Novgorod in AGCEEP

[unmerged(37774)]

I upgraded MyMap and found I had AGCEEP with it, so I decided to give it a try as Novgorod.

I found that no matter what Sweden with Denmark and Norway will DOW you before you get your first diplomat followed by Moscovy with Tver, Pskov, and Ryazan.

Further with the DP setting you start with, your troops won't win any battles without an overwhelming advantage.

Of course withe the defensive DP siege bonus you should be avoiding battles...but when Tver/Pskov/Ryazan each field between 20-30K even general winter can't kill your enemies fast enough.

After getting zergling rushed 5 times I cheated a bit and gave myself a few diplomats at the start. This gave me an alliance with Denmark and co. This stops Sweden from attacking...but since they have no land connection they don't help against the other Russians. Since that point I've fought 3 largely indecisive wars with Moscovy and friends.

I thinking getting Volvograd is the critical point but I can't get more then about 25 war score since my troops are so bad, even after a 10 year war, and Moscovy won't give up more then a colony for that much.

I've gone land 3 times in a row on the DP slider figuring it is the best short term fix...but it isn't enough...

So any suggestions? Again MyMap AGCEEP VH/Normal.

 

[Ciçatrix]

Mod the game to give you a diplomat at start?
Also, there was once a forum member who argued for giving Pskov and Novgord an alliance, and improvince their relations, he said that reduced the "declare war on Novgord at the beginning" tendency, here is the thread. This was pre-MyMap, so it might not apply any more.

 

[Registered]

Try using your slider moves for going centralisation. This wiil increase your income and make tech advance faster.
Moving away from serfdom is another option. It will both increase your morale and your income, but troops will become more expencive.

NB: I have never actually played Novgorod so these are just general tips.

 

[unmerged(37774)]

Try using your slider moves for going centralisation. This wiil increase your income and make tech advance faster.
Moving away from serfdom is another option. It will both increase your morale and your income, but troops will become more expencive.

NB: I have never actually played Novgorod so these are just general tips.

Well, going Centralization is my normal strategy - but NVG needs better troops right away.

Going free peasants is probably an inferior choice to going land to improve troops since it does raise their cost too - and the production bomus in the early going is oh so small.

I tried starting up as Muscovy and not suprisingly it is a cakewalk...perhaps Muscovy is overpowered.

Of course it could just be the small minors producing far more troops then they should bug skewing the results. Give Pskov/Ryazan/Tver a hard cap of 20K all together and balance of power between Muscovy and NVG might be a bit closer...

 

[Mork]

Moscow is probably a bit overpowered, compared to Novgorod, but in vanilla they are under powered (less useful cultures).
Muscovy also have better cultures in AGCEEP, you'll get a lot more out of Tartar than that Finnish one (which name I cannot remember).

Oh, and IIRC, minors are actually a lot less useful on VE as they pay for upkeep then.

 

[crash63]

Muscovy also have better cultures in AGCEEP, you'll get a lot more out of Tartar than that Finnish one (which name I cannot remember).

It's clearly more interesting to take Muscovy for this reason.

 

[Ericus1]

It's clearly more interesting to take Muscovy for this reason.

Which is why I added an 'add_countryculture = nakapsi' command in the 'become Russia' event for Novogrod. If they win, and become historical Russia, they really do deserve it for the effort it takes.

 

[nightmorphis]

using novgorod once i had 2 DoW in the same moment from denmark,norway and sweden and from moscow and allies (i don't rememeber who they were).
i think i'll never use again novgorod :rofl:

 

[Registered]

Well, going Centralization is my normal strategy - but NVG needs better troops right away.

Yes but troop morale is only usefull in battles, which, if at all possible, you want to avoid as they are too random. It's much better to try for sieges where morale plays no role untill you can assault. Going centralisation will increase your income and thus allow you to raise more troops.

I tried starting up as Muscovy and not suprisingly it is a cakewalk...perhaps Muscovy is overpowered.

Dunno about that, in my current Brandenburg game they've been nearly overrun by the Livonian order and Lithuania. (I am NOT looking forward to the Polish/Lithuanian union)