Russian advice

[HydroAC]

I'm playing as Muscovy/Russia for the first time. I have the New Rome expansion.

As of 1533 I'm doing OK. I've formed Russia, have eaten Lithuania, expanded into Caucuses with a nice Orthodox vassal to block the Ottomans, and am busy getting my new Russian claims. My Ideas are Defensive, Religious (both done), and now Influence. My next Idea will be Admin.

I have a few questions on the Russian mechanics and strategy, though.

"Raise Streltsy" seems nice for the 10% fire bonus and free units, but the forever penalty to raising stability means it costs me a lot of admin points. I've raised one set to see how it works but am leery of raising any more. Am I missing something? What are other's experience with this?

BTW, raise Sudenbik is awesome, reducing autonomy on the provinces I just raised autonomy on to keep a lid on revolts. Lower autonomy means more manpower and ducets.

Icons are a nice boost and I used one when the Renaissance started for institution spread and acceptance cost reduction. I also see a harsh treatment reduction, which will be handy during the Age of Absolutism. Should I be using these aggressively, spending my rather rare Patriarch Authority?

For Defender of the Faith, it occurs to me that I am the only Orthodox country of note, so this more a less a freebee (I won't be called into anyone else's wars) if I want to take the tech penalty hit. The morale and especially missionary and war exhaustion reduction are helpful - especially with Religious Ideas. It kind of fits from a role playing point of view for a Third Rome, too. Thoughts?

As to expansion strategy, I'm pushing to get to India but I'm developing a dangerous amount of AE in the Caucuses, western Asia, and Urals as I collect my claims. Expanding into Ottoman lands seems unhelpful right now since they are rather strong and that area does not help my trade node/income. Perhaps I should expand into Denmark/Sweden and eventually have my home trade node in the Baltic Sea? I could also grab Iceland later and colonize the Americas and start colonial wars.

My income is lagging, too. I have prioritized high level advisers where I can get them cheaply (lvl 3 admin, lvl 3 diplo, lvl 1 military), speeding ~11 ducets a month which seem like a good deal. But I have only 66 army of my force limit of 110. Any thoughts on increasing my income as the Russians?

 

[Viking]

With Muscovy/Russia I like to pick religious ideas. This pretty much gives you free or super cheap stability. the -25% stab cost reduction idea and the -10% stab cost reduction from being orthodox you suddenly can have full lines of streltzy without costing you too much stab. Plus religious gives you lots of free stab so you rarely have to spend adm points to get it.

FURTHERMORE, as russia you can get half price advisors in all three categories (cossacks gives you a cheap mil adviser) so you should be able to afford lvl3 advisors in all groups which gives you more free stab. The most important idea groups for russia would be Religious, Trade and Economic.

 

[TenshiN]

I am Russian, and i come to bestow you with advice...

Okay, even i admit it was lame

I'd say reduce your advisors to lv2 and raise more troops. More troops on you and your allies -> Less coalitions
Also, do hire Streltsy, they are rather good and the penalty to stability will decrease as you expand.
Expand into the steppes and towards Ming, focus on destroying Poland if it is still there after you smashed Lithuania. Scandinavia is worthless unless you get Denmark with its nice regions. Persia is also a nice place to expand into, usually lacks strong enemies and has some really nice regions with great tradegoods too. Also opens up a route to India

The most important idea groups for russia - Trade and Economic.

What nonsense, before picking those, it is much more useful to take Administrative to conquer decent regions that don't require you spending valuable paper mana for meager bonuses from Economic to be effective
They are decent, but really really far from being so much as "most important".

 

[HydroAC]

Thanks for the advice.

You are right that a large army will deter coalitions. I have a big bankroll (2000 ducats) from all the conquering (and no structures worth building due to low-development provinces) so I'll invest in 22 more Streltsy. With the 14 stack I just built that will put me near my force limit.

Currently I'm allied to Poland, working to get a Russian on their throne with Support Heir for when they convert to a regular monarchy and then a PU. Recently they married me, so their ruler will cycle out soon so perhaps then I can end the alliance and take their land.

Ming is spreading his tributaries - my neighbor Chagatai just became one, so perhaps I need to continue expansion in the Urals and Central Asia. The land is worthless even with free claims, but the ducats are great and blocking Ming is helpful.

Persia is the gateway to India, so that is a a priority. I'd love to get some Trade Companies in east Africa and India and maybe start colonizing Indonesia. But I have to smash the huge Timurid empire first...

 

[Viking]

What nonsense, before picking those, it is much more useful to take Administrative to conquer decent regions that don't require you spending valuable paper mana for meager bonuses from Economic to be effective
They are decent, but really really far from being so much as "most important".

You already have -25% for the claims and a -10% for being Russia. No need to waste an entire idea group on mercs you can't afford. Get a working economy, get lots of cannon, get your streltzy out, get high level advisors so you can get more "paper mana", producing rather than saving paper mana means you spawn streltzy more often, use that for an extra 20% free manpower while at war.. or spam military drill with your full maintenance non-merc army and if you run out of manpower tap professionalism for more 20% manpower hits.

Trade and Econ stack wonderfully for russia. Controlling the land trade routs means nobody can steal your trade power, build manufactories in siberia, funnel the trade to novgorod (or kazan if you want to troll the baltic traders) and make a mint, use that to leverage lots of free manpower.

As a scandinavian, that is my sage advice for playing a scandinavian game.

 

[Viking]

Thanks for the advice.

You are right that a large army will deter coalitions. I have a big bankroll (2000 ducats) from all the conquering (and no structures worth building due to low-development provinces) so I'll invest in 22 more Streltsy. With the 14 stack I just built that will put me near my force limit.

Currently I'm allied to Poland, working to get a Russian on their throne with Support Heir for when they convert to a regular monarchy and then a PU. Recently they married me, so their ruler will cycle out soon so perhaps then I can end the alliance and take their land.

Ming is spreading his tributaries - my neighbor Chagatai just became one, so perhaps I need to continue expansion in the Urals and Central Asia. The land is worthless even with free claims, but the ducats are great and blocking Ming is helpful.

Persia is the gateway to India, so that is a a priority. I'd love to get some Trade Companies in east Africa and India and maybe start colonizing Indonesia. But I have to smash the huge Timurid empire first...

No need to fear Ming and it's protection.

1. DOW the smallest Ming protectorate and blitz it's capital and all cap it before ming can reach you (alternately laugh while ming marches to the Urals to siege down undefended provinces.
2. DOW the Ming protectorate you actually want to attack.
3. Wait 30 days.
4. White peace the small Ming protectorate that you have all capped.
5. Rinse and Repeat

 

[TenshiN]

You already have -25% for the claims and a -10% for being Russia. No need to waste an entire idea group on mercs you can't afford. Get a working economy, get lots of cannon, get your streltzy out, get high level advisors so you can get more "paper mana", producing rather than saving paper mana means you spawn streltzy more often, use that for an extra 20% free manpower while at war.. or spam military drill with your full maintenance non-merc army and if you run out of manpower tap professionalism for more 20% manpower hits.

Trade and Econ stack wonderfully for russia. Controlling the land trade routs means nobody can steal your trade power, build manufactories in siberia, funnel the trade to novgorod (or kazan if you want to troll the baltic traders) and make a mint, use that to leverage lots of free manpower.

As a scandinavian, that is my sage advice for playing a scandinavian game.

1) Your claims are limited
2) 10% is not that much
3) You only need to spend 800 admin to unlock the best idea in the group
4) Like i said, they are nice, but not essential. Conquering more land is always easier and better than unlocking economical modifiers. You can always pick those later, after you get the essential Religious -> Influence -> Administrative set. Although after that i'd pick Exploration to colonise the Americas and get all those free merchants that will make picking Trade redundant.Conquering more will net you much more ducats than Economic+Trade both, also much faster. Especially as Russia, who is already suited for the wide conquest game

Of course you are generally free to do whatever you like and pick whatever ideas that tickle your fancy, but effectiveness-wise, the ideas i listed are pretty much a staple pick for 90% of game's nations, with Diplomatic-Influence and Religious-Humanist being interchangeable.

 

[HydroAC]

Also, you are right that most of Denmark/Sweden is of small value. This expansion area is only useful if I 1) move my trade capital down to the Baltic Sea, 2) use as a way to expand while NOT getting more AE in the Urals/Central Asia, 3) myself up to for colonizing the Americas, and 4) get provinces by Europe for Institution spread via high-development provinces in southern Scandinavia. Russia is isolated for most institutions, and I had to sink an obscene amount of MPs to get Colonialism. It was taking forever to spread from Genoa/Crimea, and after waiting 30+ years I had to force the issue. My former capital Moscow now has 52 development.

Viking - Interesting gambit for taking on Ming! It will take a while for Ming to get mobilized. The nearest Ming tributary (my neighbor) has 176 development, so I can try a blitz but it will be iffy with his allies. Can I force them to break their tributary status?

 

[TenshiN]

Can I force them to break their tributary status?

I think you can, but generally not worth it: Ming will tributary them back soon enough. Just eat them all up, border Ming, refuse to pay tribute yourself and watch its mandate burn, turning its soldiers into paper

Edit: the last institution you will have to actually develop is Printing Press, which is the next one after Colonialism. Also, just stack the -devcost bonuses in province you want to develop: One from Prosperity, one from state edict and one from happy Merchant estate are the ones you can get for sure. It makes developing institutions much less painful! Also, my rule of thumb: Make sure to have the provinces you develop for institutions border each other - once one of them has the institution, it spreads to the neighbouring ones really fast because of their high dev, greatly reducing the money you need to spend for embracing

 

[Viking]

Also, you are right that most of Denmark/Sweden is of small value. This expansion area is only useful if I 1) move my trade capital down to the Baltic Sea, 2) use as a way to expand while NOT getting more AE in the Urals/Central Asia, 3) myself up to for colonizing the Americas, and 4) get provinces by Europe for Institution spread via high-development provinces in southern Scandinavia. Russia is isolated for most institutions, and I had to sink an obscene amount of MPs to get Colonialism. It was taking forever to spread from Genoa/Crimea, and after waiting 30+ years I had to force the issue. My former capital Moscow now has 52 development.

Viking - Interesting gambit for taking on Ming! It will take a while for Ming to get mobilized. The nearest Ming tributary (my neighbor) has 176 development, so I can try a blitz but it will be iffy with his allies. Can I force them to break their tributary status?

don't bother, just do the gambit again and again. The ideal ming tributary to attack is an OPM with no capital fort.

 

[HydroAC]

Great advice on Ming! I've previously left them alone, not wanting to have endless streams of troops overwhelm me. They key is to get to the tributary's capital first.

I love the idea of refusing tribute, too.