Russia

[Alsn]

I played some custom battles with Russian troops, and it seems like their infantry are pretty competent, yet no one has mentioned them once. Why is this?

Because playing the campaign as the russians all your provinces that you start with are really poor and low population, this means that it will takes ages to get past peasants/spearmen from your mottle & bailey(YES! many of them arent even wooden castles ) which means that while russia certainly has some capable infantry and foot archers you wont be able to get them for quite some time into the campaign.

[Silvershade]

I'm having a lot of fun as with the Russians in my current camapaign after migrating to Scotland and Ireland for a start point. I've had some good battles with the English before finally eliminating them and currently have France, Spain and Denmark at war with me. France in particular are proving great fun as they have turned into a fully fledged superpower.

Facing off against western European powers with the Russian roster is proving to be fun.

[Bernhard of Clairvaux]

I followed the advise of Agent Smith in this thread and must agree that Russia can be incredibly strong. Thanks for the guide!

Initially you risk no two front war so it is easy to expand in the baltics and move on to Oslo. After a while especially stockholm will pump out money (I have now 5000 income from Stockholm alone around 1400) and you only need small garrisons to watch the cities. I also moved south took Kaffa and captured Constantinople, Nicae, Smyrna, Rhodes and Crete and Corinth (the Byz was wiped out by the Turks and Catolics so now I am the third Rome).

The real problems began with the Mongols. After grabbing Trebizond, Tblisi and Yerevan I ran into them and got some serious beating but eventually I managed to defend Tblisi and now I destroy stack after stack there. Keeping the inner walls manned by dismounted dvors is incredibly effective. I usually also place on unit on the outer wall close to the inner fortress to fire from the side. Russian spearmen are quite good and can fend of any attacks through the gate since the dvors make most mongol units shaken as they enter. Dismounted boyar sons can help out on the walls but the dismounted dvors are so good in melee so you can really use them only. Boyar sons can be used to attack any stronger units that might get through the gates, one unit takes out anything the mongols got. Boyar sons are also good at chasing down fleeing units.

Now, the Timurids have entered the scene to which prevented me to go on a counter attack on the Mongols who hold all the holy land. The Tims took out my cities as far as Ryazan and then they attacked Kiev. I had decided to make a stand there (I underestimated the Tims, I should have fortified at least Ryazan but I was too late). I manned the walls with cossack musketeers and dismounted dvors and repelled three or four stacks from the outer walls (cannon towers). A great slaughter it was! Elephants went down all over. However, later the came with two stacks at the same time, one stack using bombards. They got through a hole and my dear Kiev army did a great job but was sadly killed off.

As for now I am awaiting the Tims in Smolensk with a city full of cossacks and dvors. That will be the test! I am also gathering troops around Rus to make a counter attack eventually. The Tims might go directly for constantinople too. Time will tell...

Oh, and everyone else want a piece of great Rus but so far without much success since defending a city or a castle is so easy with the dvors.

In the open I love dvor cavalry, great missile attack and awesome defence.

[caralampio]

I just finished a Russian campaign on M/VH. My only stat-altering mod is Lite, which is minimum. I also use other mods like blood mod and Xeno Which changes the language but nothing altering the basics.

Initially I found Russia very boring. The only reason I really dove into playing this faction is that I'm touring every faction with the objective of winning a long campaign with each. The reasons that made me hate Russia were the poor initial economy, boring and weak units (at start, this changes later) and the vast distances one has to walk (I mean that one's armies have to walk).

However once I got into it I really loved the Rus. The middle and late game unit mix is very nice. Some have said that dismounted Boyar sons/dismounted Druzhima are not very useful. I found them quite tough (and like how they look on the battle map too!). Their stats of 11 attack and 17 defense don't seem too impressive when measured against a typical western opponent, the dismounted feudal knight (13/21). However they have an armor-piercing axe which halves the feudal's armor to 11. 11/17 vs 13/11 looks better, nyet? In fact I found they performed quite well against feudal and other western heavy infantry. They also have a shield which makes them better than other axe-bearing units. (I don't know if it's the lack of shield or the unwieldly 2H axe but even with the 2H-bug fixed long axe units seems to perform poorly even if they have the same or better stats than other units). My only complaint is, both are identical so why bother with two unit types? True one comes from barracks and the other from a wall upgrade, but easily one could have a single unit type spawning from both structures, like town militia. I like to build both types just for variety, however if you are a strict perfectionist who wants to use the very last advantage in a game, build only dis boyar sons because they are an earlier-appearing unit and it is more likely that you can find a settlement that can replenish them.

Now about the dismounted dvor, an excellent unit, however I don't think you can use them to entirely substitute your line infantry. They have the same stats as dis boyar sons/druzhima, they have the same axe and shield and look the same on the field when using the axe, however I found that they are a bit more brittle than the pure infantry. There seem to be factors in this game beyond what dry stats indicate. I do place them in the line in case of need but otherwise I use them as missile units, i.e. protected in the rear. Their missile power and range is impressive, they are better in that role and it is best to protect them.

Berdiche axemen, a nice heavy unit that comes out of cities instead of castles, which can be a lifesaver in certain situations (i.e. when you don't have a castle near and need an army). They can take on infantry and cavalry, but tend to suffer heavy casualties in any battle (because of the lack of shield or the slow axe, as mentioned above).

Spearmen (the ones that come out of castles) in case you hadn't noticed, are the exact equivalent of the vaunted Italian Spear militia, and in the same category of armoured sergeants and other European strong spears.

As for the earlier light infantry, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread and pointed out by the game itself as Russia's weakness, they suck. EE Spear militia can only take two armor upgrades instead of three, AND very important, they have short spears (only +4 vs cavalry instead of +8). In fact, EE spear militia is equal to western town militias. Unfortunately, they and the also weak archer and crossbow militias are your only choice if you want to take advantage of free upkeep garrisons, so if you are thinking defense, you need to bring castle units into the city.

Speaking of garrisons, your basic castle unit is woodsmen instead of the western choice, peasants. They are actually a bit cheaper to upkeep and fight a little better in a pinch. They are good for little else though except in the early game, when they enjoy a very short time of being the tough kids in the neighborhood

I won't comment on cavalry as that has already been covered very well by others. Moving on to strategy and politics. I had a huge advantage in that the Mongols and Timurids arrived at Baghdad and never bothered me. Some people hope that the barbarians will arrive in their territory to prove their mettle, other hope they go south. I'm in the latter category.

Russia's problem in Europe is that everyone hates you. Every neighbor will declare war on you sooner or later. I never declared war on any factions, and still I conquered all of Europe except Iberia and southern Italy, just through the need of eliminating these pestering neighbors who would never call it quits. I even conquered Cuba and Amerika before I finally got bored and swooped down on Jerusalem for victory. Dreams of the Soviet Union

[Laman]

Recently started a game with the Rus. Getting close to the time when the mongols come, and is not terrible teched up, can get dismounted Dvor from just recently captured Sofia only, but there are still turns left and I might get lucky (if I have understood everything correctly the Mongols may appear more or less everywhere on the eastern edge, so if they may not necessarily go after me, though I shouldn't count on that happening).

First I did was rushing towards Kiev, which I made my capital, taking Smolensk on the way. IMO Kiev is necessary, atleast if one has any interest of even the smallest amount of roleplaying (one part of my roleplaying is basing the faction leader in Kiev, while the heir is in Novgorod, so when I get new leader, he rides to Kiev while his heir rides to Novgorod), provides fairly nice income as well. Then mostly captured the remaining Rus cities (Ryazan and Moscow, Halich would go into this if it weren't held by the Polish) as well as Helsinki (mission), Caffa (nice potential trading port and only lightly defended) and Iasi (mission, starts as (poorly upgrade) castle and in good position to be Kievs first line of defense). Sent a diplomat and allied with Denmark, Poland and the Byzantines.

The only ally to backstab me was the Byzantines, they appearantly decided that despite amiable relations and the fact they already was fighting the Turks and Hungary (the Magyars however had failed to expand, so only the Turks where really any sort of problem, after the Byzantine backstab I accepted an alliance offer from their diplomat) they really wanted Iasi. They have refused peace this far, but recently I smashed one of their big armies and captured Sofia, so they may start to listen. Just before they backstabbed me I had sent armies towards Riga and Vilnius (both still rebel-held) who promptly fell. Sarkel and Bulgar are still rebels, though the Turks made one failed attempt to assault Sarkel (the entire Turkish army involved was wiped out).

What I have noticed about the Rus.
One thing towers on the border is a good idea, so when/if the Poles or other come, you can actually have enough time to prepare and gather your forces, your settlements are so far away from eachother that one really needs more time then many other factions. The idea I have, is basing a bunch of cavalry in my castles, ready to rush towards any city that is threatened, while all infantry is to be provided locally. Due to the peaceful Poles in my game it hasn't really been tested.

Another thing, while they have some decent infantry, it isn't that easilly available, it takes lot of time even to get the standard spearmen (the castle types, I haven't had time to use any, recently got able to train them in Smolensk and can train them in recently captured Sofia but that's it), on the plus side ones cities provides archers very quickly. As far as cavalry goes, Kazaks are good dependable horse archer that should avoid hth combat. Boyar Sons are competent medium cavalry, one should use their javelins to their full advantage before going to hth. Druzhina is the first heavy cavalry one get, not that bad, but very vulnerable if bogged down.

And as far as economy goes, not that good, but it is manageable.

And when it comes to capital i can see two choices to begin with, Novgorod or Kiev. The difference is mostly where one wants to have ones focus. Regardless of which one chooses Poland will always be a reasonable area to expand when the oppurtunity arises, but other then that;

Novgorod: If one wants to focus on the baltics, conquer Scandinavia and generally fight in the northern part of Europe. Good thing, not that many threats to your horse archers here, but there are problems for your armies, like Polish Nobles to name one, but they may always be a problem. Bad thing, will have to fight catholics and only catholics, Pope may become antagonistic, and crusades against you may happen if youre unlucky.

Kiev: For the southern route. Bad thing first here, those you will mostly fight, Byzantines, Hungarians and Turks, all have horse archers of their own. Good thing, only Hungarians (and the ever existing foe, the Poles) are catholic, so Pope may not potentially become as hostile, but do not count on it. Possibly greater wealth around here, but I'm not experienced enough to really judge that.

[TheLastPrivate]

I don't think crusades are possible on Orthodox factions. I have never seen it happen or appear on the "request crusade" listing. Ever.

[nafod]

Crusades definitely can be called on Orthodox factions. Constantinople and Novgorod are common options in my games, and the computer has called them on both cities while they were held by the Rus and the Byzantines.