As this was my first 'real' campaign, I was too busy to take notes, so this AAR will be kinda summarized. I hope it will do anyway... 
I realize that I have played very aggressive in this campaign, which I later have tried with other countries with much less success, leading me to think that Russia more than many other countries is suited to this style of play.
The game was/is played at Normal/Aggressive level.
====== The first 80 years =====
Early on, Russia is nowhere near to fulfil their full potential. Expansion would be necessary if we were to survive next to Poland and Sweden. As Sweden starts out weak, I figured I wouldn't have to deal with them until later, so the muslim khanates south would seem a logical first target. Large Russian armies marched into the Kazan khanate (sp?) in 1493, laying siege to the cities while one army kept the remaining Kazan army busy, chasing them through the country. All in all, I was surprised how easy they fell, after about two years, Russia annexed their enemy.
I had lost quite a lot of people in the war, but that was no concern for worry. In the next two years I raised four 15,000 man strong armies, marching south once again, this time against the Golden horde. The scenario from earlier repeated itself. Our losses were staggering, but the horde was annexed ~1498. Elsewhere, Poland had annexed Kurland, and Spain had declared the first of a string of wars against England, a war France also took part in, claiming Calais early on. Venice did poorly against the Ottoman empire, and lost Ragusa and one more province to the Turks.
Diplomatically, we took a friendly stance towards any country that bordered towards Poland. This resulted in an alliance with Hungary, Moldavia and Pskov that would deter any aggressivity from Poland for quite a few years to come.
1500, and everything was going according to plan. The czar asked me to liberate the orthodox Savolaks from the catholics in Sweden. While my plan had been to continue south towards Astrakhan, who were I to argue the wish of the czar?
I thought Sweden would be tough, our first contact with superior military technology. Hah! The garrison in Karelia was wiped from the map, and tens of thousands of Russian infantry swept through Finland, laying siege to every city they could find. Small Swedish armies was raised to meet us, but they were completely inadequate to stand up to the numerically superior Russian army. Eventually, I realized that we could not gain much more, and asked for Karelia, Savolaks and Nyland in return for peace. Sweden refused, so I let my armies march into Österbotten and Västerbotten. Now something odd happened. The Teutonic knights, seeing that we were running wild up in northern Sweden, declared war against us, bringing with them their Italian allies... With no Swedish troops left to talk about, I could safely divert armies to fight down the Knights. Meanwhile when Österbotten fell, the Swedish diplomats agreed to the peace I had suggested. The peace gave us a port, which I had been longing for ever since I heard of the new land the Spanish and Portuguese were discovering. I have no maps of their discoveries, but in the future that might come as well. In the meantime, I send colonists the Kola peninsula where we build a city in the years to come.
The Teutonic knights were a lot of talk but little action. They did walk into Novgorod with an army of 20,000 soldiers, but with so much larger resources I wore them down, while I lay siege to Ingermanland. When I also marched into their capital, they sued for peace, offering Ingermanland. Now I had another port. Oh well, can't have too many of them I guess.
This was ~1505, and we got our first relatively long period of peace. During the next five years, I spent my resources on the infrastructure and on diplomacy. We exchanged pleasantries with England, and sent a generous gift to Austria which at war with Bohemia seemed to appreciate the gift quite a lot.
For some reason, our relations with Persia were pretty good, and we exchanged maps with them, giving us better knowledge of the middle east. Hardly important, but still nice to see what's going on down there.
~1510 we experience something very odd. Just about to declare war on Astrakhan, we get the news from a Polish diplomat that our two countries from this point on are at war. I turn my armies west and call on my allies, who to a man joins the war against Poland. From that point on, I never see a Polish army. Listening to the rumours from my friends in Austria and Hungary, Austria has declared war on Poland after annexing Bohemia, and Austria was not a member of my alliance! I shall send them another gift later when our treasure chest is more full. We lay siege to five Polish border provinces, and about a year later, they are all under Russian control. I wait a while to see if our allies have any success, but eventually I suggest a peace, and Poland give up three provinces, allowing us to creat a buffer between Moscow and the Polish. Never before or after have I gained so much from so small effort...
I had not spent much resources on the First Polish war (as I've later come to think of it as), so I turned my attention towards my initial target - Astrakhan. The Modus Operandi would be the familiar one - I lay siege on pretty much the whole country at once, while I had two mobile units that gave chase on any fleeing Astrakhan troops. By 1515-1520, Astrakhan was annexed, and we got maps showing us parts of Siberia, right in the path of our natural expansion. Naturally, they will have to submit. That it would take nearly fifty years to actually get it done, I had no idea.
I felt that our expansion had been watched with horror filled fascination by the other major powers of Europe, and when Poland ~1525 declared war on us again, Hungary and Moldavia took the opportunity to pull out of our alliance. This time Poland would not be distracted. The armies clashed in Smolensk in the north on the Polish side, and in Donetsk in the south, on the Russian side. Our southern army was very successful, throwing the Polish back the way they came, and pursued into Poland. The same could not be said about the Finnish regiment, which ran into a huge Polish army lead by one of their skilled generals. The details of the war are lost in the mists of time, but the general pattern was this: Poland dominated in the north, throwing back Russian armies raised almost continuously in Moscow and Kazan, while Russian armies were allowed to plunder the south relatively unscathed. Polish armies largely consisting of cavalry were in the end too expensive to maintain, and the northern dominance slowly waned, and in the end, Poland ceded another province, this time in the south to Russia. The peace of the Second Polish war was struck ~1525-1530.
Once again I turned towards the Russian infrastructure, and among other things built a center of culture in Moscow.
Russia had not been at peace for more than a few years when an opportunity appeared. Sweden had joined an alliance with France and Scotland which would cause them more trouble than benefits. This had pulled them into a war with Spain and their cohorts, a Spain that earlier had taken part in the partition of England, taking Wessex, while Scotland and Portugal had also had captured their shares, while Ireland fell to France. I noticed now Spanish troops pillaging southern Sweden. Finland laid bare when I declared war on Sweden, marching into Tavastehus, Finland and Österbotten. Surprisingly, the Swedes fought back bravely, and I had big trouble before a peace gave us Tavastehus and Österbotten, making the province Finland the only remaining part of modern day Finland (dang, that province name make things confusing...) still in Swedish hands. At the same time, Västergötland and Småland fell into Spanish hands.
During this Swedish war, a complex conflict occurred along the German seaboard that I largely failed to notice. The Hanseatic League lost Western Pommerania to the Ottoman empire (!) and Prussia was annexed by Spain. Add that to the partition of England, and the map looks weird, to say the least.
After a few years of peace I guess Siberia felt that we didn't defend our southern provinces well enough, and in ~1540 declared war. I brought my armies in their direction, but hadn't even arrived when bad news started to come rolling in. Poland declares war again, and Teutonic Knights follow suit! I did not like the looks of this at all and my first instinct was to turn north again with my armies, but being so close to the Siberian army (which was laying siege to Samara) I could not resist teaching them a lesson. A 30,000 man strong army exterminated the Siberian army. I split the army, one pursuing the Siberians, the other marching north.
At the news of the Polish declaration of war, Moscow started recruiting a new army, and the same thing took place in several Russian cities. Money was not a problem, though it hurt to bury money planned for infrastructure into troops.
Like last time, the war was big and confusing, battles took place both in Russia and Poland (more often in Russia though. Provinces all along the Polish border were in flames), and the battles didn't go particularly well, and morale was plummeting. In the south, Siberia was kept short, but no big progress was being made either. The war was at a stale mate. I had suggested a white peace, but Siberia had declined, perhaps thinking that our war against Poland would weaken us enough for Siberia to take advantage. In light of that, I was quite surprised when they suddenly approached us, offering some 30 ducats for peace. I had no reason to complain about that offer, and accepted without hesitation, now being able to fight back the Polish more effectively.
Still, the war had been long, it was now on it's sixth or seventh year, and sad as it was, those 30 ducats I got from Siberia was a significant part of my current treasury. I would have to wait for the new year before any money would be available. But as the last half of the year went on, it became apparent that Poland was as tired of the war as we were. When December came, I received an offer for a blank peace from Poland, and I accepted gratefully. It had been the most costly war I had fought to that date, leaving me with my first loans and a country in flames. For what it was worth, Poland seemed almost in as bad shape as we were.
The war had taught me a lesson. Standing alone with a mighty (and hostile, no less) neighbour like Poland bordered on suicidal stupidity, and I approached Austria, leader of an alliance consisting of them and Hungary (my previous ally, now for some reason much colder in their feelings toward us). With Austria being a powerhouse in the HRE (having annexed Bohemia, for example) and Hungary keeping the Ottoman empire mostly at bay (something Venice instead failed terribly at, losing all but the two northernmost provinces to the Turks), I felt this was one of the stronger alliances in Europe. Sadly, we were a bit divided, but my concern is and was Poland, so it didn't bother me too much.
~1555 I got my first conquistador through (I think) a random event, and I started mapping out the terra incognita south of our Russian empire (I think I can call it that now) and around Siberia. There's a lot of unused territory to the east there, I notice...
And then Poland declared war. Again. They're starting to get tedious... Initially the war went rather bad, and I was starting to get worried. My armies were not really prepared for a new war yet, so for a few months, Poland got almost free reign along the border, mostly in the south. Seeing this, the Crimean khanate took the opportunity and declared war as well, marching into Donetsk and bringing their allies, Persia and the Mahmelouk (sp?) empire with them as well. In Astrakhan, I had a border towards Persia, so I felt I had reason to worry about that. It was time to start building armies like crazy again. As usual, the fighting against Poland didn't go overly well, but our numerical superiority managed as usual to keep them somewhat at bay, and in the second year of the war we even managed to march into Poland, laying siege to Belarus, Smolensk, Kursk and for a while, Courland. In the south, Crimea had taken control over Donetsk, but after a staggering loss to a Russian army, they were happy to settle for a peace where we paid them 60 ducats to stay out of the war, pulling Persia and friends with them, a Persia that had taken control of Astrakhan, uncontested by Russian troops. I simply didn't have people to take care of all the enemies.
In ~1565 a general Kourbski stood out in our army, and I gave him command of the main imperial army, some 20,000 men. This army swept through the Lithuanian region, defeating Polish armies and allowing the smaller armies to quietly lay siege to the Polish cities. In ~1567 Poland agreed to a peace, giving up Kursk to Poland. I felt that I perhaps could have hurt them more, but it felt more important to consolidate my position, and I had gotten a taste for exploration and colonization.
I had sent my conquistador east, and found a whole slew of wealthy provinces, one gold mine of particular interest.
In the year after the Fourth Polish War, an even brighter shining star than Kourbski rose to the rank of general in the imperial army - General Vorontiski. This was too good an opportunity to waste. I sent the conquistador back to explore the remaining unknown territories of Siberia, and declared war, sending the two generals with a big army each to annihilate the enemy. Two years later, the four provinces of Siberia were under Russian control, and Siberia submitted completely to our rule.
In 1570 Siberia was annexed, and colonization of a lot of newly discovered territory started. While Vorontinski was around I better use him, so I sent him north and declared war on Pskov, annexing them short there after, long over due.
The year is now 1571, I'm almost one third through the grand campaign, and Russia is an empire reaching from the Kola peninsula in the north to the Caspian sea in the south.
Screenshot, Russia in 1571. Note that the Crimean khanate is represented with virtually the same color as Russia. They are still there, in their starting provinces. Note England, Sweden, and the German seaboard. The Netherlands has recently become independent, and so has Naples and Sardinia, both breaking free from the Spanish rule. Venice is almost annihilated, and so is both Prussia and Bohemia. And hm... My ally Austria has lost Tyrol to Poland.
I realize that I have played very aggressive in this campaign, which I later have tried with other countries with much less success, leading me to think that Russia more than many other countries is suited to this style of play.
The game was/is played at Normal/Aggressive level.
====== The first 80 years =====
Early on, Russia is nowhere near to fulfil their full potential. Expansion would be necessary if we were to survive next to Poland and Sweden. As Sweden starts out weak, I figured I wouldn't have to deal with them until later, so the muslim khanates south would seem a logical first target. Large Russian armies marched into the Kazan khanate (sp?) in 1493, laying siege to the cities while one army kept the remaining Kazan army busy, chasing them through the country. All in all, I was surprised how easy they fell, after about two years, Russia annexed their enemy.
I had lost quite a lot of people in the war, but that was no concern for worry. In the next two years I raised four 15,000 man strong armies, marching south once again, this time against the Golden horde. The scenario from earlier repeated itself. Our losses were staggering, but the horde was annexed ~1498. Elsewhere, Poland had annexed Kurland, and Spain had declared the first of a string of wars against England, a war France also took part in, claiming Calais early on. Venice did poorly against the Ottoman empire, and lost Ragusa and one more province to the Turks.
Diplomatically, we took a friendly stance towards any country that bordered towards Poland. This resulted in an alliance with Hungary, Moldavia and Pskov that would deter any aggressivity from Poland for quite a few years to come.
1500, and everything was going according to plan. The czar asked me to liberate the orthodox Savolaks from the catholics in Sweden. While my plan had been to continue south towards Astrakhan, who were I to argue the wish of the czar?
I thought Sweden would be tough, our first contact with superior military technology. Hah! The garrison in Karelia was wiped from the map, and tens of thousands of Russian infantry swept through Finland, laying siege to every city they could find. Small Swedish armies was raised to meet us, but they were completely inadequate to stand up to the numerically superior Russian army. Eventually, I realized that we could not gain much more, and asked for Karelia, Savolaks and Nyland in return for peace. Sweden refused, so I let my armies march into Österbotten and Västerbotten. Now something odd happened. The Teutonic knights, seeing that we were running wild up in northern Sweden, declared war against us, bringing with them their Italian allies... With no Swedish troops left to talk about, I could safely divert armies to fight down the Knights. Meanwhile when Österbotten fell, the Swedish diplomats agreed to the peace I had suggested. The peace gave us a port, which I had been longing for ever since I heard of the new land the Spanish and Portuguese were discovering. I have no maps of their discoveries, but in the future that might come as well. In the meantime, I send colonists the Kola peninsula where we build a city in the years to come.
The Teutonic knights were a lot of talk but little action. They did walk into Novgorod with an army of 20,000 soldiers, but with so much larger resources I wore them down, while I lay siege to Ingermanland. When I also marched into their capital, they sued for peace, offering Ingermanland. Now I had another port. Oh well, can't have too many of them I guess.
This was ~1505, and we got our first relatively long period of peace. During the next five years, I spent my resources on the infrastructure and on diplomacy. We exchanged pleasantries with England, and sent a generous gift to Austria which at war with Bohemia seemed to appreciate the gift quite a lot.
For some reason, our relations with Persia were pretty good, and we exchanged maps with them, giving us better knowledge of the middle east. Hardly important, but still nice to see what's going on down there.
~1510 we experience something very odd. Just about to declare war on Astrakhan, we get the news from a Polish diplomat that our two countries from this point on are at war. I turn my armies west and call on my allies, who to a man joins the war against Poland. From that point on, I never see a Polish army. Listening to the rumours from my friends in Austria and Hungary, Austria has declared war on Poland after annexing Bohemia, and Austria was not a member of my alliance! I shall send them another gift later when our treasure chest is more full. We lay siege to five Polish border provinces, and about a year later, they are all under Russian control. I wait a while to see if our allies have any success, but eventually I suggest a peace, and Poland give up three provinces, allowing us to creat a buffer between Moscow and the Polish. Never before or after have I gained so much from so small effort...
I had not spent much resources on the First Polish war (as I've later come to think of it as), so I turned my attention towards my initial target - Astrakhan. The Modus Operandi would be the familiar one - I lay siege on pretty much the whole country at once, while I had two mobile units that gave chase on any fleeing Astrakhan troops. By 1515-1520, Astrakhan was annexed, and we got maps showing us parts of Siberia, right in the path of our natural expansion. Naturally, they will have to submit. That it would take nearly fifty years to actually get it done, I had no idea.
I felt that our expansion had been watched with horror filled fascination by the other major powers of Europe, and when Poland ~1525 declared war on us again, Hungary and Moldavia took the opportunity to pull out of our alliance. This time Poland would not be distracted. The armies clashed in Smolensk in the north on the Polish side, and in Donetsk in the south, on the Russian side. Our southern army was very successful, throwing the Polish back the way they came, and pursued into Poland. The same could not be said about the Finnish regiment, which ran into a huge Polish army lead by one of their skilled generals. The details of the war are lost in the mists of time, but the general pattern was this: Poland dominated in the north, throwing back Russian armies raised almost continuously in Moscow and Kazan, while Russian armies were allowed to plunder the south relatively unscathed. Polish armies largely consisting of cavalry were in the end too expensive to maintain, and the northern dominance slowly waned, and in the end, Poland ceded another province, this time in the south to Russia. The peace of the Second Polish war was struck ~1525-1530.
Once again I turned towards the Russian infrastructure, and among other things built a center of culture in Moscow.
Russia had not been at peace for more than a few years when an opportunity appeared. Sweden had joined an alliance with France and Scotland which would cause them more trouble than benefits. This had pulled them into a war with Spain and their cohorts, a Spain that earlier had taken part in the partition of England, taking Wessex, while Scotland and Portugal had also had captured their shares, while Ireland fell to France. I noticed now Spanish troops pillaging southern Sweden. Finland laid bare when I declared war on Sweden, marching into Tavastehus, Finland and Österbotten. Surprisingly, the Swedes fought back bravely, and I had big trouble before a peace gave us Tavastehus and Österbotten, making the province Finland the only remaining part of modern day Finland (dang, that province name make things confusing...
) still in Swedish hands. At the same time, Västergötland and Småland fell into Spanish hands.During this Swedish war, a complex conflict occurred along the German seaboard that I largely failed to notice. The Hanseatic League lost Western Pommerania to the Ottoman empire (!) and Prussia was annexed by Spain. Add that to the partition of England, and the map looks weird, to say the least.
After a few years of peace I guess Siberia felt that we didn't defend our southern provinces well enough, and in ~1540 declared war. I brought my armies in their direction, but hadn't even arrived when bad news started to come rolling in. Poland declares war again, and Teutonic Knights follow suit! I did not like the looks of this at all and my first instinct was to turn north again with my armies, but being so close to the Siberian army (which was laying siege to Samara) I could not resist teaching them a lesson. A 30,000 man strong army exterminated the Siberian army. I split the army, one pursuing the Siberians, the other marching north.
At the news of the Polish declaration of war, Moscow started recruiting a new army, and the same thing took place in several Russian cities. Money was not a problem, though it hurt to bury money planned for infrastructure into troops.
Like last time, the war was big and confusing, battles took place both in Russia and Poland (more often in Russia though. Provinces all along the Polish border were in flames), and the battles didn't go particularly well, and morale was plummeting. In the south, Siberia was kept short, but no big progress was being made either. The war was at a stale mate. I had suggested a white peace, but Siberia had declined, perhaps thinking that our war against Poland would weaken us enough for Siberia to take advantage. In light of that, I was quite surprised when they suddenly approached us, offering some 30 ducats for peace. I had no reason to complain about that offer, and accepted without hesitation, now being able to fight back the Polish more effectively.
Still, the war had been long, it was now on it's sixth or seventh year, and sad as it was, those 30 ducats I got from Siberia was a significant part of my current treasury. I would have to wait for the new year before any money would be available. But as the last half of the year went on, it became apparent that Poland was as tired of the war as we were. When December came, I received an offer for a blank peace from Poland, and I accepted gratefully. It had been the most costly war I had fought to that date, leaving me with my first loans and a country in flames. For what it was worth, Poland seemed almost in as bad shape as we were.
The war had taught me a lesson. Standing alone with a mighty (and hostile, no less) neighbour like Poland bordered on suicidal stupidity, and I approached Austria, leader of an alliance consisting of them and Hungary (my previous ally, now for some reason much colder in their feelings toward us). With Austria being a powerhouse in the HRE (having annexed Bohemia, for example) and Hungary keeping the Ottoman empire mostly at bay (something Venice instead failed terribly at, losing all but the two northernmost provinces to the Turks), I felt this was one of the stronger alliances in Europe. Sadly, we were a bit divided, but my concern is and was Poland, so it didn't bother me too much.
~1555 I got my first conquistador through (I think) a random event, and I started mapping out the terra incognita south of our Russian empire (I think I can call it that now) and around Siberia. There's a lot of unused territory to the east there, I notice...
And then Poland declared war. Again. They're starting to get tedious... Initially the war went rather bad, and I was starting to get worried. My armies were not really prepared for a new war yet, so for a few months, Poland got almost free reign along the border, mostly in the south. Seeing this, the Crimean khanate took the opportunity and declared war as well, marching into Donetsk and bringing their allies, Persia and the Mahmelouk (sp?) empire with them as well. In Astrakhan, I had a border towards Persia, so I felt I had reason to worry about that. It was time to start building armies like crazy again. As usual, the fighting against Poland didn't go overly well, but our numerical superiority managed as usual to keep them somewhat at bay, and in the second year of the war we even managed to march into Poland, laying siege to Belarus, Smolensk, Kursk and for a while, Courland. In the south, Crimea had taken control over Donetsk, but after a staggering loss to a Russian army, they were happy to settle for a peace where we paid them 60 ducats to stay out of the war, pulling Persia and friends with them, a Persia that had taken control of Astrakhan, uncontested by Russian troops. I simply didn't have people to take care of all the enemies.
In ~1565 a general Kourbski stood out in our army, and I gave him command of the main imperial army, some 20,000 men. This army swept through the Lithuanian region, defeating Polish armies and allowing the smaller armies to quietly lay siege to the Polish cities. In ~1567 Poland agreed to a peace, giving up Kursk to Poland. I felt that I perhaps could have hurt them more, but it felt more important to consolidate my position, and I had gotten a taste for exploration and colonization.
I had sent my conquistador east, and found a whole slew of wealthy provinces, one gold mine of particular interest.
In the year after the Fourth Polish War, an even brighter shining star than Kourbski rose to the rank of general in the imperial army - General Vorontiski. This was too good an opportunity to waste. I sent the conquistador back to explore the remaining unknown territories of Siberia, and declared war, sending the two generals with a big army each to annihilate the enemy. Two years later, the four provinces of Siberia were under Russian control, and Siberia submitted completely to our rule.
In 1570 Siberia was annexed, and colonization of a lot of newly discovered territory started. While Vorontinski was around I better use him, so I sent him north and declared war on Pskov, annexing them short there after, long over due.
The year is now 1571, I'm almost one third through the grand campaign, and Russia is an empire reaching from the Kola peninsula in the north to the Caspian sea in the south.
Screenshot, Russia in 1571. Note that the Crimean khanate is represented with virtually the same color as Russia. They are still there, in their starting provinces. Note England, Sweden, and the German seaboard. The Netherlands has recently become independent, and so has Naples and Sardinia, both breaking free from the Spanish rule. Venice is almost annihilated, and so is both Prussia and Bohemia. And hm... My ally Austria has lost Tyrol to Poland.
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