Post your 1.8 Russia/Muscovy Strats here!

[Hamor]

Well, I think we can all agree how annoying the LA is in Muscovy and furthermore the hordes now all form intricate alliances with one another. ALSO! it's near impossible to get tartar cultures accepted now because of all the subgroups... Which means constant rebels.......

Anyway this is my good old outdated strategy and what I've done in my current MP game that will need some refining due to 1.8s changes.



Day 1, Declare on Novgorod, take as many provinces as possible, core them.

Once cores are complete Novgorod would of most likely allied ryazan or tver. Declare war on either one Novgorod has allied with and double war Novgorod without taking the truce breaking penalty. (sometimes you may have to tripple war Novgorod if you didn't declare em a co-belligerent).

After Novgorod, Tver, and Ryazan are all fully annexed I got the subjugation mission on kazan, then fully annexed them, raising LA so I don't get rebels. Meanwhile my manpower has been stuck on about 500 since the start of the game due to constant wars and reinforcing of armies. Meanwhile I'm annexing the hoardes down south and looking for opportune moments to attack. My Danish ally (who is a player) has also been helping me, we've fought two wars with lith and he has constantly helped me kill peasants.

screenshot
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=339015351

Ideas:

Religion
Exploration
Quantity
.
.
.
.
.

So if anyone has any inputs or wants to share their strategies please do!

 

[Stategem161803]

Start as Muscovy.........win?

Seriously, in Russia you have to use lots of mercs early due to the severe attrition.

 

[herrmarisa]

Quantity as Muscovy? What's the point? Get yourself defensive and quality instead.

 

[Hamor]

Quantity as Muscovy? What's the point? Get yourself defensive and quality instead.

that post made me laugh

 

[herrmarisa]

that post made me laugh

Good.

 

[Zqrfmb]

it can't be too different from how I did songhai, just take opportunities as you see them, otherwise expand cautiously to prevent getting e^12 rebel regiments popping up all over the place, and then once you've built up enough momentum, annex an entire continent.

 

[DicRoNero]

SP-only: leave Hordes alone, leave Siberia for future generations of Russian people and don't colonize it, use that colonist in Americas instead. Snipe important trade hubs in the Baltics. Wait for Poland to hit Teutons, vassalize the remnants and feed them their lands back. Also, switch to Catholicism, get into HRE and westernize asap. Don't hire advisors above 1 lvl and use these ducats to build up your economy instead. Seal Siberia from the other side, though that's a long-term goal. Kill PLC before they enact pesky Local Nobility. Try keeping other majors in check.

Basically, play against all the crap people tell you about Muscovy.

A rough WIP screenshot:

 

[sumo0]

I attacked kazan in the very beginning because of perms core. Then took all the valuable stuff.

Then i took tver which i had made i claim on from the beginning of the game. Then sold it to yaroslavl.

Then i attacked Novgorod and took what i wanted and leaving novgorod (the province) isolated.

Then take riga and vassalize livonian order and sell riga to them.

I went expansion and started colonizing siberia.

 

[DicRoNero]

So far so good: Catholic, westernized, one elector under my belt and PLC PU broken apart. My heir is now of Bohemian dynasty, while France is ruled by a Habsburg. Sounds like a potential unionfest, lol. AE towards HRE is already insane, though.

All in all, 1.8 seems like a huge improvement, new mechanics are awesome.

 

[Beagá]

Regarding non-cheesy strats: not choosing religious or quantity is TOTALLY viable, as long as you get Patriarch Authority ASAP and use attrition to your advantage. I also advise that you help Denmark and allow them to integrate Sweden.

 

[BarskiPatzow]

Right click on enemy territory a lot.