How can I win this war efficiently? Russia vs England for british isles

[Somerandomdude2]

I made a poor choice early and decided to take a couple of settlements around my starting position (despite planning to relocate to the British Isles). I figured port, 2 turns, train ship, 1 turn... may as well set this up as a second base in the meantime.

All of these settlements are generating fairly low income, and given the occasional building I'm doing they're probably pretty close to break-even economically.

It was turn 10 when the majority of my army boarded a ship and set off.

Took Edinburgh somewhere on turn 17(ish) which finished the Scots (didn't have to fight a large chunk of their army, which was in the middle of a siege of Inverness. I moved straight for Dublin, then shipped across to Caernarvon.
England decided to pick a fight before I could get back to take Inverness. To my knowledge, they possess York, Nottingham, London and Caen.

Our standings have remained pretty much the same all of the way to turn 54. I outrank them on overall stats, they have me beat on military and financial.
They have two full stacks of troops, one of which is currently divided garrisoning Nottingham and London (but I'd expect them to move soon, they haven't been sitting still). Mostly a mix between heavy cav, spearmen and peasants but they have two catapults somewhere or other.
I have one beat-to-hell army of 5 generals, four kazaks, two boyar sons, one archer militia, two merc crossbows and two welsh spearmen. All with a ton of experience, except the welsh spearmen. Archer militia, I can't retrain locally (20 of them left), and the kazaks have taken some recent losses but I can retrain them at Caernarvon.

I also have a small army at Edinburgh consisting of 3 Druzhinas, a couple of beat up ballistas (can't retrain) and some equally beat up spear militia.

If it matters, I have naval superiority (it doesn't matter), and I have 4-5 priests in the area.

A couple of turns ago, England demanded Russia become their vassal. I offered to agree, for the cost of 10k, they accept (how they had 10k on hand is beyond my understanding). I cancel the deal a turn later. Spend the cash on city upgrades (yes, I'm an idiot, should have produced more troops).

So far I've been winning by a long way on all of our military conflicts, but they still remain stronger...

Now the glorious faction of Russia has a grand total of $132 in the bank and a low income, plus a war that remains a stalemate against an enemy who MUST be breaking financially, surely...

[Leaf-Fan-Forever]

Use your Kazaks and Boyer Sons as much as you can. England doesn't have any troops that can catch them and beat them. Druzinha will slaughter their Knights in melee, and once you've destroyed their field armies, exile them from the Isles, build up your economy, and launch Operation Overload.

[Silverheart]

Make extensive use of your superior cavalry (Druzhina, Kazaks) and make sure to bring several units of Dismounted Boyar sons and Spearmen for infantry.
As soon as their armies in the field are gone, move and take Nottingham first. York and London are just cities, and doesn´t have any facilities for professional troops.
Once you have secured Nottingham, take London, then York, then Inverness.
Leave Caen as it is, or risk the wrath of the French by taking it.

[Lennert]

Don't try to break them economically, it doesn't work. The AI will get financial help when they get into trouble so that works kind of contra-productive. Just kill them in the field, Russian cav rules!

[PrestigeX]

When you use Boyar Sons, you neet atleast 5 of them in an army to be effective. they can handle themselves quite well in melee, but their best use is to assasinate the enemy general and heavy cavalry. Just make sure to take them off "fire at will" , otherwise they'll waste their javelins on archers ... Kazaks are pretty cheap too, but the russian army should be comprised of a very small infantry/foot component and majority of horse. Idealy you can use Dismounted Dvor as your infantry since they have bows and can fight well enough in melee, the real purpose is to give your enemy something to march towards /attack, Your general can stay around the infantry, while the horse archers, boyar sons etc wreak havoc.

I'd also recommend getting the Russian Cavalry Militia, they're really good for a cav militia.

[Somerandomdude2]

Thanks for the replies.

As may be obvious, my armies are more composed of whatever was handy than an ideal selection of troops, but yeah the cav archers/javelins are the unit most capable of achieving a decisive victory. I just don't think I've gotten them in sufficient numbers... yet.

Thanks for the tip on going after Nottingham. I usually go for castles LAST, figuring they'll still field armies from their cities anyway, but by taking cities I can break their economy.
Kind of flawed thinking on my behalf though; who the hell wants to fight a war of attrition unless you absolutely have to. That's how you get ground down and win with a broken empire, then get smashed by foreign invaders.