XL guide: Volga-Bulgars

[Peasant Phill]

I'll post my review of their military strengt first. In later posts I will go over their postions and posible strategies.

(from xl's unit stats)
Unit Name Charge Melee Defence Armour Morale
infantry
Melee
Kursybays 5 0 2 3 4
Bashkorts 5 HS 1 2 1 4
Kazanchis 2 *3 2 3 6

The first thing that you should notice is the great infantry this cav based faction has. When it comes to infantry the Volga-Bulgars can rival with any faction in early and can still be decent in high.
Kursbays are their shield wall. They are very sturdy spearmen comparable with feudal sergeants (better melee, worse defence and armour), armoured spearmen ( worse morale) and rus spearmen ( better attack). Only the rus spearmen are better at their role.
Bashkorts are fast flankers. They are however not your typical flankers (high attack, catastrophic defence) but rather the opposite (low attack, decent defence). Why should you still use them? First of all you don't have any other melee unit until you've teched up to Kazanchis (I'm not counting slav warriors as they are just above peasants). Secondly, their heavy spear is a major asset, together with their defence bonus against cav they also can take on cave reasonably well. These men aren't fire and forget troops, they will survive when highlanders, ghazis and others perish. And believe me a volley of those spears in an unprotected back or flank followed by a charge will rout all but the most sturdiest men.
Kazanchis are just a dream for every general. A unit comparible to billmen (worse melee, better defence) or Swiss Halbardiers (better defence, less armour, better morale) avalable in early. Agreed, they need some teching up but by the time most other factions get their hands on those new pole arms, your troops will have painted theirs red with the blood of hundreds of soldiers.

Special
Hashishin 2 6 5 2 12

I've never bothered with Hashishin as they're IMHO to much trouble for wath they're worth. Sure you can ambush the enemy general or pull of a surprise flank manoeuvre but I have enough micro management with my HA. If anybody can put them to good use, bravo to them but I can't.


cavalry
Light
Steppe Cavalry 6 2 1 3 3
Murabitin Horse 6 3 2 2 4
Chernye Klobuki 8 3 2 1 4

Steppe cav isa very cheap, more than decent light cav unit. You'l be using them a lot in the earlier stages to get rid of archers, HA and routers. In these tasks they perform satisfactiory, just don't ask them to fight their way out of anything.

MH and Chernye are to be seen as upgrades to your SC. MH can only be trained in North Africa and should only be used in the desert as SC that can take just a little more. But by the time you train them that little more may be to little. I think higher of Chernye. They can do more than the tasks of light/medium cav. Chernye are lightly armoured lancers. Their speed combined with their charge can mean a mass rout when comanded effectively. just remember that they aren't heavy cav, most melees will spell death on them.

Missile
Horse Archers 2 -1 0 2 2
Steppe Heavy Cav 6 3 4 5 6

I've already expressed my surprise about the troops with the infantry, let me do the same for HA. As good as the inf is as bad are the HA. HA are not used for their killing power but for their ability to disrupt the enemies formation. To be able to do this you've got to be able to evade everything your oponent uses against this, in other words fast HA. SHC isn't a bad unit, it just can't be used as your typical HA. Use them as mediocre heavy cav with a range attack. This ranged attack also makes it a good general killer as their missiles are AP. If you use them as HA you will sooner or later get caught up by royal bodyguards or knights and lose the fight without being able to use even half of your arrows (if your lucky).
What is available than for the useful HA task? Nothing more than the vanilla HA. Wich only means one thing: you can isolate troops, you can encircle troops but charging those battred and tired troops will still be very costly. My advice: only charge in the best of situations (or in the most desperate ones) and make them valour up quickly.

Heavy
Bulgarian Royal Ca 8 3 4 5 8
Khwarazmian Cav 8 3 5 7 7

BRC is your run of the mill, standard royal bodyguard. Good to have in your army but maybe other troops could do a better job. SHC is only slightly worse than BRC (better charge, better morale) but has an AP ranged attack. The charge can be performed by Chernye Klobuki that have the same charge but are a lot faster. Then again If you want something 'knightly' before Khwarazmian cav, BRC is the way to go.

Khwarazmian Cav is the heavy cav you use outside the desert in later stages. This cav unit is your closest thing to chiv knights and all that follows them on the tech tree.

[Kavhan Isbul]

Great, the Volga Bulgars are my favorite faction. Just a few units that I believe should also be included:
- Urban Militia, Spearmen and Archers - vanilla archers are pretty much all the missile infantry you can get with the Volga Bulgars
- Slav Warriors - cheap garrison troops
- Slav Javelinmen - inferior to the Bashkorts in every regard, but cheaper to train and also only require a spearmaker. Useful in cases, in which you need them to provide some AP missiles in a province away from your homeland, such as Moldova, and you have not teched up to Bashkorts yet.
- Woodsmen - with the bonus in Lithuania they provide a cheaper alternative to Urban Militia, but I personally find them almost useless
- Variangian Swordsmen - only in Kiev and Novgorod, require quite a bit of teching up, but are a great unit able to easily destroy enemy infantry - something the Kazanchis are not that good at.
- Viking Jarls, Landsmen and Huscarles (plus the useless Viking Spearmen good for garrisons and their completely useless Raider Cavalry) - the Volga Bulgars have an easy path to the Scandinavian - Moscow -> Novgorod -> the Baltic, and playing with them one should really make a use of this, as the Huscarles are a really nice unit.
-Avar Nobles - Moldova only, Early only, I find them better overall (and cheaper to maintain) than the Bulgarian Royal Cavalry.
-Bulgarian Brigands - very hard to get and keep Bulgaria, and it takes a long time to tech up to Bulgarian Brigands, but they are a whole lot better than the vanilla archers.
-Welsh Longbowmen - only in Late and only in Wales. When the bashkorts and the Slav javelinmen are no longer available, you really need them.
-Sherwood Foresters - High, in Mercia. I do not think these are much different than the Hashishin, but you can train them and so I thought I would give them a mention.
-Vlach Mercenary Cavalry - I do not know the exact stats, but this is a good Light Cavalry, with better stats and most importantly morale than the Steppe Cavalry. Wallachia only. The Cherniye Klobuki are better, but you can only build them in a few provinces and once you get to the Balkans, the Vlach Mercenary Cavalry is a nice addition.

[Peasant Phill]

Thanks for the additions.

I didn't include all available units as most of them are trainable by everybody. Everybody knows what archers, UM's and spearmen are worth. Just as everybody should know about slav wariors, slav javelins, avar nobles (but good point about their upkeep).

I actually didn't know about Variangian Swordsmen and Vlach Mercenary Cavalry.

Varangian Swordsmen 4 *4 4 3 8
They are in everyway better than chiv men-at-arms except in the armour rating. But when you think about it, this is an advantage as the varangians have a better defence with less armour (desert here we come).

Wallachian Mercenary Cavalry 6 3 1 3 5
Superior to the steppe cav, Wallachian Merc cav can add to the diversity of your troops as good light cav.

Avar Nobles 6 3 5 7 6
worse charge, better defence, more armoured, less morale than BRC. I wouldn't call them superior to the BRC. Charge rating is the most important stat for heavy cav and here are the Avars lacking, they will however survive a melee longer (just don't match them up against AP troops). Everything depends on your personal use of heavy cav: pure 'hammer and anvil' => use BRC, a more 'hack and slash' use of cav => use Avars. IMHO, a prolongued melee is a waste of your cav that's what you got infantry for. Still I would be tempted to opt for Avars when money is thight but the teching up can negate the economical advantage.


My standard Volga-Bulgarian army in early
Two groups of two vanilla HA's (as teched up and valoured up as possible). Their task in defence is to disrupt the enemy formation as much as possible so the attackers arrive peace-meal and somewhat fatigued. Favorite targets: heavy cav and heavy inf. On the offence they'll try to draw out enemy units or keep their missile troops busy while my army can attack unharmed.

Three Kursybays as spearwall with Kazanchis on the flanks and Bashkorts behind them, ready run around the flank and spear the enemy in the back. I'll have to add Varangian swordsmen as main infantry killer.

I don't use vanilla archers in my standard army as their task is taken up by the steppe heavy cav. A good allrounder in my army: AP missiles, good mobility and they can fight there way out of most things. Only disadvantage: quite expensive.

I also try to use Chernye Klobuki to chase away HA, take out isolated skirmishers/archers and chase routers (your typical light cav stuff). I do however use them to great succes in hammer and anvil tactics. They can get everywhere on the map within reasonable time, charge a fighting enemy and be off before a counter measure can be put in place. Just don't let them fight melee unless there is no other choice.

I don't use BRC except maybe as general (princes and ex-princes). Their tasks can be done by other troops that are more suitable or more polyvalent.

[Peasant Phill]

Tomorrow I'll explain the Volga-Bulgar rebel blitz, an opening manouevre that IMO is absolutly necessary to be able to expand later on.

[Martok]

Looks pretty good, Phil. Can't wait to see more.

[Bill Westwater]

Steppe Heavies are mediocre? When playing as Volga Bulgars i always consider them as the very best unit. They are relatively low tech, and it is easy to get them a valor bonus by building a Master Horse Breeder, and being both missile and hand to hand troops they valor up quite quickly. Bulagarian Royal Cavalry (the princes retinue) oTH are not that great and hideously expensive to maintain.
In just about everything else i completely agree with you, what an exccellent early period faction.