Muscovy Russia Guide 25

Yüklə 18,53 Kb.

tarix	31.03.2022
ölçüsü	18,53 Kb.
	#54523

Guide

EU4 Guides

>EU4 Nation Guides>Russia 1.25

Muscovy - Russia Guide 1.25

Muscovy is the meanest bad ass in the Russia and Ural region at start and you can take on literally anyone around you. There are only 2 things holding you back, one is the limited manpower you start with and second are alliances. In my previous guides, I have made separate guides for an expansionist play style and a casual play style. However, I don’t think that’s feasible for Muscovy. Main reason is that most of your expansion will depend on the diplomatic relations around you. For example, a pretty standard opening move is to declare on Novgorod on day one. Most of the time they will ally Ryazan and the war will be easy. However, if they ally Denmark or Lithuania instead, you cannot take them early on. Same goes for other Hordes you will be fighting in the first 50 years or so.

This guide will be a less step-by-step and more of a general outline on what to do with Muscovy.

OPENING MOVES

Get level 1 advisors. Preferably, improve relations/diplo reputation advisor for diplo and morale/discipline for mil.

Rival Kazan and Great Horde. Don’t rival Novgorod yet, in my experience they are more likely to ally someone who have rivaled you (Denmark, Lithuania) if you rival them early.

Do the estate interactions. Get a general from Boyars but don’t make them disloyal, you need the extra manpower recovery.

Consecrate metropolitans (you can do this in 3 states). And select the Icon of St. Michael for extra manpower recovery and discipline.

RM all vassals. Improve with Pskov, as you can’t RM them.

Embargo Kazan

Start building spy network in Kazan

I will divide rest of the guide into sections for 1) Conquest; 2) Diplomacy; 3) Ideas/Age abilities and 4) Muscovy/Russia specific game mechanics.

CONQUEST

In the first few years, you will fight Novgorod, Great Horde and Kazan. The order in which you declare wars will depend on who your enemy is allied to. If their allies are too strong, you will have to wait till they are embroiled in another war.

Novgorodian Reconquest

December 11th: Set Novgorod as a rival. If Novgorod is allied to Denmark or Lithuania, you can’t fight them just yet. If they are allied to just Ryazan or Odeyev, declare on them.

Objective- Cut Novgorod off from rest of Europe.

As soon as you declare, take the mission.

Try NOT to fight their army and let your subjects do it for you. Siege down Ryazan/Odeyev. Siege down Novgorod forts.

Take all the provinces bordering Sweden and Tver and some money. Full annex Ryazan/Odeyev.

Try to come out with 4k to 5k manpower to spare after this war.

It will take 2 more wars to finish off Novgorod. In the second war, take the two center of trades.

The Steppe War of Great Horde

Objective- Humiliate rival

Rationale-

Low manpower means you don’t want to drag the war out too long

Power projection

Splendor generation

They might be allied to Uzbek, but you should be able to take them on too.

Quick siege both forts of Great Horde. You need 40% war score for humiliate, which shouldn’t take too long. Take some money if you can.

The Steppe War of Kazan

Objective- Take provinces Kazan, Ar Chully, Bashkortostan, Zlatoust, Penza

Rationale-

Kazan for the center of trade

Zlatoust for

Gold mine

Border with Uzbek/Nogai

Splendor generation as a province in Asia

Border with non colonized provinces for Siberian Frontier once you form Russia

Penza for Tambov mission

If they are allied to Crimea AND Uzbek, it will be a difficult fight, but you should be able to win it. Get some money from their allies and get those provinces.

Take Tver whenever you feel like it.

Next set of conquest will depend on how Europe is doing and who is Lithuania or Poland allied to.

Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth (PLC):

Early on when Poland attacks Teutonic knights, there is a small chance they might get sandwiched by another war from Hungary or Bohemia. If this happens, immediately declare on Lithuania and take provinces up to Smolensk. After this, it should be easy enough to beat them up in subsequent wars.

If Poland hasn’t rivaled you at the start, you should try to ally them. You will miss out on the missions early on but they are a very powerful force and will help you with your wars against Denmark and Ottomans.

Denmark:

Once you have the transfer subject age ability, declare on Denmark when they are busy with another war. Your objective is to take Norway as your own subject. This will be a long war. You will need to siege down all of Sweden and the fort in Denmark. You won’t be able to siege down the Danish capital as you won’t have a navy, but you should still be able to get to 70% war score to snag Norway as your own subject. Make sure you do this while in the Age of Discovery.

Conquests in Europe:

Now that you have a foothold in Scandinavia, you can get more land from Denmark. Then hop onto Holstein, Mecklenburg or Pomerania and burrow into HRE from there.

Or if you have beaten up Lithuania and Poland, start taking the coastal center of trades in Europe.

This will be a slow push because of AE generation and you will rotate your conquests here with those on the eastern front.

Conquests in Urals:

These are the easiest wars you will fight. Taking on Uzbek, Nogai, Kazakh, Siber is easy. Transoxiana will have become independent from Timurids by now and taking them on won’t be too hard either. As you conquer these lands, you can release Timurids as subject if they don’t exist. Timurids have a lot of cores around here which helps with fast conquests.

Conquests in Caucasus:

Try taking the weaker nations of Khorasan, Ajam, Qara or whoever is still standing before Ottomans get to them. Khorasan is one of the nations I like making as March. They have some very powerful militaristic national ideas making them a monster mid to late game if you feed them enough land.

Mid to Late Game Conquest:

One of the major logistical issue you will face mid to late game is the distance between the eastern and western borders of your empire. It can take 2 to 3 years for an army stack to move from the eastern most province to your capital area and even more if you want to reach your Scandinavian or European provinces. The solution is to have two separate groups of armies for both regions. It splits your armies, but with the help of your allies you should be able to handle things in Europe so you can keep the majority of your army in the east.

Conquest into Indian subcontinent:

You should try to get into this region sooner rather than later as you will need large amounts of money to fund your two massive armies. Its not too hard if no one has formed Bharat or Hinudstan yet.

Dealing with Kebab:

Ottomans are THE hardest enemy you will face playing as Muscovy/Russia. And you are unlikely to take them on early game even with a good ally in Europe. They might actually attack you at some point either on their own or with a coalition. It will be a very tough war, which you can potentially win. However, it will be a huge drain on your manpower, economy and time. Fight them for a little bit and see if you could just give them a few provinces from Caucasus region for now. Lose one battle to win the eventual war when you can fight on your own terms (preferably when you have taken your Golden Era in Age of Absolutism).

Dealing with Ming:

Ming is your enemy on the east. They have inferior armies, but they will have a huge numbers advantage. There are couple of ways to deal with Ming and their tributaries.

Get a border with Ming. If you are extremely lucky, you will find a nation that borders Ming and isn’t a tributary yet. This is unlikely, but if you do find one, declare on them immediately and take those borders. When Ming has a border with a large nation who isn’t a tributary, their mandate drops, making them vulnerable and in many cases, can cause a Mingplosion.

Declare on someone who is allied to one of Ming’s tributaries. Get provinces from them so you can border Ming directly. This will require a lot of diplo points.

Declare on a small tributary and full siege (even assault) them. Fight few battles with Ming armies. Ming will want to white peace after a while. Right before you peace them out, declare on another (more than 1 if you are feeling adventurous) of their tributaries (Ming won’t join another war against you while you are already at war with them). Rinse and repeat till you border Ming.

DIPLOMACY

Subjects:

Game starts with 5 subjects that fill up your relationship slots. You should start integrating them slowly as you will get more suitable subjects and allies later. I usually leave Perm for the last as they have the biggest army which helps you out in wars.

Get Norway as subject like stated earlier. Don’t feed them too much land though. You want to annex them sooner to get direct borders in Europe.

If you have taken on Lithuania, release minor nations and feed them land. Keep the center of trades for yourself though.

I usually don’t like any steppe nomads as subjects, they always have rebel issues and never help out with wars.

Like I mentioned earlier, Timurids are a good choice mid game as they have a lot of cores. And Khorasan as a march for their national ideas. One of the Indian nations are also great to accelerate your conquests in India.

Allies:

You need at least one big badass ally for most of the game.

If you can ally Ottoman, make that Unholy alliance. You will roll over everyone in Europe. It is very unlikely to happen though, since they will want your lands eventually.

If you can’t ally Ottoman, you need a big European power as an ally early on. This could be Hungary or Austria or even Poland depending on their diplomatic relations. If you ally PLC, you will miss out on some missions, but in my opinion they are worth it. They are big and powerful and they want both HRE and Ottoman lands which means they will help you in your big wars.

Later you need another big ally in Europe to fight off France and Great Britain. Look for one of the surviving Italian nations or Spain.

IDEAS AND AGE ABILITIES

Ideas:

Quantity-

Solves your manpower problem early on.

Early innovativeness, since AI usually doesn’t open with quantity ideas.

Religious-

Easy religion conversion

Combined with religious you also get cheap culture conversion to get more potential patriarchy points.

Deus Vult CB is the best till you get Imperialism CB

Administrative-

Cheaper mercs

Core creation cost reduction

Defensive or Trade

I like Trade ideas here as Russian provinces aren’t the most valuable. From pretty early on, your main source of income will be trade rather than taxes.

Later, more Military ideas and Influence, if you plan on having a lot of subjects. Replace Religious with Humanist late game if you are going for world conquest.

Age Abilities:

Age of Discovery- Transfer Subject -> War Taxes -> AE Reduction

Age of Reformation- Prestigious conversion -> Institution Spread -> Religious Wars -> Merc Discipline

Age of Absolutism- Absolute Government -> Admin Efficiency -> Harsh Treatment

Age of Revolution- If you have lot of subjects, take Liberty Desire ideas. And Artillery ideas.

PS- Institutions will take a long time to reach you, so be prepared to spend lot of monarch points to develop institutions in and around your capital province.

MUSCOVY/RUSSIA SPECIFIC GAME MECHANICS

Form Russia:

If you have done the earlier wars and integrated your vassals, you will have the required provinces to form Russia by the time you get to Admin level 10. Take the Russian ideas, they are better than Muscovy’s.

Patriarchy:

Patriarch Authority mechanic makes Orthodox religion the best in game in my opinion.

Icons-

Early game- Icon of St. Michael for more manpower recovery and discipline.

Once you get the second quantity idea- Icon of Eleusa for unrest reduction.

Icon of St. John Climacus for spreading and embracing Institutions.

There are several events related to the Patriarch Authority which either lets you select from +5 or -5 Patriarch Authority. Choose to get more patriarch authority almost every time. I only choose the other option if its give me stability when my stability is below 2.

Government abilities:

Sudebnik, Oprichnina, Streltsy

Point generation goes only up to 150. Don’t waste these point.

Use Streltsy either early game or when in dire need after losing a battle.

Absolutism:

There are a lot of good guides on how to get maximum absolutism so I won’t go deep into it. The best way to achieve this is by the Court and Country disaster. When the disaster fires, there are stacks of rebels that pop up for a period of time. Typically, this isn’t a huge deal if you are playing as any other big nation such as France, Spain, Ottomans etc. But it becomes another level of pain with Muscovy. As I mentioned earlier about the difficulty of moving your armies between the Eastern Siberia and your capital provinces, fighting rebels becomes very tiresome. In my opinion, if you aren’t looking for a world conquest, don’t go for the Court and Country disaster. Here’s what I recommend-

Stockpile all monarch points before Age of Absolutism starts. Save Oprichnina points.

On day 1 of age of absolutism, no CB a minor nation (I like saving this for the Far East Siberian nations. This ensures you don’t incur too much AE in Asia or Europe. Make sure you have a small stack of army next to them before you declare).

Break royal marriages till your stab is -3.

Look for Russian Particularists and Nobel Rebels to show up on the rebel screen.

Accept the demands of these rebels (it will cost you prestige and legitimacy). Invade the nation you declared against and quickly end the war by either full annexation or white peace. Use Oprichnina here for temporary rebel suppression.

Buy down war exhaustion.

Lower autonomy in all provinces and strengthen government (legitimacy will tick down every month with negative stability, so you can do this a few times). This should give you about 35-40 absolutism.

Raise stability.

In the Age of Absolutism abilities, select the +1 Absolutism. And later the Harsh treatment cost reduction.

Take your Golden Era here.

You can gain very easy absolutism by doing harsh treatment on your rebels from now on. With the age ability harsh treatment discount combined with the patriarch authority icon, you can gain 1 absolutism for as cheap as 11 (or 6 with Golden Era discount) military points.

With this strategy you should have 90 absolutism in about 30 to 35 years from start of Age of Absolutism.

Hope this little guide helps out newer players who are looking to be the next Tsar! Have fun!