armies, sieging means all you need to do to win is to get rid of enemy spears. So make your 10% infantry focused on that.
    Last edited by Kalis; December 28, 2006 at 04:45 PM.

  8. #8
    kendal000's Avatar Libertus
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    Default Re: Help with Russian Faction

    some very good points Kalis the russians are a tricky bunch to command effectively but when done right they are very strong especially with mercenaries as back up
    if at first you dont succeed, maybe bomb disposal isnt for you.

  9. #9

    Default Re: Help with Russian Faction

    Identity is a good way to state it. The special identity of Russian armies is that they have heavy missile cav, and very early access to it. Boyar sons make up the real meat of Russian armies, especially the early ones.

    Your early militia units are the standard crappy space-holders. Peasant archers are literally no better than archer militia, but cost money to maintain. Thus, there is no value in ever building them. The 3rd town upgrade lets you build crossbow militia, who have AP ability, free maintenance, and a decent damage (at least in groups of 4 or more, due to the slower rate of fire). Use them instead when you can.

    Woodsmen are nasty when attacking some enemy unit already engaged by your troops. But they only have a single point of defense! Thus, virtually anything they try to attack 1-to-1 will kill them, even archer units. Use woodsmen only to rush the flanks and/or rear once your line is engaged.

    The trick is rushing them in before your paltry line collapses. Spear militia won't hold up to much stress at all, even with a 6 star general commanding. They will take lots of casualties, then rout on you, thereby exposing your foot-missile troops. You need to get to the 3rd or 4th castle upgrade before you get actual spearmen that can defend against a frontal assault.

    Russia may actually be more cav-heavy than the Turks. Kazars are the equals of Turkish horse archers, and can be used in the exact same manner, to harrass, entice, and give chase--even charge a rear line in a pinch. Dhruzhina become available after the next castle upgrade, and are closest to a true Western-style heavy cav, with your best charge bonus. Note that they will not stand up the best of Western knights in the late game, so use them wisely while you still have the advantage.

    It is the boyar sons that convey the true identity of Russian arms. Boyars are not as fast as kazars, and don't have as much missile ammo, but their javelins are armor-piercing and pack a good punch. Their charge and sword damage are not as strong as regular heavy cav, but are actually pretty good for the early and midgame. They can circle to help them duel with archers, but I find it is usually easiest to simply charge archer lines, which the AI invariably advances too far ahead.

    Since boyars don't have a large charge bonus, you want to make sure that all your charges are at full force. In the game, this means you want to hear the horn sound when they charge. It's not too difficult to do this now; just give them some (relatively) flat, clear ground to run on before they have to make contact. Considering that your riders are taking a horse from a walk to a gallop, then adjusting their seat and weapon to be steady with the horse's stride, the game's charge dynamics now seem pretty close to realistic to me.

    As for seiging, your cav cannot control seige tools, such as a ram, so you need foot troops at a proper seige. Also, you are likely to run into spear troops in settlement defenses, so you don't want to be wasting your cav on them. As noted above, a spy (or several, because their percentages stack) is usually invaluable for ending a seige early. If you have spies inside, you can often walk up to a city and attack it in the same turn. In this case, since every unit will have to run through the main gate (but there won't be any archers on the walls due to the surprise factor), it's best to just try to punch through with a couple of cav units then bring in the rest of your army asap. Alternatively, especially for low development settlements, you can just wait them out, using your foot- and cav- missilers to fight a relatively easy defensive battle.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Help with Russian Faction

    what i did was take all the rebel settlements on the back of the map
    build up a good economy and built up only one castle
    by turn 20 i had a strong army of boyars sons and dismounted boyars sons
    than i built a navy and went to egland and took over their island pretty easily

    i think that they are a strong all around army
    especialy the archers that can beat most infantry in hand to hand

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