Russian Economic Collapse

[RyanCrierie]

After I finally figured out how to have black bars on my monitor to fix the aspect ratio problem with COG:EE, I've begun playing it as Russia in the Standard Campaign.

But one thing hits me hard -- the Russian Economic Collapse -- you quickly go to losing 100~ gold a turn; and your economic expert and trade expert seem to do nothing.

Even cutting military readiness drastically makes not enough of a dent; and raising taxes to make it sustainable pisses off the peasants. And I'd really like to keep some of an army.

So how do I get myself out of this hole? [&:]

[terje439]

Hope for a short winter [;)]
I am guessing you see this drop during winter time, as that is when I have seen it. So guess it has to do with the Russian Winter.

The thing is that you will need to have a stockpile of gold ready for the winter months to live off on, and start building those courts as you also have waste as Russia.
And then there are those pesky nobles that steal your merchant income...

Alot of work with Russia, and tbh I have not played her for too long...

Terje

[hruza]

You have to manage your economy on your own. Do not rely on advisers.
What I do is rise taxes and trade everything I don't need. Britain makes good trading partner, they offer best prices usually. They are usually hungry for wool but you can manage to trade some iron and wood as well. Of course you need to go through your provinces and optimize production ...which can be pain in the ass as Russia have hell lot of provinces. Luckily Russia produces all it needs and some excess.

Then you have to decide if you wan't to help Austrians against French or not. French do not pose imediate thread to Russia but you gona fight them sooner or later. If you let Austria fall ...and they will fall if you don't help, then you will face France that much stronger later. Defeating French early on can really help to level odds out. Victory also means that you can cash them for some money and colonies, which can solve your finance problem. Of course victory is not guaranteed and you will need to fight few hard battles over Viena. And only thing which can force French to sue for piece are 2-3 big lost battles. Your Armys operating in Austria is also gone cost you awful lot of money, especially depots. However it is manageable if you get trade running. You will however most probably have to postpone any province development until wars end.
You should fight war in Austria defensively and you need combined Austro/Russian forces do defeat French so tell your Austrian ally to rally at Vienna and move your armies there as quickly as possible. French are coming in force.

If you decide to left Austrians on their own, you can disperse your army in to garrisons, cutting your costs by nearly half. And you can concentrate on developing your provinces. Building banks in money rich provinces and getting waste under control should be first priority.

[Marshal Villars]

Ryan,

How did you fix this aspect ratio issue? I would love to know. For several reasons.

[Russian Guard]

Assuming you are dealing with the 1805 scenario - I play Russia a lot (hence the Avatar name).

One thing I do is - very first turn - offer England a Treaty that has them sending me 10% of their treasury as "Reparations" - actually this is a Subsidy but there is no treaty wording for Subsidies - in exchange for not allying or trading with France for at least 3 years.

The other thing you can do during the first winter, is drop your readiness down to 90%. Lift it back to 100% on the March 1806 turn, if you want the Cossack levies for April (and you should want them, IMO).

This is somewhat historical; Russia relied heavily on English subsidies to fight France. Now, it can be "abused"; for example you can set this Treaty up and then DoW Prussia or Austria, which helps the French without violating the treaty. That's up to you; I play it as though I am honor-bound to be anti-French (though not necessairly at war with them), but that's just my choice.