"A Great Wind is Blowing" - Russian Strategy

[eireksten]

A while back I created a strategy thread on the french which turned into an interesting discussion on how to play that civilization. As it seems that many are doubting the strengths of Russia, I thought it might be a good idea to get something similar going there. So I'll write up some observations on Russia, their bonuses, and how they might be utilized.

Feel free to discuss your thoughts on Russia, how to play them, what's good about their bonuses, or simply a write-up of one of your russian games (and your observations on what worked well, what could you have done differently, etc.)

Initially, I'd like to say that I think Russia are underrated. They are one of the least obvious civilizations, I agree, but when you've tried out how they play, they'll grow on you. I think the bonuses are a lot better than they seem at first sight, and put together they give an overall strong civ.


BONUSES
Starting: Russians begin with more of the map visible
Ancient: +1 food from plains
Medieval: defensive units receive the Loyalty upgrade
Industrial: Half-price Riflemen
Modern: Half-price Spies


Local Area Map

This might not be the coolest bonus in the game, but it does help a little:

- You get to see whether there are some nearby islands.
- You'll know the locations of the nearest friendly huts and barbarian villages (if any that close, but there usually are).
- You'll discover any nearby dead ends, and you'll save turns by not sending your exploring units there.
- You get an early look in the area, that might give up a better location for your capital (in the long run). As plains are better than grassland when you're Russia, you might not need the two grasslands in your starting location.

All in all, this bonus speeds up your exploring, as well as often giving you a better location for the capital and a head start on planning your early city placements. I think the bonus is far from useless.


Extra Food from Plains

Now, this is a really strong bonus, especially this early in the game. I don't think many people realize how good it actually is. I've seen some people comparing it to the japanese sea food, noting that sea is more common than plains. That's true, but their overlooking a very important fact. Plains already produce food! While the japanese doesn't sacrifice much growth through research, the russians get massive growth, as their food tiles just got even stronger.

Lets see what this does. When growing a city, you'll want to get your workers to produce as much food as possible (that gives faster growth). So in the early game you'll want to work those tiles with 2+ food. Cities with the most tiles producing 2+ food are the ones that get largest in the early game. With the russians this includes plains, so don't hesitate in building your cities near them. In fact you should try to get at least one city with 3+ plain tiles. When working such tiles, you'll get a lot more growth than the japanese will, unless they sacrifice their research.

As a side note: The japanese bonus will really help growth later on, but they need some time before it becomes an advantage in growth instead of research.

In the late game, the cities that get largest are those with the most food production, which most likely comes from granaries and plains. But wait! Those cities had the best growth early on as well with Russia! Which practically means that you'll have some huge cities compared to the enemies if you've placed your cities a little smart.

So what is the benefit of larger cities? You'll get more production and trade through working more tiles (and from the city workers), and even more culture in those cities that have culture producing buildings. You shouldn't take lightly on that advantage. It helps you on the path to ALL victory conditions.

When playing Russia, I'd carefully consider if it might be a good idea to rush an early granary in a plain heavy city (or two), to get a major head start on a mega-city (or two). Since you'll most likely catch up later due to larger cities, it might be worthwhile to sacrifice some trade (and maybe a little production) early on. Find that nice balance that keeps you safe while still growing.

In addition to helping you out on getting larger cities, this bonus opens up for a lot more viable city locations. Lack of food will seldom be a problem. Since you started planning city locations from turn 1 (with the local area map), russians will due to this make a lot better use of their lands.

Note also that, in addition to all those yellow tiles, snow tiles count as plains, and will give more food with the russians.

Loyal Defenders

Suddenly all the defensive units (archer, pikeman, rifleman, modern infantry) you build start out with +50% defense in your own territory. Add veteran as well, and you'll get a really solid defense +100% without other bonuses. A fortified archer army in your capital will have a strength of 21. Riflemen get 52.5.

On top of that, you'll increase your chances of getting the leadership/engineer promotions when you later recieve elite upgrades. Those defensive units have never been stronger

As you build up your civilization to those large cities, these defenders will make sure you're safe.


Cheap Riflemen

Now, how cheap does this actually mean? Ridiculously cheap! And that's from the very first rifleman you build! It does in fact cost the same as an archer, and you get a whole army (3) of riflemen at the price of one modern infantry. It is actually so cheap that you might want to consider skipping Mass Production and rather defend with sheer numbers of this unit. As they are also Loyal (from the last bonus), they will do quite some damage to any attacker.

At this point, you should have a massive defense in your whole civilization, and those large cities of yours should continue to thrive. They also have a nice synergy with spies, as I will discuss next.


Cheap Spies

Spies are extremely powerful, especially in the late game. Just to refresh our memories, here's what they do:
- Disrupt defensive units
- Steal Gold
- Kidnap Great Person
- Destroy Building
- Sabotage Production
- (Leave Quietly)

In addition, they defend your own cities against enemy spies. All these abilities are utterly unique to spies (and are very good), and they can wreak quite some havoc in enemy cities. Someone closing in on a cultural victory? Kidnap their great people! It even takes you closer yourself. Need that extra push onto domination? Disrupt defensive units! Is there some rich bastard civilization anywhere? Steal their gold! You'll be amazed at how much gold a spy can fit in your pocket. Anyone building the winning wonder? Sabotage the production (and do something drastically to try and get the win yourself)!

So, how does this help you towards your win? You stall the others, as well as gaining ground on your way to a cultural or economic victory (unless you're going for domination, of course, in which case you'll use the spies for weakening the defense). Since you've got those large cities going, by this point in the game, you should be one of the strongest civilizations in both culture and economy.

It takes some strategy and practice to use spies as effectively as possible, so here are some pointers to get you going (I'm sure someone has even more tips on this subject).
- Use riflemen (which still are ridiculously cheap btw, and you should have tons) to defend your spies. If you need to have the spies wait in enemy lands, declare war and plant some riflemen in a forest or something. You should at least do your best to prevent any enemy from capturing them.
- Try and stick to bordering cities (so that you don't have to venture far in enemy territory), or use boats to land spies (and riflemen) in the middle of enemy lands.
- Send spy rings in first on a city. If they don't face an enemy spy (or ring), have them leave quietly, sending all your single spy units in after them in the undefended city.


Concluding Remarks

I find that all types of victories are possible to go for with the russians. Large cities and better defense make for a strong overall civ. As spies will give another kick to any victory (except for technology), you're in a good position. In addition, the spies will help keeping you safe as well as slowing down everyone elses road to a win.

I have to admit that I haven't played very many games with the russians (there are simply too many civs out there to play a lot with everyone), I've used spanish, indian, japanese and mongol lately. I will play a few games now, however, if we can get some discussion going I'm sure that if we can develop a better understanding of Russia and how to play them well, we'll see a more competitive side of them.

Of course, as with all civs, you need to take care of any rusher that might appear. But that's more of general strategy than one specific to Russia...

[Markwah]

Great Article.

I would welcome your thoughts on the Indian Civilization (perhaps this would be one for a different thread)- I cannot seem to get them to work for me - if they got Religion from the start it would work as a rusher, however getting religion when you do does notr help....

[Virodeath]

You forgot to mention the heaving bust of the leader! lol


Viro

[eireksten]

Great Article.

I would welcome your thoughts on the Indian Civilization (perhaps this would be one for a different thread)- I cannot seem to get them to work for me - if they got Religion from the start it would work as a rusher, however getting religion when you do does notr help....

Glad you liked it.

I've been about writing up some of my thoughts on India (and Spain). I might do those eventually, as I think both of them are underrated as well. We'll see. Religion does help, however, you just need to plan a little ahead, and rushing is not necessarily the best way...

But lets just keep this one on Russia. I'm anxious to get better at using them, and would love for people to write about their experiences in playing with them, as well as anything I haven't thought about.

[eireksten]

You forgot to mention the heaving bust of the leader! lol


Viro

Yes. That's more of a bonus for the enemies, however.

Could be useful when conducting diplomacy, though

[RayJay]

Very good analysis

One thing I'd be interested to know is how long it would take a russian city to overtake a chinese city in population terms with identical tiles and 1 or more grassland squares

[eireksten]

Very good analysis

One thing I'd be interested to know is how long it would take a russian city to overtake a chinese city in population terms with identical tiles and 1 or more grassland squares

Assuming both cities were founded in the ancient era, the chinese start off with a 20 food head start (30 food in the medieval era). If the cities have more than two food squares (3 in the medieval era), the chinese will get an even larger head start.

To simplify, lets assume none of the cities build granaries, and that the chinese will work any food tile there is

• Without plains, the russian city won't catch up.

• 1 Grassland, 1 Plains - 20 turns
• 0 Grassland, 2 Plains - 10 turns.

• 2 Grassland, 1 Plains - 25 turns.
• 1 Grassland, 2 Plains - 15 turns.
• 0 Grassland, 3 Plains - 10 turns.

• 3 Grassland, 1 Plains - 45 turns.
• 2 Grassland, 2 Plains - 22 turns.
• 1 Grassland, 3 Plains - 14 turns.
• 0 Grassland, 4 Plains - 10 turns.

This is how fast they catch up completely in terms of food. In the meantime, they'll often have the same population (with the chinese being closer to the next pop point), so you probably could shave off a bit more on the turns needed. I'll look a little closer on that.

In general, I don't think the chinese player will focus as much on food (neither in production or city placement) as the russian player. The plains simply aren't valuable enough in the early game. In addition, granaries shorten the time, as the russians will be able to work all the food tiles earlier. Due to this, the russians will come better out of the equation.

edit:

Usually, the chinese will build their cities near grassland. This means that the russians are likely to have more good food tiles early on. They'll also have a lot better food tiles later when granaries are built.

[eireksten]

Just added a comment that all snow tiles count as plains, so both the granaries and the russian bonus work on these as well.

[Rawchief]

Excellent guide eireksten.

Something that you may or may not add is in games that allow it, Russia should try to hit the economy milestone that gives granaries in every city. This can save production in the long run.

Another tip you can add, is after stocking tons of rifleman up in your cities, try to hit the mass production tech, and then build a leonardo's workshop. If done well, you will basically be eliminating the option of a domination victory unless someone nukes Moscow.

The best is having a plains space by a river after discovering irrigation. With a granary, can you say, hello Mr. 5 food square?

Russia is the turtling champ.

[eireksten]

Excellent guide eireksten.

Something that you may or may not add is in games that allow it, Russia should try to hit the economy milestone that gives granaries in every city. This can save production in the long run.

Another tip you can add, is after stocking tons of rifleman up in your cities, try to hit the mass production tech, and then build a leonardo's workshop. If done well, you will basically be eliminating the option of a domination victory unless someone nukes Moscow.

The best is having a plains space by a river after discovering irrigation. With a granary, can you say, hello Mr. 5 food square?

Russia is the turtling champ.

Some good suggestions there. I'll try and get them into the article if/when I get the time.

[Leo]

i love the food bonus russians get, and the starting map bonus which means youll almost always get two huts in view straight away.

only thing that stops them being competetive online for me, is that to really leverage this bonus you need to build granaries and that takes time. for example, your comparison with the chinese, i would really need to get very early granaries in my cities to be competetive and that kind of hurts, because he will build libraries in his instead of granaries and so on.

if only russians got half price granaries or something.

[eireksten]

In my comparison with the chinese, none of them built granaries.

I don't think granaries are really that necessary until a little later in the game. In the early game, you'll get a lot more viable city locations, which is helpful. That bonus should alone keep you going until you get the resources to build/rush granaries, if you don't want them right away. I'd really consider a granary instead of a library (when russian), though, as you should never underestimate the power of fast growth.

Also, I think libraries are overrated

I will try Russia in ranked later today, and do a write-up of how it went.

[tangerinedarter]

Also, even without graneries having plains by your city are essentially the same as grasslands. I think you should go granery first, but if you need the tech or are in a tech race you could go library then granery. Neither really costs that much.

Also, like with every civ it is important to specialize the cities. So with Russia I will look for having at least one city be main research (Moscow usually) and one city be food powerhouse (may not have any sea squares, but at least 3-4 plains/snow). You don't need to worry about libraries/market in that city until it starts getting specialist citizens - medieval or later.

Also, just because someone leads early tech doesn't mean they will lead the whole game as population = power. I know china has population advantage too, but I feel russia can outboom within cities if placed right.

[Leo]

well the situation i am concerned with is:

i am russia, my opponent is chinese (but could be a number of the superior online civs).

so i pick 2 plains heavy locations for my first 2 additional cities, and china picks two tech positions, with a grassland or two each.

i go for granaries, which will pay off in the long term, he goes for libraries.

this means he will get almost all of the important techs (bonus wise) before i do, some of which will really hurt my chances of catching him (eg irrigation).

he will be getting tech faster than i will be gaining ground in growth and with each era adding one population to expansion cities, this can become a really big deal as he starts expanding like crazy, and getting all this extra pop for free, that i am having to make granaries to match, if you see what i mean.

ive just played too many games with russia, where i know 'once i get going' things will be good, but the time it takes for me to get russia kick started (granaries) is longer than the time it takes for say a china, to start mass expanding and getting all his benefit for virtually no cost.

i would like half price granaries because otherwise i would have to either buy them (never have the fairly large amount of gold required to do that in all my cities early on), or tie up my cities on full production making them (which means i will fall behind in growth which is kind of the exact opposite of what im trying to do).

just feels like it takes a little bit too long to get russia into that winning position.

[Virodeath]

Something I am starting to get confused on reading this.

When dealing with food does all the food go into one pot? I thought the food around a city is used for only that city. If that is the case what good would having say a city with lots of plains/grasslands but no trees (a food city)?

Wouldn't it be impossible to build anything in any kind of time?

Viro

[eireksten]

Something I am starting to get confused on reading this.

When dealing with food does all the food go into one pot? I thought the food around a city is used for only that city. If that is the case what good would having say a city with lots of plains/grasslands but no trees (a food city)?

Wouldn't it be impossible to build anything in any kind of time?

Viro

Well, nothing stated here says that you can't have production tiles in your city. Also, population that doesn't work on any tile around the city, produces one production (and some amount of trade, if your city is large enough).

So even a city with ONLY food tiles will be useful, given some time.

[Virodeath]

I am sorry meant to ref. tangerinedarter above where he is talking having a food powerhouse city.

I didn't quite get the logic in having a food powerhouse city but as I am still learning everything, thought I was not understanding how food worked with cities.

Viro

[Rawchief]

As Russia, it is important to expand. Against a good Chineese player, you will be fighting an uphill battle in tech. The best to hope for is to try and keep until you can flex your spy muscle.

Part of the trick to mastering Civilization (by no means do I claim that I've mastered it) is to understand that underneath the static surface of the game, there are very fluid dynamics that change how you approach the same goals in different situations.

Russia is one of those civs where you have to have various strats to counter the various civs you will face while heading to the modern era.

Against China, you either be an aggresive expansionist, take over ai opponents and heading towards republic early or you make a navy and halt China's science gains.

Most China players tend to be on the passive side, and that is where you have to exploit them.

[tangerinedarter]

Yeah I think you should always have at least a square with 2 production as well, probably more. Sites with the masonry resource are really good for russians as they are plains that also produce 2 hammers.

Also, even with small production, you could buy buildings that you need if you have a gold producing city.

[Rawchief]

I am sorry meant to ref. tangerinedarter above where he is talking having a food powerhouse city.

I didn't quite get the logic in having a food powerhouse city but as I am still learning everything, thought I was not understanding how food worked with cities.

Viro

Some people have a city of just food and produce settlers to go to other cities to increase their population or to expand quicker.

Personally, I don't use this strategy. I prefer other methods of expansion.

[eireksten]

well the situation i am concerned with is:

I guess it takes a lot more confidence playing as Russia than China, as the chinese starts out being in the lead. I think that might be why so many are playing chinese. No one likes to be behind in anything (also, with so many chinese players, someone are bound to be good).

With Russia, you need to trust that although your expansion starts a little slower, you'll be able to keep up.

From my calculations, as soon as you start growing the cities, China will have more population for a total of 5-13 turns (all "aheads" added), given equal cities with at least one plains, and up to 2 grasslands. Which means that you shouldn't fall behind to fast. That's even without granaries, which means you can afford a library or two before starting to get those granaries going.

After that, you'll simply gain more and more ground.

In addition, you've got the fact that the russian gets more and probably better city locations early on, which would also help. I'm sure a (good) russian player will keep up a lot better than you'd think.

Come to think of it, I actually followed a chinese player in tech last time I played Russia. And that was before I gave it any thought. The rest of Russias bonuses differ as well, so they are played out differently anyway.

Anyway, this thread isn't supposed to discuss whether or not a russian player will beat a chinese player (I'm aware that I helped drifting off). It's about how to play the russian civilization as good as possible. So I suggest we get back to that

[eireksten]

Some people have a city of just food and produce settlers to go to other cities to increase their population or to expand quicker.

Personally, I don't use this strategy. I prefer other methods of expansion.

That might actually be another way to boost those large russian cities. If you've got a couple of unused plains, build a city there, rush a granary, and start building settlers.

Combined with the already good growth of the larger cities and an aqueduct (and perhaps a great humanitarian), a mega-city shouldn't be to far away.

[Leo]

well, just tried russia in an ffa, and lost to a random dude who i would expect to beat pretty much every time in H2H.

ended up losing to zulu, whos natural growth bonus appears to be better than the russians (based on watching his cities going up, i had mine on full food pretty much all game).

he did the usual thing, camped out on my production squares after killing off one of the AI's. i had planned to 'outgrow' him and then push him back and kill him with a tech and production (once i got him off the squares) advantage which never materialised. in fact he caught up with me on growth with his natural bonus, and irrigation (the +1 pop didnt really matter as i got a great humanitarian fairly early, but while there were a lack of plains squares, there were river squares towards the middle of the area we were on, which of course, being zulu, he controlled).

there were almost no plains squares around, and with my 4 early cities, i would have gotten 2 extra food in total across all of them had i built a granary (ie only one city had access to a plains square), which i didnt bother with.

eventually i gave up as he overtook me on pretty much every stat and i had nowhere to go.

i dunno, it seems that the bonus's russia (and other civs that are seen as weaker than the top 5 or so civs) have just require too much of a 'perfect conditions' game to really make use of them, i need plains squares, and lots of them, i need room to expand (this means mainland room, because islands hold no benefit russia, no plains or production usually), and i need to be left alone by civs that kick in to gear before 40 turns (all the 'top' civs).

[eireksten]

Well, as I've never had much problem playing with civs other than those "top 5", I don't think Russia will be much of a problem either.

And if the growth doesn't work out as planned, they DO have other bonuses as well

And either way, competitive or not, there is bound to be some more players trying out Russia here! Fire away on your strats and experiences

[Leo]

well, despite what a lot of my posts might suggest i do enjoy playing different civs. right now i am playing egypt more than anything else, they have interesting bonus's.

however, most of the time i am playing against highly ranked opponents, who are using either zulu or china (that is pretty much what 90% of the 'top' players use), so i would love to be able to compete against them with something that isnt one of the 'top 5'.

sadly it seems i cant, no matter what i try, there appears to be a point at which your opponents dont make the 'mistakes' that are necessary for you to get away with using a less competetive civ, it annoys me i dont like playing as.... or against zulu and china every game, but unless i want to lose, i have to.

[Virodeath]

Some people have a city of just food and produce settlers to go to other cities to increase their population or to expand quicker.

Personally, I don't use this strategy. I prefer other methods of expansion.

AHHHHH never thought of that...


Viro

[Rawchief]

One mistake is thinking islands hold no benefit. Island cities are very important to every civ. You need to find either a 1 square island with fish,whales, and silk or a smallish 2-4 square island with food and trees preferably with above resources. Only worry about the specialty buildings (money or science depending on purpose), temples (to prevent artistic GP flip), and eventually a harbor for faster pop growth.

[Leo]

One mistake is thinking islands hold no benefit. Island cities are very important to every civ. You need to find either a 1 square island with fish,whales, and silk or a smallish 2-4 square island with food and trees preferably with above resources. Only worry about the specialty buildings (money or science depending on purpose), temples (to prevent artistic GP flip), and eventually a harbor for faster pop growth.

no one thinks that, it is just that the more competetive online civs have bonus's that in some way benefit this strategy (which as you say, is a good idea and everyone does it), whereas island expansion does not make use of any of russia's bonus's.

so given that everyone will probably expand to at least one island if not a number of them, it seems to be another thing standing in russia's way in terms of being a competetive online civ (which is the direction from which my posts are coming).

[eireksten]

First try as Russia, the Local Area Map practically handed me the whole game. Not much to tell about the game, though, except for that no one seemed to bothered about defending any of their cities...

Three barb villages and one friendly village in my local area, while I was stuck in the middle of all three human players.

I guess it doesn't say much about Russia, though.

We see where you're getting, Leo, and you are entitled to that opinion. It doesn't change the fact that this thread is about discussing russian strategies, though, and not arguing about how competitive the civ is...

[Leo]

well isn't the definition of a good strategy, one that works against a competent player? (ie. the level of it's success is dependant on how it was tested)

that is what im checking for, i'm not here to put down your strats, i gave you a reputation thing for this thread, it's a lot more productive than most threads on here.

however is this only for guys who are trying to beat the AI, or 'weak' opponents (i dont want to be offencive, you know what i mean, those guys who make one warrior in their city and leave it like that for 40 mins). or can i join in as well with my different standards on whether a strat works or not.

theres nothing wrong with seeing if a strat is competetive or not, im not sure why i appear to be getting flak for it.

[eireksten]

that is what im checking for, i'm not here to put down your strats, i gave you a reputation thing for this thread, it's a lot more productive than most threads on here.

theres nothing wrong with seeing if a strat is competetive or not, im not sure why i appear to be getting flak for it.

Thanks, and I appreciate your view on things. I find it a lot better to try coming up with suggestions on how you could have improved your game, though, rather than concluding whether or not the strat was competitive.

I wasn't complaining about your post, I was just trying to encourage constructive discussion on russian strats. Sorry if it came out wrong.

edit: Currently having a hard time getting a second game started... Was in a lobby for a little while, but got disconnected.

[notrain]

I use Russia quite frequently in FFA Games on Xbox Live (I usually play Random Civ, but recently the russians have grown on me).

In my opinion, it is absolutely imperative that you use the local area map to pick the best place to found Moscow. I usually spend almost a full minute (ignoring the verbal abuse over the voice comm.) of counting squares and comparing different locations, trying to figure out if to build somewhere where I gain more instant advantages, or to go elsewhere for a better location which will only kick in with a courthouse.
There should (obviously) be a couple of plains squares available to you. It can even be beneficial to walk for one turn, if you can secure a location with river and adjacent plains squares - one time I basically threw away the first two turns to walk to a spot with 5 Plains where 4 of them were besides a river and on one of them was a marble resource.
Sometimes you really have to settle where the game puts you, because there are no viable locations on your local area map, then you should scout with your warrior(s) for a nice plains spot and do anything to get your 2nd free settler asap.
An excessive access to water squares is not needed, since you will be growing your city so fast, that you will be generating most of the science in the tile the city is on.

Then I usually get pottery as my first tech, many may argue that one should get Bronze Working first to defend better, but I think that hampers me too much. If I have the odd game where some rushing civ attacks my own veteran warrior army that defends the capital and is lucky enough to win, I'll just take the loss.
Once Pottery is done, I normally rush the granary if I can, or go all out production and no growth to get it (with 1 research tile). Research-wise you are going to fall behind no matter what, so I always focus more on growth than anything else (once the granary is there). Also, I never expect to be able to get the 100gold from huts or the odd artifact. Those are random occurences, and most of the time I end up getting only one hut, because some Zulu pops them while I stand on one adjacent square getting overrun one turn later :/ . Damn small maps.

Anyway, with granary first and a custom worker setup, your lonely city will soon grow rapidly. 2nd and 3rd tech are (for me) BW and CB (to get a temple after the granary). This is followed by alphabet to get a library. This may seem late, but you really only benefit hugely from that library once your city has grown to a decent size and then you should slowly be able to catch up. Most of the games, I get my 100 gold settler by either trading some tech to AIs and/or letting my capital run on gold for a short while - usually when I am prdoucing my library. I get the early temple before the library, because the rapidly grwoing city will reward you with a noticeably faster first and 2nd GP - if you are lucky you can get the Hanging Gardens with a Great Builder or get one of the second settlements from a Great Artist or you can get your 100gold by sacrificing an Explorer, well you get the idea. The goal here is, to try to start turning the game in your favor by increasing the frequency of the random occurences Civ Rev throws at you which influence the game far more than in any other strategy game.
A short addendum to the HG (Hanging Gardens). I always try to get this wonder in my "growth" city around city size 12, if you get a great humanitarian as your first GP your city will be around 15 or 16 when you build HG. I usually complete the wonder between 500AD and 1100AD. Worst case is, you will have a city of size 18 (from 12) when all the others will still be in the single digit range (except for _maybe_ the Zulu). With your library and temple you will be in a very comfortable position to regain ground previously lost.

I'll stop here, because this has already gotten much longer than I wanted it to be. Outlining strategies is pointless anyway, since no game is the same. If I get lucky and get my 100g Settler fast, I'll obviously play less "turtle like" than the above writeup suggests.
However, I still think the Russians are an excellent civ to play yourself out of a slump. Just 2 hours ago, I played a game where I got to start out on an island with only one hut which rewarded no gold, going up agains a Japanese Player and two Zulus and I managed to turn the game around because I had managed to grow a Megacity (26) when the second largest city was size 11. Obviously the Russians can't work miracles, you won't beat some Rusher who secured two or three capitals early on unless he breaks the controller on his forehead.
I also understand, that most will probably doubt if going for growth before all else (Pottery and Granary) really works and won't put you too far behind. Truth of the matter is, it will put you far behind, but you would not keep up with a teching chinese or japanese anyway, so the goal is simply to survive by teching to the defensive units (BW-Demo-Gunpowder), so you can survive until you start catching up with your large cities. It really is amazing, how much science or gold will be generated from a plains-granary heavy city from its own city tile once it has gotten large enough. Just remember, if someone has combustion and you are still a bit behind there is no need to resign. Russian Riflemen be the shiznit ;-).

[eireksten]

Very nice post, notrain Giving you the reputation-thingy on that one

I almost always go for the free settler as fast as possible, but the growing of Moscow (if you found a good location) is actually a good idea.

As for the beelining of defensive units, I haven't thought of that My teching with Russia has been very general. By beelining defense (and most importantly gunpowder), you'll be able to stay safe for quite some time. Getting those riflemen at 10 hammers in the industrial era is huge.

I eventually played a ranked game with Russia yesterday. It froze around 1500AD (giving me a loss), but at that point I had a huge lead in about everything (10 techs ahead, more cities, larger cities, huge amounts of defense), so I'm pretty sure I'd have won. Especially since the last remaining player lost his capital to the AI on the turn it froze...

Some things I noticed about this. Getting more viable city locations is great, since it allows you to plant more cities early on without moving the settlers too far. This gives a more compact and easy-to-defend land. Of course, everyone else can place cities like that, but the thing with Russia is that every single one of those cities have pretty good growth.

So I had no small cities, allowing me to catch up to the greek tech player pretty fast. In addition I had one city where I put granary early on, that sped ahead.

Come to think of it, I should have beelined gunpowder a little earlier. Russia gets them at half-price insanely early, and to make good use of the bonus, you'll need the tech. That should give you riflemen en mass. Which can of course be used for protecting spies/great people, invading forces (when defenses have broken down, they are great for delivering the final blow as well), and of course for better protection in your cities.

[tangerinedarter]

I played a ranked h2h with russia against an arab rusher. He came at my capital early with an army before I had loyalty, I was able to beat them by attacking from a hill with an archer army, but producing the archers forced me to turtle more than I would have liked. The opponent had conquered one of the ai palaces by this time. When his army was lost, he switched to democracy to take the tech lead (by me turtling he also got the jump on a galley and got a pyramid wonder). So at this point I was pretty far behind, but by getting the free settler and code of laws, was able to expand to 4 cities and it looked like I would catch back up in tech, when he used his great person to culture flip my best city... which had 6 plains within a courthouse, river squares, marble, and a game forest. Because I was pretty focused on keeping up in tech, I was building graneries, libraries, and markets. Hadn't built temples yet - lesson learned I guess. After that it was pretty much game over - I tried to retake it with catapaults, but lost with an advantage, tried to put together another army, but by then he was ahead by 10 techs or so and counterattacked.

[Sigmakan]

Nice analysis of the Motherland!

I love playing as Russia as well. If you can find a city with 4+ plains (which is more common than you'd think) you can get some crazy city growth.

+2 food w/o granary
+4 food with granary
+5 food if on a straight portion of river and have researched Irrigation (and granary)

I've had cities with +30 food a turn, and its quite a glorious sight.

[notrain]

Hadn't built temples yet - lesson learned I guess.

Temples are a must have with Russia imo, those large cities will stretch your borders very fast. That - and the fast great persons early on- are the reason I get those even before libraries. Think about it, a (lucky) GP and you can get that 1600 Beakers Tech instantly, well worth to 4-6 rounds delay on the library.

[Icaria909]

This is a great discussion about Mother Russia. I recently have really gotton into them, but i am struggling with keeping up with other civs. My current game is an example of this.

I am in the middle of this large map on emperor, the japanese are on the far eastern side of the map with the americas to the far west, mongols to the southwest and the arabs directly below me. To those who like history like i do, you will see that this game was very close to the cold war.

I had to constantly war with other civs in the early game and i fell behind in techs by 20. I was a monarchy and had four cities of a decent growth (7-10) at around 1500. eventually i built a lot of culture, rebuilt an army and expanded drastically to the east. Captured or cultured flipped four Japaneses cities and I settled to to the west by building Kiev.

By 1924 I became communistic (USSR all the way ), and was only behind in techs by 4. In 1965 I was the largest civilization (9 cities with average 15-25 growth), I was leading in tech with america, second strongest economy after america, largest military, built a nuke in moscow, and just got space age research.

Later on the arabs sent a ship into space so i had to nuke tripoli and capture it, and then the communist revolutions started. Arabs turned communist to invade me, Japan did likewise, with the mongols joining into to conquer me. Two turns later I sent my own space ship into space just as the americans were only 10000 gold away from economic victory. I am using my infinate supplly of spies to sabatoge the world bank wonder in america, but i am also being dominated in the seas by every other civ and only my modern infantry(withloyalty) can defend against giant assaults. I don't know if Ill win, but I do hate having to race against so many other civs for a victory at the end.

Does anyone who plays as the Russians well know how to prevent other civs so close to winning from beating me during the last years? IT took me several hundred years to catch up in tech and gold, but i always am struggling at the end to win with the russians.

[eireksten]

Does anyone who plays as the Russians well know how to prevent other civs so close to winning from beating me during the last years? IT took me several hundred years to catch up in tech and gold, but i always am struggling at the end to win with the russians.

Preventing other civs from winning is something the russians are best at, simply because of those spies.

It sounded to me that you didn't have a specific goal. What victory where you aiming for? In order to prevent others from winning, you need to win yourself first.

[Latty]

nice guide!
ive been very successful with russia. (around 21-0 for ranked on the 360). i am sometimes behind in tech at the start but the growth advantage soon makes up for that. using the local area map to build moscow next to 2 or 3 plains squares is a good advantage imo. one of the keys to russia is to start this mass growth as early as possible so if you feel you are safe, rush granerys as early as possible for 80 gold. also take time to work out the best possible locations for every city because the location makes a huge difference with russia. marble in particular is a great resource as it is found on plains squares and can be used very early game.
4 food and 2 production =

btw. i was just wondering how much extra growth zulu's rapid city growth bonus gives? (eg. 25%)

cheers

[eireksten]

btw. i was just wondering how much extra growth zulu's rapid city growth bonus gives? (eg. 25%)

It gives 50%. I've written a comparison between the rapid growth and the +1 food from plains in one of the zulu threads.

The +1 food from plains is better for non-granary plains, and for granary plains when you've got both humanitarian and aqueduct. The most important advantage is perhaps that you can place your cities a lot more freely in the early game, as they will grow well without any other food resources. Also, the russians get their bonus before the zulu gets theirs.