Supernova
1435 - The barbarians are at the gates
War with the Golden Horde was always going to be the key conflict of the Grand Campaign start for any Russian nation. In truth I had hoped to wait out the iffy tribal politics and watch the horde rip itself apart. But they had not had many conflicts and were proving a very steady and shrewd nation calmly dealing with any succession problems in recent times.
Their declaration on me - was at a time when we were pretty much ready for it - our trade had begun the steady road to recovery the earlier aggression against others had been forgotten across trade centres.
Wars between large nations in In Nomine can be difficult to be decisive. The key espicially at this early stage is manpower. The AI in previous expansions had a habit of dreadfully wasting manpower. In the theater of our fights in what is now modern day russia the crippling winter attrition and the defensive bonus in forests would also have to be considered. Finally there are plenty of rivers - meaning once again a defensive bonus.
Early on I find a skirmishing approach is best and the image of the map above shows the early progress - there is no point attempting to rush collapsing ones manpower completely. This skirmishing enables one to identify the key components of the oppositions army.
Another issue that I had was that the horde has 5 or 6 provinces unknown to me. This 'terra incognita' would be nice to lift at some point.
Here is a look at the military breakdown:
Now the horde seemed to have two main armies - one in the south east in the crimea of 19K and another 16K one in the north. These stacks are a little large even for its own provinces to handle and early I sought to maximise its attritional damage. This can be a tricky process.
My tactics in this case is to use large 8K cavalry stacks to constantly move around supporting armies being attacked but removing themselves to neighboring provinces to avoid the full attrition damage. Leaders can also be a good way of avoiding attrition. Finally Assaulting at every opportunity also is a good idea when in a foreign province.
Whilst the war was going on I continued to add to the administration and slowly reforming policies toward a westernisation process.
These compete chance dudes really can give one an edge.
and a continued centralisation change:
The policies were significant the current innovativity setting meant that I could not gain missionaries making me consider carefully which provinces I might wish to gain in the case of a victory against the Horde not wishing to lumber myself with many islamic provinces.
1438 - wearing down the horde
Soon it was clear the hordes manpower was collapsing and I would be making steady progress.
Indeed an analysis of the warscore screen:
This shows that the Horde would be having major war exhaustion difficulties. The Crimea and former Georgian territory were giving them a major headache. However I had to proceed cautiously as inevitably my manpower was stretched and rebellions were starting to effect me as well.
I actually allowed my western province of Wenden to rebel back to the returned Lithuanian landmass - with the idea to use that a vassal for later.
Meanwhile the Horde would not be rushed into a decisive battle - the AI surprised me by cleverly playing on the defensive recovering its manpower and stacks.
I carefully placed my troops trying to pincer the enemy - the key being fighting all battles on my terms (defensive battles) eventually my provincial gains was stretching the hordes resources to the limits. I had cut off his Northern regions and was closing in on his capital - the province of astrakhan could not support everything.
The fall of its capital was inevitable after another large rebellion in the crimea actually saw off one of its large stacks. I considered my peace terms carefully and asked for just Ryazan (a stab hitting peace deal - always key to attempt this in MP or SP as a refusal forces stability down and doing this after a long war is really dumb). The AI refused twice offering me hilarious counter offers before finally at stab +1 they accepted.
1450 - The hordes inevitable collapse
It is not uncommon to see this, especially in this case for the Horde as they would suffer a tribal succession crisis, after a long war. Indeed Novgorad would suffer many rebellions of its own and would have some trouble quelling the revolters particularly as I sought to cut back military spending to half the rising inflationary costs.
One rebellion in Nijni Novgorad saw that province defect to us - handy though now an Islamic worshiping province not completely ideal.
My recovery had been steady and Novgorad now stood on the brink of Russia in fine mettle:
with strong finances and military its aims now would be to race toward Russia and westernisation - before a probable big push east or even south. In the meantime I look to sort the Baltics out and in all probability sieze control of Kiev.
