Russian Camp. Help?

[Aenir]

Hiya all, the Year is 1394, I am @ war with no one (but rebels), Allied with Milan, Venice, and Poland



It seems that I can only get money when I am attacking (Had just sacked Arhus a turn earlier) Mongols have never grabbed any of my territory, but I had one of theirs, which they took back...

But it seems that my economy cant do anything, and Im having a very hard time scrapping an army together to push west, any ideas for help?


Anything offered would be very helpful, thanks!

[Serious Spamurai]

You need to get a good invasion force together and put them on a large fleet in the baltic. Use them to invade england, all of the times I've done that there have been relativly few enemy stacks there.

You could also send small armies by boat to sack constantineople and jerusalem, the AI rarely garrisons these cities and at that time in the game they should provide around 50,000 florins each. Make sure you leave them immediatly after sacking them and destroy all of the buildings before setting taxes to very high, you don't want to lose an army to angry mongols, also if the city rebels the enemy has to retake it from a full stack of rebels.

[Aenir]

also, not sure if it matters, most of my armies are mercs... Everytime I have a royal out, I buy troops, its quicker (more exp) then regs however)

[Zhou]

also, not sure if it matters, most of my armies are mercs... Everytime I have a royal out, I buy troops, its quicker (more exp) then regs however)

Well there's a big problem for you as mercs are usually more expensive to upkeep then the troops that you produce in your cities/castles. In addition, why would you recruit mercenaries except in emergencies as Russia? You have some of the finest horse archers available and they will dominate any western army. You also don't really need a very large army, just have a core of heavy cavalry (~3 units, Generals bodyguards works fine) with supporting horse archers (~4-6 units). Use your heavy cavalry to repeatedly charge the enemy center while flanking with your missile cavalry. This type of tactic will work against any primarily infantry-based western army. The only problem you'll run into is when the enemy has large amounts of cavalry (let's say the Hungarians with their Hussars). In that case, you might want to supplement your forces with some spearmen.

[Aenir]

Well, To be honest, Other than the classic calv around the rear, I usually play defensive in battles, IE i pack up on roughly 10 units of spears, some archs and HC

i box em up and they attack me and lose tons, I win, then on top of it I can mop up the rest, I used Mercs while my cities built up in early game, they were the most superior in the Early game (for me) but now the cities suck ( but read the guide on the how/tos of the econo, and it has helped TONS

now most of my armies are Spear Militia + Archers and some Gunpowder

[Aenir]

LOL Have reached the new world, took florida and cuba.... Timurids and Mongols hitting me from south, Denmark and Hungary Gone, Mongols hitting me thru balkans (just my most southern one), The super-power portugal attacking me from west, he has hamburg, but stopped there and I became vassal, am massing armies @ stettin for big push west (they closest to winning) My king cant keep it in the pants, he has so many heirs, I have made a full stack worth (amazing for a 60 something), In new world, took on Aztecs, thought they would be scared of Horses and Gunpowder, so i attack their northernmost city with druzhina and some gunpowder units (~ 200) they pour out of their city with 1200, and roll me over, odd thing though, They were from a middle eastern city? Mosques and everything!!! that seemed kinda odd for a new world city

[MadWolf]

Do you have any trade rights with other factions? Sometimes devestation can really impact your economy when an army invades your territory.

[Aenir]

Trade rights with many countries, if they are on the map (other than aztec) I am trading with them

[King_Sulieman_YHWH]

oooh.. Byzzies are gone.

Byzzies are Russia's best friend. Do not kill them, and kill factions that are fighting them. Allow them to retain their lands.

What I am doing is keeping Byz alive, and im going to attack Turkey. When I kill them, I'll move down into the Levant and form a border against Egypt. This way, Both Orthodox factions are in the game still, allied, and bordering each other. The entire middle east would be pwned by Orthodox, and the Catholics would likely Crusade through the Orthodox lands. Talk about fun battles!

Defensive Russian warfare with muskets versus the oncoming hordes of crusaders from the west and mongol from the east!

[Aenir]

I didnt kill them, but since they were hostile, I held my ground and let the Timurids and Mongols have their way with them, but since i did that, they have been a thorn in the side ever since

Although when facing Mongols, I had some mercs, and I WILL Get them every time from now on.....they were ELEPHANT ARTY!!


I wish I could build more of those

[Aenir]

Here is my current status, I had to cut back for about 50 turns to save $$ and i had quite a bit of money, as you can see, im running on the fumes of it now, and i took of FOW so you can see what i currently have, Im so close to winning

[mbchudno]

Russian start location is very crappy with underdeveloped cities with no income and tones of things to upgrade and 500 population. So set tax rate to minimum to make them grow faster and find other sources of income. Only keep 2 castles (Halych/Iasi). Convert rest to cities. The best way to do things is to hit Poland early and take it out completely. Make sure you sack all the Polish cities when you take them. They are big and rich so not a big loss. Once you do, your economy will be a lot better. Then you can take out Danes and England/Scotts to control Baltic trade and will have no problem with income. Both Danes and England AI really can't compete with your fast missile cavalry armies as well as Poland can and usually just die right after you rout their missile units with well placed charges.

[Khassaki]

THis mtime around your are probably screwed, but next time start by building grainaries, roads, chapels and town halls, keep up the infrastructure, ports and logistics of your army and - especially - don't let your generals hang around in cities picking up bad traits. I panic when I have 20,000 corruption, go on a building spree and ship stray generals to the front, its usually well under 15,000 at any pooint in the game.

And umm, you are silly for using mercs with russians, Kazaks and boyar sons are as good as it gets, and the spears out of your castle barracks are the best in the game, later your dismounted boyar sons and Druchina will kick everybody's bottom. I do use merc spears and crossbows to build up a force in the field occasionally, but disband them asap afterwards.

Get rid of the 48K corruption and you should be fine.

[mbchudno]

second that, mercs with Russia are not a good idea. You do not have money to pull that off like Iberian countries or Europeans. The only 2 valid uses for mercs with Russia are:

1) Desparation (bit more then you can chew, reload, hire mercs and try again)
2) Allowing all Horse Archer army to take over city... using auto resolve is evil, but... Disband as soon as you can train some free upkeep units to guard the city.

Anything but those 2, you are wasting money and high upkeep.