Early Era Lithuania Tips

[yesitisme]

Title says it all really, has anyone got any tips for starting out as Lithuania?

[General Retreat]

I've been playing as Lithuania a lot recently, and I've come across a few things which may be of assistance:

Lithuanian cavalry should be recruited at every opportunity, even if you don't need them at that particular moment. The upkeep is bearable, but the turn wait until you can recruit more of them will be incredibly painful if you get caught short by an enemy army on your doorstep. Having a number of very quick, very long ranged cavalry archers can decimate most enemy forces. In particular, they're excellent assassins for enemy cavalry and generals. Not to mention their 'long range' trait will allow them to outshoot most foot archers and all mounted ones. They won't be very accurate at that range, but every little helps.

I've got an army of 5 Lithuanian Cavalry (gold chevrons) and one general that I use as hunter-seekers. By enfilading enemy formations (archers on both flanks) and shooting up mounted troops, you can inflict devastating morale damage. Hold LCs that have used their ammo in reserve, preferably behind the enemy army (messes with their morale, being surrounded). Use your general for big, punishing charges to the rear and flank, and hopefully you should get an instant rout for that unit.

Don't waste the general's time chasing them, use one of the spent LC units - it gets them tons of experience which directly improves their aim and makes them more lethal. In an ideal situation, you'll have just savaged an enemy stack with no casualties other than your general's bodyguard, which regenerates on its own anyway.

Next up is diplomacy. You start of in a bad situation with diplomacy, because you're the only pagan faction left on the Catholic border. To worsen the situation, you're not going to have any diplomats for a long time, and princesses won't show up for a few years either. When she does turn up (and I'd recommending checking your family tree to see when this will be, because you helpfully don't get a start of turn notification about it), make a beeline for the Papal States. Get them as friendly as you can and an alliance if possible (unlikely). This is to lower the risk of crusades being called against you, which will pretty much be a headshot to your empire, most of the time. Another way to stave off the dreaded crusades is to keep your reputation high.

There's a full guide on how to do that, but it basically boils down to "make alliances, don't start wars". Wait for the AI to declare war on you first, then retaliate with maximum brutality. They'll take a reputation hit as the aggressor. If you want to 'prompt' them a little in their decision, have some armies wander around their lands, or insult them with very bad diplomatic offers repeatedly. Allying with their enemies helps too, plus you'll get a reputation bonus for assisting an ally against an enemy when war does finally break out.

As early as possible, seek an alliance with Poland. It might be tempting to try and exterminate them ASAP, but that just pisses off the entire Christendom and puts you on the border of the HRE powerhouse. Having them as allies keeps them off your back and also allows you to use them as a shield against the western powers. Basically, it's a good idea to try and ally with as many Catholic factions as possible that are not going to end up at war with each other. So England or France, not England and France. War means you have to pick between the two, and ending an alliance has an impact on your reputation. The way to go about this (until your own diplomatic agents arrive) is to wait for a diplomat or princess to approach you with some trivial offer, and then making counteroffers that are more suited to your interests.

Early expansion can be a game changer. Curbing the expansion of your neighbours, specifically. Thorn is a Wooden castle to Poland's north. Usually they or the HRE will end up holding it if you leave them to their own devices. The rebel settlements that are directly bordering Vilnius are safe from foreign interests (more or less), so ignore them and focus on where you want your borders to be. My recommendations would be to take Thorn ASAP, then turn your gaze on Polotsk and Pskov. Both will be snapped up by Novograd if you leave them be. Polotsk is the biggest town you'll have access to for quite some time, and Pskov is a good castle that will curb Russian interests in the area (plus it's a good springboard for invading their lands later). Mensk is less critical, as it usually takes the Kievan Rus longer to get there, so you can take your time with that.

One you've established your 'perimeter', you can turn inwards and fill in all the blank rebel spaces on your map. You should end up with a formidable block of territory, with castles guarding each of the three main sectors (western, central, north). If you keep a garrison of Lithuanian Cavalry in each of these as a reaction force, you should be able to avoid sieges that'll mess with your economy. Thinking of which, ports are a godsend for your treasury, and you'll ideally have three fairly soon on the Baltic coast. The only downside is having unguarded ports can tempt Denmark and the HRE into declaring war on you through sneaky blockades.

The elephant in the room is of course going to be religion. You're the last holdover of a dead belief system. Recruit as many priests as you can, ensuring you are always at your agent limit. You'll want them in your own settlements at first, getting Pagan belief as high as possible before moving them out into your neighbours' territories. Pairing them up with a competent assassin and spy will do wonders: use the spy to infiltrate the relevant settlement, then the assassin to take down any religious buildings and agents. Tangentially, assassins are sadly necessary to get rid of foreign priests that will ruin your public order. Shrines to Dievas will generally be the way to go, because of the public order and conversion bonus.

Expanding too quick with Lithuania will result in masses of riots due to religious unhappiness, so it's going to be a slow, turtle campaign. Plan your wars in advance, make alliances to facilitate that, keep the Catholics happy and lay the basework for invasions in advance using religious agents. Make sure a land is at least 40-50% Pagan before you move in for the kill.

Hope that helped.