I am playing a Russian campaign on H/M. Currently on turn 90.

I considered the advice above and expanded to Riga, Helsinki, Moscow and Vilnieus (you will have to forgive my spelling) in what appears to be the standard opening.

I was going to have a crack at Poland as they seem to have better units at least at the start, but they offered me their princess and very favourable terms for an alliance so I said yes and tried something a bit different.

For one of the missions I received some ships which I used to blockade the land bridge between Denmark and Sweeden. That stopped the Danes going north so I snapped up Sweeden and Norway. I was also allied to the Danes and was faced with a tough decision when they declared war on my Polish allies. I opted to stick with the Poles - they were a greated potential threat, but I was able to swipe Arthus, Hamburg and Stettin from Denmark which vastly improved my economy. The Ploes hold only Thorn on the Baltic.

At the same time I was expanding south and east. I took Isai and as expected that brought the Hungarians knocking. They were already at war with my Byzantine allies and between us we brought them to their knees. I took Bran, Sophia and Bucharest.

I have used horse archer armies to roam the stepps slowly taking all the rebel settlements up to to and including Sarkel. Those remain largely undevelped. I do not find that they generate much money and are a pain to police - even cavalry take ages travelling dirt roads to dispose of rebel armies.

The last Danish town was Antwerp which I took, sacked, sold every building and then traded with the Turks for Tablisi - it seemed like a good idea at the time. I did not think I could hold it against all the hovering Catholic armies (it was too far from Hamburg to reinforce easily) and I was planning on moving into Turkey in any event.

So there you have it. In one sence everything is hunky dory. I have a nice empire, no real threats as Poland have remained allies and have their forces focssed on a protracted struggle with the HRE, the economy is OK (ish), and the Mongols have gone to Antioch. Yet I am disatisfied.

My castles (even the ones I have taken from the AI) are growing ridiculously slowly so I am nowhere near getting Dvor cavarly or cossacks. The other Russian units are no that much fun - much prefer Polish Nobles and Strelkzy (again apologies for spelling). And in spite of not recruiting an assassin let alone using one and staying loyal to my allies whenever possible my reputation is poor.