[RFC-DoC] Russian Domination

Usual storybook style, modified 1.10. Monarch level, Epic speed. The most notable changes in my modification are:

Courthouses give +2 stability, instead of just +1. Additional AI weight given to Courthouses.

AI at Monarch builds units at 95% of human hammer cost, instead of 110%. They have a slightly slower worker rate and more expensive unit upgrade rate to compensate.

Some AI leaderhead playstyles improved.

Plague and mercenaries removed.

Representation, Republic, Totalitarianism civics given more bonuses (in 1.10, no AI ever adopts Representation or Totalitarianism, and for good reasons).
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Rurik, once a petty warlord from Scandinavia, was pleased that, during his expedition in Slavic lands, the Krivichi, one of the Slavic tribal alliances, after some... persuasion from Rurik's band, invited him to take place of their previous warlord who had been killed in the battle with the steppe tribes, who controlled the lands between the Slavic forests and Byzantine outposts in the Crimea. One of Rurik's first actions as a ruler was enlarging his territory at the expense of the Finno-Ugric tribes next to his new possessions. The Finnish tribes joined Rurik's band as vassals.





A later depiction of Rurik and the Slavs.

Smolensk, the capital of old Krivichi tribal alliance.



Rurik's immediate successors quickly forgot their Scandinavian heritage as they, by various means, expanded their realm among other East Slavic tribes into a new Russian state.



However, the tribal alliance of the Polyane did not submit to the Rurikovich dynasts. With their capital in Kiev, they refused to pay tribute to Smolensk.



Byzantium was a major influence of early Russian culture.



Many Russians were amazed at the grandeur of Constantinople and all the lands it controlled.



The Russian realm was beset from enemies at all sides. The steppe tribes in the South, warlike Finns in the North - fighting them left an undeniable mark on Russian national character.



Yeah, these Archers in the North are blatantly the result of the Vedic Aryans event, which still existed in 1.10. Leoreth purged it recently, removing some whackiness from the game. All the cities are building Libraries 'till they reach size 3, after which they'll switch to Workers.

Subbed. You should have an easy time fighting your enemies unless they are...


Link to video.

How come you settled Novogrod instead of 1N of that? The other tile has fresh water and is on a coast and would be better than Novogrod, unless it is in a flip zone.

I wanted to have the Pigs in the BFC, not taking the spawning of Kiev into account (Kiev is also fine 1S, but razing the existing city is such a waste).

I love that reference. CC FTW!

Yeah, I'm watching the series currently. I'm actually on the part with Russia, Kievan Rus' and the Mongols.

According to the Russian chroniclers, Grand Price Yaropolk did not like Christians much. His predecessors tolerated them, but he allowed the pagan priests, the Volkhvs to start an anti-Christian campaign, sacrificing Christian virgins to Perun, the God of lightning. Later historians were divided on whether the sacrifice of virgins really occurred, though.

However, when one battle with the Cumans went badly, Yaropolk prayed to the Christian God and emerged victorious. After that, he converted and requested the Byzantine Emperor to send priests in order to baptize his subjects.





Yaropolk's baptism

The Cumans and the Kipchaks still continued to attack Southern Russia.



Areas south of Smolensk were settled and cultivated.



Kipchak raids prevented Russian expansion by the way of Dniepr to the Black Sea.



Kiev was brutally ransacked when Grand Prince Yuri captured it. Chroniclers of Kiev wrote that the night after Yuri spilled so much Christian blood in capturing the city, he turned into a wolf and ate the bodies of his victims with the new spices from the Polish border. While it's doubtful that Yuri actually turned into a wolf, or engaged in cannibalism, the spices were undoubtedly real.



The rumours of Yuri being a sorcerer were even wider spread after his contacts with strange monks from the land of Tibet.



Russian expansion continued eastward. In 1210, Russian armies put Volga Bulgaria to the sword.



Mikhail Lomonosov of Novgorod translated natural philosophy tracts from Greek and Latin.



Apparently, the Turks fell victim to the AI tendency of moving all troops out of their capital on spawn and a conveniently placed Byzantine army. They revived in Trabezond next turn, but were quickly destroyed again afterwards.



And Russian eastward expansion was halted by the hordes of a new and strange enemy, the existence of which Russians never knew 'till now.

Why did you start with a warrior?

Probably it flipped to him when he spawned.
Correction: The warrior is actually from a goodie hut, even says so in the story

Grand Prince Dmitrii's troops harassed the invaders from the West, while his vassals, the minor princes of Samara and Syktyvkar, surrounded the Mongols from the East.





Prince Dmitrii fighting the Mongols

Many young men of the Yaroslavl Principality died in the fighting. The laments of their mothers and wives were heart-breaking, but Dmitrii knew that he can't allow them to influence his decisions.



Instead of storming the walls of Yaroslavl, the Mongols started a long siege with their Trebuchets. That was a major mistake by the Mongol warlords, enabling the Russian forces to pincer them and destroy the Mongol army.



Dmitrii's strategy in fighting the Mongols influenced many Russian generals for centuries to come.



The Church disapproved of the people of Smolensk running with the bulls in order to celebrate the victory over the Mongols. It's unknown why bulls were considered appropriate for the matter. Probably it had something to do with old Russian pagan rituals.



Russian armies and settlers continued to move westward, subjugating the various tribes that earlier were under Mongol influence. The elite of these tribes accepted Orthodoxy and merged with the Russian aristocracy.



The world in 1380. Yeah, the HRE is crusading in the Middle East, and France is divided between Spain, HRE and England.

Is this 3000 BC or 600 AD?

Must be 600 AD.

Yeah, it's 600 AD. You'll see the Tamils, however, they respawn as Vijayanagara Empire in my modmod.
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A small update this time.

The decades immediately after the Mongolian invasion saw the increase of urbanization around Smolensk, even as Russia still lagged in this aspect behind places as the Low Countries and Southern France.

The bonus to workrate is helpful in chopping Courthouses and Libraries in new Siberian cities.



More scientists...



...and more trades.



By the beginning of the 15th century, the Grand Duchy of Smolensk managed to subdue enough steppe tribes to evenly split them between Mongolian and Russian loyalists. Grand Prince Vasiliy led the expedition against large Mongolian cities in Central Asia, composed of both Russian and steppe Turkic warriors.



You'll see the composition of that stack in the next update. Also note that Byzantium had collapsed.

Chelkar would never be anything more then a small steppe fortress town, the hot winds blowing in its lands preventing any substantial growth of crops. Yet its importance lay in its strategic position on the trade route between the Urals and Central Asia. Its founding signalled the beginning of the end of the steppe tribes' autonomy, as Russian tax collectors, guarded by Russian troops, extracted money from the tribes.



The populace of Samarkand and Merv had no love for their nomadic overlords in Karakorum. The Great Khan's city garrisons couldn't prevent the thriumphal Russian conquest of these rich lands.



During the siege of Merv, a Russian nobleman, Konstantin Belsky, found some old writings in Farsi and Greek. The Russian general wanted to burn them as some kind of Muslim or Pagan incantations, but Belsky managed to smuggle them back to Smolensk, persuading the most learned people of Merv to accompany him. In Smolensk, Belsky realized that these writings describe a method of making an explosive substance, which would be useful in war. His progress on deciphering the old pieces of parchment, however, was very slow.



After the Russian annexation of Central Asia, the Khan himself followed the example of minor steppe tribes and pledged allegiance to Smolensk. Since then, Russian Grand Princes began to call themselves "Tsars", signifying their newly gained Imperial status.



Poor Mongols.



The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire refused to acknowledge the Russian Tsar's newly gained imperial status, citing that he controls all traditional Roman capitals.



New contacts were established between Smolensk and the Padishah of Delhi.



People from all the Russian lands wondered at the Great Beast of Yaroslavl.



Only a century after Belsky had discovered the old pieces of parchment in Merv, one of his heirs finally decoded the ancient text, which described a forgotten way to improve the preparation of gunpowder. Russian army immediately started testing the new method.



Years of testing finally resulted in success.



As the Holy Roman Empire split into dozens of squabbling principalities (which promted much gloating in Smolensk), Russian army was moving across the Afghan mountains to India...

Gasp!

If the Padishah of Delhi hoped that the sheer sight of his large grey beasts would cause the Russians to panic and scatter, he hoped wrong. His elephants proved to be no match to the Russian bombards and Belsky's gunpowder.



The Lamas of Tibet understood that the Russians are going to be masters of the region soon, establishing friendly contacts with them.



Strangely, once the Russian army advanced to Delhi, it turned around and began the march towards Gujarat. The Tsar wanted to keep the Padishah as his vassal, and Russian capture of Delhi might cause too much instability in the region.



After second army of the Padishah was torn up by Russian concentrated bombard fire in the battle of Mumbai, Delhi indeed accepted Russian overlordship.



Tech situation...



And the known world.



Note who had just captured Jerusalem and Dimashq. Very embarrassing for Iran.



The Russian court did not like Chinese detachments wandering around the Russian-Mongolian border. The Chinese Emperor insisted that his troops are here to keep the peace and guard Russian Mongolia against subversion, but the Russians were not convinced.



Russian army triumphed once more, this time against Persia. However, Russian agents in Iran reported to Smolensk that Ishafan doesn't actually hold much sway on other Persian provinces and that the Shah's subjugation doesn't mean that much when it comes to controlling the land.





But the Russian army would soon meet in battle with a more competent enemy...



England is now at war with me and my vassals, Tamils, and Khmer (who vassalized the Tamils). English vassal Poland is at war with me, but no Polish troops had crossed my border.

*war horn*

Kill Poland! Poland cannot into space!

I want DoC so bad every time I read an update....

Get a PC or a reliable emulator. That's why PCs are better than Macs.