Russia is the hardest faction. Woah.

[Kennylz]

I consider myself pretty good at the game, but for some reason I've been delaying playing with these guys for the same reasons I delayed playing with the Syth's in RTW.

Well, I finally check out their unit rosters and find some really neat stuff to play with, like the jav cav and the musketeers, but man they pay a big price for those nice units.

Why do the steppes suck so bad? Even 25 provices in I was barely making over 15 grand a turn, and most of the cash I made came from when I finally began to invade German lands. This was all on LTC, and on h/vh, so I don't know if the mod made it any harder or easier. The economy for Russia is the worste by far. I've tried to not blitkreig so much these days and try to roleplay more to give the campaign more length, but doing that with these guys was a big mistake.

Any people play with Russia a lot and have success with them? FYI I was trying to roleplay out a religious allience with the Byzantines, but I feel like I would of had a much easier time if I had just made a warpath directly south from the beginning and took Constantinople and Thessalonica. As it is I actually consolidated Russia (Waste of money. CRAP) and then took everthing on the map from Arhus and up. Needless to say, there are only a couple worthwhile towns to be had there, and I spared Britain thinking this was going to be like any other playthough where I could spare some factions to keep the game fun, but yet still win easily.

No. I'd of had to of been as ruthless as possible to do better. I ended up quitting once I took a large swath of Germany and then found my early alliance with Poland was a terrible idea since they grew into a behemoth and then suddenly totally conquered my barely defended russia (Couldn't spare the money) in a Mongol esque fashion that took less then 10 turns overall.

Don't even get me started on the fact that you ALSO have to mass convert religions, and your only religious ally is more of a hinder than a help.

[Korlon]

With somebody like Russia, you have to go west and south. Don't even bother with the east. The Mongols will probably take those over those cities anyhow.

Sea trade is always much more profitable than land trade, so it's pretty much a given that taking over the region to the east is not very profitable.

[candle_86]

which is also accurate, build ports on the baltic and black seas as soon as you can, Russia did this in real life also and found herself rich under the czars, just watch out for the mongols

[Kip]

With somebody like Russia, you have to go west and south. Don't even bother with the east. The Mongols will probably take those over those cities anyhow.

Sea trade is always much more profitable than land trade, so it's pretty much a given that taking over the region to the east is not very profitable.

Right on the money. Your targets should be Scandinavia and the Black Sea at first...the territories on the eastern edge of the map aren't worthwhile financially, and should really only be taken to use as defensive bastions against the Mongols.

[BlackBart213]

Right now I'm doing well with my Russian game. The Mongols have invaded the Arab lands, not the steppes, so they're avoiding me for the moment. I took most of the rebel provinces around me (except for that one gigantic one at the very east of the map - I play Vanilla).

The Danes attacked me, so I took all of their lands, which was Scandinavia, Arhus, and a couple of northern European territories. I have no trouble with cash, and I'm thinking of descending southward, taking Vienna and all provinces east of it, making my way down to Constantinople. My goal is to control the Black Sea.

My Baltic sea territories are raking in the dough. Hopefully I'll do the same with the Black sea territories.

[Summitz]

To be honest with you, I find the russians are the most fun and one of the easiest factions to play with. Early in the game, you just have to go straight for poland from the start, but ONLY after getting alliances with denmark and Hungary, and also make sure that the polish diplomat has not washed his feet with the danish and hungarians factions, just isolate poland and hunt them down, after they are reduced to nothing, just start conquering south and west. I agree with you, the steppes are not very resourceful, but once you are near the lands near constantinople and the danish land, you start making money as anything.
Here are a few tips to make more money of the lands you conquer, ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS, make settlements which are near to the sea into cities, make settlements landlocked into castles. Trade with sea is MORE profitable then trade with land....... Hope this helps, and oh...... one more thing, forget about expanding east, dont waste your resources there, just go to the west and south from the start. I only use the east to claim my victory conditions.

[Ruprecht]

Ooow, I was just deciding should i start a russia or england campaign. thankgod i chose england, that sounds like it's hard as hell.

Still if i play them it won't be on VH/VH.. hehe

[Pontifex Maximus]

Russia's not hard, it's jut boring. I think the Turks are the hardest.

[Krusadr]

I consider myself pretty good at the game, but for some reason I've been delaying playing with these guys for the same reasons I delayed playing with the Syth's in RTW.

Well, I finally check out their unit rosters and find some really neat stuff to play with, like the jav cav and the musketeers, but man they pay a big price for those nice units.

Why do the steppes suck so bad? Even 25 provices in I was barely making over 15 grand a turn, and most of the cash I made came from when I finally began to invade German lands. This was all on LTC, and on h/vh, so I don't know if the mod made it any harder or easier. The economy for Russia is the worste by far. I've tried to not blitkreig so much these days and try to roleplay more to give the campaign more length, but doing that with these guys was a big mistake.

Any people play with Russia a lot and have success with them? FYI I was trying to roleplay out a religious allience with the Byzantines, but I feel like I would of had a much easier time if I had just made a warpath directly south from the beginning and took Constantinople and Thessalonica. As it is I actually consolidated Russia (Waste of money. CRAP) and then took everthing on the map from Arhus and up. Needless to say, there are only a couple worthwhile towns to be had there, and I spared Britain thinking this was going to be like any other playthough where I could spare some factions to keep the game fun, but yet still win easily.

No. I'd of had to of been as ruthless as possible to do better. I ended up quitting once I took a large swath of Germany and then found my early alliance with Poland was a terrible idea since they grew into a behemoth and then suddenly totally conquered my barely defended russia (Couldn't spare the money) in a Mongol esque fashion that took less then 10 turns overall.

Don't even get me started on the fact that you ALSO have to mass convert religions, and your only religious ally is more of a hinder than a help.

I had huge success with the Russians. it was my best game ever. I had conquered all the land from east Russia to Renne, France, and down to Italy. I had huge armies sailing to attack my spanish enemies (only superpower left) and had colonized the Americas fully. I fought off and destroyed the Mongols and Timurids, and even had Russians in the Holy land. I attribute this all to taking Kiev. Trade capital of my empire, generating over 9000 florins per turn by the year 1800(lol, i played till about the 1850's)

I too, for the first few hundred years, could not get my annual income over about 15k. It was very hard. you have to keep up your military to play as Russia, and that sapped my money.

Altogether, i must say it was my best game ever. It was full of fun and after it all I wished I was of Russian descent. I liked the accents.


Yes, making an alliance with Poland will always kill you. always. always.

[Kennylz]

I see that now. I was playing far too gently as Russia by by being nice with Poland and Byzantium.

[Krusadr]

yea, i had to play 2 failed Russian campaigns before i actually knew what to do. that third one, i captured Kiev and Vilnius, and destroyed the Polish. i allied with the Byzantines, but they backstabbed me. fortunately they did it when i was nearing the peak of my military might, so i crushed them.

[Kennylz]

It also didn't help that Scotland was unusually aggressive and dominant in this playthrough, having taken nearly all of Britain and had a couple regions mainland, and then raided Norway right after I took it, forcing me to have to suddenly invade the British Isles when I wasn't prepared for it. When a religiously unrestful province finally flipped German and caused me to go to war with them (stupid), my little navy was decimated, so I was in the worste situation possible. I was forced to just build up and bring the hammer down from above on Germany, which was going great untill Poland unleashed its might on me.

[Krusadr]

haha, in my game the English took Britain and were comfortable doing nothing. so i left them alone. Well, after killing the polish, i took Arhus and took out the Danish. Well they were friends of the Germans, so germans attacked me. using their own tactics against them, i blitzkrieg'd germany till they were forced to surrender with 2 regions.

Its around this time 3 superpowers rose. Me, Sicily, and Spain.
oh yea, and those damn mongols came. my musketeers made short work of them on my walls at Kiev.

[Kennylz]

You make me want to salvage my Russian campaign and see if I can reconquer Russia. Would be very interesting, though I only have 138 turns left. I might be able to really whomp some ass once I get the musketeers pumped out though.

[NobleNick]

You make me want to salvage my Russian campaign and see if I can reconquer Russia. Would be very interesting, though I only have 138 turns left. I might be able to really whomp some ass once I get the musketeers pumped out though.

You have plenty of time: I haven't yet played an M2TW game that went past 105 turns total, from start to finish; and you have the start of a good economy. Oh, and you hold all the British Isles, correct? A very good position in which to be.

If I were in your shoes, I'd start knocking off easy factions in Europe. Just gather cities and grow your economy; so that, when your musketeers come, you can pump them out and support them in very large numbers.

Meanwhile I would put all-cav forces in the field to deal with opponents coming your way. The AI likes to field forces backed by Polish Nobles, which are a real pain in the rear. However, the AI seems to not know how to deal with large all-cav forces. Judicious use of relatively cheap 'half-stacks' of 12 units of Cossack Cav should prevail against the Nobles.

(I say 'should' since, although I consider myself experienced in "fighting dirty" with a variety of all-cav forces, I have not yet played as Russia. If you can't get Cossack Cav, then maybe a mix of Kazaks and Boyar Sons would suffice. If you have the luxury of Tsar's Guards, then a mere 6 or 8 of them can be used to pick apart most full stacks)

Park your force near choke points and GET ATTACKED, so that you are on defense in the battle. Keep the enemy running after you on the battle map. If the Polish nobles leave the security of the main force to chase you, overwhelm them from all sides with arrow fire, ensuring that lots of arrows come in from the enemy's flanks and back. Once you have all mounted troops picked off, play an evasive game, running around the outside edge of the map and stopping to rest at the corners while the enemy runs non-stop to catch you, and picking off foot troops from a distance until the battle timer runs out. With practice you can use all-cav forces to turn back standard-mix attacking armies with 10:1 losses.

[Krusadr]

oh yea. once you are able to train your musketeers, you will own anyone in an open field battle. The only reason i was able to hold on to Kiev is because of them.

To get yourself in good starting position, just head south, take Kiev before the Polish, and smolensk, Riga and that other little castle by Novgorod, and if you can, try to get Stockholm before the Danish. Good trade lanes

Then, once your trading economy is building, get nothing more than trade rights with polish, and when youve built up a modest army, attack them at Thorn, and work your way down. or if you have 2 armies, one from Thorn and one from across Kiev. You'll knock em out,

if you try it, let me know how it all goes.

[ase290406]

Russia is great to play if you just want to build an Empire undisturbed. All of the Eastern regions can be at the end developed and produce a nice revenue. An Alliance with Poland and Hungary if holds can help you control vast teritory and be prepared for the Mongols. And when you are ready all directions are open. About an year ago I played a Campaign in which I had all of Russia (Including east), Asia minor, Kavkaz mountains, I just had to repel the Timurids and I was ready for the Holy land. Byzantium and Jerusalem being Russia's objectives for the long campaign.

[Dane324]

Yeah the Russian steppes are barren wastelands, there is nothing there thats why the provinces in this game are so huge, to balance the income. The only provinces worth anything are Riga and Novgorod for trade reasons. So yes expansion into the South is pretty much necessary to get good income. And in my SS 5.1 game as the French i control all of Western Europe and still barely make 15 grand a year, maybe because im at war with 15 other factions

[Mauzeer]

IMHO first goal for Russian campaing is to expand southward,conquering Baltic coast and Scandinavia(=wipe out Dannes early on),and convert all castles into towns.cash flow shouldn't be problem afterwards

[Old Geezer]

It may be that much of the OP's problem as Russia is because he is playing LTC. I just finished an LTC campaign as the Scots and found it to be the most difficult campaign ever - even moreso than as the Teutonic Order in Kingdoms.

Kennylz, have you been moving your capital westward to reduce loss from distance-to-capital corruption? That should help somewhat.