If you need to defend, they are also great as they get an additional +5. I won in 1180 AD before turn 150. Great Works of Writing provide extra science while you're suzerain over Babylon. I'm posting this earlier than usual because I'm going out for dinner and I'm not sure when I'll come back. It's also slightly more annoying to declare war on Russia early since their borders grow out faster and troops have to be put a bit further out when you declare war. I do love to create a tundra industrial landscape. If you have leftover horsemen, you should probably upgrade them into these. I would've been over-run without it. A game as Russia typically starts in a tundra region. To make apostles you need a lot of faith.
While a bad start for most civs, tundra for Russia is as good as plains, plus a faith bonus. This helps you from turn 1 and allows much more optimal district placement as you have more tiles to choose from. +1 Faith and Production on Tundra is a reasonably ok bonus. Thankfully, Peter's leader ability can help you catch up with some culture and science. Oh, needless to say, Peter's is a very rare ability that only gets better with difficulty. Ultimately, you can't win a religious victory if you get wiped out militarily. It is imperative you create a good defensive army as well as a number of Commercial Hubs/Harbors for trade routes (both for internal growth and external trade). After that are some additional notes on new or changed features with notable synergy with Russian uniques, so you can use this post in conjunction with the vanilla Russia guide for a makeshift Rise and Fall Russia guide. Use the Dance of the Aurora pantheon in combination with Lavras surrounded by tundra forests and your faith output will be incredibly strong, making an early religious victory more than just a possibility. I'm not sure if firaxis would stretch to making a "collective farm" UI.
A bit late this time around, but as usual I've got a full guide here. It's very easy to get apostles first and just take over two or three other civs before anybody can do anything about it.
What I've got down for his traits are the following: Standard improvements yield +1 Production and Culture, Buildings yield Culture equal to their intrinsic Production output, Likes industrious civilizations that share his government type, Hates warmongering civilizations that do not share his government type, Unique District - Soviet (Industrial Zone), Gains a standard adjacency bonus from all improvements, not just Mines and Quarries, For every 4 Soviets in the empire, receive a Wildcard policy slot (initial maximum of +1, or +2 with Class Struggle) and +25% faster government legacy bonus acquisition (initial maximum of +50%, or +100% with Class Struggle).
Once you've founded a religion, you get two beliefs. I would recommend Feed the World/Choral Music and Defender of the Faith. There's been many games where DoF literally saved me. Their early faith bonuses in tundra just allow you to snowball in religion so fast. Russian Religious Victory is my absolute favorite civ/victory type combo in this game. :P. Russia does best at Pangea maps, where there are lots of land and lots of tundra, while still being near plains/grassland, to use for religious victory. More culture will help you get to theocracy sooner which is when you finally unleash your apostle spam upon the world. As I finished exploring that area, it only let me get two cities along the tundra, although they will both have lavras with +8 faith, which is good. For the second tier, the Grand Master's Chapel is a good choice. As such, Lenin's UA ties production capacity to culture, and generates more of these yields from improvements (where, I imagine, the proletariat would be more found in the universes spawned from civ games). Defender of the Faith is a necessity on higher levels. These are bonuses that are typically focused on the terrain, and allow your civ to further stretch the potential benefits of the surrounding land.
Check the Wiki for the other Civ of the Week Discussion Threads. Are there any continents large enough to have a 60 tile land trade route? Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, GS unit upgrade cost = 2x production difference + 10, Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, Press J to jump to the feed. I can't replicate this map generation. Lavras make securing a religion easy. Gain extra territory when founding cities, +1 Faith and Production in Tundra tiles, +5 Combat Strength when fighting in or next to home territory, +1 Faith from each adjacent Natural Wonder, +1 Faith from each adjacent Mountain tile, +1 Faith from every two adjacent Woods tile, +1 Faith from every two adjacent districts, +1 Great Prophet, Great Writer, Great Artist and Great Musician points per turn, +2 Faith per Citizen working in the district, Territory is increased by one whenever a great person is expended in this city, Receives Science or Culture from trade routes to civilizations more advanced than Russia, +1 Science or Culture for every 3 technologies or civics ahead, Likes civilizations who are ahead of him in Science and Culture, Dislikes civilizations who neglect Science and Culture. If you ever want to play the best Russia map ever that the game generates by itself (no cheats or editing), here it is: you get: - tundra natural wonder Eyjafjallajökull in capital range (+ 2 food + 1 culture per adjeacent tile, stacked!) Cossacks are great defensive units and aren't bad offensively, either, considering Military Science is a relatively easy technology to beeline. Now, I don't want to repeat too many points on here, but instead offer some good tips for securing religious victory as Russia. It doesn't matter if you found the best Petra spot in the world if you don't have what it takes to actually build Petra, but with Russia, you'll most likely grab some extra tiles that will help you with that. The agenda's name comes from one of Lenin's more well known works (he was an avid author and critic), What Is To Be Done?
Wisselbanken (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Tundra regions tend to be low on food, but Peter's leader ability can push you towards international trade.
Of course they will need a place to store great works, but that is not a problem, especially if you get cathedrals. Generating faith and production from tiles means Russia can use Tundra tiles much better than anyone else. But seriously: I hate most things that this civ targets to build on: Ideally, I don't want to be fighting near my borders, If someone is ahead of me in science/culture, I try to avoid trading with them, Russia for me looks like it should be powerful but I rarely pull it off. What do we think? Russia is one of the best religious civilizations out there, but in and of itself, that doesn't say much because religious strategies are some of the riskiest ones because they require heavy investment and it is possible for all your investments to go down the drain should you fail to found a religion or if you lose the Apostle Wars. You need to convert as many cities as you can. With R&F, they have been given some pretty good buffs. The agenda's effects come from Lenin's general approach to worldwide politics. I think you don't get enough credit for how much you are contributing to this game and community. One of the most profitable ways to develop scientifically is to go for the certain kinds of timed pushes where you beeline to the necessary technology while avoiding everything else. Gaining extra territory when settling is actually a pretty huge bonus, and being able to go for a religion to get an early start on a culture game is actually very nice. Use the Dance of the Aurora pantheon in combination with Lavras surrounded by tundra forests and your faith output will be incredibly strong, making an early religious victory more than just a possibility. It'll let you use your huge faith output to buy Cossacks, and you can get faith from pillaging - especially useful considering Cossacks have access to a promotion that makes pillaging cheap.
With half of my cities in grasslands/plains and the other half in tundra, I can have enough room for both farmland for growth as well as tundra so I can get production and faith.