The Glory of the Russian Empire is a mod intented to impove the Russian Faction represented in Empire: Total War. The goal of the mod is to achieve the impression of uniqueness and historical accuracy of the Russian Empire by a complete overhaul of the faction. It means that the modder team will change almost every aspect of the faction to create a real different (from a clone-based vanilla) experience for the player who decides to lead a Russian Faction.
With current awesome modding tools and upcoming official CA tools, the team will be modding the faction step by step.
The History of Imperial Russia
Peter the Great
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Peter I, the Great (1672–1725), brought Autocracy in Russia and played a major role in bringing his country into the European state system. From its modest beginnings in the 14th century principality of Moscow, Russia had become the largest state in the world by Peter's time. Three times the size of continental Europe, it spanned the Eurasian landmass from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Much of its expansion had taken place in the 17th century, culminating in the first Russian settlement of the Pacific in the mid-17th century, the reconquest of Kiev, and the pacification of the Siberian tribes. However, this vast land had a population of only 14 million. Grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West (that can be partly explained by the heavier climatic conditions, in particular long cold winters and short vegetative period [4]) compelling almost the entire population to farm. Only a small fraction of the population lived in the towns. Russia remained isolated from the sea trade, its internal trade communications and many manufactures were dependent on the seasonal changes.[76]
Peter's first military efforts were directed against the Ottoman Turks.[77] His attention then turned to the north. Peter still lacked a secure northern seaport except at Archangel on the White Sea, whose harbor was frozen nine months a year. Access to the Baltic was blocked by Sweden, whose territory enclosed it on three sides. Peter's ambitions for a "window to Europe" led him in 1699 to make a secret alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Denmark against Sweden resulting in the Great Northern War. The war ended in 1721 when an exhausted Sweden sued for peace with Russia. Peter acquired four provinces situated south and east of the Gulf of Finland, thus securing his coveted access to the sea. There, in 1703, he had already founded the city that was to become Russia's new capital, Saint Petersburg, as a "window opened upon Europe" to replace Moscow, long Russia's cultural center. Russian intervention in the Commonwealth marked, with the Silent Sejm, beginning of 200-year domination of that region by the Russian Empire. In celebration of his conquests, Peter assumed the title of emperor as well as tsar, and Russian Tzardom officially became the Russian Empire in 1721.
Peter reorganized his government on the latest Western models, molding Russia into an absolutist state. He replaced the old boyar Duma (council of nobles) with a nine-member senate, in effect a supreme council of state. The countryside was also divided into new provinces and districts. Peter told the senate that its mission was to collect tax revenues. In turn tax revenues tripled over the course of his reign. As part of the government reform, the Orthodox Church was partially incorporated into the country's administrative structure, in effect making it a tool of the state. Peter abolished the patriarchate and replaced it with a collective body, the Holy Synod, led by a lay government official. Meanwhile, all vestiges of local self-government were removed, and Peter continued and intensified his predecessors' requirement of state service for all nobles.
Peter the Great died in 1725, leaving an unsettled succession and an exhausted realm. His reign raised questions about Russia's backwardness, its relationship to the West, the appropriateness of reform from above, and other fundamental problems that have confronted many of Russia's subsequent rulers. Nevertheless, he had laid the foundations of a modern state in Russia.
Streltsy
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Streltsy were the units of Russian guardsmen in the 16th - early 18th centuries, armed with firearms (riflemen). They are also collectively known as Markman Troops (Стрелецкое Войско).
Creation and structure
The first streltsy units were created by Ivan the Terrible sometime between 1545 and 1550 and armed with the arquebus. They first saw combat at the Siege of Kazan in 1552. Initially, the streltsy were recruited from among the free tradespeople and rural population. Subsequently, military service in this unit became lifelong and hereditary. Thus, while initially an elite force in the sixteenth century, their effectiveness was reduced by poor training and lack of volunteerism in recruiting.
Streltsy were subdivided into viborniye (выборные), or electives (later – of Moscow) and gorodskiye (городские), or municipal (in different Russian cities). The Streltsy of Moscow guarded the Kremlin, performed general guard duty, and participated in military operations. They also carried out general police and fire-brigade functions in Moscow. Grigory Kotoshikhin, a Russian diplomat who had spied for and then defected to Sweden in the 1660s, reported that they used axes and buckets and copper pumps as well as hooks to pull down adjacent buildings so the fire would not spread, but Adam Olerius, a Westerner who traveled to Russia in the seventeenth century, noted that they never used water.[2] The Municipal Streltsy performed garrison and border duty and carried out orders of the local administration. Streltsy subordinated to the Streltsy Department (Стрелецкий приказ, or Streletsky prikaz), however, in times of war they subordinated to their superiors. The Municipal Streltsy were also under the jurisdiction of the local voevodes. Streltsy had identical uniforms (usually red, blue or green coats with yellow boots), training and weapons (arquebuses, muskets, poleaxes, bardiches (used to steady their gun while firing), sabers, and sometimes pikes).
The streltsy were used in static formations, often against set formations or fortifications. They often fired from a platform and employed a mobile wooden "fortification" known in Russian at a "gulyai gorod" (literally a "walking fort"). They reportedly fired in volley or caracole fashion; the first line firing and then stepping back to reload while the second line stepped forward to fire.[3]
The biggest military administrative unit of the streltsy forces was pribor (прибор), that would later be renamed into prikaz and in 1681 – into regiment (полк, or polk). Commanders of the Streltsy unit (стрелецкие головы, or streletskiye golovy) and colonels in charge of regiments were chiefs of prikazi. They had to be nobles and appointed by the government.
The regiments (polki) were subdivided into sotni (сотни, or hundreds) and desyatki (десятки, or tens). They could be mounted (стремянные, or stremyanniye; стремя (stremya) in Russian means “stirrup”) and unmounted (пешие, or peshiye; пеший (peshiy) means "foot soldier").
The Muscovite government was chronically short of cash so that the streltsy were often not paid well. While "entitled" to something like four rubles a year in the 1550s, they were often allowed to farm or trade in order to supplement their incomes. This reduced their combat effectiveness and often their desire to go on campaigns (since a season on campaign meant loss of income).[citation needed] Streltsy lived in their own neighborhoods or districts settlements and received money and bread from the State Treasury. In certain locations, Streltsy were granted strips of land instead of money. The Streltsy settlement in Moscow was located near where the main campus of Moscow State University now stands.
The Streltsy in Politics
Streltsy
At the end of the 16th century, there were 20,000-25,000 streltsy; in 1681, 55,000, including 22,500 in Moscow alone. Streltsy’s engagement in handicrafts and trade led to a significant proprietary inequality among them and their blending with tradepeople. Even though Streltsy demonstrated their fighting efficiency on several occasions, such as the siege of Kazan in 1552, the war with Livonia, the Polish-Swedish invasion in the early 17th century and military operations in Poland and Crimea, in the second half of the 17th century Streltsy started to display their backwardness compared to the regular soldier or reiter regiments. Military service hardships, frequent salary delays, abuse on the part of local administration and commanders made for regular Streltsy's (especially the poorest ones) participation in anti-serfdom uprisings in the 17th and early 18th centuries, such as the peasant wars in the beginning of the 17th century and in 1670-1671 (leader – Stepan Razin), urban uprisings (Moscow Uprising of 1682, Streltsy Uprising of 1698, Astrakhan Uprising of 1705-1706).
At the same time, those streltsy, who had been on top of the hierarchy, enjoyed their social status and, therefore, tried to hold back the regular Streltsy forces and keep them on the government’s side. In the late 17th century, Streltsy of Moscow began to actively participate in a struggle for power between different government groups, supporting the dissidents and showing hostility towards any foreign innovations.
The streltsy became something of a "pretorian element" in Muscovite politics in the late seventeenth century. In 1682 they attempted to prevent Peter the Great from coming to the throne in favor of his half-brother, Ivan.
Disbandment
"The Morning of the Streltsy Execution" after their failed uprising in 1698 by Vasily Ivanovich Surikov(1848-1916).
After the fall of Sophia Alekseyevna in 1689, the government of Peter the Great engaged in a process of gradual limitation of Streltsy’s military and political influence. Eight Moscow regiments were removed from the city and transferred to Belgorod, Sevsk, and Kiev.
In spite of these measures, the streltsy revolted yet again while Peter was on his Great Embassy in Europe. While the revolt was put down by the Scottish general Patrick Gordon (he had entered Russian service under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1661) even before the Tsar's return to Russia, Peter nonetheless cut short his embassy and returned to finally crush the streltsy with savage reprisals, including public executions and torture.[7]
The corps was technically abolished in 1689; however, after having suffered a defeat at Narva in 1700, the government stopped their disbandment. The most efficient streltsy regiments took part in the most important military operations of the Great Northern War and in Peter’s Prut Campaign of 1711. Gradually, Streltsy were incorporated into the regular army. At the same time, they started to disband the Municipal Streltsy.
Liquidation of the streltsy units was finally finished only in the 1720s, however, the Municipal Streltsy were kept in some cities until the late 18th century.
The Preobrazhensky and Izmailovsky regiments of Imperial Guards replaced the streltsy as the tsar's bodyguards.
The era of Russian palace revolutions
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Peter changed the rules of succession to the throne after he executed his own son, Aleksey, who had opposed his father's reforms and served as a rallying figure for antireform groups. A new law provided that the tsar would choose his own successor, but Peter failed to do so before his death in 1725. In the decades that followed, the absence of clear rules of succession left the monarchy open to intrigues, plots, coups, and countercoups. Henceforth, the crucial factor for obtaining the throne was the support of the elite palace guard in St. Petersburg.
After Peter's death Catherine I seized the throne. But when she died in 1727, Peter's grandson, Peter II, was crowned tsar. In 1730 Anna Ivanovna, whose father Ivan V had been co-ruler with Peter, ascended the throne. The clique of nobles that put Anna on the throne attempted to impose various conditions on her. In her struggle against those restrictions, Anna had the support of other nobles who feared oligarchic rule more than autocracy. Thus the principle of autocracy continued to receive strong support despite chaotic struggles for the throne.
Anna died in 1740, and her infant grandnephew was proclaimed tsar as Ivan VI. After a series of coups, however, he was replaced by Peter the Great's daughter Elizabeth (r. 1741-1762). During Elizabeth's reign, which was much more effective than those of her immediate predecessors, a "Westernized" Russian culture began to emerge. Among notable cultural events were the founding of Moscow University (1755) and the Academy of Fine Arts (1757) and the emergence of Russia's first eminent scientist and scholar, Mikhail Lomonosov.
During the rule of Peter's successors, Russia took a more active role in European statecraft. From 1726 to 1761, Russia was allied with Austria against the Ottoman Empire, which France usually supported. In the War of Polish Succession (1733-1735), Russia and Austria blocked the French candidate to the Polish throne. In a costly war with the Ottoman Empire (1734-1739), Russia reacquired the port of Azov. Russia's greatest reach into Europe was during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), which was fought on three continents between Britain and France with numerous allies on both sides. In that war, Russia continued its alliance with Austria, but Austria shifted to an alliance with France against Prussia. In 1760 Russian forces were at the gates of Berlin. Fortunately for Kingdom of Prussia, Elizabeth died in 1762, and her successor, Peter III, allied Russia with Prussia because of his devotion to the Prussian king, Frederick the Great.
Peter III had a short and unpopular reign. Although he was a grandson of Peter the Great, his father was the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, so Peter III was raised in a German Lutheran environment. Russians therefore considered him a foreigner. Making no secret of his contempt for all things Russian, Peter created deep resentment by forcing Prussian military drills on the Russian military, attacking the Russian Orthodox Church, and depriving Russia of a military victory by establishing his sudden alliance with Prussia. Making use of the discontent and fearing for her own position, Peter III's wife, Catherine, deposed her husband in a coup, and her lover's brother, Aleksey Orlov, subsequently murdered him, so in June 1762 Catherine became Catherine II, empress of Russia.
Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov Count Suvorov of Rymnik, Prince of Italy, Count of Holy Roman Empire (November 24, 1729 – May 18, 1800), was the fourth and last generalissimus of Russian Empire. One of the few great generals in history who never lost a battle, he was famed for his manual The Science of Victory and noted for the sayings "Train hard, fight easy", "The bullet is a fool, the bayonet is a fine chap", "Perish yourself but rescue your comrade!". He taught his soldiers to attack instantly and decisively: 'attack with the cold steel - push hard with the bayonet!' His soldiers adored him. He joked with the men, called the common soldiers 'brother', and shrewdly presented the results of detailed planning and careful strategy as the work of inspiration.
Early life and career
Suvorov was born into a noble family of Novgorod descent at the Moscow mansion of his maternal grandfather Fedosey Manukov (a landowner from Oryol gubernia and an official of Peter I). Suvorov also had distant Armenian blood which came from his grandparents.
Suvorov entered the army circa 1740 as a boy, served against the Swedes during the war in Finland and against the Prussians during the Seven Years' War (1756 - 1763).
After repeatedly distinguishing himself in battle Suvorov became a colonel in 1762, aged around 33.
Suvorov next served in Poland during the Confederation of Bar, dispersed the Polish forces under Pułaski, captured Kraków (1768) paving the way for the first partition of Poland between Austria, Prussia and Russia, and reached the rank of major-general.
The Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 saw his first campaigns against the Turks in 1773–1774, and particularly in the Battle of Kozluca, he laid the foundations of his reputation.
In 1775, Suvorov was dispatched to suppress the rebellion of Pugachev, who claimed to be the assasinated Tsar Peter III, but arrived at the scene only in time to conduct the first interrogation of the rebel leader, who had been betrayed by his fellow Cossacks and was eventually beheaded in Moscow.
Actions and Battles against the Poles and the Turks
From 1777 to 1783 Suvorov served in the Crimea and in the Caucasus, becoming a lieutenant-general in 1780, and general of infantry in 1783, upon completion of his tour of duty there.
From 1787 to 1791 he again fought the Turks during the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 and won many victories; he was wounded twice at Kinburn (1787), took part in the siege of Ochakov, and in 1788 won two great victories at Focşani and by the river Rimnik.
In both these battles an Austrian corps under Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg participated, but at the Battle of Rymnik Suvorov was in command of the whole allied forces.
For the latter victory, Catherine the Great made Suvorov a count with the name "Rimniksky" in addition to his own name, and the Emperor Joseph II made him a count of the Holy Roman Empire.
On 22 December 1790 Suvorov successfully stormed the reputedly impenetrable fortress of Ismail in Bessarabia. Turkish forces inside the fortress had the orders to stand their ground to the end and haughtily declined the Russian ultimatum. Their defeat was seen as a major catastrophe in the Ottoman empire, but in Russia it was glorified in the first national anthem, Let the thunder of victory sound!
Suvorov announced the capture of Ismail in 1791 to the Tsarina Catherine in a doggerel couplet, after the assault had been pressed from house to house, room to room, and nearly every Muslim man, woman, and child in the city had been killed in three days of uncontrolled massacre, 40,000 Turks dead, a few hundred taken into captivity. For all his bluffness, Suvorov later told an English traveller that when the massacre was over he went back to his tent and wept.
Immediately after the peace with the Ottoman Empire was signed, Suvorov was again transferred to Poland, where he assumed the command of one of the corps and took part in the Battle of Maciejowice, in which he captured the Polish commander-in-chief Tadeusz Kościuszko. On November 4, 1794, Suvorov's forces stormed Warsaw and captured Praga, one of its boroughs. The massacre of approximately 20,000 civilians in Praga broke the spirits of the defenders and soon put an end to the Kościuszko Uprising. According to some sources the massacre was the deed of Cossacks who were semi-independent and were not directly subordinated to Suvorov. The Russian general was supposedly trying to stop the massacre and even went as far as to order the destruction of the bridge to Warsaw over the Vistula river with the purpose of preventing the spread of violence to Warsaw from its suburb. Other historians dispute this, but most sources make no reference to Suvorov either purposely encouraging or attempting to prevent the massacre. Suvorov nonetheless allowed his troops to loot the city for a much longer period than was usually accepted, which might have been seen by some, particularly the unruly Cossacks, as a green light to do whatever they wanted.
It is said that the Russian commander sent a report to his sovereign consisting of only three words: Hurrah from Warsaw, Suvorov. The Empress of Russia replied equally briefly: Congratulations, Field Marshal. Catherine. The newly-appointed field marshal remained in Poland until 1795, when he returned to Saint Petersburg. But his sovereign and friend Catherine died in 1796, and her son and successor Paul I dismissed the veteran in disgrace.
Suvorov's Italian campaign
Exiled Suvorov receiving the Emperor's order to lead the Russian army against Napoleon.
Main article: Suvorov's Italian and Swiss expedition
Suvorov spent the next few years in retirement on his estate Konchanskoe near Borovichi. He criticised the new military tactics and dress introduced by the emperor, and some of his caustic verse reached the ears of Paul. His conduct therefore came under surveillance and his correspondence with his wife, who had remained at Moscow - for his marriage relations had not been happy - was tampered with.
It is recorded that on Sundays he tolled the bell for church and sang among the rustics in the village choir. On week days he worked among them in a smock-frock. However, in February 1799 Emperor Paul I summoned him to take the field again, this time against the French Revolutionary armies in Italy.
The campaign opened with a series of Suvorov's victories (Cassano d'Adda, Trebbia, Novi). This reduced the French government to desperate straits and drove every French soldier from Italy, save for the handful under Moreau, which maintained a foothold in the Maritime Alps and around Genoa. Suvorov himself gained the rank of "prince of the House of Savoy" from the king of Sardinia.
Russian troops under Generalissimo Suvorov crossing the Alps in 1799.
But the later events of the eventful year went uniformly against the Russians. General Korsakov's force was defeated by Masséna at Zürich. Betrayed by the Austrians, the old field marshal, seeking to make his way over the Swiss passes to the Upper Rhine, had to retreat to Vorarlberg, where the army, much shattered and almost destitute of horses and artillery, went into winter quarters. When Suvorov battled his way through the snow-capped Alps his army was checked but never defeated. For this marvel of strategic retreat, unheard of since the time of Hannibal, Suvorov became the fourth generalissimo of Russia. He was officially promised to be given the military triumph in Russia but the court intrigues led the Emperor Paul to cancel the ceremony.
Early in 1800 Suvorov returned to Saint Petersburg. Paul refused to give him an audience, and, worn out and ill, the old veteran died a few days afterwards on 18 May 1800, at Saint Petersburg. Lord Whitworth, the English ambassador, and the poet Derzhavin were the only persons of distinction present at the funeral.
Suvorov lies buried in the church of the Annunciation in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, the simple inscription on his grave stating, according to his own direction, "Here lies Suvorov". But within a year of his death the tsar Alexander I erected a statue to his memory in the Field of Mars.
Saint Andrew's Cross
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
A saltire, Saint Andrew's Cross, or crux decussata (though it is never called the last in heraldry), is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross or letter X. Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a cross.
It forms the national Flag of Scotland, the Flag of Jamaica and appears on many other flags, arms and seals.
Numerous flags are inspired by the saltire and the colours blue and white—mostly connected with Scotland or Russia, where Saint Andrew is the national patron saint. The naval ensign of the Imperial Russian (1696-1917) and Russian navies (1991-present) is a blue saltire on a white field.
General Concept of the Russian army by Garand2k
Version 1. Will be revised in future. Some editions made by me,
1. Goals of the mod.
1. Making historical accurate uniforms of the Russian Army.
2. Widening the unit roster of the Russian Empire. Rework of all current units to the historical ones.
3. Changing other aspects of the faction for the sake of Historical Realism
4. Editing neighboring factions (Georgia, Dagestan, etc) to be more historical accurate.
2. Description of Russian Army.
The principal goal is to make Russian Army as much historical accurate as possible without breaking game balance and ‘fun factor’.
• The main advantages of Russian Army are high morale and skilled close-combat. It is well known, it is approved by many contemporaries.
• Accuracy is something between poor and average. Not the best and not the worst.
• Stamina is high.
• Reloading skill is average
• Defense in close combat is average
• Charge is strong. (Mighty Russian Bayonet Charge)
Troop classes in Russian Army.
• Jaeger infantry (Light infantry)
• Heavy Infantry (Line infantry)
• Light cavalry
• Heavy cavalry
• Guard
• Outdated and old fashioned troops
• Irregular troops
3. Class descriptions
1. Jaeger and Light Infantry
• Jaegers
Light skirmishers. High accuracy and high firing range. Loose order.
• Cossack “Plastoon” Infantry
Light skirmishers. Plastoon means “Prone”. Small numbers, loose order, excellent stealth skills, above-average accuracy and close-combat.
2. Heavy infantry.
• Fusiliers or Line infantry.
High close-combat skills, charge and morale. Other stats are average or low.
• Grenadiers.
Excellent bayonet close-combat. Grenades. High morale. Elite Infantry
3. Light Cavalry
• Hussars
Light Cavalry, Armed with sabres. Possible carbines and pistols.
• Horse jaegers
Horse skirmishers.
4. Heavy Cavalry
• Cuirassiers
Heavy cavalry. Good defense and armour, powerful charge close-combat.
• Dragoons
• Horse grenadiers
5. Guard
• Leib-guard infantry (elite line infantry)
• Leib-grenadiers (elite grenadiers)
• Cavalryguard (Elite cavalry)
• Leib-jaegers (elite skirmishers)
6. Old Style troops
• Moscow streltsy
Melee infantry, armed with poleaxes. Good melee attack, all other stats low.
• Gorodskie Streltsy
Armed with old muskets and sabres. Poor stats. Militia
• Noble militia.
Heavy cavalry. Armed with swords and sabres. Low stats, but good armour.
7. Irregular troops.
• City militia.
This unit replaces streltsy if Russia is republic. Poor stats. Armed with muskets.
• Don Cossacks
Light cavalry. Sabres (Shashka), muskets. Better accuracy than melee. Average-to-high stats. Recruitable only in Don Voisko region. Dismountable
• Zaporozhian cossacks.
Light cavalry. Armed with sabres, muskets. Better melee than accuracy. Average-to-high stats. Recruitable only in Ukraine region.
• Serduks.
Cossack average infantry. Muskets, sabres. Average stats. Recruitable only in Ukraine Region
If you can somehow help the mod by historical sources, events ideas, balance issues and so on, you're Welcome! Feel free to post anything that might help the team.
Recruitment!
We need:
2d Artists (textures, UIs)
Scripters/Coders
Researchers
Creative People who can have some nice ideas about the faction!
Also, feel free to contribute any useful info you can provide - custom textures, ideas, helpful tips etc...
The Team HellFell - design, texturing, coding. Pavlik the Rus - PR Garand2k - researcher, russian army concept, historical flags Rom Archi - History sources, 2d art, coding
Comming Soon: Modder recruitment, History of the nation, New factions announcments, First steps, Working Plan, Historical sources, and much more!
Last edited by HellFell; April 10, 2009 at 02:03 PM.
March 16, 2009, 10:53 AM
/ The Glory of the Russian Empire MOD (BETA released!)
Threaded Mode