Russia - faction guide

[Fanaris]

Russia Guide



Russian flag until 1858

Contents
I. Introduction
II. Historical Background
III. Campaign Strategy
IV. The Military
V. Summary
VI. Acknowledgments



Russian Coat of Arms

I. Introduction

Until the 18th century forgotten, the Russian bear is now about to awake. The country is opening itself for new ideas and has a growing hungry for land and prestige. Will you be strong enough to lead the “third Rome” to wealth, greatness and domination?

To have a real challenge set campaign difficulty on very hard and battle difficulty on hard (due to the immense and overpowered bonuses the AI gets on very hard). All my observations and tips are based on that difficulty and I was always playing the “long campaign.”
What are the “special features” of Russian campaign?

• your provinces are huge and underdeveloped (only Moscow isn’t)
• you are already at war with the Ottoman empire and the Crimean Khanate
• you don’t have a port and therefore no possibility to play a role in the (early) trade world

II. Historical Background

Formation of the “Russian Empire”

The ascension of Russia to one of Europe’s “great powers” begins with the rule of Peter I (also known as Peter the Great) who ruled from 1682 until 1725. He opened his country to new ideas and introduced the Western absolutism. He also had tried to form a broad European alliance against the Ottomans before 1700, but failed. It was on this “trip” throughout Europe that Peter recognized the importance of maritime power. That may be the reason why he was eager to establish supremacy in the Baltic Sea. Historically this “Great Northern War” starts 1700 and lead also to a peace treaty with the Ottomans.

Peter I. (the Great)

The Great Northern War (1700-1721)
As a Poland-Latvian diplomat managed to ally with Russia, Denmark-Norway and Saxony for breaking Swedish supremacy in the Baltic, they all declared war on Sweden in 1700. Peter’s army was in no way prepared to fight the world wide admired Swedish armies. Therefore Russia was crushingly defeated in the battle of Narva in November. But Sweden concentrated because of several reasons on the Poland-Latvian Empire and Peter was able to regroup and seized Estonia and Ingria where he founded Saint Petersburg.
The invasion of Russia ended in a crushing defeat for the Swedish because of “scorched earth” tactics and the Russian winter. The Swedish king was forced into exile. From 1710 to 1717 Russia conquered the rest of the Baltic States and also seized Finland. The formal peace treaty was signed in 1721.
Because of these victories Russia emerged to be seen as one of the Great European Powers.

Great Northern War. Clockwise from top: Battle of Poltava, Battle of Gangut, Battle of Narva, Battle of Gadebusch, Battle of Storkyro

Some further wars in the Time of Empire total war:

Russo-Persian War (1722-1723)
War caused by Russian attempts to expand its influence in the South Caucasus.

War of Polish Succession (1733–1738)
The war of Polish Succession was a war between Russia, Saxony, Austria on the one and France, Spain and Savoy on the other side.

Russo-Turkish War (1734-1739)
War which lead to the seizure of the Crimea and Azov but also to the loss of annexed areas of the Russo Persian War for an alliance with Persia against the Ottomans.

Seven Years War (1756-1763)
Was a war between all Great European Powers. The war ended with a more or less “Status Quo ante – so nothing really changed for Russia.

III. Campaign Strategy

Your empire is already at the beginning to large to get it on one screenshot. It consists of 9 regions. So let us take a closer look on them:


As we can see only Moscow is making “big money” followed by the Ukraine and Arkhangelsk. Your military factories will be Moscow and Kiev.



Economy & Technology

So this is what your vast country is giving to you:

• 5 farms (peasant farms)
• 7 farms (no building)
• 2 minefields
• 2 minefields (no building)
• 2 smiths
• 2 weavers
• 1 inn
• 1 school
• 4 logging camps
• 5 fur traders

So again – our country is underdeveloped. Therefore start with building out the farms in every region but Don Voisko. The reason why we will see at diplomacy. Then upgrade your roads in Muscovy and Ukraine because you will send your troops hundreds of times through that two provinces. Research is also crucial – especially because it is the only way in the beginning to boost your economy. Therefore I advise you to build a second school in Briansk (Ukraine). Start out researching Common Land Enclosures in your first school.
It is also a good advice to keep some money for training units already in Turn 1 – because war is already laid on you and the Ottomans won’t stay the only foes.


Religion

You are the "head" of the orthodox world. Most of your areas are already converted. But nearly all your possibly "gainings" won't be of your religion. Therefore some churches will be very wise to lower the need of garison units.


Goverment




As you can see is our starting set up of ministers very poor – especially in treasury and navy. These two have also bad attitudes in addition to their already very weak management skills. So get rid of them.
You will be also in the constant problem of appeasing your lower classes because of your absolute monarchy. So have always an eye on that – especially when you start researching philosophical technologies.
Even though I don’t advise you to change the government in the beginning because you will need every single gold coin and you don’t really have time for a revolution. In addition it would be historically seen totally incorrect.


Diplomacy

Your diplomatic standings at 1700:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

So we can see our problems already on the small map: Yes, we don’t have a boarder in the East but in the South, South West, and North West we have direct boarders to hostile fractions or fractions with who we are already at war. You are allied with Poland and Denmark-Norway and at war with the Ottomans and the Crimean Khanate. The problem after finishing your turn 1 your allies (in that case Denmark-Norway) will drag you into an additional war with Sweden (as it is historically correct).
But we will get in additional troubles from the South: Georgia and Dagestan seem to know your problems with moving your armies throughout your vast country and will attack you most likely within 3-7 Turns. If you can seize their two provinces you will have to keep an eye on Persia – even if you have good relations to them. They are also declaring war quite easily. Other factions won’t bother you in the first ~40 turns because you will be busy anyway and other major factions are most likely involved in their private wars.


Opening moves on the big chessboard

At the beginning you should decide if you want to play “close to history” or not. It is a dynamic game so the situation will change from real history anyway but you don’t have necessarily to force that.

Your possibilities for expansion are compared to factions like Austria quite limited because you simply can’t afford a war with Poland. So you just can go either:

• North/North West: Taking out the Swedish. Most likely they will have bigger and more modern armies than you. So joining the war right in Turn 1 may be an unwise decision for “average” players. So you will lose your Danish ally but it may be worth it to concentrate first on the South.
• South/South West: Attacking the Crimean Khanate and destroying it can be a wise decision because otherwise they can get a quite strong minor faction. It will provide you also with a trading port – in other words pure cash. The problem is that you can’t really use it as long as you are at war with the Ottomans because they will block your port or at least pillage the trading route. The advantage is that after seizing the Crimea, the Ottomans will sign a peace treaty and even trade rights without any further demands. But if you want, you may also try to hunt for Istanbul – but most likely your economy won’t be able to provide two wars because within ~15 turns the Swedish will declare war if you didn’t in Turn 1.
• South/South East: Dagestan and Georgia. Especially Georgia may be worth to conquer because you will find an additional school there and later on another port. You will get in trouble with the two minor factions anyway. As long as they exist, they will constantly be raiding the province Don Voisko. In the long run they even start attacking the province capital and you will lose it because they can provide quite large armies.

So my recommended expansion way is to build up an army of at least a 3/4 stack and attack the Crimean Khanate first. You may declare war on Sweden in Turn 1 – but you won’t be able to expand there until you are finished in the South. You simply can’t afford such a big army. So just try to hold them away from Moscow. If you lose Moscow your game is most likely over…
After seizing Crimea get a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire and try to get as much trade routes as possible. Especially one with the Maratha Confederacy if possible. Next step is to go for Georgia and Dagestan– you will be already at war with them and they will be already raiding in Don Voisko.
At that step you will have enough income and peace in the south (but be aware of the Persians – try to establish an alliance – the only way to be safe of an assault). Now you should go for Sweden and take their Baltic provinces – sometimes the Polish will annex the province of Estonia & Livonia. At least Ingria should be yours. Try again to establish trade routes. A this point your war against Sweden is nearly a sure victory. Until ~1725 you should be able to destroy them completely.

Now you are free to go where ever you want. I prefer going for Istanbul know and later on for Persia – even though sometimes they are already destroyed by the Maratha Confederacy.

Colonization:
"Going for colonies” isn’t very useful if you really want to improve your trade abilities forget about ships and go directly via Georgia – Persia into India. America is close to impossible because you would need at least ~2 full stacks to can compete with the Natives. So it isn’t really worth the price. Stay a continental power and you will be dominating that way.

IV. Military

I can’t really say what would be a “perfect” army. Just be aware of that your Line Infantry isn’t as good as the Swedish/Prussian ones (lacking in shooting skills) and that your Militia is also more or less catastrophic. I try to compensate that with a broader use of artillery (up to 5-6 units in early times) and also of cavalry. Your line infantry consists of 150 men (I have seen it in some unit rooster with 120 but it should be 150) so you won't be outnumbered if you take some more artillery.What is a real pain is the missing of Grenadiers – instead you have filthy hand mortars.

I will try to post the full unit rooster later on.

V. Summary

The Russian Bear is trying to establish himself as the “third Rome”, to spread the Orthodox Christianity and to become the major continental power in Europe. On its way to glory you find Sweden, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia as opponents. If you overcome your foes, develop your vast but poor provinces and rely on General “Winter” you may rise yourself to the world dominating emperor.

Coronation of Maria Fyodorovna and Alexander III

VI. Acknowledgments

Hopefully it is okay that I copied the style of PowerWizard's Austria guide. (LINK) The mass of information I won't be able to copy though. It is in my eyes the best guide at the moment and inspired me to write mine. The Russian fraction seems somehow underepresented anyway.

Before I forget it:
If someone finds a mistake, feel free to post it.

[Admiral-Thrawn]

A nice guide, simple, short and to the point. I am a decent player and able to contend with a full-scale war on turn 3 VH/VH, but even then I could never get my head around Russia. I think I'm going to give it another chance though, due too some new strategies in my mind . . . Thank's for the Guide, +Rep.

[CynicalTyler]

I can add to the military strategy. Overall, while your infantry is not as skilled as the other factions, Russia was historically about overwhelming the enemy with sheer numbers. One asset you have that the other European factions lack is a cheap melee unit - the Streltsy (the ones on foot). So my tactics early on (when Russia's military technology is sorely lacking) were to place lines of militia or line infantry up front in standard 3-rank arrangement. Standing centrally just behind each front-line unit is a single unit of Streltsy in more of a square, perhaps 5 or 6 ranks deep. It's a variation on the French Ordre Mixte. You march your formation up to the enemy (groups are your friend!), exchange a few volleys, and then charge with the Streltsy. Or, if they charge your lines, counter-charge with the Streltsy. This greatly strengthens your lines and gives you some real staying power in the fight. Because your troops are tightly packed, this does make you more vulnerable to round-shot, so you might want to have some cavalry around to harass their artillery positions and/or draw fire.

I found this to be far more effective in the Russian early game than relying on increased early artillery (immobile) or increased cavalry (expensive). At least the Swedes and the Crimean Khanate fell fairly quickly to these tactics!

Also I found hand mortars to be quite useful. You don't have to approach nearly as close to the enemy as grenadiers do to lob their bombs. And their firing arc is high, so you can hide them behind a unit of line infantry. Granted they won't stand up on their own to enemy attack, but used in support of your lines they can create a weak spot in the enemy line, or defend a critical point.

[Gallimatias]

Make real horsies. You dont need a big army to deal with the small faction owned/undefended regions to the south/south east and you dont have time to make one either.

You should be operating with three small armies at the same time going for the first 5 low hanging fruits (Crimea, Daghestan, Georgia, Armenia, Moldavia) and they should consists of as strong units as possible (given their limited size). Thats the only way to get them all by 1705.

[Fanaris]

Hm maybe I should deactivate my Darthmod (your observations are also surly from very hard campaign mode?) because Dagestan, Georgia are always defended with at least 6-8 units + the mob so by goin just with a third of my souther force would be to few in numbers.

[Gallimatias]

Good guide.

A very useful tip is to build a boat in Crimea as soon as you get it. You can take Crimea at turn 2 if you bait the AI with a lone general (put it in the north east of Crimea). He will leave the city with his army and go for it which will then leave the city open for you to attack the next turn. If thats too much cheese for you to stomach, wait till turn 3.

Anyway the point of this post was the boat. A simple light galley will shorten the trip to Georiga a great deal! Not to mention the trip back from the south if you later want to go for Sweden.

Also I would recommend taking Armenia and Moldavia before making peace with the Ottomans (if you want to go for Sweden). Armenia of course with the same force as the one that takes Georgia and Moldavia on the way up to Sweden or with a fresh army (say the one starting out near Ingria with some reinforcements). The key here is that they are both of your faith aswell as undefended and not out of your way. They are very low hanging fruits. Possibly you might want to go for Azerbaijan aswell but that will take an extra two turns. Either way the Ottomans will still sign a treaty.

[Fanaris]

It was intended that I didn't mention any tips which are footed on the "stupidity" of the AI.

The idea of taking Armenia and Moldavia sounds like an option. But i prefer not to get a direct border to an additional to another major fraction (Austria) Maybe I'm paranoid because I played to long as Austria.

[Gallimatias]

It was intended that I didn't mention any tips which are footed on the "stupidity" of the AI.

The idea of taking Armenia and Moldavia sounds like an option. But i prefer not to get a direct border to an additional to another major fraction (Austria) Maybe I'm paranoid because I played to long as Austria.

Well just take Armenia then. Anyone taking Georgia should take Armenia because those two are right next to eachother and Armenia is undefended and 100 % Orthodox Christian. You cant travel all the way to Georgia and leave the poor bastards to suffer under their muslim oppressors. Thats just cruel.

[daniu]

I'm not actually going to play Russia for the time being, but very neatly done! So +rep for the work you put into this.

[Gallimatias]

Yes my observations are from VH vanilla. Though Daghestan and Georgia are not undefended, especially not the latter. You'll need decent size armies for those.

Armenia and Moldavia is however, totally undefended.

What I do to take Daghestan/Georgia asap is that I take the army that captures Crimea, my main army if you so will (best general, most units) and ship it directly to Georgia over the Black Sea. After Georgia it takes Armenia (you can out autoresolve that like I say; undefended!). After that ship it back west (or towards Ankara if thats your thrill).

Meanwhile I take another army which I have been building from the start consisting of Cossack Infantry recruited from the two cities closest to Daghestan. After 4 turns you can have 8 Cossack units out of those, reinforce that with a general and some Cavalry from Moscow and Daghestan will go down. This army is then done, has served it purpose, and can march north for Sweden or what not. I will not make any Cossacks after that.

At the same time a third army, and this one can be really small, can go for Moldavia. This would typically consists of the units that started by Ingria reinforced by units of your choice from Kiev.

This way you never have to walk across the Caucasus Mountains which frankly is a pain in the ass.

[Welshman25]

My Russian campaign is in 1711 and is going well. I took Ingria, Crimea, and Dagestan quickly. Persia took out Georgia so I don't have to worry about them. I'm advancing into Finland and Sweden right now and also raiding the Ottoman lands in the southwest.

My armies usually consist of 1/3 strelsky cavalry, 1/3 cossack infantry, and 1/3 strelsky infantry. I find this army structure very effective because of low upkeep costs. My poor starting economy is enough to support 2 full stacks.

I am building up my economy and tech right now. Not sure what I will do with army structure later in the game. Probably switch to a more European style army, except with lots of cavalry

[VINDIC]

Compliments...beautyful reading...+REP to you.

[Ike]

Fanaris: Very helpful and well-written guide to Russia!! I can't give rep - yet - but here's an "attaboy" Thank you again.

I've been playing Russia for ... this is my fourth campaign now, on N/N believe it or not, through all the updates. The last three, I've been using the Imperial Splendour mod by .. oh, I forgot his nickname .. but it's quite good. Twice, I've re-started for updates to E:TW and twice for the IS mod updates. The next to the last time, I quit because I was being simultaneously invaded by Sweden, Georgia, Dagestan and Crimea. The Ottomans and Swedes in that one both agreed to peace and trade in S/S, 1700 and the rats reneged in S/S 1701!! Ah, well!

For the army, I have found that using coman's guide on infantry - that is, using 3 line infantry units to equal one foot battalion and three battalions to equal one musketeer regiment and 3 cavalry units to equal one squadron and three squadrons to equal one cavalry regiment - plus restricting myself to no more than one full stack army, I find that I do better. Well, except that one time, eh? Coman's suggested methods of use for infantry are quite effective, as well! As I become better at using these regiments of foot, I find that my military operations go much better.

I disagree a bit on the economics, but only in this: I have had my best results in the economy by building roads in each Province of Russia, trying for one Province each turn that I do not build an infantry battalion or cavalry squadron - I try to build one battalion or squadron then no army for one turn, using that money for other projects - my last campaign didn't last long enough to see if that worked better, but this one may last long enough for me to determine if "roads first" is a better method. Oh, also, I use auto-taxation and auto-construction, so limiting my expenditures - for the army and navy of course - is a necessity if my government is to have any gold left for construction. My road-building is in addition to the results of auto-construction. I am also paying more attention to the morale condition of my Provinces, this campaign, than I did previously and as of Fall/Winter, 1703, I can report that all my provinces including the newly-conquered Crimea are "yellow" on my map of provinces, rather than the two or three grey ones I have had formerly.

The idea of taking Moldovia and Armenia is a good one; I'll see if I can hold off Persia long enough. And I hadn't thought of using shipping to invade Georgia. I'll give that a try since I just completed my conquest of the Crimean this turn.

Thank you once again for a very nice introduction to playing my favorite Faction: Imperial Russia! I enjoyed it and as you can tell it sparked some thoughts of mine as well.

[eatme]

An interesting history backround, although too little info in the way of strategic GP for this faction.

[35th Foot]

Just started as Russia, so interesting to read - thanks.

[carlisimo]

I'm playing as Russia on hard, currently in 1730. It hasn't been easy.

Dagestan and Georgia were very tough; definitely focus on them while just trying to hold Sweden at arm's length. Taking Ingria is ideal; after that you can usually hold them off pretty well by occuping the fort in Finland whenever they declare war on you.

I was only able to survive by building a numerous fleet in Crimea and breaking out of the Mediterranean with a bunch of trade ships (3/4 stack of Indiamen and Brigs). The trade theaters saved my economy.

I was never able to make peace with the Ottomans but they haven't been aggressive towards me. I did end up at war with Courland and Poland and all I can suggest is that you take your time and play defensively until the trade theaters make you more powerful.

[delacroix]

Great guide, simple and short.
I think that Russian players (like me) don`t have much choice: first you must eliminate Crimean Khanate, than take St Petersburg (trade being main reason, Crimean port will be constantly blocked by Ottomans), than go to south and eliminate Dagestan & Georgia. Proceed further South, take Armenia... From this point I ussualy continue to Baghdad but it takes more time to pacify this province, after that it`s either India (Persia attacks always anyway) or Mediterranean. By this point in campaign you should be able to maintain another full stack army, build it & send it to Balkans...

[Xira]

Land. All they want is Land. Well.. they can have it.

I gave Don Voisko to Georgia, for a protectancy, trade agreement and cash in return.
I gave Astragan to Dagestan, for a protectancy, trade agreement and cash in return.
Consequence is they earn me more then the land did and they are facing and conquering lands south/east, capturing Armenia and Azerbeijan. All it costs me are a few men so they wont get any funny ideas about the rest of my lands.....

It frees up almost all my resources, which I used to capture Crimea and Ingria. I play lowest taxes so little need to destroy the port.
Getting trade agreements from these ports means your trade is much more spread so you can now afford to take on Poland and you can afford to build fleets to protect them.

I stay clear of Moldavia to avoid bordering Austria. I made peace with Ottoman empire after capturing Crimea. I ended my alliance with Poland when they got in war with Prussia.

In 1710 Both Sweden and Poland were ready to surrender. I had captured Ingria, Riga, Finland, Courland, Minsk, Lithuania, in that order. Austria and Persia had largely eaten Ottoman empire. Georgia now declared war on Dagestan which gave me the chance to wipe Georgia, attaining both my requirements there as Dagestan was now Georgia property.

Sweden fell in 1716, they hide in Norway, so just Poland to go. I have had to raise taxes a little, just to keep up with building the discovered upgrades as my 2 Moskovy schools have been studying Industry and Enlightment only. Austia is messing with my fleet, I try to avoid them. We have not had any land battles yet.

So far Poland is the only faction I have declared war on, all the others came looking for me.

[Andurath]

Very Nice guide wish I had read it before I started my Campaign.

My Russian campaign must be very red herring. I am at 1734 and the Swedes never attacked. I took Crimea , Dagestan, Georgia and all of Persia except Afganistan then The Ottomans declared war on me. I took all thier land in two prongs to Jerusalem incl Anatolia Hungary and Transylvania I stopped when I got to Greece because I woudlen't have enough time to take out Sweden and Poland. My poor erstwhile allies against the Ottomans (Poland) is my current target , they have 3 regions left and I have 5 armies ready after that to take on the three regions of Sweden.

Beginning game I just used lots of Cossack Infantry and I also employ the Strelsky as my Cannon Fodder much as Welshman said.

I develop artillery as soon as possible to get the cannister firing 12 lbrs and after about turn 12 or so my armies have at least 2 pieces each of that 4 or more later on.

In the early game I don't use a lot of cav although I guess I could improve my game that way. I use line Cav and Cossack Cav as soon as I can.

My Basic Strat
~I use Cossack Cav or Dragoons to skirmish and pull the AI units into my artillery fire if neccesary. I call these units my 'steerage team'.
~Once I have enough cav I use mobile arty and Cav shock attacks with pinning infantry for protecting cav and taking buildings etc.
~I use arty to pound the AI forces and make them come to me ( which they usually do) Cav to sweep thier arty and finish off cannister riddled units that refuse to run, and infantry to fill the gaps and tie them up as needed.


On Infantry:
I actually like the Cossack infantry, cheap and not to inneffective either. They can make a pretty devastating fire team when you have Cossack cav backing them up. The Cav shoot over thier heads and they can rout infantry charges at a high percentage. If the unit dosen't break on charge I hit em with the cav charge then. Taking too many infantry casualties can really slow your advance so I baby them.
For most of the game My Cossack and Line Infantry only melees when they have to and I don't get in many prolonged infantry shootouts. I use Strelsky as said to absorb infantry melee charges. Verses cav early on ( Dagestan seemed to have tons of cav) I employed Triangulated distanced Infantry squares of Cossacks and if possible hide Strelsky in the woods to tie them up from a flank or just tie them up for a bit so I can shoot them/counter charge with my Cav. By the end game I have fire by rank and the other upgrades so they can hold thier own better until then I try to reserve melee for taking buildings.

[Iññsomññi]

I'm sorry if I'm not supposed to post this here, however I didn't want to start a new thread, and I wanted to post some of my ideas.

Development

When you start the campaign as Russia, it is evident that your lands are going to need lots of development. Many farms will need built to encourage population growth, and there are very few roads linking your settlements. So it may be wise to stall any wars for the moment and focus on developing your lands so that you are in a position where you can send soldiers to your frontlines quickly, as without roads it can take several turns to get soldiers to your frontlines, as your main military bases are in Ukraine and Muscovy. It may also be wise to upgrade a few town centres, and get rid of taxation in certain regions (Komi) to encourage growth so that you can reap the benefits of it later on in your campaign.

Your Position

Russia is in a strategically useless position. You are surrounded by many regions that are most likely to declare war on you within several turns, and yet your cities have no garrisons for the most part. Your southern regions such as Don Viosko and Astrakhan (SP?) are likely to be attacked by either Georgia or Dagestan, and yet they have no soldiers within them whatsoever. The worth of these regions is questionnable, as they produce little income, and yet they will require a decent sized garrison in each in order to ward of any attacks coming from both Dagestan and Georgia. You position on your western border is more sound, Poland is in the way of any power hungry European nations conquering your lands. To the south of you lies Crimea, and south-west is Ottoman held Moldavia. Crimea is aggressive however the Ottomans are very unlikely to attack, unless they succeed in warding off Polish attacks. To your north lies Sweden, probably your most advanced, capable and difficult neighbour. They control St Petersburg, Ingria and also Finland and Sweden, which are all relatively close to Karelia and Muscovy.

War

Your main objectives should be to capture both Crimea and St Petersburg for the ports they have. This will add a substantial amount to your income, but it will also allow you to sell furs which are generated in your northern territories, again increasing income. Most likely as soon as you begin to border a nation you have no been previously allied to, they are going to attack you. So Georgia and Dagestan are likely to try and attack your southern territories, you might want to use an army used to attack Crimea in order to attack these annoyances and create a secure southern border. Sweden is a sure rival of yours, even if you remain at peace, it is likely that you will have to keep northern territories heavily garrisoned to ward off any Swedish armies. So in my opinion what you should do is try to secure both St Petersburg and Estonia quickly. Then push into Finland. Use the shipyard you have at St Petersburg and build ships to ferry soldiers to Sweden, so that you will not have to deal with the inevitable one unit raiding parties. Once you have done this the world is your oyster, you can attack anywhere you want.

I will write more when I have time.