Nice super Kazakh. Russia should be a very fun and interesting place. Is it westernized?
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Oh wow, Russia! Hmmm the options are endless with that one. Could continue on colonizing, could slap the Livonian Order around, or Lithuania (maybe). This will definitely be interesting to see.
Only Johan - blessed be he in his random numbered glory - could be so mean and so generous at the same time. What could go wrong with Russia? Besides peasant wars. And Times of Troubles. And mega anti-russian coalitions. And personal unions. And succession wars. But besides that.
Will certainly be fun.
Will certainly be fun.
Ooh, Russia. Finally something that looks like a truly powerful country (although appearances can obviously be misleading). Are you planning to go east, or west?
This will be fascinating. Maybe especially for me, as the one EU4 game I've stuck with so far is a Russia game.
I'd go for Kazak first to grab manpower, etc., then just forge claims and roflestomp Livonia to get more ports, repeat.
Already formed Russia? This could indeed be... wait for it... veeeeery interestink.
Since Russia is pretty much an ungovernable mess regardless of date or size, your first choice will be whether to expand east or west. Looking forward to hearing about your alliances, marriages and - of course - targets.
Here's hoping you have a long and happy stay. No guarantees there - just good wishes.
Since Russia is pretty much an ungovernable mess regardless of date or size, your first choice will be whether to expand east or west. Looking forward to hearing about your alliances, marriages and - of course - targets.
Here's hoping you have a long and happy stay. No guarantees there - just good wishes.
GreatUberGeek: Not yet, but I have high hopes of setting Russia up to westernize in the future.
tnick0225: Definitely plenty of possibilities with Russia.
McGrey: Well, Russia has its challenges: Lots of wrong culture provinces, lots of wrong religion provinces. It's so strong though.
It's like staring at a double chocolate fudge sundae. You know it's bad for you, but...but....
Legolas: We'll talk about our starting plans in just a minute.
Idhrendur: Russia was actually my first EU1 game! As I recall General Winter slaughtered my entire army.
ArchimedesBird: That's not a bad plan. Livonia's a possibility, but I'm not feeling an excessive need for ports. Perhaps later on.
Director: Russia strikes me as a country which is beautiful when things are going well, but can go south quickly when things go wrong. Kind of like going on a first date.
Nikolai: Glad to hear it! Let's see if we can make the Russians proud.
tnick0225: Definitely plenty of possibilities with Russia.
McGrey: Well, Russia has its challenges: Lots of wrong culture provinces, lots of wrong religion provinces. It's so strong though.
It's like staring at a double chocolate fudge sundae. You know it's bad for you, but...but....
Legolas: We'll talk about our starting plans in just a minute.
Idhrendur: Russia was actually my first EU1 game! As I recall General Winter slaughtered my entire army.
ArchimedesBird: That's not a bad plan. Livonia's a possibility, but I'm not feeling an excessive need for ports. Perhaps later on.
Director: Russia strikes me as a country which is beautiful when things are going well, but can go south quickly when things go wrong. Kind of like going on a first date.
Nikolai: Glad to hear it! Let's see if we can make the Russians proud.
CHAPTER X: RUSSIA
Part 1: It All Belongs to CatKnight
(1590-1595)
Part 1: It All Belongs to CatKnight
(1590-1595)
It's Cold
Winter has hit my part of the world with a vengeance. We've actually had it easy the last few years: One or two bad storms but no extreme temperatures, no extended period of heavy snow.
Tomorrow night it's supposed to hit -5 degrees Fahrenheit (-21 Celsius). And snow.
Welcome to Russia!
Touring the Kremlin
Before we even take a serious look around, here are my plans for our stay in Russia:
The European front is stable, and I'd just as soon keep it that way, at least short term. My goal is to clean up our ugly borders by taking out Ryazan, Kazan, the Horde, Nogai, and taking a huge chunk out of Kazakh. Meanwhile our colonists will push through Siberia for the Pacific.
Then we run into our first issue:
Our lovely czarina(!) is 11 years old. She's going to be a pretty good ruler in time - high Admin and Military, passable Diplomacy. Until then we can't start this turn with our usual excitement.
We have two allies: The Livonians and Sweden. We also have a laughable coalition made up of Kazan, Nogai and Kazakh. Ryazan's our vassal and can be annexed starting in 1597.
We have casus bellis on pretty much everyone: Cleansing of Heresy vs. our Protestant neighbors, Holy Wars vs. the Sunni, and Overseas wars with pretty much all of Asia. This means lots of angry neighbors. Since my initial plan is to head east, not west, I send diplomats to Lithuania and the Ottomans to keep them happy - and switch our rivalry from the Turk to Nogai.
The AI has been busy: It's working on the last three cores it needs, has two missionaries out there, five buildings, and even two colonists.
Our trade is...suboptimal. I couldn't say that for a few chapters now, which is why I never mentioned them with Morocco or Japan. This is a mess though, with one in Samarkand forwarding trade to nodes we don't use, one collecting in Novgorod (good), and one in the White Sea (Far too poor.) When the dust clears we'll have merchants collecting from the Baltic, Novgorod and Samarkand.
We have 138 regiments: A solid mix of about half infantry, quarter cavalry and quarter artillery. Our 14 ships are mostly caravels who we keep busy protecting the Baltic and Novgorod trade, while we move the last three carracks and two cogs from Archangelsk to our holdings in the Gulf of Bothnia.
We can't westernize quite yet. I was wrong before: We don't need to be 20 tech levels behind anymore. We do need to be 8 back though, and we're only 5 behind Sweden. This is another reason to leave the west alone: I want them busy teching so we can westernize.
Regency
This turn begins like our last Japanese one ended: Quietly. Natural caution against entanglements tied together with the regency means we spend some time watching the world go by. Buildings finish, cores ..uhm... core, and I begin to wonder what we're going to talk about.
Let's see...
How about those (favorite sports team)?
What do you think of Conquest of Paradise?
Yeah, I thought the Swedish Empire video was a little strange too.
Hm.
Did I mention it was cold?
The game engine tries to keep it interesting. Kazan launches a trade embargo in March with, as near as I can tell, zero effect. Sunni Zealots allegedly show up in Samara but no army materializes. Oh! The nobles complain that we're promoting people for merit rather than connections.
How backwards! Of course nobles lead! What kind of despotic monarchy are we running?
I do ponder switching from despotic to feudal or administrative monarchy, but I'm not sure there's a real point. Russia's sailing along somewhat smoothly. There's no need to rock the boat at this time.
Sweden disagrees. They declare war on Norway. Remember that, in this game, Norway's repeatedly knocked Sweden on the head and they're down to a handful of provinces. Norway's allied with Denmark, the Livonian Order and the Hansa. Sweden asks if I'd like to help.
Well..Sweden's only other ally, who also hasn't weighed in, is Poland. IF Poland gets involved and we don't it would be 59K vs. 69K, so we'd have to do some heavy lifting to win. Needless to say the Norwegian and Danish navies would chase my trade ships to port. Poland joining isn't a certainty - they do like Sweden much more than Norway, but are in the middle of a war with Savoy, Tuscany and Trier.
No....just no. It would be something to do, but we'd lose alot of men and gain little or nothing. So we eat 25 prestige. It tastes like chicken.
Poland declined to join at the time but shows up a few months later. For the next three years Scandinavia and friends tear each other apart. More on that later.
In late 1590 our two colonies are built. I expect to be able to send the colonists out again, and in fact I could, but it turns out that would be a mistake.
This is my first time playing with EU4 colonists, so in case you didn't know either: Colonies automatically grow at a set rate. Keeping your colonist there also gives a random chance per month of boosting the population towards the magic 1,000 sooner rather than later.
I didn't try, but I'm pretty sure we could have moved the colonist immediately (sacrificing the random boosts.) The economic screen warned me colonial costs grow exponentially if there are more than two colonies building however. Further, 1) we can't see the Pacific, and 2) we can't hire conquistadors, so getting there is going to take longer than I thought. We might as well take our time with the provinces we do see.
In November 1590 the patriarch decided that, since Catholicism reformed, maybe the Eastern Church should as well.
I have no real opinion. The missionary boost could be nice since we have *a lot* of wrong religion provinces. Frankly, Russia would be much stronger if they went unitarian: God exists. The details are up to you.
Speaking of which, our two missionaries stall at 91 and 27% respectively. Apparently they are once more the victims of too much peace and stability: The base taxes in those provinces raised enough to overcome our conversion chance. I leave them there for now hoping for
We do have the option of buying our next religious idea. The one after that gives us +3% Missionary chance. Since we're still hoping to fall far enough behind in order to Westernize, that might be a useful way of spending Admin points in the future.
In October 1591 we finally take a mission: The AI must have cancelled one right before I took over. We'll start with an easy one - change the culture in Osterbotten from Finnish to Russian. That costs us 25 Diplomacy, which we can easily soak.
1592, and the Oirat Horde and Kazakh are fighting. Only God, or perhaps Allah, knows why but the Oirat have sieged provinces on the far (western) side of Kazakh territory. Good: Whenever our czarina grows up Kazakh's on our list of conquests. Anyone who wants to help weaken them is welcome to do so.
We forge an alliance with Norway to replace the loss of Sweden. After completing our mission to change Osterbotten's culture we agree to try and save our religious brethren in Lithuania. I hoped that would give me a claim for use in a future war. No such luck.
Finally, our Czarina has a 'coming out' party.
It goes so well that I think we should give her a coronation gift. Let's...
....No, not flowers.
Let's present her with three of her enemies prostrate at her feet.
The Somewhat Great War
The plan wasn't simple but had its good points.
The western army, under Vasily Gagarin (F1 S0 M2 Sg2), will take out the isolated Kazan heartland then move into central Kazakh. For some reason Gagarin dreams of going into Earth orbit. I think it's the vodka.
The northern and eastern armies (Artamin Beketov (F0 S4 M1 Sg2) and Laurenty Kurbski (F5 S0 M3 Sg2)) will sweep through Kazakh, find and destroy their army and siege as much as possible.
The southern army (Grigony Runyantsev (F1 S1 M3 Sg3)) will arc through Nogai and southern Kazan on his way into Kazakh.
Apparently war excites our young czarina: She immediately gave birth to a child also named Elizaveta (A4 D5 M5). Apparently girls make better rulers than guys. Who knew?
The campaign begins in March without a setback worth talking about. Runyantsev annihilated the Nogai and Kazan armies then picked off stragglers as he entered Kazakh. The other armies met no resistance whatsoever until July 1593 when the Oirat Horde's 13,000 men routed Kazakh's 8 straight into the path of the northern army.
4,700 met 28,000, but before Beketov could do serious damage the pursuing Oirats caught up. The resulting slaughter annihilated 35 regiments. This ended all resistance.
Still, subjugating a country the size of Kazakh takes time. By October provinces began to surrender, and in November we occupied all of their provinces save a few held by the Oirat Horde. On December 26, 1573 the Horde's campaign ended: A setback, nothing more.
Kazan's capital fell in May 1594, which pleased Denmark enough to agree to an alliance months later. Royal marriages followed. Finally, in August, Kazakh surrendered.
Those provinces effectively fill our aim to smooth out our borders with Kazakh and the only nations really offended by our aggression hated us anyway. Vassalizing Kazan may have been a mistake: They're wrong religion, and I might not be able to annex them since a royal marriage isn't possible.
Nogai...we'll come back for Nogai when we finish off the Horde.
That will take time however. We must be careful for awhile: Our overextention is at 88%. We begin coring all our new provinces, but that will take until late 1600 to complete. We also spend some diplomacy points on wrong culture provinces and reassign our missionaries to provinces they can still 'help.'
We've won the war. We'll need time to work out the peace.
In Other News
Norway et.al. annihilated Sweden. The Swedes gave up one province to Norway, one to Denmark (on the Finnish coast), and several more to 'Finland.' They now occupy a thin stretch of land around Stockholm.
Japan is losing its war with Korea. Thanks AI.
The Mamluks are gone. Morocco, the Ottomans and Yemen finished it off.
Johan's Dice
Reign: 5 years
Roll Needed: 2+
Roll: 6
Continue: Yes
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Finally caught up. I like this aar very much. I'm curious to see where you take Russia, should be pretty easy, unless you get the dreaded peasant's war events.
Elizaveta has some very nice stats. Nice war with Kazakh, and probably nice to see the borders cleaned up a little bit. How on Earth is Japan losing to Korea though!!! Wonderful AI messing things up over there.
That said, I hear there's a lot of places going through a freezing snap. Where I grew up they've been having a rough winter already. Lots of snow and freezing temps. Just glad out here where I live its the normal mild cold with the occasional winter drizzling rain, no snow or freezing temps yet.
That said, I hear there's a lot of places going through a freezing snap. Where I grew up they've been having a rough winter already. Lots of snow and freezing temps. Just glad out here where I live its the normal mild cold with the occasional winter drizzling rain, no snow or freezing temps yet.
Congratulations, CatKnight, you've got yourself the new Weekly AAR Showcase! Keep up the great work!
You know you're doing something wrong as Russia (EU1), when General Winter annihilates your army.
ai Japan making a pigs ear of the war against Korea. Just what I expected.
At least the ai handled the mamluks better as your Morocco and friends.
You'd have thought times getting better would encourage people to convert - apparently not in Russia. Females making better Tsars than men. At least that's historical. The ai was making a pretty good fist of Russia - too well to westernize. Army
the size to give all its neighbours cause to think about not annoying Russia. What Ideas has Russia taken?
Does Russia really need a manpower forcelimit modifier? An advisor to increase missionary chance or speed up growth of colonies might seem a better fit. Wonder if there's an event -Cossacks conquer Siberia - pacific reached +10 prestige. Russia gains 10 colonies (and an exponentially challenged treasury)?
All you can do is core the provinces and flip culture. Overextension is going to be a factor slowing Russia's expansion through the Hordes down. Nice war against Kazakh and Kazan. The reason Gagarin is all spaced out is all those strange mushrooms he eats ...
ai Japan making a pigs ear of the war against Korea. Just what I expected.
At least the ai handled the mamluks better as your Morocco and friends.
You'd have thought times getting better would encourage people to convert - apparently not in Russia. Females making better Tsars than men. At least that's historical. The ai was making a pretty good fist of Russia - too well to westernize. Army
the size to give all its neighbours cause to think about not annoying Russia. What Ideas has Russia taken?
Does Russia really need a manpower forcelimit modifier? An advisor to increase missionary chance or speed up growth of colonies might seem a better fit. Wonder if there's an event -Cossacks conquer Siberia - pacific reached +10 prestige. Russia gains 10 colonies (and an exponentially challenged treasury)?
All you can do is core the provinces and flip culture. Overextension is going to be a factor slowing Russia's expansion through the Hordes down. Nice war against Kazakh and Kazan. The reason Gagarin is all spaced out is all those strange mushrooms he eats ...
You don't need a royal marriage to annex a vassal. The only thing you need, AFAIK, is +190 or better relations.
A quiet start, but then things quickly heated up. A great victory for Russia, and a big step towards some pretty borders - the goal of any expansionist game!
Glad to see that Johan's dice will keep you in the Kremlin for the time being.
Regarding multiple colonies, for every colony you have more than the number of colonists, the maintenance cost rises steeply. Russia is a big country to me or two more may be possible when you break through toward the Pacific, but it certainly won't be possible to carpet the far east.
Congratulations on a very well deserved showcase nomination!
Glad to see that Johan's dice will keep you in the Kremlin for the time being.
Regarding multiple colonies, for every colony you have more than the number of colonists, the maintenance cost rises steeply. Russia is a big country to me or two more may be possible when you break through toward the Pacific, but it certainly won't be possible to carpet the far east.
Congratulations on a very well deserved showcase nomination!
Congrats, Catknight! Glad to see that Johan was kind with you this time. What are your ideas and idea group like?
You get +50 for them being a vassal and can work up another +225 with a Diplomat and Gifts of money. Unless you've got a pretty massive malus, it is usually pretty easy to get to the point of annexation.