Medieval 2:Total War question.

[Albatross_Viking]

Which muslim/orthodox M2TW faction do you think is best to start out as?

A_V

[DO+1]

I loved playing as Russia. it was the easiest faction for me to play and loved starting out with only a few regions and having to conquer all the regions down to Kiev.
Their units really suck at the beginning, but that only makes it more of a challenge to have to defeat your foes using peasent archers and woodsmen. It really gets easy when you get the later "elite" units and the introduction of gunpowder ( I love the cossack gunners).
What really makes Russia easy to play and start out as is that you are far away from most "Major Factions"

That means if you suck, you won't get your butt handed to you at the beginning.

It has been along time since I played this game ( I have ETW), so if I am wrong on anything please correct me.

[Albatross_Viking]

And what about the mongols? How to drive them back?

A_V

[Aliencat]

If you're lucky the Mongols will invade south of where you are, and face the Turks and Egyptians before ever reaching you. If you defend well, the Mongol warlords really aren't as tough as they make themselves out to be.
The ones you need to worry about when playing Russia will be the Timurids, by the time they invade, your realm will have expanded right there (they invade either just north or just south of the Caspian Sea). They come into play rather late though, so with if you handle quickly, with a swift war machine you can beat the campaign before they even show up.

I also think the Moors and the Egyptians have a very good starting position. When I played as Egypt I focussed on conquering westward and eventually crossing into Europe through Iberia. That way you don't have to be the first to deal with the Mongols. Let Turkey take the blow, and the crusaders that happen to be in the area.

Their units really suck at the beginning ... and woodsmen

I have to disagree, woodsmen are among the best, if not the best militia out there. They're only marginally more expensive than peasants, making them cheaper than your regular town militia, but with much higher attack, and great bonusses when fighting in the forests eastern Europe has so much of. They don't have the morale of some of the more professional units, but they more than make up for that in brute strength, and laughably cheap recruitment and upkeep costs. When you're just getting started, woodsmen are going to be what make your potential empire successful.

[Albatross_Viking]

So the mongols are not as tough as they seem? Thats good. How long do you think two full armies of woodsmen, druzhina, boyar sons and spearmen will last against them?

A_V

[Aliencat]

By the time the Mongols reach you, you should have some better units than those. Because even though the Mongols are beatable, they are very tough. Don't underestimate them, most of their units have a lot of battle experience from fighting their way west and already enter the game with 3 silver or even 3 golden chevrons.
To attack them isn't smart (still possible to win though, if you know what you're doing), but to defend from them is much easier. If you have a nice castle, and some good missile troops and spearmen, you can hold them off. Keep in mind that the Mongols deploy lots and lots of cavalry, so spear walls are going to be your best defense. Keep a few units of spearmen behind your gate for when they smash through, the first thing they'll do is rush their cavalry in and wreak havoc. Make sure you have heavy infantry on your walls: as soon as their siege towers reach you, your archers will be screwed with a capital F, so you'll need heavy infantry to hold off their infantry coming up the siege towers. Then you should be fine.

Attacking the Mongols, though, is a completely different story. In most cases you'll be facing them in open fields, and their horse archers and other missile cavalry will make short work out of you in the field. If you can ambush them in the woods, you'll be in favour though since most Russian units are very used to fighting in the woods: the Mongols are not. Most of your infantry will get a combat bonus in woods, be sure to read the units description if this applies to them before you attack or ambush in the woods.

[Albatross_Viking]

About those castles, do you think i can get any of those lieng longest to the east (Sarkel and Bulgar) to fortress level before the mongols attack (im in about round 30)? Or should i just dont take them?

A_V

[Aliencat]

You should be fine, I felt like playing the Russians again after reading your question so I'm doing that now, I don't know exactly what turn I'm on, but the Mongols haven't gotten here yet and Sarkel is a fortress. If you haven't conquered them yet, be sure to choose "Occupy settlement" and not "Sack settlement" or "Exterminate population":
The occupy option will preserve most of the current population, which is usually not so good because the population will be prone to turn against you, since you're not their real ruler in their hearts, but in a castle that's less likely to happen than in a town. If you occupy the settlement with as many people living in it as possible, you'll be able to upgrade as soon as possible.