Originally Posted by vovery
Here's roughly the path for that save:
- Took Goroden on turn 2 (name was changed automatically to Hrodna, don't know if it's intended for Lithuania or if it should apply only to the Rus/Novgorod?).
- Took Riga by turn 6-8 I think & fought some rebel armies wandering the lands.
- Hungary offered alliance, accepted.
- Was able to focus on taking Twangste, as Novgorod didn't get through from Kolyven to Riga to possibly attack me due to a tough rebel army of ~12 units standing on the border of Kolyven and Riga. It took them many many tries to beat that army, I had my spy watching nearby.
- As I wasn't attacked by anyone yet, I decided to attack Poland, and took Plock. Poland was at war with my ally Hungary, so the relations with my ally were improved to amiable.
- Poland sent only a weak army to try to retake Plock, beat them off easily.
- At some point Novgorod finally attacked on the capital, Kernave, but only with an army of ~10-12 units. Beat them off easily. They agreed to a peace after about 2-3 turns of my peace offerings.
- Poland must've been busy with Hungary or something else, so once I had gained some strength in Plock, I went for Krakow. The total units Poland had for the defense of their capital was maybe ~13-15 in 2-3 different armies (one garrisoned, others nearby). The fight happened on the field, as Poland attacked the besieging army on their turn. There happened to be a nice farm with some fences on the battlefield, where I was able to position my troops for defense, and won the battle even though I lost maybe ~35-40% of my men. There were no localist armies spawned after either conquest, which was fortunate, as I wouldn't have had enough men to survive those.
- Poland didn't even try to retake Krakow, they must've been hit hard by losing their wealthy capital. After many turns of trying, Poland agreed to a peace.
- Just on the very last turn before the save, Kievan Rus attacked Krakow with an army of ~10-12 units. Beat them off easily by sallying out, they had only one Druzhina cavalry unit and two Druzhina infantry units, and no archers at all.
- Overall, felt like I got quite lucky on many occasions, and it might be difficult to achieve the same situation again so quickly. And had I played longer, I'm expecting Novgorod and Poland would've attacked in a similar fashion like the Kievan Rus just did at the end. Fighting 2-3 simultaneous wars would've been hard even with a stable economic situation.
Some remarks on early Lithuania:
- The unit roster is very strong and versatile right from the start! The horse skirmishers are a precise counter against heavy enemy cavalry, whereas Lithuanian raiders can deal with enemy javelin cavalry, and ducal cavalry can deal with enemy archers and light infantry. Giltine's Chosen are a monster of a troop; lowish recruit and upkeep costs, free upkeep in settlements with an altar for Giltine, high damage & armour, and good traits. At times they feel even a bit overpowered at least for the early game. There's basically no reason to recruit the heavy axe unit available from Lithuanian landowners once you get 2-3 settlements with an altar for Giltine built, as the landowner unit costs about 1,6k to recruit, and is even a bit weaker by stats.
- The movement bonuses Lithuanian generals have are nice, and once you've built dirt tracks, you can quite easily defend various settlements with generals and different cavalry units from central settlements like Kernave. The only worry I had was Twangste, as it's a bit isolated compared to the other settlements, and Lithuania doesn't have access to ships in the early game, but fortunately no one attacked it.
- Pagan priests/shamans develop very slowly, and human-played Lithuania is inevitably going to steadily lose religious foothold in its settlements, even with many priests patrolling the lands. But this didn't provide any problems in the early game, and on the lands taken from the Poles, paganism is actually on the rise again. A big problem was when my best shaman turned into a heretic, and I didn't even dare to try exorcism on him, as he has full piety. He's actually still there near Riga, and even my best shaman would have only a chance of about 25% for the exorcism. Not worth the risk.
- The diplomatic situation in the beginning of a Lithuania save is enjoyable, as it offers various options for the player after taking nearby rebel settlements. You can wait for Novgorod to attack you (they will at some point, as they start allied to Kievan Rus, and have pretty much no other directions to go to except west), or attack Poland or Kievan Rus, as both of them start at war, the firstly mentioned against Hungary, and the second against the Kipchaks.
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