Mother Russia

[Exarch]

hey guys
i started my long vh/vh campaign with russia
russia is so isolated!
any tips or suggestion in terms of battle strategy or where i should start expanidng towards?
wwest? south? or east?

[PeteSKTemplar]

I usually secure asap western and southerne rebel castles to have shield against Poland and Hungary. Then I continue toward east to check Turkey which may advance to the north.

[Exarch]

thanks dood
i'm noticing russia relies a lot on cavalry archers or missiler cavalry to harass
any good tips on them?
i'm more used to heavy charging cavalry with lances and heavy infantry

[PeteSKTemplar]

Their charge bonus is (bcs of spears not lances) lower, against Europeans I used succesfully Cassacks only (I mean Cassacks were enough, I dindnt mean they were only usefull units), real problem I always had when Mongols came (especially on MTW2, not anymore in Kingdoms for experience means much more in MTW2 than in Kingdoms), I had to have heaviest cavalry to hold the lines for a while and if I could have Dvor cav. they were the most important units. (Pity Boyars are much weaker than Polish nobles). On the other hand its really up to what mod you play, if vanilla then what I wrote works, but I tried some mods where for example heavy cav. archers were too weak for close combat (though they shouldnt, they missed only lances for charge, but for regular battles they should be fine).

[Lord Romanus III]

I say capture Riga, Vilnius, and Kiev first. Then grab all of the eastern places down into Armenia. That should be enough land for you to make a chunk of money. Try to keep borders 1-3 provinces. Capturing Thorn, Iasi, and the polish castle in between them. That should be a perfect Western border.

[PeteSKTemplar]

My first run is for Iasi usually then Kiev and Vilnius too (Riga too though it isnt worthy much but rather I shall be owner then Poland). When I secure East to block Turkey then I either go against Poland if they already attacked me (usually Kiev) or Hungary (Iasi). If its calm I go to Scandinavia. I always have as a Russia alliance with Byzantine Empire (reason is perhaps more personal then bcs of gameplay) and usually that Empire become real empire for I as Russia can check Turkey, Hungary, so they have Venetia and perhaps Sicily to deal with.

[Samir]

turn mother Russia into cities and get a belt of castles to the west and south. shorter resupply lines will be the key for Russias wars.

+ Cavalry armies, though expensive, are the only option for Russia in the early stages. The downside is the lack of infantry to take cities and castles with siege equipment, but the upside is that you dont have to repair buildings, dont loose population and taxes and that your army suffers no casualties. and if they sally out against you, a cavalry army is almost always devastating to the rebel infantries...

+ priests, lots of them and more. send them to bordering regions and keep them hidden somewhere in the vast territories of the eastern provinces. they provide a constant missionary and if someone really takes the province from you the unrest is unbelieveable great

+ lots of assassins to get rid of priests and imans who swarm you from the south and the west. This comes in handy as soon as you meet polish, german, hungarian as well as turkish troops lead by capable generals.

+ ally with Byzantine, they are basically your only friends, as well as france, somehow in my games france and russia always have a friendship going that seems to last forever

[Kurnous]

I always bumrush Scandinavia. Stockholm can become a major cashcow if developed properly, same for Arhus. I usually march straight for Oslo, consolodate my hold on Scandinavia from there and stop expanding in Europe, and expand far east and south on the Russian steppes with cavalry armies ASAP, to my Byzantine allies.

If possible, because Denmark is weakened by war or is off on a crusade, I'll storm over to Arhus and Hamburg and effectivly seal off Scandinavia completely, turning Oslo into a trade city, and make even more ridiculous amounts of money early on.

Your early Russian infantry is no match at all vs viking raiders, or god forbid, dismounted huskarls, so your only option is to go for numbers or cavalry. The danes and the scandinavian settlements usually fall very quickly to missile cavalry, since they mostly have light infantry early on. (huskarls can be a problem, though..) Bodyguard to crush the norse archers, Boyar Sons to take out the general and small amount of heavy infantry they might have from Hamburg, and Kazaks to destroy everything else.

To me, cavalry armies are really the only way to quickly go conquering on the Russian steppes, or to go from one end of your empire to the other. Siege weaponry is nearly unusable on the plains of the motherland, because it completely destroys your army's mobility on the campaign map. Same goes for infantry, though to a lesser degree. I never used any other infantry than mass peasants or town militias early on, because I didn't have anything better.

Also, just because you are Orthodox, doesn't mean you don't have to keep the pope happy. The pope is, if possible, even more important to orthodox factions than it is to catholics sometimes. Just park a diplomat next to rome, and give the pope something like 100-500 gold every turn, and keep him very happy.

[Exarch]

excellent advice,
thanks guys
i'd rep u , but i'm on 'parole' so i cant rep any1

so wot about battle tactics?
and which factions should i ally with or make a point to crush early on?

[Kurnous]

Get an alliance going with Byzantium (they need all the help they can get, and so do you. Plus you're both Orthodox.), the Papal States (keeps crusaders off your back.), and a major western power you'll never share a border with in the first 50-75 turns of the campaign. Preferably one that shares borders with Poland or Hungary.(france/england/milan/HRE/Danes)

Poland and Hungary will be your main concern if you simply try to conquer the Russian steppes. Your horse archers and cavelry in general are superior to Hungary, but mostly inferior to Poland's (polish nobles eat boyar sons for breakfast.).

Take out Poland with your superior heavy infantry and archers (Polish territory is much smaller than Russia's, so it won't be much of a problem.), and Hungary with missile cavalry.

As Russia, I usually only have 1 major siege army, with infantry, and about 4 cavalry raiding armies of 100+ men who can usually take out double their number or more. I use these across my borders or outside of my borders, to train my generals in skirmishes. I take out smaller armies mostly, but sometimes I'll attack a large army to weaken it.

Random small skirmish scenario (both sides with 300 men or less). I have 2-4 units of kazaks, 2-4 units of boyar sons, 1-2 Druzhina, 1 general. The enemy has the same number or less, usually infantry and 1 or 2 units of cavalry.:

Enemy army marches towards my general and his line of Druzhina. (They will ALWAYS go for your general and cavalry, before going after your missile cavalry for some reason.) I have 2 units of boyar sons and 2 units of kazaks on both my flanks. I send one or two units of Druzhina to charge any archers they might have near the front. After they charge in and kill the archers with their charge, I pull them back to my general ASAP.

I send my Boyar sons to encircle the back of the enemy army, with their archers distracted. The Kazaks take both flanks of the army, putting the enemy in a crossfire. Boyar sons open fire on the enemy general, hopefully killing or severly weaking his bodyguard. Kazaks open fire on the infantry from both flanks.

The enemy archers are all dead, pulling back or routing at this point, so they pose no threat to my kazaks anymore. My boyar suns have used up all their ammo, while the AI keeps marching towards what it sees as the biggest threat: general + druzhina. I march my general back, and have my kazaks flank the bulk of the enemy infantry, while my Boyar Sons (now doubling as heavy cavalry) form a line at the back of the enemy army for a charge. The enemy infantry and cavalry have usually lost about 30-40% of their men when my boyars run out of ammo.

At this point, I make sure the enemy general/captain is dead. If he's not dead, I send my Kazaks after him.

I let my Boyar Sons charge in the back of the enemy army, pulling them out after first contact. The enemy army will turn around to face my boyars, while I charge my general + druzhina straight into the weakened enemy front line. Unless you're facing an army with excellent heavy infantry, a large portion of the army will rout.

Let your kazaks chase down the useless peasants.

In short: Encircle your enemy, and put them in a crossfire. Take out the enemy archers FAST, as they're the only thing that can take down your Kazaks.

Boyar sons are superb at taking down generals and heavy cavalry/infantry, so try to use them near the back flank, where the enemy general usually is. Kazaks are super mobile peasant archers who double as light cavalry if they ahve neough experience. (They gain experience like crazy.) When you get cossacks, you'll cream your pants.

Hope that helps somewhat.

[Khassaki]

With my russian campaigns I mostly ignore the east and go west instead, Helsinki, Iasi, Smolensk, Riga Stokholm and Oslo. Then punch out Scotland and expand down the European coast. Poland or Denmark will usually attack so deal with them and move inland from there.

I will generally send an army off to take Moscow, Riazan, Kiev and Crimea and then let those cities take Astrakhan and Bulgar. Distances are too far and resources to minimal to make it worth paying much attention to the east. I will generally mod the game so the woodsman and berdich axemen have stakes. Otherwise the Mongols are simply too hard to deal with in field battles.

I use almost exactly the same stratagy with the Poles, and find the Russians tend to be very reliable allies.

[pwijnands]

Enemy army marches towards my general and his line of Druzhina. (They will ALWAYS go for your general and cavalry, before going after your missile cavalry for some reason.)

I can vouch for that. Although it's going the other way around in my games (I'm the Turks and am at war with Novgorod (Russia in Stainless Steel). But Novgorod doesn't train much cavalry, if I have a general or two and two units of Kazaks in an army it's a lot. They mostly field Crossbow Militias, Spear Militia, Dismounted Druzhina and Berdiche Axemen. All of them only go for my general and my Quakupulu's, even when they are being encircled by Sipahis and Iqta'dar peppering their backs and sides with arrows. I've destroyed countless Novgorod armies this way.

Cavalry-only armies are the way to go in the Russian planes.

[Laconian]

atm im playing as the russians but I must say I have not had a lot of luck. For the first 75 turns I was in complete domination and an empire stretching from volga to iasu to oslo and crimea while battling on four different fronts against the hungarians, the poles, the byzantines and the danes. However, te Mongols came and I was swamped and was only left with caffa and helsinki. now I am at war with around 7 seven factions and I am in possession of oslo and stockholm having regained them from the scots and as well as dublin.

[Kip]

WOOOO RUSSIA!!!!

Sorry, I always get a bit excited when people play as the Russians.

I love going into Scandinavia. Its your best bet for expanding westward and pissing off the smallest number of factions. Plus Stockholm is a very rich settlement, it will help out a lot.

[Ambiorix_thijs]

jup, i love playing Russians. They really have so nice units. The Dvor cav looks so great.