Russia (M2TW Faction)

Russia, the name for the slavic people north of the Black Sea, comes from the Slavic tribe Rus. The Rus who first played a major role in history during the first siege of Constantinople. Afterwards, the pagan rus settled in what is now modern Kiev.They Then became Orthodox Christians and ended up growing to be one of the strongest and largest empires in the world (USSR).

Russia's Religion

The Russians are one of the few Orthodox Christian factions in the game. To the south of you is the other Orthodox Byzantine Empire. To the south east, there are the Catholic Polish and the Hungarians Located to the south over the Black sea, or over the Caucasus Mountains are the Islamic Turks. Because of the fact you aren't Catholic, you have no direct relation to the pope. Because of this fact you don't participate in the Crusades, and are under no pressure form the Papal States. Also due to this fact you are under no pressure from the Islamic factions to participate in Jihads.

Russian Military

The Russians use a wide variety of horse archers (HA) and melee cavalry (MC). The Russians prized or best unit is the Cossack cavalry. Cossack cavalry are equipped with light armor, a small sword and a composite bow. The Russians lack strong infantry units in the begging of the game. They rely mostly upon Merc. Soldiers, early HA's and Archers. Russia, despite lack of early period infantry, have fairly good late period soldiers. Starting with the Cossack Musketeers all the way to the best late period Artillery unit, the Bassilisk.

Russian Economy

Many of the lands you will acquire early on in your Russian campaign will have little resources. Meaning that in the beginning of the game your treasury is almost empty every turn. In order to sustain a good economy, capture as many cities on the Baltic Sea as soon as possible and build ports for naval trade. You then need to build roads in every settlement and hire a lot of merchants because there is a lot of fur, wood and amber resources lying around the Russian plains. After gaining a few rebel territories, you will need to try to capture southern provinces such as Keiv and Caffa, for Black sea trade. This will be important for trade with Mediterranean factions.

Russian Expansion

Despite Russia's slow economy and weak early game army, Russia is given many rebel provinces to expand upon. The starting town is surrounded by 3 rebel settlements. This is important because, if you get there early enough in the game there shouldn't be a garrison in the villages. (Smolensk, Riga and Helsinki). Towards the time when you conquer the rebel settlements on the map, Poland and maybe Hungary and the Byzantine Empire will be your western neighbors and the Turks being your eastern.

Russian Defense

Another one of the Russians weak points is its defense. More than likely, if you are playing a Russian campaign, you would be gaining overly large territories, and would thus- for best protection- need large amounts of watch towers to eliminate the fog of war on the map. Also if you conquer to the far east, and are on the edge of the map, build up your forces for the upcoming Mongol invasion, you'll need it. It is best you construct a fort, full of archers an spear man with some HA and MC, and try to force the Mongols into a siege battle were they will be at there weakest.