I have an enjoyable Novgorod VH/VH save going without taking the financial aid, currently at around turn 60 I think. I have to admit I had to restart the campaign once with a small alteration to my strategy to get new children earlier, as Novgorod starts with a packed family tree (no, I didn't run any generals to their death haha). I can post a picture tomorrow when I get home.
Here are some things I noticed are quite necessary early on with Novgorod:
- Polotsk is a castle with a decent population, I took it from the rebels as my first deed with the initial armies on turn 3. The rebel army outside usually wanders northwest of the bridge on the very first turn, so you can isolate the siege fight against the garrison army only and deal with the outside army later on. In my second save that army actually wandered towards Riga after I had taken Polotsk, so the Lithuanians had to deal with them.
Once I had a castle and got it under control by building an orthodox church, I built a range to get my hands on those nice Ruthenian archers. My advice is to build the next level of farms there next, because after when they are completed, you can build a landowner building to get a second source of those precious Druzhina cavalry.
- A key difference between my failed campaign and the restart was to take Kolyvan next fairly early on. I think I conquered it at around turn 14. By that time the Lithuanians have usually tried to take it already at least once, which will have weakened the garrison.
Expanding to a fourth settlement aids in two ways: you have a better possibility to get new children, and Lithuania doesn't get to grow their force too much by expanding to four or even five settlements (Kolyvan + Twangste) before you get your economy running.
- Regarding the economy: two buildings in Novgorod are essential to build as soon as possible. I opted for a port first to enable sea trade and quicker movement of troops via the northern coast, and right after built the roads. The latter bring a whopping 600-700 more income from trade, so even though they take 10 years to build, it's definitely worth it.
The two initial merchants you have at the beginning can generate a monster income once trained. I had to make my own house rule to not move them beyond my neighbours or their neighbours (e.g. not to the mines in Prague or the capital of Hungary), but even then they generated a total of 6k/turn at highest when one was at the mines near Krakow and the other one at the slaves near the border of the Kievan Rus and the Cumans. My initial merchants are now in their decline, but in the meantime I've been able to build my economy, and fight the Lithuanians.
- Although the family tree is packed, there's room for making moves. Once I achieved trade rights with Poland and Denmark, I married the first princess to the heir of Denmark for an alliance and to get rid of her from limiting the birth of new children. The princess that comes of age was married to Oleg Chernigovskii. The one general outside the family tree, Gavril Ovin or something, usually dies quite quickly, if you don't let him have any battle commanding experience. These events, combined with expanding to four settlements, made new children pop up for every married general: Vselovod, Svyatoslav and Oleg.
I also made Vselovod and Svyatoslav command at least one battle early on to try to prevent them from acquiring bad traits. After that it was in the hands of fate on when those two would die. I got lucky, and Svyatoslav lived very old, and by then the newborn son of Vselovod had come of age to become the new heir. Vselovod is still kicking as a totally senile old fool with almost ten battles commanded, but I'm guessing his departure is only a matter of turns.
- After I took Polotsk and Kolyvan, the relations with the Lithuanians were already poor, and they attacked soon after in Pleskov and Polotsk before turn 20, maybe at turn 18 or so. I think the war waged for 13 years total (26 turns) before they offered a ceasefire after the Kievan Rus attacked them too. At times this war was very tough, as the Lithuanians could wield quite good armies even with three settlements only, but siege defenses are easier than going on the offense. One or two defenses were so tight I wasn't sure if I would survive, but most of them were under control. Together with the small random rebel armies appearing granted the possibility to get a lot of battle experience for the generals.
At around turn 34 or so I went on the offensive, and took Riga from Lithuania. And as I said, some time later (~10 turns) Lithuania offered a ceasefire because they were occupied elsewhere. The peace wasn't durable though, and they attacked me again already.
- A long war with Lithuania helps you get your repuration high by releasing prisoners most of the time. I've found Kievan Rus won't be backstabby when you have a high reputation, and are at war already with someone else. In my failed campaign I made peace with Lithuania earlier, which made them fight with Poland. With me not being at war for an extended period of time made the Kievan Rus attack in that save at around turn 38 already. In this new campaign we're still allied at turn 60.
- What I've found necessary for successfully defending against Lithuania are watchtowers and spies to let me move my small armies in advance. Once you take Polotsk you get access to a second spy, and while your armies are still small, the merchants start to generate good income + port and roads are built in Novgorod, you'll continuously stay over 20k of wealth, which makes it possible to build up your settlements, replenish armies, and build watchtowers.
- For most field fights against Lithuania two troops are always needed, a general and one unit of Druzhina cavalry. The early infantry of Novgorod is quite bad (barring the dismounted Druzhina, which have too high of an upkeep to make me recruit them), and serves mainly as a wall to enable flanking with heavy cavalry.
In siege defenses the troops are enough to hold the line, because Lithuania seems to prefer attacking Pleskov and Polotsk + occasionally Novgorod. In Pleskov I always let the enemy take the gate, and park my infantry in the middle of the hill. In Polotsk the fight usually takes place at the gate with one junior militia on each side being enough to hold enemy ladder and siege tower units in place for long enough. Novgorod has actually been one of the harder settlements to defend because of the lack of archers, and overall lower garrison, but depending on the size of the attacking army I either try to hold the main gate or withdraw to the narrow streets already before the fight begins.
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I think Novgorod is currently very doable even with VH/VH and without the financial aid. Very hard, yes, and luck also plays quite a big role in how the campaign unfolds early on.
Edit: here are some pictures. I circled all the watchtowers I've built myself, and there are even three more that didn't make the picture (one to the very east of Novgorod, one southeast of Polotsk, and one to the west of Riga). As the Novgorod settlement details picture shows, building roads and a port (actually already 2nd level of port by that picture) in Novgorod really up the trade income generated by the capital. And the two initial merchants seem to still generate 5,3k/turn it seems. All in all, it does get better quite quickly for Novgorod once you get over the rough start
One thing I noticed though is that you've expanded very rapidly, as by turn 14 your realm already consists of the same five settlements that I had only after ~34 turns. Perhaps indeed the economical situation of Novgorod doesn't support such fast expansionism too well in the beginning.
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