Redux: Battle & Tactics

[daigaku]

Hi @all,

okay, here we go, my first experience with the Russians in Redux, played with the new VI1004e on casual.

[Personal opinions of the] Units:

Slavic foresters: not as good as their Norse or English brethren, need definitely armour upgrade. Otherwise, the usual benefits from those "hidden" units.
Slavic Bowmen: an absolute must. Long range, good morale and decent mele fighters. Combine with Palace Guard or Irish Spears.
Russian Inf: forget them. Use SlavWarriors and SlavInf instead (okay, you need two units to get the same amount of men, but they are far better).
PalaceGuard: an absolute must. best heavy spears for the Russians. Keeping flanks secured, or break enemy lines, they do it.
SlavCav: Good alround Cav, absolute deadly when combined with
SlavHorseArchers: THE all-you-can-get unit of the russians, the only fault is lacking some morale (need buildings!). Bow and Sword, first demoralizing with volleys of arrows, then charging in with swords, combined with a CavSpear unit like SlavCav or, even better, IrishHorse. GREAT!! <<Aftermath>>: Sorry, made a mistake here. After checking with GnomeEditor realized they have the same morale level(5) as LithCav and SlavCav, means "good morale". Doesn´t show in info pics, though.
RussianLancers: 80men, devastating charge, fast moving, but again lacking morale. I prefer the Irish...
Boyars: Souped-up SlavHorseArchers, but only 20men. If you want a challenge being outnumbered, those are the guys to go with. They break Knights, spears, inf, what you want. Well armoured as well, so not too big a problem with archers (except those AP-archers, of course).
Russian Knights: The usual knight material. In my opinion, knights are overestimated(?), so I don´t go for them too much.


Regions and building up:

Very, VERY first, get Khazar. And get it quick, before the Byz steal it and get a foot into the steppes. If they do, sooner or later they destroy you. In my actual campaign I took it 719 by bribes.
Keep friends with the Lithuanians for at least 100 years. They´ll keep busy the Polish, the Hungarians and/or the HRE whilst you build up.
Don´t bother with sea trade in the beginning. Build farms, farms and farms again.
Second region, take Novgorod. Again I bribed and got some decent Norse with the deal, without destroying buildings (bribed garrison in keep and army the same turn).
Third region, take Suzdal, being central for Novgorod, Smolensk, Chernigov and Khazar. Build EVERYTHING POSSIBLE there, for means of "reachability".
Get a spy into Couronia (3 tradable goods, all Lithuanian units) for destabilisation and take it when securely in rebel hands (be sure to throw in MASSES, for the Liths will go for it in the same turn).
To keep up influence, the usual stuff: If necessary marry your sister, or use Finland as a retaken-from-rebels region (I don´t like to expand too much too early, prefer to build up and wait).
The moment Suzdal is built up, start spamming out fleets at least to the English Channel for trade. Take Ireland, for the Horse and Spears. Russians have no decent fast moving Cav or Spears.
Meanwhile, the war between Byz and Saracenes left one of them weak, so no trouble to get Berezan and Crimea. Spam fleet from there till Sicily at least.
Around 830, every region should be built up to Castle level, with every necessary Master/Armour and Morale building for troop production, and every farm/merchant giving an income.
Around 870, at least one of the mediterranean islands should be used for ship production, closing the circle to the baltics.
From here, the world is yours. Expand as you like.

That´s it, about; meanwhile it´s 1022, I have taken all the Lithuanian provinces (died without heir), Scandinavia from the Norse (hard piece of work, that!!), have taken Northumbria (iron!) for those Saxon units and as a foothold to take the British Island. Still haven´t entered the Deserts, and don´t want to, Khazar being a great stronghold against the Saracenes. Byz (allied, and keeping them alive, don´t want them coming back with thousands of Cataphracts) a mere shadow, the Big Boys are HRE (allied), Moors and Italians (and my Russians, of course). I´ll report more at end of campaign.

greetings, daigaku

p.s. @Cyprian2 : See, that´s a typical daigaku sum-up. You understand why I love your AAR?!?