Russia and Poland

**Xehh II** · 03-09-2007, 12:40

I was just wondering how you would defeat Poland as Russia.
I am not having trouble with Poland I am just wanting to know what you would do in my place.

**Agent Smith** · 03-09-2007, 14:09

You should read my post in the Russia guide section. It gives you a good starting point

**Spajus** · 03-09-2007, 14:22

My most succesful tactic to date has been finding sharp, pointy, Russian things, and pushing them into soft Polish people. Worked a treat.

boyar-Sons were the real deciding factor - I found Alexandrian tactics worked well - create a spear-line, with archery backup, and calvalry on the wings, slightly back from the front line.

March into archery range.
Wait for the Poles to engage your spears.
Hit them in the flank & rear with calvalry.

One key tip - when charging their calvalry, if you have 2 calvalry units on the wing (which you probably do), tell the nearest to charge directly. Tell the 'outside' unit to march move behind the enemy. Wait for them to form up, then charge. Much more effective than sending 2 calvalry units into the flank.

Only difficulty I had was with Polish Nobs, and they were never deployed in sufficient force or intelligence to cause any real problems.

**Xehh II** · 03-09-2007, 14:37

Originally Posted by Spajus

boyar-Sons were the real deciding factor

Ah, Boyar Sons where would we be without you?

**HoreTore** · 03-09-2007, 14:37

Aaargh! The polish nobles! The single unit I have yet to counter effectively! In my last russian campaign, they usually had 5 or more of them in each stack. I'm having the same problem with the hungarians now, I just lost over half my army in kiev because of them, the rest of their stack was town milita. They're fast, they have deadly javelins, and they fight EXTREMELY good in close combat. I sent my 7 experience general, one unit of alans and 2 units of merchant cavalry after a depleted unit of 8(!) polish nobles. I lost 15 men! Outnumbered 100:8, and I lost 15 men!

The best way to counter them IMO, is to get them passive, and then shoot them up. Unfortunately, they're never passive... When you go up against them, expect casaulties. There is no way to deal with them and only suffer a minimum of casualties. With units like crusader knights, you can bang them from multiple sides at once and with a couple of units, and the unit is gone with next to no casaulties. Try the same against the nobles, and you'll suffer at least 5 times as many casualties. The only advice I have, is to cover your losses. When going on a campaign, add a couple of extra units to deal with the losses...

**Slaists** · 03-09-2007, 16:12

Originally Posted by Xehh II

I was just wondering how you would defeat Poland as Russia.
I am not having trouble with Poland I am just wanting to know what you would do in my place.

build loads of forestmen and auto-resolve ;)

**Xehh II** · 03-09-2007, 16:36

Originally Posted by Slaists

build loads of forestmen and auto-resolve ;)

You mean Woodsmen(I think).

**dismal** · 03-09-2007, 17:10

I took on most everyone with armies of mostly kazaks and a few boyar sons. If a general is available, they help quite a bit.

The best complement to horse archers is usually more horse archers, but having a few heavy cav or jav cav to deal with the enemy's heavy cav can help conserve your arrows.

**Xehh II** · 03-09-2007, 18:10

Who are better Dismouted Druzhina or Dismounted Boyer Sons? They're exactly the same stat-wise, who do you prefer?

**dismal** · 03-09-2007, 18:37

Originally Posted by Xehh II

Who are better Dismouted Druzhina or Dismounted Boyer Sons? They're exactly the same stat-wise, who do you prefer?

In my campaign I never bothered much with either. If you're gonna fight with horse archers you want lots of horse archers. That many more arrows coming from that many more different directions.

**Agent Smith** · 03-09-2007, 18:41

Originally Posted by Xehh II

Who are better Dismouted Druzhina or Dismounted Boyer Sons? They're exactly the same stat-wise, who do you prefer?

I rarely use either as well, moreso because I really on a spearman infantry backbone. When it comes time to implement some heavy infantry into the mix, dismounted Dvor are a better choice.