Alright, the Ruskies start out with two basic infantry units you can recruit pretty much anywhere;
Cossack musketeers and streltsy. Oddly enough CA has decided to NOT give streltsy firearms, which seems odd given that 'streltsy' is a Russianization of the Polish word for 'shooter'.

Go figure

Anyway, spam Cossack Musketeers. Not only do they look cool, they provide volume of fire.

Essentially the idea here is that muskets do pretty much the same damage and have roughly the same accuracy no matter who's using them. So basically, at this low tech level, you want to get as many warm bodies on the field as possible. They may well suck at melee since they dont get bayonets, but that's fine, they're cheap.

Make sure to grab some streltsy as well, as they're decent enough in a melee, good enough against line troops and the occasional cavalry unit.

Development wise, as mentioned above, get a navy up and running quickly. People respect a good navy. Also try to snag the shore facilities tech so you can get some decent ships. It's depressing how terrible my brigs seem to be.


On a side note, Russia seems to be cursed in naval battles. I engaged the Portuguese with intent to steal one of their trade zones, and, in the VERY first volley of the battle, my admiral was killed. You can well imagine what this did to my chances as I was attempting to board and steal my opponents Indiamen. I managed to fight a bloody stalemate down to two ships (both Indiamen, in fact), which ended when my ship (with 50 men) attempted to board the Portuguese ship (with 35 men). My ship routed.
Although it seems the AI cheats a bit, as its cannons will fire in melee once the ships are docked.
Still, raaaaaaaaaaaather annoying.