Russia

[Slaists]

I started a new campaign with Russia post-patch, and thought i would share my experiences.


When starting with Russia, you are faced with an interesting situation; a huge (comparatively), but backwards empire in eastern europe and asia, no ports, poor relations with most other nations, a poor government type, and a very unpopular religion.
The immediate goal is, as always, the crimean khanate, which is easily captured in 3-4 turns by your nearby forces. At this point, things get interesting; in my game, Poland-Lithuania, Sweden, Prussia, Daghestan and Georgia all declared war on me, leaving me with a bit of an issue. Initially there is only one way to expand - west, which is a pretty good choice anyway. Central europe is divided, and profitable. Also, set your school to research the farming technologies - you have a lot of farmland in your provinces and they can be a good source of income.

Over the next 5-10 years i tried to make peace with the Ottomans, to enable me to trade. I must have splashed well over 10k (quite a lot in the starting period) on state gifts, but to no avail. The rest of my money was spent on consolidation - building up my internal infrastructure and towns (roads really helps get the troops moving across your vast lands as Russia), defending myself from attacks and generally triyng to get my income up. Once satisfied with my income levels, it was time to go on the offensive. First, I went south to take Daghestan, a nice easy target. I also acquired St Petersburg along the way, and pushed an army north into the undefended Finland. Meanwhile, i used every port available to establish trade routs with as many western european powers as possible, even if it was costly. I kept chipping away at Poland-Lithuania's lands when satisfied that Sweden were no longer going to be a major threat to me (i had taken both their nearby cities to my lands). In 1720, the United States emerged and i immediately established trade and an alliance with them, and gifted them a lot of technologies to get them started; i figured that if the states could flourish over in America, it would stranglehold a lot of the western european powers like Britain, France and Spain - making them easier to take in the long run. Seeings as Russia has no holdings anywhere near America, and the US has no holdings in Europe, i figured it was a pretty low risk alliance, and our conflicts would remain pretty separated.
Now, i was trying to expand west in earnest, taking a number of provinces and playing a very aggressive way. Meanwhile, i decided it was time for a change of government, and instigated a revolution, converting Russia to a republic (i know i know, a Russian republic allied with the states...pretty far removed from how it really happened), to help please the lower classes and keep public order up, as i had decided to leave my inner provinces pretty much undefended. My smash-n-grab tactics (i couldnt afford to keep defending forces in all the new takings) meant i was quite exposed defensively. Poland-Lithuania for some reason moved all of their forces from their capital (their last province) to reclaim a few other nearby ones which i had left undefended. I moved in on the capital, and then quickly reclaimed the rest of them to eliminate them completely.
Next up was Prussia, who were pretty small and feeble, as i had been feeding Saxony some free technologies so that they could pose a thorn in Prussia's. Prussia fell pretty quickly to a couple of well timed attacks on their cities, which left me in control of about half of Europe.

I decided to turn my attentions south at this point, and after taking Georgia, i pushed and took some of the Ottoman territories, after which i (finally) managed to persuade them that peace was the best idea. With peace declared, i could finally trade through the black sea and mediterranean, i then wanted my northern trade routes opened, so i worked on building up a navy to keep the swedes at bay.

At this point, i controlled a huge empire extending over europe. Austria is the only other power that is anything like a threat, and i am at peace with them. My income is at around 16-18k, and i am now working on upgrading the infrastructure again.

Note that consecutive state gifts are just a waste of money. The first state gift (2500) gives a boost of +100 points with the target country. This boost decays over time. For example, on the next turn, there would be only +98 of the boost remaining. So, if, on that turn you make another gift (2500), your end-turn relationship with that country (discounting all other factors) would be +100... So, effectively, you just wasted 2500 for boosting the relationship for 2 points.

Also, gifts of all levels +2500, +5000, +10,000 all take the player to the same relationship boost level: +100.

[Walrus]

Note that consecutive state gifts are just a waste of money. The first state gift (2500) gives a boost of +100 points with the target country. This boost decays over time. For example, on the next turn, there would be only +98 of the boost remaining. So, if, on that turn you make another gift (2500), your end-turn relationship with that country (discounting all other factors) would be +100... So, effectively, you just wasted 2500 for boosting the relationship for 2 points.

Also, gifts of all levels +2500, +5000, +10,000 all take the player to the same relationship boost level: +100.

after the 3rd gift or so i realised that it wasnt increasing the boost really - but is it really the case that all the levels of gift give the same (maximum) boost of 100? is there any benefit to using a more expensive gift then?

[Slaists]

after the 3rd gift or so i realised that it wasnt increasing the boost really - but is it really the case that all the levels of gift give the same (maximum) boost of 100? is there any benefit to using a more expensive gift then?

Not really, it's bugged for now (or a stupid feature). All gifts give +100 (you can test it: just save your game before the test and see what each level gives to your relationship when you give it to a nation that has not received any gift from you earlier). So, unless you have a good reason for wanting to waste some ducats: just stick with 2500.

Unrelated: some posts here suggests that the Russian starting Cossack infantry cannot use later infantry drills. They actually can. They can use square fomations and can learn fire by rank. They do not get bayonets though.

[nameless]

Looking for some help here.

Playing as the Russians on the up-do-date patch I'm finding it rather difficult to do.

No matter what, on the second turn Sweden declares war on me and starts sending in wave after wave of stacks at me through st. petersburg. Well actually they conquer the province that's east of petersburg and go from there.

At the same time Georgia and that other province declares war on me in the south. Then right after that the Turks declare war on me.

I was successful in taking down Georgia and started building up forces to take out the other province but because I had focused all my funds in the south the north wasn't strong enough to hold off the swedish. I eventually took out Riga and Petersburg (I actually gave Riga to the Turks to prevent Courtland from declaring war on me and asked for peace) but the Swedish already had full stacks running around so it was difficult to fight them off. Eventually they broke through and had stacks running around moscow.

I find this difficult because even as Prussia I never had each and every single neighbour declare war on me right at the start.

If I focus on the north I end up losing the south, if I focus on the south I end up losing the north.

Or should I just sacrifice the south and defend southern Moscow?

[Unhinged_Loon]

I had little trouble in buying the Turks friendship at the begining of the campaign. They were desperate for a safe border, which suited me fine. Both annoying southerly neighbours declared war on me but to little effect. A few extra units in the nearby town were enough to stop them even approaching.
When Sweeden decalred war, I was able to take St. Petersburg and that was pretty much the end of any credible threat from them....
Maybe I was just extra lucky in my campaign?

[Sheogorath]

The latest patch seems to have improved the Ruskies line infantry a bit, making the 'Russian Rush' approach more plausible. Get into melee ASAP and you can rule pretty much any European line or light infantry. Grenadiers and guard/elite units are a bit more trouble, of course, but you should do alright.

The Russian guards from the Elite Units of the West pack are real bruisers too. I didn't compare their stats with the British elites, but they thrashed a regular British guard unit nicely, plus their uniforms are pretty snazzy :P