No point playing Russia anymore

[Ranjid]

I've just finished a Reformed Ragusa game in 1.7. So:
1. Decent/great stability because I was a merchant republic and had plenty of monarch points. I actually boosted stability several times paying 300+ ADM just because my monarch points were overflowing. Even so, 3 stability is incredibly rare, so 1 point at least is always "missing". You probably have 2 stability 50% of the time (maybe?). So another point is more like 0.5 => an average of 1.5 fervor points generated from the 3 you mentioned.
2. Most of the time I was at peace (building everything I could). But in an expansionist game you won't be at peace much => 0.5 fervor points.
3. I had 100 religious unity from 1600 on, since I only wanted to conquer a set number of provinces so no expansion after I had those. Also during conquests religious unity is not 100% (unless you have Humanism, which you should - and in this case things are a lot easier) => 1 fervor point.
4. My prestige was not necessarily 100 because of the relatively few wars, but once I built the unique building, I think I was around 100 most of the time after 1700. Still, keeping high prestige is not hard when you fight a lot => 1 fervor point.
5. Base value => 1 fervor point.

Extra notes:
6. Switching also costs a bit, as you said.
7. Religious grants 0.25 fervor points, and I think you should get Religious ideas.

1.5 + 0.5 + 1 + 1 +1 + 0.25 = 5.25.

Yes, later on you will have one focus all the time (or close to it, more like 90%), while the second focus is much rarer, I'd say 20% or less.

Yeah, that was just theoretical of course. But I found it to be very rare not to be able to run at least 1 focus. All in all I think reformed is fine. But Catholicism as the curia controller has to be nerfed. Those bonuses are ridiculous. Orthodox could be fleshed out some more, but the reworking of the PA events was a nice start.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Relative to many other nations, Russia is stronger this patch despite colonial autonomy, which was only a small fraction of its power. Considering half the nations near it got nerfbatted to high heck, I'm not feeling much sympathy for players who pick a nation just below top tier with no natural checks and the easiest access to Ming of any European.

 

[DicRoNero]

But Catholicism as the curia controller has to be nerfed. Those bonuses are ridiculous.

Yeah, I was shocked to see -20% AE impact among other things. This is simply ridiculous. Combined with other modifiers this thing means like twice conquest for the same AE.

 

[Ranjid]

Yeah, I was shocked to see -20% AE impact among other things. This is simply ridiculous. Combined with other modifiers this thing means like twice conquest for the same AE.

I still can't imagine a justification for that. Why would a muslim country care if that guy who just ate half of Egypt had some influence on the pope?

 

[Zak Preston]

At least Muscovy/Russia can't blob into India and/or China in 1.8 :ninja:

 

[oblio-]

At least Muscovy/Russia can't blob into India and/or China in 1.8 :ninja:

Why not?

 

[Zak Preston]

Why not?

First of all, have you seen westernized Manchu and Muslim tech Oirat? they are now a serious (but doable) threat to any blobbers =))

 

[TheMeInTeam]

First of all, have you seen westernized Manchu and Muslim tech Oirat? they are now a serious (but doable) threat to any blobbers =))

Pretty funny!

That was supposed to be a joke, right?

 

[Freudia]

First of all, have you seen westernized Manchu and Muslim tech Oirat? they are now a serious (but doable) threat to any blobbers =))

I doubt either of those would be a threat to a half-way decent Russia. Maybe even a 1/3rd-way decent Russia.

 

[Zak Preston]

Pretty funny!

That was supposed to be a joke, right?

Yeah, sure!!!
Westernized Ethiopia, Alodia, Tunicia (was), Japan, Manchu, Russia, Lithuania, Hungary (was), Astrakhan and a whole bunch of American natives. All are in Western tech group ATM. Ironman game, no cheating.

 

[Ranjid]

Pretty funny!

That was supposed to be a joke, right?

I've had a westernized Qing in my previous game. They conquered the northern third of Ming. They indeed westernize like crazy. But most of the time still fail to do anyting with their newfound "wisdom".

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I've had a westernized Qing in my previous game. They conquered the northern third of Ming. They indeed westernize like crazy. But most of the time still fail to do anyting with their newfound "wisdom".

The joke was indeed that these nations could possibly be a threat to player Russia, not that they westernize.

 

[Zak Preston]

The joke was indeed that these nations could possibly be a threat to player Russia, not that they westernize.

Those westernized Asians are now a major setback in AI-Russian's expansion to the South-Eastern regions, to say nothing of a lot more resilliant and potent modernized hordes: no more free walks through "useless 1.7 hordes" in 1.8 =)))

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Those westernized Asians are now a major setback in AI-Russian's expansion to the South-Eastern regions, to say nothing of a lot more resilliant and potent modernized hordes: no more free walks through "useless 1.7 hordes" in 1.8 =)))

And yet Kazakh is Russian and they're on pace to outdo their historical eastern borders in that picture.

 

[208]

I had to keep my auto on a stable 60-70 percent at the start of the game to prevent constant tartar nationalists. In addition to that it's near impossible to get the tartars to be accepted now because of how high your local auto has to be. For example, that kasimov prov muscovy starts with.

Personally, I avoid taking too many Sunni provinces early on before I can convert them, because lowering your religious unity a lot without any means of raising it is problematic. When I play I focus on expanding west into Novgorod & Lithuania until Admin tech 8 or so when I can pick up some nice (low/no downside) missionary strength bonuses. I also avoid taking any decisions that add to revolt risk - with an empire as large as Russia can get, and so many different cultures, and expanding on many fronts in the later game, revolt risk reduction is practically the top priority if you want to keep everything stable and not run after rebels constantly. The new unrest mechanics help quite a bit in this regard too, now you know where & when rebels will appear, and you can actively use your armies to suppress unrest in known problem areas rather than needing to keep armies randomly spread all over your territory "just in case".

 

[nicechinos]

Russia is basicly the strongest country overall:

Best ideas in the game.
Excellent starting position for expansion against weak hords, asia and europe.
Most powers are far away.

Muscovy ideas are not the best by far. It lacks any quality military ideas except for Table of Ranks (+0.5 army tradition; Naxos, Karaman and Cypurs all get +1).
It has useless culture conversion cost (which should be accepted culture threshold) and production efficiency. Two last ideas are arguably strong.
Poland is an early target and coupled with Lithuania, it's lucky and it's superpower.

 

[Novacat]

I doubt either of those would be a threat to a half-way decent Russia. Maybe even a 1/3rd-way decent Russia.

A decent player will smash ming/manchu before they can even westernize. Especially now considering that you can vassalize a horde then use tribal feud CB to eat up all the steppe.

 

[nicechinos]

Those westernized Asians are now a major setback in AI-Russian's expansion to the South-Eastern regions, to say nothing of a lot more resilliant and potent modernized hordes: no more free walks through "useless 1.7 hordes" in 1.8 =)))

Hordes are very easy due to low tax base and tech inferiority (reforming doesn't bring anything powerful to the table honeslty). Westernisation results in tech backwardness for Asian nations, so it's not a big deal. They simply don't catch up with Muscovy in military tech ever.

 

[nicechinos]

At least Muscovy/Russia can't blob into India and/or China in 1.8 :ninja:

Why is that?

 

[DicRoNero]

It has useless culture conversion cost (which should be accepted culture threshold)

No way, it's one of the best bonuses within the whole set, I'd put it right after tech cost reduction and Sudebnik. Accepted culture threshold is of 0 use for Russia - who are you going to accept now after the Tartar were split into several entities? Besides, it's unique.