most provinces have 80% farms and i have big trade empire.

i know it isn't balanced but they can handle themselves well against anything so far. when i meet spearmen i just surround them and pour arrows into them, then charge them from all sides. i normally play catholic factions and have several spear, several sword and cavalry then the rest archers of some sort. with the russians i've basically just found that they are excellent as horse hordes. if i find the odds to be too great against me i attack them, destroy their first wave then withdraw all my troops slowly moving backwards in teams, firing arrows on them as i go. repeat until they only have 1 maybe 2 full stacks in the province then fight a full pitched battle.

only suffered one major defeat so far and that was against the Golden Horde. beat them eventually though