Why you should be playing Lithuania
I have played most other factions so decided to try out Lithuania out of boredom. Previously looking over the units and starting position, I passed over playing Lithuania as the units looked pretty dull and weak and the starting position is not too interesting. Boy did I make a mistake. I am now ending my campaign and it proved to be one of the best and toughest that I have played.
Most significant to me is that Lithuania has some great units that are fun to play. The are not as weak as seem. They do not get the super armored knights and foot infantry that the catholic powers get but they get some excellent units that are very deadly if used properly, and they get three special units that are related to the type of religious shrine that you choose for your cities.
Let me discuss them by class.
Ranged units are first. Basically, this is the weakest class in the Lithuanian inventory. Ignoring peasant units the Liths get three decent bow and xbow units and arbys and that is about it. No handgunners, no muskets. The three advanced bow units are good but not great. The two archer unit get stakes and that helps, have decent defensive factors. Ruthianian archers go into melee with axes and that is a hidden bonus. The Lativian xbow unit is Ok with decent defense but not too powerful. The big benefit to it is that you get the xbows virtually from turn one-making it a fairly powerful early game unit and it can be recruited in both cities and castles. Basically you are not going to win in a shoot out with most other factions but they will hold their own.
Infantry comes next. Nothing stands out here but one or two. However all of the units are decent. You get lots of good spear units which are very valuable when facing powers such as Poland who seem to like recruiting all sorts of mounted knights. The regular swordmen and regular spearmen are top notch units but don't come until you get a citadel (Lituania is slow to build up citadels) but the lower level units are fine. Most useful is the first tier infantry unit, the Nobel Sons. This unit needs a castle to recruit so comes early in the game. That is good as you will need it. It acutally is a very good unit that remains useful throughout the game. On paper, it does not look to be as good as the catholic DFK but I found it to be much better. First, like the roman legions and unlike any other units in the game, the noble son hurls a javlin before attacking. Use them just like you did in RTW (remember how?) then when they mix it up with the enemy they pull out the axes-a fine weapon in melee that halves the enemy's armor factor. They are powerful early game units and versatile flanking units when you have stronger units to put into the main line later on. In your cities you also get a fine Ducal axe unit that can fight in your main infantry line or hold the walls.
Even more significant are two critical units that you get when you build shrines. The first and earliest to come is The followers of Perkunas. This is a light infantry unit that is fairly weak in battle but carrys the "frightens_foot" trait which affects nearby infantry. I just buy one and use it to hit the flanks of melees or to hang right behind the main battle. It is a nice little morale killer. Second and perhaps one of the least appreicated units in the game is the Giltines Choosen HI. You get this unit when you build the third level Shrine of Giltine in a city. (fairly early) Basically, this unit is the same as the JHI but also carries the frightens_foot. Hello, you get a polearm unit that will open up armor like tin foil and lower the morale of infantry units to boot and comes much earlier than the vaunted JHI. This just may be the best unit in the game.
Next to consider is the cavalry. Once again on paper they don't look so good but in actuality they are very powerful. The first decent cavalry you get is The Ducal cavalry which is a couter to the catholic mailed knight. Not as powerful as the knight it still is the better unit IMHO because it is light cavalry and much faster and has better armor and almost as powerful. It is one of the best light cavalry units in the game-especially as it comes in early. I like the speed as when you rout an heavy cav unit or general, this unit can run them down where as your heavy units can't. Remember you kill most enemy units when they are running away.
The second unit to come along is my fav, the Nobel Sons cav. This is an incredibly versitile unit. It is a strong axe wielding melee cav unit that just like the romans of your can hurl a javlin before the charge. Not a powerfull charge but once in melee with heavier cavalry can do damage. Best of all is that you can set this heavy unit on skirmish which is rare for a HC unit. Once again as with the Noble Sons infantry, I find myself using this unit all the time even late in the game. The next two levels of cavalry are good but no great shakes and not as good as their catholic counterparts. Spears and axes are what you use to defeat enemy cavalry, you are not going to do well charging the stronger cavalry head on. However, one of thes units the Ducal Cavalry that also hold the frightens_foot trait which gives it value beyond its stats. Those pagans must have been fierce in battle.
Arty is weak with no late era cannons but good enough to bring down walls. No muskets but they are of limited use in this game anyways.
So, you have a lot of excelent armor slicing axe units backed by first class spear units along with mobile versitile cavalry. Your tactics have to be different than vanilla but it makes for some fun battles. For mercs I tend to recruit German macemen and try to have one or two in my kill armies. Once you get into Hungary you can recruit Hussars and Serbian knights as well as monster bombards and monster ribaults. All will help flesh out your army.
I gotta go but I will come back later and write about my campaign.
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Originally Posted by Smikis
