Ya gotta love those russians

[soibean]

It was my first time playing as the Russian campaign and I set it to High Period. I was worried right away about the Mongol Invasion because in the previous game they had numbered around 22k and I had no idea how the Russians had survived at all. To prepare myself as built as money Boyars as my budget would allow and then some Druzhina Cavalry so I would have an advantage over the Mongol heavy Cavalry (the D. Cavalry receiving a bonus against armor in case you didn't know)

I had about 900 men in Kiev and in Muscovy... every other province on the Mongol Frontier had about 4 or 500 men, most of these peasants used to keep the local populace under control.

When the Mongols first appeared (Khazar and the province above it - Volga-something) they wiped out the rebels in Khazar without a problem and I abandoned Volga whatever to them instead of fighting a hopeless battle. I became more worried about where they would attack next... any province besides Muscovery and Kiev would have no hope in repelling any sort of Mongol invasion because they were basically defended by peasants.

The mongols proceeded to tale the province underneath Kiev, Georgia and Volga-whatever when they first attacked Muscovy. I thought this was hopeless because Muscovy was all flatland so there goes the terrain advantage. But, as luck would have it, they gave me a river battle and praise be to god Boyars are armed with bows as well.

When the battle screen loaded there were 2 bridges throughout the level. I waited to see which bridge the Mongols would move towards and proceeded to defend it. I had 2 sets of normal archers, 1 horse archer, 3 peasants, 2 D. Cavalry, and the rest were Boyars. I waited until the Mongols tried to cram themselves onto the bridge before launching a Boyar forward to repel the heavy mongol cavalry (I forgot about the D. Cavalry and their advantage at this point) The mongols became crammed on the bridge and were at the mercy of my many archers. The mongol heavy cavalry was quickly reduced while my own archers were being fired upon by the mongol warriors.

As my arrows dwindled down I sent three Boyars to the other bridge, brought them around, and hammered the Mongol warriors from the rear. This created a chain of units breaking formation and they began to flee. Basically from this point on I took on the reinforcements as they came in.

The next year some more men were brought up into Volga whatever and I put more D Cavalry and Boyars into Muscovy. The Mongol Leader joined in the attack against me this time and I used the same strategy to smash his army. I captured and quickly executed him in the battle and fought wave after wave after wave of mongol horse archers, they're really a pain in the ass when every unit is very tired/exhausted, and after I had 2 of my own units run away I finally fought off the final wave.

So boom no more mongol lord = no more mongols = just Rebels now
I didnt think it was possible to fight off the mongols like that but I DID IT Only losing one province, less than 500 men, and... well thats good enough for now.

This was another one of my not so great stories but hey you'll have to forgive me but that was AWESOME.
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/medievalcheers.gif

[The_Emperor]

Congratulations.

When i was playing as the Russians I tried to avoid matching the Mongols for Cavalry. (you just can't do it)

So I mainly focused on Halbs for their anti-cav anti armour abilities... (and they are Great in the woods unlike Spearmen)

Those Mongols were very soon chopped up into Dog food http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/ht_charge.gif

[katank]

When I played as the Russians, I went south and united the steppes.

i went all the way to Const. before stopping.

I pumped pav arbs from Bulgaria and arbs from Lithuania and Livonia.

Novgorod supplied silver armored halbs with cathedral upgrade.

halbs being plugs and use of arbs will slaughter them better.

I frankyl don't find druzhina to be much use mounted regardless of armor piercing.

use them as FFK instead in conjunction iwth halbs for guarding the secodn bridge.

they have far better morale than halbs and can fight away from the general without much trouble before the rest of the army arrives to help out.

I think in that battle I killed 3k including the khan and lost 200.

arbs are the way to go. don't try to out cav the horde. catapults can also do wonders in bridge battles as the enemy clusters around the bridge trying to cross adn there's your arty raining bouncing shot http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[HopAlongBunny]

Congratulations http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/medievalcheers.gif

Nothing like a hard fought victory against the odds http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[Marquis de Said]

Well done, Soibean.
You gotta love those bridge battles.

I once captured and executed the Great Khan on the field in Chernigov when playing as the Polish. His faction disappeared and all his provinces turned to rebels. Then I thought I'd just reconquer the provinces I'd lost by attacking the rebels. Two of the provinces belonged to the same rebel faction and had huge stacks of Mongol troops.
They defended and counter-attacked, so I ended up being in almost the same situation as with the Mongols. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-furious3.gif

Question: this has probably been mentioned in another thread, but can you mod the Russians so you could play as Novgorod in early?

Marquis

[katank]

yeah. in startpos for early.

scroll down to faction declarations section and change novgorod to FT_MAJOR from FT_MINOR.

else, use -ian switch and ctrl+ some number key to get to novgorod.

[Kommodus]

Great job Just don't get overconfident; the Mongols may yet reappear and get all those rebel troops back. Be sure to stay ready for that. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Blodrast]

even though it's kinda OT, i am a bit puzzled by the mongol's abilities.
I haven't played distinct campaigns and watched them carefully, but I noticed several things so far; I'm not claiming they will always do that, just what I noticed:

- first few turns after they appear they do nothing; this is understandable, in my opinion, giving the adversaries a bit of time to prepare for the unexpected invasion.
- when they do start moving out, they only do so with quite few provinces at a time, and with only few troops at a time. It's quite usual to see only, say 6-700 troops attacking a province that's defended by more troops than that, and the next turn the mongols decide they can't win and are retreating.... Which is outright silly, considering that they have tens of thousands of troops that are just sitting idle.
Ok, I guess I can also understand the balancing issues here as well, at least to some extent.
- finally, and this is weirder, I wonder if they bother to produce any other troops than what they come with. in my current game, they kinda wiped out the russians, but lost in front of the egyptians and are being wiped out by those. Egpytians which weren't even a power before the GH appeared (they only had their starting provinces, maybe a couple more in Asia Minor)...
And the Egyptians were fighting the Turks and Byz all this time as well, and managed to exterminate both...How can you lose against an enemy that's fighting against three different factions, all of which have qualitatively speaking better troops ?

[Gith]

Congrats...nothing like a hard fought battle turning into a victory.

I remember my Russian campaign...I too focused on Halbs, and was well rewarded. They cut through the heavy cavalry like a hot knife through butter.

When the Mongols showed up in my campaign, I more or less went on the defensive. But things were getting pretty desperate, so one year I attacked the province that their king was defending. Being outnumbered 2 or 3 to 1, I decided that sole point of this battle was to get in, surround the king, kill him, and withdraw while my boyars provided cover. Amazingly, I charged in, surrounded and killed the king, broke their army, and then withdrew before reinforcements could come on to carry on the fight. Never have I had a plan work out so nicely. After that, the mighty horde split into rebel factions and it was all mopping up.

[Marquis de Said]

Thanks, Katank.

I succeeded in making Novgorod playable in early, but you can't play a GA game, as the game will go into tilt if you try to click the GA button. Is this moddable, too?
Or maybe if Novgorod doesn't have GA goals, maybe it would be possible to make the Russians playable in early? Would this make any difference?

Marquis

[ah_dut]

I think GA goals are screwed up I don't know anybody that can mod this, Why don't you post in the mod forums? medmod has the same problems

[katank]

they are the same faction.

GAs are not programmed for them and IIRC, this has never been really resolved.

in medmod, novgorod are the swedes, Sicilians are the Genoese Confederacy in late and hence all the GAs get a bit funky with some GAs going to different factions.

also, marriage announcements are almost always bugged with Huns being confused with Burgundians etc.

[soibean]

Quote[/b] (Kommodus @ June 17 2004,12:32)]Great job Just don't get overconfident; the Mongols may yet reappear and get all those rebel troops back. Be sure to stay ready for that. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
yea that whole reappearing trick can be a pain
I was hoping to raise alot of funds and just bribe the rest of the mongol army and use it to fight other rebel provinces

[PseRamesses]

Quote[/b] (Marquis de Said @ June 17 2004,12:46)]I succeeded in making Novgorod playable in early, but you can't play a GA game, as the game will go into tilt if you try to click the GA button. Is this moddable, too?
Or maybe if Novgorod doesn't have GA goals, maybe it would be possible to make the Russians playable in early? Would this make any difference?
Check out the XL-mod in the dungeon. VikingHorde has made a mod where you can play both the Russians (at Kiev) and the People of Novgorod (at Novgorod). More new factions are; Scots, Portugese, Genoese, Venetians, Swedish, Lithuanians, Serbs and Armenians. You can play all factions including the Papacy on GA-mode in any era. V.H is due to release a new version shortly with new units, music, new strategic map, more provinces and more agressive AI behaviour etc. Try it, it´s great for GA-play.

[Marquis de Said]

Thanks for all your answers and suggestions, Katank, ah_dut and PseRamesses.

I might have a look at the XL-mod.

@katank, thanks also for your reply on how to make Almughavars available. I also put metalsmith as a prerequisite for them in Aragon, to make you work harder to get them. Building a metalsmith in Aragon is really a no-brainer, anyway.

I am just beginning to realise the full potential of modding units and names and all kinds of stuff, just to make the game more personalised and more fun. I think Alan mercenary cavalry could be the next buildable unit. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Marquis

[katank]

yep. I made them available in Khazar and Georgia with horse guild

just my preferences. vlaor bonus in georgia.

just be sure to destroy upgrades when GH is about to arrive so they don't get it.

[ah_dut]

Alan Mercs are the same as stroitai but more expensive in medmod. Also they take 3 turns to build.

[Degtyarev14.5]

Quote[/b] (Blodrast @ June 17 2004,02:42)]- finally, and this is weirder, I wonder if they bother to produce any other troops than what they come with.
They most certainly do In a past campaign, I was utterly astonished to spy a Mongolian carrack sitting high and mighty on the waters of the Black Sea. They must have built it in Kiev.

I did take a screenshot, but I deleted it only a week or so ago. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-cry.gif

A.

[katank]

they do produce a navy etc.

unfortunately, at the beginning, they are being bankrupted by support costs.

[ah_dut]

Quote[/b] (katank @ June 19 2004,23:47)]they do produce a navy etc.

unfortunately, at the beginning, they are being bankrupted by support costs.
Katank, if i gave u an army that big, you'd blitz your way throu the game in a few decades so who cares http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-jester.gif

[katank]

so true.

give me an army like that and I'll blast my way through everything.

also, they have some nice generals too.

most stacks have 4* or 5* and often 6*s MHC commanders

I think I might play a campaign and switch to the horde when they emerge and try it out http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif