Hello AAR fans! I've been playing EU since its release in Febuary, and this is my first AAR. I hope you enjoy the format. I'm writing it in blocks of a hundred years, divided into chapters. Each chapter will first focus on war and military expansion in that hundred years, then a seperate chapter on diplomacy, trade and colonial expansion. I hope that made sense. Oh, a note! I didn't start taking serious notes till the start of the 1500s, which explains why I glossed over some stuff at the start.*g* Now, on with the shew!
IGC 2.0
Played as Russia. Normal/Aggressive
-Russian Ingermanland
-Kalmer Union
-Free Ireland
-Spanish/Austrian Lowlands
-Balkanization
-United Prussia
-CoTs in Moscow, Angila, Stockhom and Copenhagan
-Tax Setting- Chaos Hurts
Chapter 1: Military Expansion from 1492-1592
A) Laying the Foundation of Empire- Russian Conquests up to 1520
In the last decade of the 15th Century, Russia, or the Duchy of Moscow as it was known to most of Europe, was a rather small, very backward place. It sat tucked into the northeast corner of Europe, most of its income derived from fur trading in Moscow and Novagrod. It was poor, technologically inferior nation. To its west sat the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the single largest nation in Europe. Its army was the largest, best-equipped force on the Continent. To the north, Denmark-Norway encompassed all of Scandinavia, it's most eastern boarder touching Russian colonies in Kola and Karilea. The Tectonic Order rested in the Baltic, threateningly close to then Russian controlled Ingmarland. The smaller nations of Pskov and Ryazan surrounded Russia to the east and south, with the Khan of Kazan bordering the East. It was clear to the nobles and the Grand Duke Ivan III that if Russia was to survive and thrive as a nation, it would need to expand at the expense of its neighbors.
While both Pskov and Ryazan were easy targets, both were Christian Orthodox kingdoms, and the Church lobbied strongly on their behalf, not wanting to vanquish with sword fellow followers of the 'True Faith', and both kingdoms were allied with Russia. A war with them would require the disregarding of many treaties, which would shake the stability of the realm to its core. War with Poland at this time or for the foreseeable future would mean doom for the fledgling kingdom. While Denmark-Norway was in the throws of wide spread revolutions on the parts of Swedes and Norwegians, making it appear an easy target for expansion, it would require fighting both Denmark and the revolutionaries, a daunting prospect for the yet untested 'Imperial Army'. That left one choice, the Khan of Kazan.
Kazan was in fact a vassal to Russia at this time, paying tribute to the Grand Duke every year for 'protection'. In fact it was out and out extortion, which explained the utter hatred the Khan had for Russia. The fact that the Khan and his nobles were Muslim, and their subjects Russians, and Orthodox Christians as well, probably contributed to the ill feelings as well. Sufficed to say, the arrangement between Russia and the Khan would not last forever. In fact it came to an end in 1496, when Russia canceled it and then promptly declared war on its former satellite. The nobles who had grown fat off the tributary gold objected strongly, leading to a temporary drop in confidence for the Grand Duke.
The war with Kazan was a rather short affair. Lasting 2 months in which the Russian army drove the Khan and his army into northern provinces of Russia and kept them continually off balance until they had overrun the single fortress city of the province, Russia annexed Kazan on August 15, 1496. The army of Kazan, which was made up almost completely of Russians of that province, quickly swore allegiance to Ivan III, delivering the head of the Khan as a token of obedience.
Russia would only be at peace for less then a month before they were once again at war, this time with the Golden Horde. The Horde had declared war on Ryazan, drawing in its allies of Russia, Pskov and Crimea. This war would last some bit longer, a total of 10 months. The Crimeans invaded from the south, with the Russians coming from the north. Pskov and Ryazan would field armies, but they were tiny and usually used to augment the Russians. The Horde put up a tough initial fight, invading Liptsek and Tambow, but the sheer numbers arrayed against them would quickly overwhelm them They were quickly pushed out of Ryazan, and then invaded themselves by the Russians. When the dust settled, Russia received the lions share of territory, taking the gold rich province of Samara, Volograd, and Uralsk. The Crimeans took the rest.
Following the war with the Golden Horde, Russia would go on to battles with Astrakhan, Sibir and the Uzbeks, in 1498, 1507 and 1514 respectively. Each would be annexed completely, showing quite early the Russian preference of not leaving a wounded and angry nation at its back. While probably a wise choice in the long run, it did nothing to endear Russia to its neighbors. Neighbors that were beginning to realize that Russia, while still not wealthy or terribly advanced, was on the road to becoming a major power in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Almost 30 years of war, victorious as they were, had taken a heavy toll on Russia. Records are sketchy at best, but it is estimated now that almost 200,000 soldiers died in the conquests of Kazan, the Golden Horde, Astrakhan, Sibir and the Uzbeks. That is only the Russian losses though. The countless numbers of men, women and children of the conquered slain in the campaigns will most likely never be known.
Russia itself was in poor shape as well. Constant warfare meant that areas like infrastructure and trade development were sorely neglected in favor of raising armies. Even developments in military technology were left to wither. The result was a greatly expanded Russia that appeared very much stronger then it actually was. What Russia needed now was time to catch up to the rest of Europe and digest its conquests. As one will see, a snake was preparing to deprive this infant Hercules of that needed time, by attempting to strangle it in its crib.
B) Restless Giants- Preparations for War
After the annexation of the Uzbeks in 1514, Russia entered a period of peace that it had not known for over 25 years. Under Vasili III, who had taken on the title of Tsar (though not yet called Tsar of All the Russians) in 1505, the kingdom slowly attempted to correct the problems that a quarter of a century of neglect had wrought on infrastructure, trade and military technology.
It also began its first steps into the treacherous arena of European diplomacy. Though a royal marriage had been arranged with Bohemia in 1494, that was the extent of Russia's diplomatic forays for 25 years, not counting of course declarations of war. Though Russian diplomacy will be covered in greater detail in later chapters, it bares quick noting of the following diplomatic developments. Pskov and Ryazan, it had been decided by Tsar and Patriarch alike, were Russians, ruled by Russians. While both kingdoms were much weaker then Russia, and would easily be defeated by even the exhausted Russian army, they were instead targeted for a rather more peaceful absorption into Russia. Namely political annexation. Pskov and Ryazan therefor found themselves regularly bombarded with gifts, improving the already cordial relationship they had with Moscow. Pskov would be the first to except the embrace, having already succumbed to vassalization in 1509. The timely death of King Ivan Obolenski in 1510, who had no heirs, left that nation in the hands of the Patriarch of Pskov, who promptly invited Vasili III to accept the crown and annex the kingdom. Ryazan, ruled by King Knaz Iwan Ivanovich at this time, would become a Russian vassal in 1517, but would not submit to annexation until 1525.
The other target for Russian diplomacy was Crimea, a happily Muslim nation hugging the northern edge of the Black Sea, and a steadfast ally since 1492. Though there was no hope of vassalization, the Crimeans were wooed to insure that they stayed part of what turned out to be a surprisingly strong alliance. The alliance was renewed in 1518.
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a Great Power in decline, though nobody was aware of it. Successful wars against the Tectonic Order and Prussia, netting the Commonwealth Kurland, Memel and Eastern Prussia, seemed to give the opposite impression in fact. To the rest of Europe, Poland was still the hegemonic power in Eastern Europe, keeping the Germans in line and providing a bulwark against the Turks.
The Polish-Turkish of 1517 showed the flaws in the diamond however. The Poles were unable to draw the Turkish army into a decisive battle, and attempted to force the issue by besieging Burjak and Rumealia. The problem was that the Polish army relied heavily on cavalry, which allowed them to strike quickly over great distances and exert great mobility on the battlefield, which was used to devastating effect on Prussia and the Tectonic Knights. Yet it was this heavy reliance on cavalry did not translate well into siege forces.
The shift in Polish strategy, from destroying the main army of the enemy and then using their cavalry to keep any new armies at bay while siege armies were raised, gave the Turks the time to assemble an overwhelming force. They then transported it across the Black Sea to Polish Bessarabia, by passing the Polish army and cutting off their line of supply.
This was a masterstroke by the Turks. The sinking of the tiny Polish Black Sea fleet allowed them to ferry reinforcements at their leisure, while Poland desperately tried to extricate their armies before they starved to death.
They couldn't.
60,000 Poles died from starvation, the elements and at the hands of a 30,000 strong Turkish army advancing from Constantenople. The Treaty of Belgrade saw Bessibarria and Kremeateng given to the Ottoman Empire. Only a last ditch offensive by the Poles having kept the Ukraine from the Sultan's clutches.
What the Polish-Turkish War did was show the rest of Europe that the Commonwealth was not invincible, and its army not unbeatable. Having been humbled by the Turk, Poland began to search for a way to regain its image of supremacy in Eastern Europe.
The Polish nobility chose Russia as the unfortunate whipping boy. It made a certain kind of sense at a first look. To outside observers, Russia was a rising star, with the perceived potential of eventually challenging Polish dominance in Eastern Europe. It had proven itself in battle a number of times, and perhaps most important, or superficial depending on ones point of view, it was not a Catholic nation. The condemnation that was reaped upon Poland when declaring war on the Tectonic Order would now turn to praise, as Orthodox Christians were seen as barely above Muslims by the Catholic Church.
So Poland prepared for war against Russia. It began with the rebuilding of its shattered army. The disaster of the Polish-Turkish War convinced the Generals of Poland that their time proven strategy of bringing the main part of the enemy army into a single battle, and then destroying it, was the correct tactic. Once again, the Polish army began to swell with cavalry, at the expense of artillery and infantry.
With the army on its way to pre-war strength, Poland began to search for allies, eventually joining Austrian-led alliance with Bohemia. The Austrian Emperor had inherited the Hungarian crown in 1518, and now shared a long boarder with the Ottoman Empire. It saw the entrance of Poland into its alliance as a strong deterrent for Turkish adventures in the Balkans. The other member of the alliance, Bohemia, was a content vassal of Austria and followed the Emperor's line when it came to foreign policy.
With what appeared to be a strong alliance at its beck and call, Poland began final preparations for war with Russia, moving army units into position along their immense boarder with Russia.
As Poland was not being incredibly subtle about their military deployments, Moscow was very aware that its large neighbor to the west was up to something.
The Russian army sine its last war against the Uzbeks in 1514, was not nearly as strong as it appeared. Monies used for training, new equipment and even officer's salaries had been diverted to other areas, including the Tsar's coffers. As a result, by the time hostilities began with Poland, army moral was at an all-time low.
At the start of the Polish-Russian war, the Russian army stood at just over 100,000 men at arms. The vast majority, 70% in fact, were infantry. Cavalry and Artillery making up the rest, at 20% and 10% respectfully. Russian infantry was much quicker to train, and considered more economical. For every cavalry unit raised, 3 infantry units could be produced. Russian cannon were actually German and Swedish cannon, as Russia was still having trouble producing reliable cannon of sufficient quantity. As a result, the cost to equip a Russian army with artillery was incredibly expensive. Cavalry units in the Russian army were made up mainly of Cossacks. Cossacks were notoriously hard to keep in the standing army, as they preferred to roam the plains of the Don basin, and hire themselves out as mercenaries for money. As Russia had been at peace for so long, most of the Cossacks that fought in the wars of earlier in the century were no longer retained in the service of the Tsar. The standing cavalry units of the army were made up of aristocratic sons of the Russian nobility and merchant class.
The composition and tactics of the Russian forces were very different then their Polish counterparts. While the main Polish army considered almost entirely of cavalry, a Russian army was considerably more well-rounded. The average Russian army group was usually made up of 20,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry and around 30 to 50 artillery pieces, making it around over 30,000 men strong. During peacetime there were 3 main army groups located through out Russia. The Novagrod Detachment was quartered in its home province, guarding the undefended northern provinces from Denmark-Norway, and the recently independent Sweden. The Imperial Guard was stationed in Moscow, to defend the capital in case of sudden Polish aggression. The third army group was stationed in Astrakhan, to guard against a Persian advance into southern Russia and as a safeguard against rebellion in the Muslim province. Other, smaller detachments were spread around the eastern provinces of Sibir and the southern Uzbeks territories in policing duties.
While Polish tactics called for trapping and destroying as much of the enemy army as possible in a decisive battle, Russian doctrines called for a less dramatic, but provenly effective tactic. A Russian army group would occupy an enemy province and lay siege immediately, after defeating or driving off any enemy units. The cavalry elements of the group would then separate from the rest of the group and fend off any approaching enemy armies. The remainder would keep the siege and be reinforced as necessary until the province hoisted the Russian standard. The process would be repeated till victory. This strategy worked very well in previous wars, and usually brought victory quickly, though that was usually due more to inferior enemy fortifications, then to any great Russian tactic. The tactic had never been tried against larger, more sophisticated European fortifications.
When news reached Tsar Vasili of Polish movements along their boarder, he immediately issued orders for the army to mobilize. Money was diverted from military research and other areas, though not from the Royal coffers, and poured into training and equipping the standing army into wartime standards. The Tsar also authorized the raising of additional troops, though because of the length of the boarder with Poland-Lithuania, the 25,000 men conscripted would be very spread out. With the cloud of war with Poland on the horizon, Vasili had one bright light to look upon-Crimea.
While Russia had enjoyed its time of peace, the Crimeans had been more active. A brief war with Persia in 1518, while not having any territory exchanged, had gotten the Khan of Crimea a small indemnity from the Persians. A more substantial war had been waged against Georgia. They had not called on their Russian allies for the war, and had netted the province of Georgia in the peace. There had been strong talk from the nobility and the church to intervene on behalf of their Orthodox brother in Georgia and declaring war against Muslim Crimea. The Tsar refused, having sense enough not to throw away a wildly successful alliance for the sake of a kingdom that despised Russia. That single act of restraint cemented the already tight alliance between the two kingdoms. Apparently there was a real fear in the court of the Khan that his Russian allies would turn on him when his forces were elsewhere. After the tensions of the war with Georgia had passed, the Crimeans would fight beside Russia until their ally gave them reason not to.
As the second decade of the 16th century began, Poland was adding the finishing touches to its army and the plans for the invasion of Russia. Their allies of Austria and Bohemia were unaware of their intentions, and kept their eyes and their swords pointed south, toward Turkish Europe. Russia was preparing for war at a furious pace; whipping their standing army into shape, hastily conscripting reserves in the interior and calling in their more far-flung units toward the western frontier.
On at 9am on March 30th, 1520 the Polish Ambassador left his embassy quarters in Moscow for an arranged meeting with the Tsar and his Foreign Minister, where they were scheduled to discuss measures to ease the tension between their two kingdoms. In his satchel he carried a document that would change the course of history.
The Polish-Lithuanian declaration of war against Russia.
(Next- Clash of the Titans....)
IGC 2.0
Played as Russia. Normal/Aggressive
-Russian Ingermanland
-Kalmer Union
-Free Ireland
-Spanish/Austrian Lowlands
-Balkanization
-United Prussia
-CoTs in Moscow, Angila, Stockhom and Copenhagan
-Tax Setting- Chaos Hurts
Chapter 1: Military Expansion from 1492-1592
A) Laying the Foundation of Empire- Russian Conquests up to 1520
In the last decade of the 15th Century, Russia, or the Duchy of Moscow as it was known to most of Europe, was a rather small, very backward place. It sat tucked into the northeast corner of Europe, most of its income derived from fur trading in Moscow and Novagrod. It was poor, technologically inferior nation. To its west sat the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the single largest nation in Europe. Its army was the largest, best-equipped force on the Continent. To the north, Denmark-Norway encompassed all of Scandinavia, it's most eastern boarder touching Russian colonies in Kola and Karilea. The Tectonic Order rested in the Baltic, threateningly close to then Russian controlled Ingmarland. The smaller nations of Pskov and Ryazan surrounded Russia to the east and south, with the Khan of Kazan bordering the East. It was clear to the nobles and the Grand Duke Ivan III that if Russia was to survive and thrive as a nation, it would need to expand at the expense of its neighbors.
While both Pskov and Ryazan were easy targets, both were Christian Orthodox kingdoms, and the Church lobbied strongly on their behalf, not wanting to vanquish with sword fellow followers of the 'True Faith', and both kingdoms were allied with Russia. A war with them would require the disregarding of many treaties, which would shake the stability of the realm to its core. War with Poland at this time or for the foreseeable future would mean doom for the fledgling kingdom. While Denmark-Norway was in the throws of wide spread revolutions on the parts of Swedes and Norwegians, making it appear an easy target for expansion, it would require fighting both Denmark and the revolutionaries, a daunting prospect for the yet untested 'Imperial Army'. That left one choice, the Khan of Kazan.
Kazan was in fact a vassal to Russia at this time, paying tribute to the Grand Duke every year for 'protection'. In fact it was out and out extortion, which explained the utter hatred the Khan had for Russia. The fact that the Khan and his nobles were Muslim, and their subjects Russians, and Orthodox Christians as well, probably contributed to the ill feelings as well. Sufficed to say, the arrangement between Russia and the Khan would not last forever. In fact it came to an end in 1496, when Russia canceled it and then promptly declared war on its former satellite. The nobles who had grown fat off the tributary gold objected strongly, leading to a temporary drop in confidence for the Grand Duke.
The war with Kazan was a rather short affair. Lasting 2 months in which the Russian army drove the Khan and his army into northern provinces of Russia and kept them continually off balance until they had overrun the single fortress city of the province, Russia annexed Kazan on August 15, 1496. The army of Kazan, which was made up almost completely of Russians of that province, quickly swore allegiance to Ivan III, delivering the head of the Khan as a token of obedience.
Russia would only be at peace for less then a month before they were once again at war, this time with the Golden Horde. The Horde had declared war on Ryazan, drawing in its allies of Russia, Pskov and Crimea. This war would last some bit longer, a total of 10 months. The Crimeans invaded from the south, with the Russians coming from the north. Pskov and Ryazan would field armies, but they were tiny and usually used to augment the Russians. The Horde put up a tough initial fight, invading Liptsek and Tambow, but the sheer numbers arrayed against them would quickly overwhelm them They were quickly pushed out of Ryazan, and then invaded themselves by the Russians. When the dust settled, Russia received the lions share of territory, taking the gold rich province of Samara, Volograd, and Uralsk. The Crimeans took the rest.
Following the war with the Golden Horde, Russia would go on to battles with Astrakhan, Sibir and the Uzbeks, in 1498, 1507 and 1514 respectively. Each would be annexed completely, showing quite early the Russian preference of not leaving a wounded and angry nation at its back. While probably a wise choice in the long run, it did nothing to endear Russia to its neighbors. Neighbors that were beginning to realize that Russia, while still not wealthy or terribly advanced, was on the road to becoming a major power in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Almost 30 years of war, victorious as they were, had taken a heavy toll on Russia. Records are sketchy at best, but it is estimated now that almost 200,000 soldiers died in the conquests of Kazan, the Golden Horde, Astrakhan, Sibir and the Uzbeks. That is only the Russian losses though. The countless numbers of men, women and children of the conquered slain in the campaigns will most likely never be known.
Russia itself was in poor shape as well. Constant warfare meant that areas like infrastructure and trade development were sorely neglected in favor of raising armies. Even developments in military technology were left to wither. The result was a greatly expanded Russia that appeared very much stronger then it actually was. What Russia needed now was time to catch up to the rest of Europe and digest its conquests. As one will see, a snake was preparing to deprive this infant Hercules of that needed time, by attempting to strangle it in its crib.
B) Restless Giants- Preparations for War
After the annexation of the Uzbeks in 1514, Russia entered a period of peace that it had not known for over 25 years. Under Vasili III, who had taken on the title of Tsar (though not yet called Tsar of All the Russians) in 1505, the kingdom slowly attempted to correct the problems that a quarter of a century of neglect had wrought on infrastructure, trade and military technology.
It also began its first steps into the treacherous arena of European diplomacy. Though a royal marriage had been arranged with Bohemia in 1494, that was the extent of Russia's diplomatic forays for 25 years, not counting of course declarations of war. Though Russian diplomacy will be covered in greater detail in later chapters, it bares quick noting of the following diplomatic developments. Pskov and Ryazan, it had been decided by Tsar and Patriarch alike, were Russians, ruled by Russians. While both kingdoms were much weaker then Russia, and would easily be defeated by even the exhausted Russian army, they were instead targeted for a rather more peaceful absorption into Russia. Namely political annexation. Pskov and Ryazan therefor found themselves regularly bombarded with gifts, improving the already cordial relationship they had with Moscow. Pskov would be the first to except the embrace, having already succumbed to vassalization in 1509. The timely death of King Ivan Obolenski in 1510, who had no heirs, left that nation in the hands of the Patriarch of Pskov, who promptly invited Vasili III to accept the crown and annex the kingdom. Ryazan, ruled by King Knaz Iwan Ivanovich at this time, would become a Russian vassal in 1517, but would not submit to annexation until 1525.
The other target for Russian diplomacy was Crimea, a happily Muslim nation hugging the northern edge of the Black Sea, and a steadfast ally since 1492. Though there was no hope of vassalization, the Crimeans were wooed to insure that they stayed part of what turned out to be a surprisingly strong alliance. The alliance was renewed in 1518.
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a Great Power in decline, though nobody was aware of it. Successful wars against the Tectonic Order and Prussia, netting the Commonwealth Kurland, Memel and Eastern Prussia, seemed to give the opposite impression in fact. To the rest of Europe, Poland was still the hegemonic power in Eastern Europe, keeping the Germans in line and providing a bulwark against the Turks.
The Polish-Turkish of 1517 showed the flaws in the diamond however. The Poles were unable to draw the Turkish army into a decisive battle, and attempted to force the issue by besieging Burjak and Rumealia. The problem was that the Polish army relied heavily on cavalry, which allowed them to strike quickly over great distances and exert great mobility on the battlefield, which was used to devastating effect on Prussia and the Tectonic Knights. Yet it was this heavy reliance on cavalry did not translate well into siege forces.
The shift in Polish strategy, from destroying the main army of the enemy and then using their cavalry to keep any new armies at bay while siege armies were raised, gave the Turks the time to assemble an overwhelming force. They then transported it across the Black Sea to Polish Bessarabia, by passing the Polish army and cutting off their line of supply.
This was a masterstroke by the Turks. The sinking of the tiny Polish Black Sea fleet allowed them to ferry reinforcements at their leisure, while Poland desperately tried to extricate their armies before they starved to death.
They couldn't.
60,000 Poles died from starvation, the elements and at the hands of a 30,000 strong Turkish army advancing from Constantenople. The Treaty of Belgrade saw Bessibarria and Kremeateng given to the Ottoman Empire. Only a last ditch offensive by the Poles having kept the Ukraine from the Sultan's clutches.
What the Polish-Turkish War did was show the rest of Europe that the Commonwealth was not invincible, and its army not unbeatable. Having been humbled by the Turk, Poland began to search for a way to regain its image of supremacy in Eastern Europe.
The Polish nobility chose Russia as the unfortunate whipping boy. It made a certain kind of sense at a first look. To outside observers, Russia was a rising star, with the perceived potential of eventually challenging Polish dominance in Eastern Europe. It had proven itself in battle a number of times, and perhaps most important, or superficial depending on ones point of view, it was not a Catholic nation. The condemnation that was reaped upon Poland when declaring war on the Tectonic Order would now turn to praise, as Orthodox Christians were seen as barely above Muslims by the Catholic Church.
So Poland prepared for war against Russia. It began with the rebuilding of its shattered army. The disaster of the Polish-Turkish War convinced the Generals of Poland that their time proven strategy of bringing the main part of the enemy army into a single battle, and then destroying it, was the correct tactic. Once again, the Polish army began to swell with cavalry, at the expense of artillery and infantry.
With the army on its way to pre-war strength, Poland began to search for allies, eventually joining Austrian-led alliance with Bohemia. The Austrian Emperor had inherited the Hungarian crown in 1518, and now shared a long boarder with the Ottoman Empire. It saw the entrance of Poland into its alliance as a strong deterrent for Turkish adventures in the Balkans. The other member of the alliance, Bohemia, was a content vassal of Austria and followed the Emperor's line when it came to foreign policy.
With what appeared to be a strong alliance at its beck and call, Poland began final preparations for war with Russia, moving army units into position along their immense boarder with Russia.
As Poland was not being incredibly subtle about their military deployments, Moscow was very aware that its large neighbor to the west was up to something.
The Russian army sine its last war against the Uzbeks in 1514, was not nearly as strong as it appeared. Monies used for training, new equipment and even officer's salaries had been diverted to other areas, including the Tsar's coffers. As a result, by the time hostilities began with Poland, army moral was at an all-time low.
At the start of the Polish-Russian war, the Russian army stood at just over 100,000 men at arms. The vast majority, 70% in fact, were infantry. Cavalry and Artillery making up the rest, at 20% and 10% respectfully. Russian infantry was much quicker to train, and considered more economical. For every cavalry unit raised, 3 infantry units could be produced. Russian cannon were actually German and Swedish cannon, as Russia was still having trouble producing reliable cannon of sufficient quantity. As a result, the cost to equip a Russian army with artillery was incredibly expensive. Cavalry units in the Russian army were made up mainly of Cossacks. Cossacks were notoriously hard to keep in the standing army, as they preferred to roam the plains of the Don basin, and hire themselves out as mercenaries for money. As Russia had been at peace for so long, most of the Cossacks that fought in the wars of earlier in the century were no longer retained in the service of the Tsar. The standing cavalry units of the army were made up of aristocratic sons of the Russian nobility and merchant class.
The composition and tactics of the Russian forces were very different then their Polish counterparts. While the main Polish army considered almost entirely of cavalry, a Russian army was considerably more well-rounded. The average Russian army group was usually made up of 20,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry and around 30 to 50 artillery pieces, making it around over 30,000 men strong. During peacetime there were 3 main army groups located through out Russia. The Novagrod Detachment was quartered in its home province, guarding the undefended northern provinces from Denmark-Norway, and the recently independent Sweden. The Imperial Guard was stationed in Moscow, to defend the capital in case of sudden Polish aggression. The third army group was stationed in Astrakhan, to guard against a Persian advance into southern Russia and as a safeguard against rebellion in the Muslim province. Other, smaller detachments were spread around the eastern provinces of Sibir and the southern Uzbeks territories in policing duties.
While Polish tactics called for trapping and destroying as much of the enemy army as possible in a decisive battle, Russian doctrines called for a less dramatic, but provenly effective tactic. A Russian army group would occupy an enemy province and lay siege immediately, after defeating or driving off any enemy units. The cavalry elements of the group would then separate from the rest of the group and fend off any approaching enemy armies. The remainder would keep the siege and be reinforced as necessary until the province hoisted the Russian standard. The process would be repeated till victory. This strategy worked very well in previous wars, and usually brought victory quickly, though that was usually due more to inferior enemy fortifications, then to any great Russian tactic. The tactic had never been tried against larger, more sophisticated European fortifications.
When news reached Tsar Vasili of Polish movements along their boarder, he immediately issued orders for the army to mobilize. Money was diverted from military research and other areas, though not from the Royal coffers, and poured into training and equipping the standing army into wartime standards. The Tsar also authorized the raising of additional troops, though because of the length of the boarder with Poland-Lithuania, the 25,000 men conscripted would be very spread out. With the cloud of war with Poland on the horizon, Vasili had one bright light to look upon-Crimea.
While Russia had enjoyed its time of peace, the Crimeans had been more active. A brief war with Persia in 1518, while not having any territory exchanged, had gotten the Khan of Crimea a small indemnity from the Persians. A more substantial war had been waged against Georgia. They had not called on their Russian allies for the war, and had netted the province of Georgia in the peace. There had been strong talk from the nobility and the church to intervene on behalf of their Orthodox brother in Georgia and declaring war against Muslim Crimea. The Tsar refused, having sense enough not to throw away a wildly successful alliance for the sake of a kingdom that despised Russia. That single act of restraint cemented the already tight alliance between the two kingdoms. Apparently there was a real fear in the court of the Khan that his Russian allies would turn on him when his forces were elsewhere. After the tensions of the war with Georgia had passed, the Crimeans would fight beside Russia until their ally gave them reason not to.
As the second decade of the 16th century began, Poland was adding the finishing touches to its army and the plans for the invasion of Russia. Their allies of Austria and Bohemia were unaware of their intentions, and kept their eyes and their swords pointed south, toward Turkish Europe. Russia was preparing for war at a furious pace; whipping their standing army into shape, hastily conscripting reserves in the interior and calling in their more far-flung units toward the western frontier.
On at 9am on March 30th, 1520 the Polish Ambassador left his embassy quarters in Moscow for an arranged meeting with the Tsar and his Foreign Minister, where they were scheduled to discuss measures to ease the tension between their two kingdoms. In his satchel he carried a document that would change the course of history.
The Polish-Lithuanian declaration of war against Russia.
(Next- Clash of the Titans....)
Hence the format. Troop numbers are guesstimations until around the late 1500s, though they're pretty good guesstimations I think.
