Novgorod / Russia

[Charlè]

I am somewhat stuck with my present campaign as Russians. I have conquered all the East and West european countries except England. Spain, Middle-East and Africa is all that remains, but I am not able to mobilise my armies and resources to even consider taking action in that direction.
I have large armies but they are not free to move, because of the chaos that result when I move out of a province, that is in spite of a fort + 200 peasants in those provinces. The peasants goes on revolting even when taxes are low!

" . . . the peasant nations of Western Europe dont like me as their King too much . . . " (said in a sort of Russian accent...)

I am only controlling rebelions and reappearance acts. It seems somewhat useless to invade a province that brings an income of 300 florins, when I have to support those units that keeps the peace with more than 800 florins, so I have stopped training any more units because I need to raise my cash for buildings and I dont care to take any more provinces. Invading and fighting rebelous peasants is a source of income, but I have grown tired of killing peasants and archers . . . I'm trynig to increase the loyalty, building churches and so on, but it takes so much time with little effect.

In the South I can see massive Almohad armies moving in an out of Turkish provinces, I suspects that the Turks (a barrier between me and the Almohads) will eventually be destroyed, and I will have the Almohads on my doorstep while my armies are still employed in controlling the rebels. I'm waiting for my own destruction, as I have almost no free army to protect my far and wide borders

My only plan to break free is to withdraw from the west (destroying all facilities for income and easy re-taking) then head South and destoy the Almohads and then return to the west to retake those provinces. INCOME is the big constrain to my elaborate plan. Any advice out there?

[Ludens]

It seems you are suffering from the empire bloat effect. How much time do you think you have before the Almohads invade? If it is less than ten turns than a tactical withdrawal may be in order. If not, improve loyalty quickly. Build churches and recruit religious agents: by spamming priests you should be able to improve loyalty fast. Also construct border forts and get spies: it sounds like there are a few enemy agents on the loose as well. If not, spies are still a good way to improve loyalty and they are cheap. If you've got money to spare you can build happines buildings, but I'd make these a low priority. Lastly, but most importantly, check your governors for loyalty-reducing vices and replace them if they are incompetent. Also keep an eye out for zealots: they tend to make provinces of different religions or low zeal unhappy as well.

[Charlè]

Loyalty . . . underlines the difference between a well managed empire with hopes of survival and an empire that will not stand the test of the Almohad . . .
The Almohads have now crushed the Turks and they are on my door as I expected. Massive armies are moving about on my borders but have not attacked yet. I am not completely ready for full scale war. I have managed to build some low cost armies to add to my numbers, and free the elite armies from north and western europe. This was achieved by abondoning low income provinces, allowing re-emergence of HRE and Poles and most important increasing loyalty. Thanks for the advice brother Ludens! Spies and Border fort are easy objectives to reach and they have a good effect. The lower tax rates are of some concern, but that compromise must be accepted until all Loyalty buildings are complete. Managing the governors are the only real issue that takes some patience, but it is worth the effort. Some of my (previous) Governors had some really bad attributes as far as keeping the population loyal and happy, since I only focussed on the accumen attribute. Finding suitable Governors is an issue, and I 'interview' all newly trained units, every year.

The final outcome is yet to be seen . . .

[Charlè]

Oh bloody hell! All seems lost . . . as all Europe is in full scale revolt! Lost a battle where my 200 peasant could not keep a fort against a double stack of the Almohads, and this defeat has encouraged these other people, to rebel against me, their good and just leader. I have build the provinces to everyones needs, and placed agents to be sure and when all seemed so well I increase the tax rate to have maximum income while loyalty is balanced between 100% and 110% in the provinces. Now I lost a meaningless battle, and chaos and fire followed. Aaargh! I dont know how to pick up the peices, my armies are far from the rebelious provinces, and they have to deploy against my invaders, oh and why oh why has my income dropped to negative 2400 florins this year?

Now can somebody out there tell me what to do . . .

[Ludens]

I guess my advice was not so sound after all. It sounds like a tactical retreat would have been better. You should not weaken yourself fighting rebels if the Almohads look so powerfull. Perhaps you can still do that. Leave the priests in place (as you want those provinces to be Orthodox whether you or the Almohads occupy them), but consider withdrawing your spies, as they are at great risk when the Almohads capture or build borderforts.

I guess I can explain how this happened, as a rebelling province tends to drag nearby provinces into rebellion as well. To prevent this, it often advisable to keep loyalty at 120%. I don't know how one single defeat could cause such chaos, but perhaps your king has low influence. In which case: check your generals' loyalty because a civil war might be brewing. Retreating then is not an option, because it will decrease your influence even more. All you can do then is attack and hope to take out the rebels without losing too many valuable men.

Edit: could it be that one of your ship lines has been severed by the presence of enemy ships? This often causes the characteristic rebellions and the drop in income you describe.

[Charlè]

Death and Taxes . . . badly managed tax rates almost caused my downfall. I selected automatic management of taxes and title assignement, and that helped, I always tax the provinces to death and rebelions and I dont find the right govenors. The completion of buildings came into efect and now internal peace have come and I can focus on the Almohads, I had to pull out of Navare, but was able to hold onto Aragorn. I also managed to recover some trade, but annual profit is still negative 500 florins. To increase my income will help feed the deadlock against the Almohads . . .

[Maloncanth]

I've had two games as High Novgorod, both times on Hard GA. Both times I settled on Lithuania/Kiev line and did not touch Scandinavia or Finland (I find the latter too difficult to hold down, and I never did get the boats or manpower to make conquering Scandinavia worth it; this was before my Denmark game, when I discovered how broken Sweden was). The first time I snuck in too much infrastructure building and the second time I got enough halberds, boyars and mercenaries to autoresolve the horde to death.

My conclusion is to build against the horde. :p Screw around too much trying to farm the steppes and you end up messing around with them, dueling around Kiev/Chernigov/Muscovy for decades, having to maintain armies in 3 provinces. Once you get Khazar though, then the sky suddenly seems to clear. ;p