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Well, as I sad, occupy nogai when you can, and colonize them. This should help you in killing off tims.

Your not understanding the whole concept of not expanding for awhile. :rolleyes: At this point I'm afraid that I'm so big that westernizing, with all the negative effects that can bring, could bring on a time of troubles that will make the original EU Russian experience look tame. I'm going to have a bear of a time (pardon the pun) setting this up so that the stability hit doesnt fracture the empire.

Once I survive that though, and I will surivive somehow, am still faced with fighting nomads for the next hundred years or so. Am sure there are more beyond those, and the only way to stop the irritation is to kill the all & colonize their lands. The new nomad system is more realistic and still a pain in the butt. :eek:

Btw, for anyone who can answer the question. Does the battles with nomads provide less miltary tradition than fighting other powers? After a short war with Sweden I gained a bunch of tradition. Kicking the crap out of nomads for over fifty years seems to have driven mine downwards. What kind of deal is this?
 
I got no idea, but i think in this case, battles matter more than time, so more battles = more tradition.

But if you will take CAD NI, the stability will be less of concern to you. I got much bigger empire myself than yours, and the westernization was not so big problem for me. You just need to convert all the muslims, and as you are orthodox, your stability cost will be quite low(orthodox got lowest stab cost in christian group - only pagans got it lower).

To be true, before the westernization, i got for some time, negative stability cost(it is possible if you take enough stab cost decreasing modifires).

Combine -33% with -10% from legitimacy, and you got 43%. If you even are max innovate, staying max serfdom, will neglect it. So if you do so, your stab cost should stay relatively small(15 * 100 * 107%, plus some other modifires possibly, so it will be not much more than 1600 with 100 provinces - and it is quite low).
 
As you said before this game is a learning experience. I didn't prepare well enough for the need to westerenize so didn't take the Church Attendance Duty idea. Instead I have Military drill (so that I had enough morale to smack the nomads), Natinoal Bank (trying to control my inflation because it was stifling my economy) and Grand Army (so that I can afford the huge army I've built....maintenance during war time was costing me an arm & a leg.) Now I have about six more levels of government tech to go to get another. o_O

Will try to get around it though with a bit of creativity. Will try to stay out of war with the nomads for a bit by putting up a big stack near each. As soon as they cross the border I avoid their army and slip into one of their provinces to sieze it out. My armies can usually break their defenses before they hurt me too much and then we have peace.

With peace (or at least mostly enforced peace) for a few years (I hope) I'll build as many churches as I can and use the time to get the best artist possible. Once the ten years pass & I can get my last level of inovativeness I should be a bit better prepared for the stability hit. If that fails then I'll just have to use the army to play whack a mole with the revolts that pop up. It might be rough but its a fighting chance. :p
 
Well a tip for any next russia game - grand army is waste of NI. You will have your support limit big enough anyway. Grand army is for countries like brandenburg/prussia, which desperately need support limit(for fighting countries like austria, bohemia etc). For destroying golden horde, i needed something between 40-60k men army. And actualy national bank is not so desparately needed, as if you keep having 6 star master of mint(i allways do) it seems to be enough to keep inflation at bay. Better choice, would be to take patron of art(for easy innovate event plus if you got an artist, another nice event) and church attendance duty(for stability). I rarely take military drill in single player, as AI is not a challenge, unless it is a horde(but even hordes only early on are challenging). But not like it is a bad NI(+1 morale, is helpfull if you keep bashing rebels at low maintenance).
 
Military Drill is usually a first priority for minors bordering hordes. Church Attendance Duty is not really worth it and Patron of Arts can wait until the second slot.

Only if you decide NOT to pay tribute for moscow. And player moscow does not stay minor for long enough for military drill to be usefull. Military Drill, is mostly usefull for MP games, in single player, it is rarely usefull.
 
Only if you decide NOT to pay tribute for moscow. And player moscow does not stay minor for long enough for military drill to be usefull. Military Drill, is mostly usefull for MP games, in single player, it is rarely usefull.
I am not sure about other players, but I find battles much easier with Military Drill, especially against land nations with ridiculously high morale (i.e. France, Austria, and Burgundy).
 
I am not sure about other players, but I find battles much easier with Military Drill, especially against land nations with ridiculously high morale (i.e. France, Austria, and Burgundy).

Well i almost never take MD in SP, and i rarely lose any wars against AI(actualy like once or twice for a long time).

Military Drill, give you +1 morale, which is good if you fight an enemy with bigger armies, but lower quality(so your armies stand longer on the battlefield and defeat the enemy). In case of hordes, they are better quality(got better troops type) and bigger number, so higher morale won't be of much help against them, and if you play well, novgorod will be beaten before you get your first NI, so you won't need the drill, because lithuania will propably be beaten when you get it. To win with golden horde you just need to weaken them, and kill of their forces by attrition, and focus on taking their provinces while they siege down yours(then when they finnaly get them, you go into position to quickly retake them)
 
Well i almost never take MD in SP, and i rarely lose any wars against AI(actualy like once or twice for a long time)
It's like saying you don't need Smithian Economics because you are always 27 years ahead in tech. As with other ideas, it has its uses and can make certain things easier (i.e. destroying a fully-formed France/Burgundy with more troops and manpower than you).
 
Generally speaking, MD is the best first NI for anyone planning to do some less than diplomatic expansion. It also helps for the "diplomatic" expansion of forcing PUs. I'd rather take it and be able to win stand-up fights than use cheese and ai exploiting to win my wars. The difference earlier in the game between having/not having it is huge.
 
It's like saying you don't need Smithian Economics because you are always 27 years ahead in tech. As with other ideas, it has its uses and can make certain things easier (i.e. destroying a fully-formed France/Burgundy with more troops and manpower than you).

Well i agree, that if you have problems fighting your stronger neigbours MD is good choice, but i find it not a must.