To the Power of Green - A Novgorod Interactive AAR

[gela1212]

So, this is my Interactive AAR for Novgorod. Here's how it will work:

You vote on what I should do, then I take it as far as I can until I'm in a period of waiting again. Then you vote again. Also, any major decisions (National Ideas, slider moves, etc.) will probably be voted on you, though I'm not so sure about the sliders.

This will be a gameplay AAR

Here are my long-term goals, that I'll be working towards on my own.

1. Make as many nations as possible Orthodox
2. Form Russia
3. Trade in every CoT in the World
4. Get as many vassals as possible.

Here's the "house rules"

1. I will not annex any nation unless absolutely necessary.
2. I will only ask for provinces if the nation I am fighting is too large to be vassalized
3. I will always attempt to vassalize a nation.
4. I will always attempt to use "force religion" on a nation.
5. I will follow missions if possible.
6. I will use the console only if the game glitches and it's necessary to "cheat" to continue the game.

I can interpret these rules dubiously, except for rule #6.
-----

So, here's the Green Republic. Also known as Novgorod.

A large portion of it is crappy Russian territory. That's not good at all.

These are the Novgorodian sliders. Unfortunately, they aren't the tasty kind.

Here's my non-exist-- uh, I mean loyal fanbase's turn to vote!

Where should I make my slider move?

 

[Keinwyn]

Interesting idea.

It has been a long time since I played vanilla, but Novgorod isn't western tech is it? If that is the case I vote for either Centralised or Innovative. Centralised probably.

 

[unmerged(216158)]

I concur

 

[Kapt Torbjorn]

No way! Stick with Eastern tech and just mob your enemies with masses of crummy Russian soldiers. I say go Offensive.

 

[dinofs]

Offensive! Don't be one of those pansy trading states like all the other Novgorod AARs. Kill Muscowy, then kill the Mongols, then form Russia, then kill everyone else!

 

[sprites]

stay eastern until historical date!
move free trade for the win!

 

[Nordhus]

You need -2 Centralisation and -3 Innovative to Westernize. You want to generate missionaries as long as possible so start with centralisation.

Remember you will get the last two steps of Centralisation free when you form Russia, and as soon as you are at least -1 Innovative you can get another step Innovative with the Pass Recruiting Act decision.

Some unasked for advice: Your three main adversaries in the early game will be Muscovy, Golden Horde, and Lithuania. Despite starting with +3 Quantity Novgorod will not be able to defeat those three with overwhelming numbers. To add some quality too your forces hire any Commandant that shows up and seriously consider taking Military Drill as your first national idea.

 

[gela1212]

that's 3 centralized, 2 offensive, 1 free trade.

Vox Populii says I go centralization.

I'll actually start playing tonight and we'll see how this goes!

 

[Ashantai]

Centralised. Your increased tax and production revenues will help you a lot.

Innovative is fine where it is - close to the westernising line.

 

[gela1212]

The year is 1399, and the Greenlanders have received their first mission!

According to the will of God, 5,000 men is not enough. Since I follow all missions that are possible, I immediately begin creating new soldiers.

While doing this, I noticed something. Novgorod has a province that is Finnish-cored, meaning I can create Western units. Fun. I start work on my first Latin Knights.

Well then, look at this! Pskov, tiny little nation, does not love us and declines our alliance offer. But mighty Muscowy agrees! How odd. Do not worry my fans, we'll likely be betraying those people with a horse-flag soon anyway!

I had forgotten to centralize. So I did. Now I have a pretender on my hands, one with 6 regiments and very high military skill, apparently.

Whatever happened to 'The Voice of the People is the Voice of God?' God must have had a sore throat, I guess.

I dislike this pretender. He is better than the current ruler, so he shall be put down.

The Green Army attacks him from five directions! Truly amazing are we! Plus are green coats look very snazzy. Though, you can't see the power of the green since apparently I forgot to turn on political mapmode. No worries, it should be rectified in a few pictures or so.

Impossible! Our army has failed to annihilate the pretender, despite outnumbering him by 2,000 men.

They shall rue the day. By the way, it appears the Beigians in the south are attacking one of the small Bluinite nations. Too bad I have this pretender to deal with and such far between diplomats, or I would join in to 'convince' the Bluinite nation known as Tver that their king should pay service to our Kynaz (is that how you spell it?)

After awhile, we attack again, this time with backup from our pretty useless Eastland territories. It should be noted that the Beige Military helped with these pretenders too!

The pretender army is beginning to be defeated. They retreat to Vologda where we begin to attack them again. A few nonexistent screenshots later and they cease to exist!

If you look to the south of the Glorious Greenies, you will see that the Beigians have made peace with the small Bluinite nation for a province.

We build a fort in Olonets. Yay us.

The Green Army is nicely arranged here for your viewing. That's it for this episode of 'To the Power of Green'

Now then, it is up to you, dear fans, what should the Glorious Greenies do next?

 

[blsteen]

crush the Muscovites, then the swedes

 

[Boris ze Spider]

Make the Pskovians pay.

 

[unmerged(146885)]

Colonize in Scandinavia.

 

[Ashantai]

The Pretenders and other rebels have been the doom of many first slider change people. Good work dealing with them!

I'd gobble up some OPM Russian states necessary to form Russia to gain a firmer stronghold. Use the Muscovy alliance if possible to your advantage.

 

[Malurous]

Vassalize one of the minors.

 

[unmerged(215517)]

Having played Novgorod a few times, one of the more fun things to do really early is call down a holy war on the Golden Horde and send down a few fast regiments to take over 5-6 fort-less provinces while they're far away in Lithuania / Poland. At one point I even had a high maneuver skill general do circles around undefended provinces while being chased by a doomstack. At the same time I was running sieges and discovering new GH provinces with my main army to the south and east so I took them to 90%+ warscore without a single major battle.

But it's an AI exploit and if GH peace out with Lithuania and split up their big stack, it can end badly. Very badly.

 

[sprites]

especially with the beta where they have forts on most provinces?

 

[Ivir Baggins]

Grab Tver, Pskov & Yaroslavl. Then go beat up Muscovy.

 

[Franconian]

Grab Tver, Pskov & Yaroslavl. Then go beat up Muscovy.

If possible, wait until Muscovy gets in a war, don't honor your alliance and then attack them

 

[gela1212]

A quick update: I played with the suggestions given, and tried to gobble up Pskov and make them pay.

Sadly, Muscowy decided to honor their guarantee on Pskov over the alliance with me, so I kinda got completely curbstomped by a 20k doomstack from Muscowy, combined with a bunch of 1k infantries for sieging me.

So, I'll be reloading the save file and try to find another time to play.

Expect the update by saturday at the least, though.