Fortuitious Moscow

[Six-Toed Sprocket]

Wow, this is an incredibly lucky run. Ottomans failed to take Instanbul, Lithuania is not allied with Poland but is with Novogorod. I have a vassal in Chernigov.

An opening move I like is to take Tver and feed all the provinces to Rostov and then diplo annex that and Yaroslav. I always find Ryazan annoying. It wastes a good vassal slot, and diplo points are at a premium with Moscuvy. So I take Influence first, and switch focus to diplo to get max ideas from influence. I tend to core most of the Russian provinces, using the vassals for the "get core" casus belli. For all the countries I use a vassal swarm to save on manpower. With Lithuania cut off from Poland, it will likely be a bigger priority than Novgorod.

Of course, the superiority of the Russian spirit means Moscow does not need allies, Moscow needs compliance.

Lithuania in a union means AE is not an issue at all, and I am saving my states for Kazan and Tambov, and will take the Mishar and Kazan cultures, I will then slowly convert them to Muscovite/Orthodox with religious ideas, which I take next. Kazan is important since it really increases your trade income. So, right now all that is important is keeping my AE down as I take Lithuania, and slowly take the tundra that I left Novogorod.

 

[Six-Toed Sprocket]

I have now reached states=territory so all my expansion is now focused on vassal building while i save admin to get Russia. I have most of Georgia's land and so they will be an empire eating up much of the western caucusus mountains. My diplo points are soo low, need influence onstream and have now taken religious, but think i should have taken quality or defensive.

I have secured the old Rus kingdom and only need Minsk to finish it off. I cant go east or even in the steppe without the corruption modifier hitting hard very quickly. Kazan is now orthodox.

No idea where to go. My AE is through the roof with the Ottomans, so need to focus on northern Europe until my truce with Lithuania and Georgia expire. I want to go north but denmark have england as an ally. Finland seems a better than nothing vassal since Sweden will take too long to get. I allied Byzantium, but really want them as a vassal.

Need to integrate Perm as they have one of my states, Ryazan, and Yedisan too since they have good culture religion. Circassia is a vassal i will have to integrate and give to Georgia, or i could get their cores from golden horde and break vassalage and annex.

Allies:

Byzantium

Vassals:

Circassia (would prefer Georgia)
Yedisan
Perm
Ryazan

AE with Ottomans: 31 - cant risk a GH/Otto coalition

Current goals:

Contain Ottomans as much as I can,
finish off Poland/Lithuania -
Get vassals up and running - thinking TO might make a good vassal, but may decide on Moldavia/Romania instead and essentially unite the orthodox under Moscow rule.

Any ideas? Go for a costly Northern War to complete the consolidate Russia mission? Or sit back and wait for Lithuania/Georgia truces to expire and Otto AE to secure the Caucausus/Crimea node? Also I have a spare accepted culture, with i may give to Novorodian, which frees up after Russia.

 

[Six-Toed Sprocket]

Corruption is crazy because I completed influence ideas, and diplo tech was invested. I opted for Circassia since I could lump those Georgian provinces. I do now have a large base to hit Mesopotamia, and maybe cut off the Ottomans, now a rival.

I find the vassals constantly have revolts. Circassia accepted the Georgian ethnicity, but there is constant rebellions.

My manpower took a big hit taking the Livonian Order as vassal and dealing with revolts. LO has a core on Vilnius and taken Lithuanian culture (a perfect vassal), so I have my second vassal. Not sure if I will march it seems like it could have a nice revenue, but I enforced religion, and it is converting provinces like crazy. I think it will be a cash cow for me, and they will stretch from Danzig to Tallin. The Ottomans used that opportunity to take Byzantium, and I was in no position to assist. To be honest, I always knew that would happen, my alliance was just to delay Ottoman expansion a bit. I am now allied to Serbia, and hope my manpower can recover before all my enemies - Denmark, Poland and Ottomans seek revenge.

Next target: Crimea and absorb most of Armenia in my Circassia pet, feed Orthodox Livonian Order, find a suitable Middle East vassal (probably Persian)

One thing I noticed was Byzantium had a stack of Orthodox rebels sitting in Athens for years. They were worse than useless.

Any advice would be welcome... I am not sure how World Conquests work but I am certain taking out Ottomans needs to be done quickly or be in a position to hit them quickly when the time comes.

 

[Six-Toed Sprocket]

War

Managed to form Russia at last. Now critically low on admin points but I can expand into about 18 new states, but at 1575, I am very late to the game for a World Conquest (judging by the empires I see aroun).

I was looking to think where to expand, Poland was one option. I realised that the Mamluks could be a potential ally, both Serbia, Circassia and the Livonian Order brought about 10k+ troops each, so I opted for an attack on the Ottomans. A victory here could mean I was basically significantly damage the Ottomans. I promised land to Serbia and the Mamluks and pressed ahead despite poor stability. My goal was to take as much from the European side and hope the Mamluks and Circassia can bog them down in fighting in the Mountains.

Lucky for me, the plan was working. After a few months of heavy fighting, the Ottoman manpower was severely hit from the constant fighting in the east. Ramzan was peaced out. Despite wiping a full stack wipe of mine in the west. Livionian Order brought a 12k stack and Circassia 10k

The Mamluks are strange, they had a massive army but no manpower. The Ottomans crushed them and took them out the war, but Serbia stood firm. The Mamluks still drained Ottoman manpower.

The thing I find irritating is the fact a few thousand soldiers can travel hundred miles into Russia and take forts. A Turkish raid on Kazan (let alone a seige) would be like 5,000 men marching from Stockholm to Sicily on far rougher terrain (and they are somehow being reinforced).

I took Thrace. The Ottomans are far from defeated (I actually think they are still more powerful than me), far more tech savvy than I am, and with a better economy. Likewise, despite taking NO admin or military ideas I am behind on military tech. The Ottomans, for somehow, have a multitude of ideas (all seven of them - including Quantity and Trade and some other diplomatic ones). I know I have been coring territory, and having to diplo annex a stupid amount too.

Alas, no event is triggered from Russia gloriously conquering the seat of the Orthodox Church.

For World Conquest, should Russia focus on getting ideas at the start? Any serious expansion needs the Russia (admin 10) event to trigger. Hitting Lithuania/Poland early and positioning yourself to hit the Ottomans seems important, but should that come with sacrificing ideas? I am not colonising (Not convinced a gold mine is worth the number states I could get from taking the entire Ottoman Empire), and ignoring the steppe (they are impossible to convert without religious ideas and I only took trade centres).

 

[Alizon]

You do incredible work here. What about expanding glorious Mother Russia to Palestine?

 

[Six-Toed Sprocket]

The Ottomans were a huge PIA, and were very powerful after taking Instanbul, and even a few territories to create Byzantium. One drawback of this strategy was that I could not war very much with Europe. I just took some small provinces in the steppes to remove a few nations. I think Sweden would be a manpower drain, and the Ottomans would attack me instantly if I fought a prolonged war.

Now the Ottomans are finally dealt with, my economy is in good shape (for Russia) despite having no merchants. It took, in total, 4 wars I think to finally break the Ottomans. The first I described. The second and third I followed the similar strategy but the Mamluks were useless and peaced out early, the AI decided to attack Kazan and I managed to win (very fortunately). The final one, I swapped Mamluks for Venice, and I waited for Ottomans to expand into Transylvannia (allied to Poland, and the only place they could realistically expand without fighting me). The best thing about nerfing Ottoman is that I think I can now handle any muslim coalition, and a big war with Bohemia will kill off Europe.

My vassals are immense. Livonian Order, in particular, is fielding 30k troops and is probably more powerful than Poland. It's Liberty Desire is massive (40%) so I will stop feeding it. I have something like 20 states I can capture before I get in the red zone. Circassia is about 15k troops, and has Azeri as an accepted culture, so they will end up pretty big. Byzantium is becoming a monster too.

Institutions are a pain, but I have a massive army I can fund through tax (no economy ideas/trade). The Timurids should be easy enough and I suspect they will fall apart after one prolonged war. Byzantium is my vassal now too, and I am allied with Venice, Serbia and Bohemia, I will cancel Venice soon as I think I can take Ottomans alone now. Once I take a bite out of Sweden, I don't think I will need either.

Doubt I can get a WC, but I will now see how big I can get.

This is why I think espionage is a good idea group, -10% liberty desire is very powerful (but a hell of a lot of admin for Russia to waste).

You do incredible work here. What about expanding glorious Mother Russia to Palestine?

That's the plan, Jerusalem gives a big missionary bonus. I think my main issue for WC is my economy, and also the Ottomans are now blocking me, as I have to wait for a truce with them to attack. I am thinking for a Russia WC your main issue is gold if I am honest. So I might be better grabbing trade first (since Russia controls so many nodes, you could make a fortune). If I can sort out the economy with Muscovy, they would be pretty unstoppable. I also think Offensive might be better than Defensive ince you get an extra diplo slots, diplo slots are really, really useful.

 

[Alizon]

What are your plans for Europe? Are you thinking about diving at HRE?