The recent Russian reworks have been great changes overall, but some of the new additions really miss the mark. Several of the new units, cards, and techs are incorrectly named or completely made up and could do with some revisions that would improve the gameplay and historical accuracy.
Church Technologies
Moving the techs Bakshir Ponies and Kalmyks into cards was absolutely the right call since it didn’t make much sense to have Muslim Bakshirs and Buddhist Kalmyks as the units delivered by Church techs. However, what they’ve replaced them with is astoundingly bad. “Counter-____” is just not a real thing and seems so unbelievably lazy that it is kind of shocking it was done by devs who have done such excellent work on the rest of the update. Instead of completely fictional units, they should have techs that actually promote interesting history and gameplay.
Lifeguard Jaegers → Pan-Slavism
Ships Pandurs and Hajduks (both still counter light infantry). The Russians were constantly seeking more influence in the Balkans and often cited protecting their fellow Orthodox Christians as a reason for intervening in the region. It could also enable these units at the Tavern.
St. Petersburg Dragoons → Hospitaller Refuge
Ships Hospitallers and possibly other Maltese units (maybe even a Fixed Gun?). The Tsar took in the remnants of the order after Napoleon conquered Malta so protection of this religious order is a great fit for a church tech. Getting a Fixed Gun would be so much more fun than a made up Dragoon that beats other Dragoons.
Units
There’s nothing wrong with replacing Ruskets and Halberdiers, but they could really do better with what they are replacing them with. There are also long standing issues like Stetlsy having an incorrect stance.
Rekrut → Opolcheniye
First of all, Rekruts aren’t uniquely Russian. Secondly, the name means recruit just like it sounds, so “Veteran Rekrut” is an oxymoron. A much better name for these weak units that are recruited en mass would be Opolcheniye. These were militias levied to defend Russia, so they definitely fit the bill for weak massable infantry. The only problem is that Northern Musketeers from the Oldenburg house are actually Opolcheniye (why they pulled a random name out of their ass instead of calling them what they are is baffling). Fortunately, this conflict can be solved via some fixes to royal house units. The unit models of Rekruits and Northern Musketeers are already so similar that it might be the case that both units are based on Opolcheniye anyways.
Northern Musketeer → Rynda
If Opolcheniye/Northern Musketeers become a standard Russian unit, a new unit will be required at the Oldenburg royal house. Rynda were bodyguards of the Tsars and grand princes so they are an excellent fit for the royal house that represents the Tsars.
Swapping Streltsy and Opolcheniye (Ruskets)
As a relic of their initial design as a musket infantry unit, Streltsy have always used the incorrect pose with a gun over their shoulder instead of the proper rifle infantry pose with a gun held diagonally in front of them. They also have always been armed with a huge bardische which makes them look extremely imposing despite them being complete trash in melee before the Sovnya card was introduced.
Now that Russia no longer has Musketeers, what if the initial design of Streltsy as musket infantry was revisited? A tough musket infantry would make them fit their musket holding, axe wielding appearance much better. Both Rekruts and Opolcheniye are essentially just conscripts or untrained volunteers with nothing to specify them as musket infantry or rifle infantry. In fact, their mass recruitment would make them the best fit for the weak light infantry units trained in batches of 10.
Cards
Landed Gentry → Tatar Yoke
What the landed nobility has to do with Cavalry Archers is a mystery to me. Calling the card Tatar Yoke would reference Mongol-Tatar rule over Russia which would make way more sense for a card that enables early Cavalry Archers.
Economic Theory → Emancipation of the Serfs
Russia’s economy was generally a basket case so it’s not so accurate for them to have a card called Economic Theory. The devs even flirted with the idea of removing the card but put it back because it’s too essential for keeping Russia’s economy going.
Another problematic change is that Russia now has 210 population as a civ bonus. This is quite inaccurate given that Russia had a smaller population than France until the late 1800s and civs like India that actually had a massive population still only have 200. It also is trying to fix something that wasn’t ever an issue. Yes, your infantry isn’t population efficient, but they train so fast it doesn’t really matter.
These two issues could be resolved by merging the eco boost and extra population space into a single new card called Emancipation of the Serfs. Liberating the peasants from the land freed up a sizable portion of the population to work in other endeavors so it fits both functions and highlights an important moment in Russian history. The card could be moved to a later age to reflect when Russia had a larger population and when emancipation happened.
Milyutin Reforms → False Dmitry
If Northern Musketeers cease to be a thing, this card could be replaced by another one that swaps your Poruchik with Rynda. The false Dmitrys were imposters claiming to be the dead son of Ivan the Terrible in order to take the throne so the transformation from a general unit to a royal bodyguard is a great fit. Since there were multiple false Dmitrys, this card should be able to be sent twice.
