Russia (M2TW Faction)

Medieval 2: Total War | Factions:
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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).

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.

Military

Infantry- The Russians have weak early infantry units, meaning your regular militia/peasant units. However in the high period they already have fairly good units such as the Dismounted Boyar-Sons/Druzhina. Other than that they get decent spearmen and their most useful infantry unit the Dismounted Dvor. Those elite units can double as both great archers and a decent hand-to-hand unit. In the late period they can get the Berdishe axeman who are a good shock unit for breaching enemy lines. As nearly all Russian use axes they are usefull against the armour of the dismounted European knights.

Cavalry- Cavalry is the mainstay of the Russian army. The Russians specialize in horse archers (Kazaks,Cossacs) and have excellent dual use cavalry (Boyar Sons, Dvor). The Boyar sons especially can pepper the enemy with javelins and than surprise with a full charge. The Dvor fill the heavy horse archer role, but are capable in hand to hand as well. Though Russians don't use lances (only the late period bodyguard) their Druzhina and the excellent late period Tsar's guard can challenge any contemporary western knight. In hand to hand combat the Russian cavalry usually uses axes.

Ranged- The Russians start with fairly weak peasant archers. As they progress they can build crossbow militia in the cities and the dual use Dvor unit in the castles. Most of Russia's cavalry is also ranged (read above). The Russians really shine with their Cossack Musketeers who's long range is particularly useful against the Mongol ranged units. They can also get the fearsome Basilik cannon, and put guns on their late period fleets.

A note on fashion- If you have good armories it can be pretty amazing to see the Russian spear, crossbow and yearly bodyguard units radically change their appearance on the battle map.

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 Kiev and Caffa, for Black sea trade. This will be important for trade with Mediterranean factions.

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.

Summary

The Russians start with one city and a potential to expand. Their large steppes can be tough to defend, which is why they have a cavalry oriented army. They also need to be wary on Mongol and Timurid invasions. However if Russia can defend it's borders and withstand the invaders the way is open in any direction, with a powerful mobile army.