Hiya Kat Russia is really unique, isn't it?

You may recall approx. a month ago I started a thread saying does anybody use arbalesters?. You and others replied that indeed you did. As a result of that, I realized that I had written them off mentally when I first started playing MTW, because I didn't take into account their low angle of fire... at that point I often tried to get on top of nice hills, but didn't realize that that meant my men were often blocking my arbs. Anyway, as a result of that thread, I've come to love arbs, and make them when I can. I found out that in fact they have a couple of unforeseen (to me) big bonusses... 1) Since they last far longer, you don't have to worry nearly as much about swapping in new archers (if you play archer heavy, like I do)... this is esp. important on the attack, where they may have to cross the entire map. 2) Because they last so much longer, you also need far fewer units (vs. archers, if you're archer heavy like me), which in turn means you're much more likely to see Defender and Attacker virtues. Indeed, I rarely got those, before I tried using arbs a lot. (I love death from afar) Now, I'm finding (Yet Another) new wrinkle in the game, where I challenge myself to use the smallest, highly tailored force possible to take down enemies, and get those virtues a.s.a.p.

So... thanks for that thread about arbs

But still, for a High Russian game, the challenge is very little time, and only two good provinces, before the Horde comes. None of their start provinces can make arbs (although Nov and Moscow could, in six years - but then, who's gonna make heavy cav or halberdiers?). You could try to take other places like Bulgaria - but money and troops are very short, and the clock is ticking down to 1231 - and now you have more borders to defend. (Keeping others from attacking you might be the difference between a straightforward Horde fight, and a real mess). I'm not saying it's impossible... in fact, it sounds like a challenge Another variation to trying... cav+halbs+arbs. Have you played a High game per se? Did you do it that way?