People of Novograd

[Josephus V]

I made them available in the early period and man do they have a tough place to start. They have one province with rebels all around them and these frozen tundra lands stink. Turns go by so fast early on because their is nothing really to do. I did bribe some vikings and I now have 5 province but still little money.

But I do see a silver lining. They have really good tradeable goods and I'm starting to set that up. Early on they have no enemies so beside rebellions (people don't seem to like me) they don't need a big force. I have four ships established trading in Novograd and once I can get Lithuania set up I should have some steady income coming.

Has anyone else made them available and played them??

[Lil' Timmy]

heh, i didn't know you could do that. sounds like it should be fairly easy though.. i mean you don't have too many hostile maniacs around you and you can just setup a phat trade network right? i guess several of those provinces are kinda rebellious though.. plus, that may be a bad position when the horde shows up.

who else can you turn on like that? i'm using the Medmod right now, but if i go back to vanilla, maybe i'll check them out http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/medievalcheers.gif

[Xiphias]

They can have a rough start moneywise but once you get going they're one of the easier factions to play. The only downsides are the hoard (which are not too hard to beat with autoresolve) and the lack of any juggernaut units.

You can turn on any faction in the game for conquest mode without much effort.

[HopAlongBunny]

One of my favourite factions.

Getting them going is hard but once you get a decent trade network set up the game is yours.

I tend to turtle and use every florin toward trade and acquiring Sweden.

All factions can be made playable by changing them from SetActiveFaction FT_MINOR to _MAJOR; Offices added by copying a relevant office profile to AddOffice:: for the faction.

[katank]

I like blitz approach for Novgorod.

the turtle and trade is far too slow to my liking.

go for smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Moldavia, Bulgaria, and Const. in that order.

in each province, just crank some slav warriors for garrisonning and vikings for offense.

having a few rebellions early can actually help you get cash from confiscated lands.

I like to make a bee line for Const. because there's a very rich province there and the Byz are your biggest competition for the steppes.

bulgaria produces brigands, moldavia avar nobles and hence nice units for your roster.

similarly, Const. is very rich and best shot for getting boyars early on.

knocking out the Byz early on isn't that difficult due to readily available viks which are excellent swords.

spam them and you can attrit the Byz to death.

once you take Const., they are doomed and you can pick up the rest of the steppes at your leisure as the Poles woudl be cut off and the TUrks are too busy fighting the Byz and then Eggy.

this is a far faster start and pays off more IMHO.

[Josephus V]

Just when I went back to the game last night, my trading began to boom. So I quickly built some armies and off I went invade all around me. What I did notice is that all the sons get Boyars with 105 support costs. WOW And my second king multiplied like a rabbit. That's what was costing so much.
So I promptly sent in three princes alone to fight 8 units of rebel vikings. Although two units were destroyed, one survived and took the province. What a fight these guys put up. Even in hand to hand they battled and battled. These Boyar princes are tough http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[Xiphias]

Yep, they're can be used as HAs or normal knights. It's just a shame they don't improve with time like normal Royal Knights.

[katank]

that's exactly why they are so strong in early.

can you imagine them improving throughout, that would be so unbalancing

late era boyars would be like lancers equipped with longbows http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif

[PseRamesses]

Quote[/b] (Josephus V @ June 08 2004,12:42)]Has anyone else made them available and played them??
I have. I also recommend playing VikingHorde´s XL-mod which
has all facs playable plus new ones like Russians (+People of Nov), Lithuanians, Swedes, Scots, Genoese, Venetians, Armenians, Cumans and Volga-Bulgarians - all with GA-goal playablility, he he

Personally I love playing the Russians, or People of Novgorod in XL, due to the amount of fighting I can get into without getting unhistoriacal not forgetting setting up that borst-party for the mongols in Khazar. They have really good units like boyars, vikings, rus spears etc (XL).
In the first decades concetrate on getting as much lands as you possibly can before building up. I usually take everything behind the Prussia-Volhynia-Moldavia curtain and with Khazar you only have 4 provs to defend. Concentrate your initial military buildings in this order Novgorod, Muscowy, Livonia and Lithuania. Just build money upgrades in the rest and you should make it fine.

[ah_dut]

Quote[/b] (katank @ June 10 2004,07:00)]that's exactly why they are so strong in early.

can you imagine them improving throughout, that would be so unbalancing

late era boyars would be like lancers equipped with longbows http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif
late era boyars would be like lancers equipped with longbows http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif
what fun

[octavian]

Quote[/b] (katank @ June 08 2004,20:31)]I like blitz approach for Novgorod.
i would never have thought it of you Katank http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
i have to agree though, blitz blitz and more blitz. although i do build up trade whenever possible.