Playing VH-VH with Large unit size- for me sieges and field battles seem too crowded on Huge though occasionally I will play anyway just for slightly more epic feeling battles.
Early era campaign so Lithuania starts with only Vilnius and not very many pagan regions to expand into. Which makes a big difference with BGR and RR/RC.
Lithuania has only 3 advantages-
1. Unique temple line which has great health and law effects as well is quite fast building.
2. Lithuanian cavalry with long range arrows. Pechnegs and several other HA have short range arrow which means they have to get into range of other HA and archers before even having a chance to fire. As well on skirmish they often don't have the room to run away from a cavalry charge by the enemy.
3. Isolated start. Should be just enough time to take some rebel regions and have a small base before coming into contact with enemy kingdoms.
Biggest disadvantages are also 3 but many more small problems in addition to only the unique position of Lithuania due to BGR-
1. Pagan, priests start low level and have issues dealing with heretics and witches. Crusades AND Jihads both can be called on Lithuania, all neighboring factions are different religions and WILL send missionaries which can hit public order and recruiting if not guarded against.
2. Lives in a very poor region that takes quite long time to build up.
3. Relatively expensive units for their stats which living in a poor region makes worse.
This AAR is intended to run through turn 111 when Lithuania will either be an established power or on the way to being removed from history. I might give 1 update after turn 150 if I continue playing but it is a lot of work to post screens and comments for all the major battles the larger a Kingdom grows.
This is the 2nd campaign I've played with Lithuania, the first was a campaign some time ago when just started learning BGR and due to the low authority of the king had 50% of my troops not with a FM rebelling every other turn for the first 20 turns (about 1/4 my total forces went rebel by turn 20) and saved it at around turn 60 just when things getting stable (with only 3 regions under control) to return and play again but then lost that save on a reinstall so this is fresh start. Did not intend to make this an AAR but it become quite fun and just figured it would be a good advertisement for SS, RC/RR and BGR IV. The consequence though is the first 20 turns did not take many screen shots. Had an early save to show a couple turns but that is all. However not much was going on, just battles against rebels except a couple early skirmish vs Novgorod.
EDIT- originally I intended this as a matter of fact AAR but later in the campaign get more into it and write more from a roleplay point of view though I do make frequent mention of game mechanics and battle tactics.
Screenshots and playthru below;
Made it a priority to recruit as many Lithuanian cavalry as possible from the start as Vilnius can not support a large army and those guys are the most effective units Lithuania has besides FM for a long time.
Aimed for the nearest halfway decent Pagan regions and then sieged with small forces to force AI to sally when using the Lithuanian Cavalry. To expand faster did send a few infantry of the starting army to head to the Baltic and capture Palanga(Konigsburg) in more a bloody siege battle but relied on the Lithuanian cavalry forcing sally most of the time and the starting infantry only to garrison the cities afterward and deal with the riots.
Money issues led me to expand faster than would have preferred so the first battle vs Novgorod occurs on turn 16 following a series of Heroic victory battles vs Rebels and starts with a battle at Polotsk when Novgorod attack the Lithuanian cavalry army which recently captured the city. I figured I could not hold Polotsk but even 3 turns of 800-900 income is useful. There was no garrison the first time as riots hurt precious cavalry units for no reason. I did not see Novgorod was so close to be tempted by an empty city and war was a bit earlier than I had hoped for it to occur.
Novgorod was the first large opponent and the border became a frequent battle ground with the Lithuanian cavalry the only thing allowing victory after victory. The issue with a low authority king reared up again as well despite taking all the precautions I could, still lost several units to desertion in a few crucial turns. Not only the money cost, but the pool replenishment time and the need to then fight more rebels led to first battle loss when simply could not hold Polotsk against Novgorod. However with a spy nearby could seeing it coming majority of Baltic spearmen in garrison departed and only a depleted units of peasants was inside to hold the Novgorod army a full turn with a siege so the Lithuanian cavalry had time to move into range.
Mission rewards of 2,500 from the council allowed Lithuania to continue financing the war against Novgorod despite being outnumbered usually 3 - 1.
Riga, Palanga, Turku, and Thorn are the only settlements with decent % Pagan religion other than Vilnius. Turku is impossible to reach for several turns while Thorn is far to the west and lightly garrisoned so is usually Poland's first capture. Mensk and Hrodna the closest settlements- are 45% and 34% respectively so take some time to convert before capture. Riga and Palanga were the initial targets while Mensk was converted with the solitary shaman first and then the Lithuanian cavalry army of 4 companies + FM returned south and captured it before going NW and running into Novgorod. Hrodna was captured last just before the war with Novgorod started around turn 15.