Quote Originally Posted by PaulTa
Russia- Russia seems to be designed for those of us that like to turtle and take the campaign slowly. You get a nice position in the corner of the map, and can generally avoid contact with just about everyone if you don't go too much further than Kiev (don't take it either). The only ones who start wars are the Poles, but peace treaties with the Poles are always economically benificial.

Once you hit your late game units, you become really powerful.
My campaign went just the opposite of that. Within ten turns I found myself swamped with agressive polish armies and spent the next two hundred years fighting continual wars with the Poles, then the Danes, and then the Hungarians, one after the other with only brief pauses. Still, it is a lot of fun, and I think the Russians excellent balance of infantry and cavalry archers is about the only thing that's allowed me to fight back effectively. It's also a lot of fun to use woodcutters to ambush knights and enemy generals.