Russian Campaign - How to start?

[Long John Silver]

Hello everybody!

I just want to start a new campaign game with the russians. Does somebody of you have any info how to start best? Wich provinces to claim early on? Wich settlements are best to keep as castles? What is the best army combination? How to control this giant lands? Should I stop the expansion on the mountians that border the turks? Or should I expand to the west (don't want to get in trouble with the HRE ). Some ideas about battle tactics with russia? I played a campaign as England and Denmark so far.

So if somebody has experience in playing with russia, it would be nice if you could share them with me.

Thanks!

Hope my english is okay.

[Zhou]

I found the Russian campaign to be fairly entertaining, so here's to hoping that you enjoy it as well

In any case, you should try and expand westward at first because no faction will go for the eastern rebels except for maybe the Polish. Establish a stable frontier with the Poles and try and avoid war with them for as long as possible as you build up and expand Eastward. I can usually take Riga, Helsinki, and Vilnius first with all of those being converted to cities except for Vilnius. After you take those settlements, focus on getting the ones on the Black Sea (Kiev and Caffa) as these will be your cash cows (Riga isn't bad either) for the early game.

In regards to your army combination...well, I prefer to make missile-cavalry only armies to cover the large expanses of Russian territory. In the beginning, I will use my starting armies (spears/woodsmen) to take the first 3 settlements that I mentioned and then focus on producing armies of Kazaks and Boyar Sons. Don't be fooled by the low stats of the Kazaks as they are the best light horse archers in the game. Also, Boyar Sons are amazing in that they are like Spanish Jinetes except with heavier armor. Try and focus on creating mobile armies to attack western troops when they are out in the field, and then use your infantry (dismounted boyar sons, etc) in a separate army to capture the city/castles. Also, expand WESTWARD after you've conquered your eastern territories. I usually avoid messing with the Turks and just capture Sarkel and use it as my boundary with them.

Some basic battle tactics using horse archers:

Heavy some heavy cavalry readily available (your General units are great) to hold the center. Place units of horse archers along the left and right flanks. When the battle begins, immediately send out your horse archers and begin showering the enemy formation with arrows, but move them always to the FLANKS and REAR of the enemy troops as they will do more damage this way. Once the opposing army has marched within your heavy cavalry's charging distance, order a charge. From this point on you have two options:

1) After the charge is completed, you can let your heavy cavalry continue to engage the enemy troops and charge them from the rear with your light cavalry. If the opposing army is comprised of low-morale troops and have been sufficiently damaged by your heavy cavalry, they should rout almost immediately in this case. If not, you're in for a fight and will have to wait and see.

2) Disengage your heavy cavalry immediately after the charge is over and move them to a safe distance on the double. Repeat the charge again. This is best used when the enemy army has a lot of higher morale troops (heavy infantry like dismounted knights). Keep repeating the charge until the opposing force is whithered down and their morale begins to drop. Charge one last time and then send your horse archers (who may be out of arrows by now) to charge the rear and the enemy troops should break.

A couple of notes though...you should and focus on killing the enemy general as soon as possible when using these types of tactics. Don't try and use your light cavalry to do this as it will cause them considerable casualties. This is where Boyar Sons come in handy as their javelins are amazing against armored targets. Have a couple units of them unload their javelins on a General's Bodyguard and that unit will be mostly (or completely) destroyed and you can just use your Boyar Sons to finish up the enemy General. Remember though, you're trying to cause a rout of the enemy army as opposed to killing every one of them because there is no way they can outrun your light cavalry and this will minimalize your loses.

Hope this helped!

[Schattenjäger]

That was very informative, Zhou, thanks. A very timely post as I'm just about to play as the Russians myself, after my first botched attempt at playing a non-western faction. One question, though..

I've never played anything but Catholic before, and I take it the Orthodox don't have anything "special" about them to make up for the lack of Popes and Crusades? I guess recruiting priests becomes less of a priority playing as the Russians? What is your strategy regarding priests and piety playing as this faction? Leveling up the priests doesn't seem as important if they don't need to be elected for something.

Also, regarding the mongols.. do they just pop up in the middle of Russia, out of the blue, when their time comes?

Thanks.

[Zhou]

That was very informative, Zhou, thanks. A very timely post as I'm just about to play as the Russians myself, after my first botched attempt at playing a non-western faction. One question, though..

I've never played anything but Catholic before, and I take it the Orthodox don't have anything "special" about them to make up for the lack of Popes and Crusades? I guess recruiting priests becomes less of a priority playing as the Russians? What is your strategy regarding priests and piety playing as this faction? Leveling up the priests doesn't seem as important if they don't need to be elected for something.

Also, regarding the mongols.. do they just pop up in the middle of Russia, out of the blue, when their time comes?

Thanks.

You are right about leveling up priests not being as important, but you should still maintain at least one in each province to counter against herectics or else you'll end up running into some severe public order issues, especially with the long distances involved in the Russian heartland. I'd almost say that herectic (and rebel) management will take as many "resources" from you as will your expansion wars that you fight along your western front. The herectics tend to filter in through the Turkish borders in my experience.

Regarding the mongols, no, they don't end up in the middle of your empire all of a sudden, rather, they appear first down in the Turkish regions (Yerevan, Tablishi [i'm spelling this one wrong...but the province right below Sarkel and right above Yerevan], and Baghdad). Be warned though, even if you manage to destroy all of the first stacks (anywhere from 6-10...assuming that they choose to attack you as opposed to the Turks of course), there will be multiple waves of Mongols that invade (~3 waves usually).

Also, you do NOT want to face the Mongols in the open field if you can avoid it. Their army composition is basically the same as yours except they have stronger units. You will either lose or sustain substantial casualties that will be hard to replace (a pyrrhic victory if you will). Instead, defeat them in sieges. I usually make my far-eastern provinces Castles (as they won't generate too much income anyway as they have poor farming) and force the Mongols to besiege them. Horse archers are generally bad in siege warfare

Now if you want to know about the Timurid invasion...well, I can't really help you there as I have never seen them invade. I usually finish my games well before then, most of the time right before the Mongol invasion actually.

[Duke Lysander]

I am currently playing a russian campaign on the Long Road Mod...
the year is 1208....
I control the entire middle east except jerusalem and parts of anatolia... all the way north entire russia.. stockholm and uppsala... as well as I sent an expedition and conqured Timbuktu in the year 1140 since then I have a eastern russian Empire and a western russian empire..
west comprised of Cordoba in spain all the way to Tunis in africa... as well taking 1 rebel city in ireland and 1 in italy..
russian are fun.....
My armies are comprized mainly of Boyar Sons and Dvors horse cav...
with dimounted Druzhina's and Dimsmounted Dvors to take cities..
not mongols yet..
but i have 5 stacks of straight Dvors and Cossacks to handle those first wave..
should be fun..
I allied with poland early through marriage..
freed me to take all my rebel cities and to send expedition to africa...
gold in timbuktu is better then constant fighting for polish lands early...
currently allied with Milan/ireland/sicily/hungary..
war with all 3 muslime caliphates.. moors and seljuks almost totally wiped out..
its fun...

[Long John Silver]

@ Zhou:

Thank you for this info! It was very interesting!

[Hex Khan]

Zhou what insight you have, many thanks I was considering writing my second AAR using russia. your wisdom will serve me well. here have a rep point for the help on the house. ^_^