Russian for the Finish Line

[Royal Tenenbaum]

Hey guys. Let's play Russia on 1.14.

What do you guys think is the best way to start? I started a 600AD game as Vikings and settled all my cities in Russia's core; the only problem was that Catholicism never spread, and that seems the largest benefit of starting as another civilization. So then I tried France, and that worked a little well - I managed to build two cities that had catholicism before they spawned. But lately I've been thinking, would starting as the Arabs and making Russia an Islamic country work better?

Another thing I noticed was Russia had 1 less settler for each city founded in it's core. Is this a new feature?

 

[Ecthy]

It's always like that. When you destroy the southern French cities as Spain, the French will start with extra settlers. No?

 

[star15389]

Easy to see with Rome. If the Greeks have founded a city in Magna Graecia, you start with two Settlers. If they haven't you get three

 

[Royal Tenenbaum]

Interesting. What is best religion for Russia, then?

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Judaism, obviously.

 

[Baur]

Judaism, obviously.

Why? I thought that orthodoxy was the best - spreads very easily

 

[Fresol]

Because sarcasm.

 

[Baur]

 

[Jipsu]

Russian 3rd UHV is damn hard and dictates how you should play from the start. You can force central planning with espionage, force secularism to get rid of opinion malus, and get a bunch of opinion bonuses from trade deals, supplied resources over the years, supplied tech, open borders, defensive pacts, voting for them in the UN, mutual wars and giving in to their demands. Getting them to be your vassal voluntarily is instant friendly (has succeeded with Argentina and Iran but it's mostly a windfall success). So the negatives you're left with are border disputes, trading with enemies and not giving in to their demands. This leads me to believe that it's best to try not trading or opening borders at all until 1900s. Negative opinion probably disappears after some time but you can't be sure so best play it safe.

It might be safest to code dive leader personalities to find out if some civs are easier to make friends with than others. Is "we appreciate the years you have supplied us with resources" dependent on turn time, trade value, trade amount or all of them; is gifting better than selling; and is multiple separate deals better than one big deal? How much tech do you need to gift to get "+2 shared discoveries"? Is it mandatory to befriend civs that have mutually compatible favourite civics so you can run those + central planning and either secularism or a carefully chosen religion? Border disputes in Europe are probably there to stay but you can try gifting eastern cities to Mongols or China to get rid of some of it.

What I'm saying is that this is a refreshing, tricky and exhausting UHV.

Russia itself is a powerhouse. I've been building five cities in the core and seven to Siberia: Moscow on spot, Novgorod focusing on culture, Kiev, Volodga and the port city to the south near the sheep. Build workers, more workers and some archers, horse archers and lancers to counter Mongols. Build espionage buildings, skip research in favour of espionage if you're behind, build markets. Build workers and send 4+4 workers to build a road through Siberia. Siberian port is eventually settled north on gems. Send settlers to Siberia and probably build more workers. Queue up jails, theaters, post offices etc. when you do settle and build more workers. You never have enough workers (I found an unimproved forest next to Moscow in 1950 AD). Build railroad and cover it with your culture. Transition from espionage to science. When state planning becomes available you might not even need it if you've built your economy. Start gifting tech to prepare backwards civilizations for state planning.

Edit: just realised that Great Statesmen can conduct diplomatic missions so maybe this UHV isn't so difficult after all, as long as you pay attention to worst enemy -statuses.

 

[Fresol]

Russian 3rd UHV

Another approach is to have as many core cities (I can manage 7) as possible, invade and vassalize all 5 civs that you see fit. Take as many of their cities as possible and liberate them back after vassalization, and spread your state religion in at least one of the cities before that. In this way you negate the DoW diplo penalty and can benefit from state religion diplo bonus when necessary.

I haven't achieved victory with Russia in this version, but some vassal candidates are like Poland, Italy, Austria, civs that have no special resource that you desire. Probably not Turkey because you want to keep Hagia Sophia and the holy shrines for yourself.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Save up a great engineer in case you need to rush Manhattan or Apollo project. Start gifting tech to prepare backwards civilizations for state planning.

Can you rush Projects in the new version?

 

[Jipsu]

Can you rush Projects in the new version?

Actually maybe you can't, I didn't test.

 

[Royal Tenenbaum]

No, but late game Russian cities should have no trouble with production. Once they settle a little, beat some barbarians, and beat the Mongols, they are unstoppable.

But whether to switch to Catholicism or stay orthodox? I'm leaning towards Catholicism.

 

[Fresol]

What's so good about Catholicism? Russia cannot build the Catholic wonders in time.

The Hagia Sophia is good for them. And playing as Russia one often goes for the Middle East.

 

[Royal Tenenbaum]

What about switching to Catholicism when the Hagia Sophia expires?

 

[Fresol]

Hagia Sohpia gives bonus even if you change your state religion, so it's not the problem. The problem is even if you manage to convert early to Catholicism you don't have the tech and production to build wonders, so what's the point? With Orthodoxy you go for Constantinople first, and conquer Jerusalem for the shrines later, and then establish control over the middle east. It's just better than doing all the work of converting to Catholicism and getting nothing in return.

 

[Royal Tenenbaum]

How do you then deal with all the negative press from civilizations with different religions in later game, then?

 

[Fresol]

As long as you get the expansion going well you will get friendly vassals. Cottages can help your economic stability.

 

[Royal Tenenbaum]

What is the point of domination when you aren't adored while doing it?

 

[Fresol]

Catholicism is adored after Muslims, Jews, Asians and anyone with a different religious belief is wiped out from earth. Secularism sounds easier.