RUSSIA NEEDS YOU..:) please, i need some good advice. (game strategy, economics)

first of all: congrats! you guys have built the perfect mod. it's so addictively good.
i'm playing rfc for ages now and it's getting better and better...and better. talk about long time motivation.

in medias res:

i'm dealing with a delicate situation right now, one that's so strange that i can't recall ever having witnessed it before in five years of playing the mod. please, wise members of this forum..enlighten me.

i'm using the current rfc doc mod (v. 1.12, no SVN) and started a game as russia in the 600AD setting. the game went more or less swimmingly until the late 1600s. that was the time when i started expansion eastwards and from then on...what a mess! i played countless russia games (most with the 1700AD preset) but also quite a few in the 600AD-map, and NEVER did my economy stall that catastrophically. i'm down to 10% research rate and STILL make enormous deficits. if i don't use WB to spawn some great merchants, i'll lose this game. i don't want to butcher my carefully built empire (ceding cities is NO option, it's the motherland!View attachment Stalin AD-1817 Turn 1048.CivBeyondSwordSave).

my question: can anyone explain to me why on earth i'm in such a dire situation? how can i rebuilt my economy? this very game here was fun (surviving arabs and byzantine empires, weird sweden, powerful chinese menace) and i'd like to finish it. please help



(i'm new to this forum, if i posted this in the wrong sub,..i'd like to excuse myself in advance!)

Thanks and welcome to the forum! I'll leave the advice to your fellow forumites

Russia is indeed one of the hardest games. I would say is one of the most clever, the UHV seems easy, but in fact it is difficult.

From my experience with Russia, the russian economy requires cottage economy in ALL cities. Cottage economy can help with maintainance cost, and due to large numbers you can keep up with technology (in late game you can build the Internet).
Golden ages can help you make large jumps in techs (stop being backyard at first GAs and then gain a lead).

You can neglect training defencive army, general winter will take some care of your enemies.
(However, you need strong army to gain peace vassals and help the 3rd goal.)

As for the 3rd goal I don't have a good strategy yet. The best trategy I have heard is declare war to DP partner of pleased civs, conquer cities of the pleased civ and then liberate them back.
Three things to have in mind:
*complete 3rd goal before 2nd, completing 2/3 goals brings diplomatic hits
*unstable civs want protectors
*Iran generally wants to vassalise peacefully

In 1700AD scenario Russia train large amounts of workers and order them to build cottages. i haven't played it, but it should be ok.

Cottages? Who needs cottages? Feudal Farm Economy -> Socialist Workshop (and poor neglected Watermill) Economy all the way, just like in real life. I'd only build cottages in Leningrad and maybe Kiev, two or three in Moscow.

thanks for the quick replies!

well, i kinda have strong cities, productionwise. my entire european core is highly populated, and i have a lot of hamlets growing into cities, albeit slowly so.

my inflation is MASSIVE. any thoughts on how i could decrease it?

an overview of the disaster:

if I remember correctly 1.12 version was about less but mega cities; try to build less cities and avoid overlap to catch up in technology.

In my Russian game, I got communist friends by giving away techs and vassals. Especially giving away Communism. I even made America a friendly communist. (But this game was some time ago)

merijn_v1 said:

In my Russian game, I got communist friends by giving away techs and vassals. Especially giving away Communism. I even made America a friendly communist. (But this game was some time ago)

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In my own Russian game some months ago I collapsed America when I gifted them Communism.

Russian Federation? That's your problem right there comrade, y'all need to expropriate those capitalistic pig dogs siphoning your national wealth.

Why you have only 4/3/4 money buildings?

1) Construct the initial 4 cities.
2) In all cities except Moscow is building workers. In Moscow is building a scout.
3) We send scouts to Asia (changing technology from Korea, Tibet and China sometimes. Does not accept Orthodoxy before change!).
4) Spying on Byzantium or the Vikings.
5) Conquer Kiev by 3 horse archers and 2 swordsmen.
6) Building improvements. Do stack of 4-5 spearmen (repel the attack of the barbarians from the south).
7) Collect points espionage due to successful missions against Byzantium \ Vikings.
8) From the technology priority - guilds.
9) By the Mongol invasion conquer Kazan, which leaves to capture them.
10) Even without the Knights 10-15 spearmen easily defeated the Mongols.
11) After the conclusion of peace with the Mongols (or after the destruction of their army) - send 4-6 spies to Mali, change the paper and divine right.
12) We are trying to get a great spy (up until the Netherlands).
13) 3-5 stealing technology (priority - military tradition).
14) After the construction of St. Basil's Cathedral continue to spy on the most developed countries.
15) Found 7 city in Siberia
16) I almost do not build cottadges. Only farms, mines and lumbermills.
17) We have a lot of cities with good productivity. At least one of them always produces wealth or research (this is especially important in case of problems in the economy).
18) 3 UHV can be solved with the help of spies and without vassals.
19) Almost always spying => research.
20) Playing for Russia it is possible not to conduct offensive wars. All 3 UHV can obtain peace (almost) by.

Build no workers, rob workers from any AI, maybe indy Merv and Samarkand. Conquer Poland -- just declare war on them, they'll send their initial army to your general winter and freeze.

Raze Merv and Samarkand before Mongol spawn if possible. In 1.12, you can conquer Kashgar by guarenteed win, Kashgar can keep 2 merchants at size 2 and spawn a great merchant before Mongol spawn, send him to China and gain 2000 gold from Nanjing.

Tratatushki said:

18) 3 UHV can be solved with the help of spies and without vassals.

Click to expand...

How? There is no mission that can make a rival friendlier.

In fact, Russia is very easy when start as 1700ad

I don't really play as Russia but maybe moving your capital into the middle of siberia will help with the costs from cities? Or spawning a great Statesman and building an Administrative Center near the end of Siberia.

Also, you should aim for all the holy cities, Istanbul comes to mind. Try and take Istanbul & Mecca ASAP, they'll give you a nice gold boost that you're in need of. Your inflation is ridiculous but I have no idea why

schubert_ said:

thanks for the quick replies!

well, i kinda have strong cities, productionwise. my entire european core is highly populated, and i have a lot of hamlets growing into cities, albeit slowly so.

my inflation is MASSIVE. any thoughts on how i could decrease it?

Click to expand...

I see you are still building University in Riga. Since you are on 0% science slider I consider it to be unwise. In fact, it's 1821 AD and your cities in Europe are still working on unimproved tiles(empty grassland, plain forests), which indicates you've been suffering in your economy all game. I think some practice on building your economy(in either BtS or in RFC) is in order.

As for inflation, basically there's nothing you can do about it. Except that you keep your expense to the minimum(courthouses, civics with lower maintenance etc.).

If you want to save this game (if it is savable), build wealth in all cities sell away all your resources (except iron/horse, and hapinees &health that your cities will miss). At the short period of time you won't face strike (if there isn't you're dead) spam workers everywhere and convert all your tiles (except resources) to cottages.
Moreover use espionage against espionage-weak rich neighbours and steel their gold.
It saved me once.

Almost anything else needs a new game to work.

citis said:

How? There is no mission that can make a rival friendlier.

Click to expand...

Сhange civic on friendly civilization by spy.
P.S. Last time I did it in version 1.10

So I opened the file and instantly saw what the problem is: So much unimproved land. It pains me to see so many unchopped riverside forests around Moscow. Really at this point the problem isn't if you should go workshop/farms or cottages but rather that you should build any improvements at all.

Also you automated everything. I can kinda understand people who rely on the AI governor to choose which tiles to work, but letting it decide what to build in the queue in every single city? Is there anything you are doing yourself at all?

My recommendation: Build Wealth everywhere until you are no longer running a deficit, at that point build workers in your most developed cities until you have at least twice as many workers as cities. Chop down every single non-tundra forest that is riverside unless it's on Fur or Deer and build a cottage, farm or workshop instead depending on the specific needs of the nearby cities.

When I have some free time I'll try to salvage this game myself, I like a good challenge, especially when it's the same one the real life Soviet Union faced, trying to turn a backwards mismanaged country into a superpower without equal.

hey you guys,


thanks a million for your ideas and thoughts. very insightful!
man, i screwed up bad, didn't I?

okay, having read all your comments, i decided to start anew in 1550, when i initially started my expansion eastwards (more or less, i had the ural settled already). i focused on developing my core first, building improvements everywhere and focusing on techs that improve my economy and political advancement. it worked, i guess. i saved the file, take a look.

(this time i attacked china much more agressively, taking mandchuria for good..the peace is uneasy...those stacks of knights frighten me. arabs collapsed, so no islamic sweden..phew^^).

well...let me hear what you think..could i have done anything more?

and hell yeah, imp.knoedel...i would love to see you fixing that trainwreck. please post your results!

thanks again guys and have fun. awesome forum, awesome mod.



View attachment Stalin AD-1815 Turn 1046.CivBeyondSwordSave