Here it is folks, the strategy that puts Russian misconceptions to shame.

It is the Russian Musket-Cossack Rush
Maths in Italics

Why make this strategy?
Well, first off, it is my main strategy with Russia. Secondly, I was looking through my little strategy collection and noticed that the RUMM Rush (~like a variation of this strategy~) is based off of Nilla.

So What’s the big idea?
Well, I know that in these forums, before I started stating otherwise, everyone thought ‘Russia is weak to cavalry’. Now why is this? Well, mainly because strelets are trash against cavalry and Russian muskets are weaker…
But are they really weaker?

Well we all know that Russian Infantry is weaker. But they also cost less.

A batch of 5 musketeers regularly costs 375 Food and 125 Gold, while a batch of Russian musketeers costs 281 Food and 93 Gold. 281/375 = 93/125= 0.75; meaning Russian musketeers cost 75% as much as regular musketeers do. Russian musketeers are 80% as effective as regular musketeers as well. To the naked eye, this shows a 5% advantage over regular musketeers, but oh no, our maths are not finished quite yet. We need to get 0.75 back to one. So 0.75 *4/3 = 1 and 0.8 * 4/3= 1.066. So Russian Musketeers (and Halberdiers for that matter) are 6.66% more effective than their counterparts. Also, as another advantage, it is marginally harder to micro against Russian musketeers with RI that hit and run, because if you focus fire on one musketeer, the Russian will technically be losing less of his army and less resources than other musketeers would lead you to lose. That is, until those dreaded falconets come around. I swear they have a hidden bonus against Russian Infantry. Anyways. This proves Russian Musketeers are better than Regular Musketeers, squashing Russia’s ‘ineffectivity’ against cavalry. But why stop here…? If Russian musketeers are better, why not just go all the way with it? Let’s make a rush comprising of mostly musketeers!


Now what is a great unit in combination with such musketeers? Rule out strelets because they seem to be magnetic with cavalry, and you have but one option yet. The Cossack. That ‘inexpensive’ 1 population horse that is MEANT for stockpile-resource laming. But how does this pony compare to the European Hussar? Hussars cost 120 Food 80 Coin, totaling to 276 Villager Seconds. Cossacks cost 75 Food and 75 Coin, totaling to 214. 214 is around 77.54 percent of 276, so they cost 77.54% as much. Cossacks have 225 HP, 26 Hand, and 30% Range Resist. Hussars have 320 HP, 30 Hand, and 20% Range Resist. 320*77.54% = 248.128, which is the HP 77.54% of a Hussar would have, which is 23 more than a Cossack. 30*77.54% = 23.262 is the Hand Attack 77.54% of a Hussar would have, which is 3 less than a Cossack. Then you multiply the differences by the multiplicative inverse of the equation (or something like that) which is 1.289 (100/77.54). 23*1.289 is 29.66 and 3*1.289 is almost 4. So Cossacks have 9.26% less HP, but 12.89% more Hand Attack, all per villager second... If you are still debating, let me introduce Cossack’s secret weapon… an extra 10% Range Resistance. Hussars have 320*1.25 (1/.8) = 400 Range HP. Cossacks have 290.33*1.429 (1/.7) = 414 Range HP, which is a nifty 3.5%. So as results, Cossacks have 12.89% more Hand Attack and 3.5% more Range HP, but 9.26% less Hand HP, with all other stats being virtually unimportant to the job of cavalry (siege). I would take Cossacks over Hussars given these percentages.
This proves that the Musket Cossack Rush is actually better than the Musket Hussar Rush some other European civilizations may have.
Now that the calculations are over with, let’s move onto the Basic Build Order



Deck

Required Cards
Distribivutism
5 Cossacks
4 Cossacks
700 Food
700 Coin

Highly Advised Cards
Boyars
Advanced Church
Infantry Training Cards
Factories
2 Falconets
6 Oprichniks
1000 Wood
Land Grab
Schooners (Water)
Strelet Combat
Fort
13 Strelets
Cavalry Combat

(You will have to choose between some Age 2 cards)



Discovery
All five villagers to their own food crates.
Mash that V-Button
Once food is collected move 1 villager to a food crate task other villagers to food.
Pop some villagers out of the other side of your TC is need be to save some villager seconds.
Collect treasures in this priority: Wood, Food, Coin, Exp; depending on your starting crates and personal play style. If you’d rather get your troops out ASAP after you age, gather food treasures after you’ve clicked the age up button. If the speedy age up is your thing, then strive for them before that time. Wood should always be first, unless you’re playing Texas or a high crate map. You should put Coin over Food if you didn’t start with a Coin crate.

First Card: Distribivutism

Keep queuing villagers till you population reaches 14/20.
You will have idle TC time in at this point. Don’t worry about it.
Click the age up button once you reach 800 food.
Age with the Quartermaster: 400 Wood

Transition
If you started with 1 Wood crate, move ~6 villagers to wood. If you started with 2 Wood crates move ~3 villagers to wood.
Send 3 villagers to a forward location, preferably in the center securing either a mine or a hunt. Once arrived, put these villagers on wood.
If you started with no Coin crates, then you need to put 3/4 villagers on coin in transition. If you started with one, you can leave villagers off of coin for now.
Herd. No explanation needed I hope.
Once you have 250 Wood, place a blockhouse down with your forward villagers. Put all Wood villagers on Food.
Aim for 93 Coin and as much Food as possible by the time you age up.

Colonial
Queue a batch of villagers up (do this before you age, preferably)
If you are close to being able to, queue a batch of musketeers (you should have you blockhouse up or close to up by now). If you are unable queue them soon (need more than 100 Food) skip this for a bit.

Second Card: 5 Cossacks. You need to send this after you queue the muskets, because if you make a batch of villagers then send the Cossacks you will have 22/25 population: not enough. Same with making the villagers then the muskets, except you can still send the shipment with this population. If you cannot queue a batch of musketeers soon, then send this ASAP.

Collect your age up wood.
Build 2 houses and a stable in your base. The stable is in your base because cavalry moves fast enough and you don’t want to risk it getting destroyed by a harder rusher.
Redistribute your villagers to 10 Food, 4 Coin, all outgoing villagers to Food, if they are not already.
All of the above steps should be done as quickly as possible once hitting colonial. Set some hotkeys if need be.
Right after the batch of villagers and musketeers come out (sometimes you’re lucky and this won’t happen) you will have a choice between a batch of villagers and muskets. Choose whatever fits the situation best. Though that is usually villagers.

Third Card: 700 Food or 4 Cossacks. If you need more infantry, send 700 Food, if you need more cavalry, 4 Cossacks. That simple. Usually 700 Food though, since it can also ease your villager production.


Right about now is when the build order stops. You’re going to want to keep making military obviously, but your army can have a lot of variety just based off of how you place your outgoing villagers. But this is always good information to have…



Fourth Card Options

700 Coin: Can’t seem to outmass your opponent? Use upgraded units! Use this card to age to the fortress age, preferably with the Cossack/Strelet Politician, and use the veteran upgrades and cards like 2 falcs to win. This card is also great for making Cossacks, as it eliminates the Coin cost for almost 10 Cossacks.

Boyars: For if you are making a mainly Strelet/Cossack Army. Obviously purely to make these units stronger.

13 Strelets: Though this isn’t a ‘great’ shipment, it can be really surprising. One of the greatest ‘surge’ shipments in the game. Imagine. Your opponent you have a Musket Cossack army and decides to counter it with muskets. 30 seconds later, you have 23 strelets. In other words, it is amazing to send this shipment and create a batch of strelets at the same time, since it gives your army almost perfect diversity.

700 Food/4 Cossacks: Still viable shipment if you have not sent them already. Though if you want more Cossacks at this point, I prefer sending 700 Coin. Then again, some people like to make things besides Cossacks with their Food. 700 Food is still good, but again, most of the time already sent.



That’s about it. It’s actually pretty versatile. Though you are limited to Muskets and Cossacks for a minute or so upon hitting colonial, you can actually start mixing in strelets pretty early if you change your outgoing villagers to wood or be really aggressive so that you don’t need to spend wood for housing. Anyways, I’m going to try to make some kind of harder-hitting rush and a booming approach, since the Russia I’m used to playing always uses a rush-while-boom approach.



~Sincerely, O_man0