Poland
I found Poland to have an interesting unit selection. I personally like the look of them myself. You can tell right away this in no basic European faction, like the flamboyantly rich looking Italian units. This is a country that has just embraced Christianity, mainly for its self preservation. Its people would continue many of their pagan ways for the next 300 years following the baptism of its ruler. Knowing this and having used the Polish Nobles, low cost but effective Woodsmen, and assorted Lithuanian units, it just felt right.
In converting Thorn to a town you delay the progress of your higher level castle units, as your other castles are going to be a while to develop. But I thought it was an acceptable move as the early cavalry are so good and it proved to be so. It’s got a decent population and becomes a city quite quickly and with port access it makes decent income. I also initially took Settin, Madleburg and Breslau. Of these all but Settin were made as castles to form defensive boundary against the HRE. The initial plan was to hold the line here while I’d expand into Russia proper and Scandinavia. I had no interest in displacing the HRE so that I could trade one enemy border for three, at least until I was ready to do so. Eventually Venice, Milan, or France, or all of them will bare themselves against HRE.
I formed two cavalry groups each consisting of 3 Polish Nobles, 6 Strzelcy and an able general. They were my border guard. Being all horse, they could quickly assist a siege, or intercept an invading enemy. It also allowed for minimal garrisons and kept my economy in progress. When my lands developed and income improved, I built my own siege army that could deal with a well defended city or castles.
It’s already been well discussed here; to underestimate Polish cavalry is to seal ones fate. They are very good but it was the Strzelcy that really impressed me. These mounted crossbowmen make excellent light cavalry. Use them as light cavalry (minus a lance) that have a ranged attack as they can perform any task you set them too. Unlike standard horse-archers, one must keep in mind trajectory during battles. Arching parabolic/arcade shots are not good with crossbows; you want a direct line of sight at all times during the fight.
It took me a bit to adjust (as I’m an avid horse-archer fan), as I would manoeuvre them around in battles, but I soon realized they are just as good. I even think they have a little bit more ammo then standard.(?) Armour piercing both in melee ( axes) and shot, makes for allot of killing. Stack after stack of HRE fell to these two groups. Always greatly outnumbered in battles, it mattered not. They always prevailed. If you can micro horse archer armies, you’ll bath the soil between you and the HRE with the blood of thousands.
Once I formed my combined arms stack for conquering enemy factions, the Woodsmen came into their own here. Note their low defense and high attack. Don’t send them in head on. Keep one or two in each wing of your line behind your able spearmen. Once the lines meet, the spearmen hold, and run the woodsmen around the flanks, preferably with a Polish Noble as escort right beside them to intercept other cavalry that may try to attack them. While they run around the sides to setup for a running flank attack, Polish nobles are there with them throwing javelins. When the woodsmen finally engage it’s a bloodbath that ends in a mass death fairly quickly. It works fantastic to say the least.
It’s a little bit of a rocky start as Poland, as many of the surrounding lands are undeveloped. Patience and its excellent cavalry and low cost/upkeep woodsmen will see you securing as modest empire in the early game. Later you get Polish Knights, and Hussars, just to mention a few. They’ll see you own the world. If the HRE gets under your skin, after sending the 35th stack across your border like what happened to me, I did three raids against Nuremburg, Hamburg and the capital Frankfurt. I kept Hamburg. Sack and burned the other two. (Sell all buildings except church and let it rebel) After this they left me alone and I was able to continue my conquest of Russia/Scandinavia unhindered.
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