Russian Beginnings?

[GAGA Extrem]

Let me quote myself from the Russia thread we had last week:

My strategy for Russia is:
(1) Research "Freedom of Trade" as first tech to get a sweet RGO income bonus.
(2) Promote bureaucrats to increase admin_efficiency to 100%. Once at 100% efficiency set admin spending to 50%.
(3) Research Idealism and Ideological Thought to boost RP generation.
(4) Promote clergymen to 4% to boost literacy. Keep spending at 100%.
(5) Focus on culture techs (Philosophy > Social Thought > Political Thought > Aesthetics > Psychology)
(6) Get enough Industry techs to balance out the budged (clergymen will cost quite a lot). Also make sure to grab the low tier tax_efficency ones from commerce. Make sure to build one factory in every state (use the reactionary party) to get at least some natural craftsmen promotion.
(7) Research enough army techs to be able to withstand a potential hostile attack. If you end up in multiple wars divert more reserach towards the army.
(8) Once your literacy is good enough (70-80%), you can reduce education spending to 0%, reduce clergymen back to 2% and proceed with rapdid industrialization.

In general Russia has a harsh start (you will have to max out taxes and tariffs during the early game), but once you have your admin_efficency up and start researching the RGO throughput and tax_efficency techs, you should be able to cut tariffs over time. The increasing number of clergymen will become problematic around the 3% mark, but you really want that extra literacy speed and the reduced CON. The worst that can happen to me is that I end up in several early game wars against Prussia or the Ottoman Empire, because that usually means I have to divert my precious RP into army tech.

Military expansion is, imho, not needed. Russia has enough base pop to become #1 in a SP game. I guess you can faceroll a few uncivs if you get the chance, but tbh for me it is not really worth the hassle. I'd rather make sure that I have good relations to Prussia, because if they ever get to attack you with another ally (France or even Austria), you are in for a long and bloody war...

The "rebel problems" usually come from the fact that the high % of clergymen supress CON for most Russian pops, while other cultures will increase their CON behind the reform desire threshold and then these smaller pops will build up MIL and start perpedual revolt. The best thing you can do is to get as many CON boosters as possible, reduce clergy as fast as you can and issue reforms whenever possible.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

It seems to me that there should be a thread that has general player strategies for each major country. I seem to remember there being a similar thing on the CK2 forum.

I think the Vicky 2 Wiki has detailed strategies for all majors (and a good chunk of minors). That should be the way to go for new players.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

How does one reduce the number of clergy?

All my games as Russia are ruined by the last few decades with millions of rebels spawning over and over.

0% education funding + maxed middle taxes helps. But it always takes time.
One counter measure is to research Psychology techs early on to get the CON/MIL effects and grab "Social Science" asap for the extra CON boost.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Won't that screw with my literacy improvement?

Sure, but once you are at ~80% you don't really care about that anymore. I guess you could cut the clergymen to 2% much earlier (50% or so?). It does slow pop promotion (especially clerks) quite a bit, but that might still be a better alternative to mass rebellions every two years...