The Russians are a very unique defensive nation whose primary strength lies in controlling a lot of territory and making excellent use of attrition to destroy their foes. Not only does Russian attrition do double damage to unsupplied enemy units, the Russians receive all attrition upgrades for free. Russian players also have access to a great line of unique light cavalry. This is significant because light cavalry is the best counter to supply wagons (which, in turn, are the best counter to your Russian attrition).

This set of nation powers allows the Russians to perform a boom much better than other nations. By keeping their national boundaries expanded and patrolling those boundaries with light cavalry, Russian players are able to concentrate almost solely on economy. When an attack comes, they utilize their fantastic attrition damage by eliminating enemy supply wagons with their light cavalry - then running the light cavalry to safety while attrition takes its toll. They can enhance this attrition further by constructing wonders like the Colosseum or Kremlin, making it even more painful to be unsupplied in Russian territory. Unfortunately this strategy does have a weak point. Since Russian players receive no economic bonuses, they can be out-boomed economically if their opponent doesn't rush in to attack. This means that occasionally it's worth it to bait your opponent into attacking you to bring his army into your territory where your attrition can crush it.

Russians also have a great spy bonus that can be used to further disrupt enemy attacks.

Attrition damage to enemy units in your territory increased by 100%.

Why is it important?

As you probably know, attrition does gradual damage to any enemy units in your territory without a supply wagon. Russian attrition is particularly effective at wiping out enemy units because it does twice as much damage. This allows Russian players to rely much more upon attrition as a strong defensive mechanism, provided they are able to handle enemy supply wagons with their light cavalry.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Use attrition to cover your fast tech: One method of using attrition is to try the above strategy of booming while using a small force of 3-5 light cavalry unique units to raid the supply wagons of any player who attacks you. Tactical placement of forts and towers can prolong this strategy's lifespan, but eventually you'll have to switch from hard teching to making a military of your own.
  
  
• When possible, utilize age-ahead attrition: Attrition becomes even more painful for your opponents if you're an age ahead of them. Of course, it's very difficult to do this given that Russians recieve no economic bonus until Industrial Age - but it can happen.
  
  
• When possible, construct attrition-related wonders of the world: Both the Colosseum and Kremlin provide bonuses to attrition that will make for even deadlier Russian attrition damage.

Attrition upgrades are free.


Why is it important?

Not only is Russian attrition painful, it also automatically upgrades as Civic techs are researched (Civic techs are the prerequisite for attrition technologies). This takes effect even without building a tower (though there's hardly ever a game where you wouldn't want to build at least one tower).

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Research Civic technologies: Attrition levels each have a Civic technology prerequisite. By researching Civic techs, attrition levels will automatically be researched for you. For example, when you research Civic 3, the second attrition tech will take effect.

National Borders +1 per Civic research

Why is it important?

This bonus allows Russian players to exert a huge amount of territorial dominance over the map, much more so than any other nation could accomplish if it's used well. The important thing with this ability is to maximize the amount of territory you control and use your powerful border push to crush your opponent's territory into a small ball in the corner. By doing this you'll have more access to resources like forests and mountains while robbing them of those same resources.

Even better, this bonus makes Russian attrition that much more effective. Attrition for other nations can sometimes be bypassed by sieging key buildings like cities from within the safety of your own territory, but it's very rare that the border is close enough to a Russian city for this situation to occur. Since enemy units are forced into your territory to fight, you are able to use attrition much easier.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Use a border flank strategy: Russians are particularly effective at using their border to flank their opponent and force a conflict near a major enemy city - away from the important economic cities of the Russian player.
  
  
• Dominate world territory: As a Russian player, you should cause your opponents to feel caged and starved for resources. Not only will he starve for resources, you'll have access to most of the map's rare resources.

Oil gathering +20%

Why is it important?

This provides the Russians with a significant late game economic bonus to a resource that is often difficult to gather at the commerce limit for other nations. This bonus actually benefits from the national border bonus, as more oil patches will be present in your territory (and less in your opponent's). So most Russian players don't have a problem quickly reaching the commerce limit for oil income. This means they can quickly make use of their unique line of tanks. The Russian player will undoubtedly have many mountains under his control, so metal for the tanks shouldn't be an issue either.

This extra oil doesn't have to be spent on tanks, of course. Air units are quite useful for striking at enemy supply wagons (Russian attrition is still just as powerful in the late game). Nuclear weapons are useful for striking at just about anything.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Keep oil income maximized at the commerce limit: It's much cheaper to max oil income as Russians, so you should take advantage of that fact. Oil has a tremendous amount of uses and at the very least it will fetch a high price at the market should you choose to sell it.

Spies produced 50% cheaper and stay hidden after using a special ability


Why is it important?

It provides yet another great way for Russian players to prevent enemy players from easily attacking them. While you can't bribe supply wagons, you can cause a lot of havoc by bribing enemy siege units as they begin to attack your cities, forts, or towers. The ability to stay hidden after using a special ability means that Russian spies have a much longer lifespan than the average spy.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Use spies to harass enemy attacks: Spies are a great way to decimate an unprepared attack force. Not only are spies extremely cheap for Russian players, they have the effect of converting an enemy unit to your side. This is, in effect, "killing" that unit and giving you a free unit (a unit which costs more than the spy himself). The balance to all this is the unfortunate fact that scouts allow your opponent's army to counter your spies - and counter them hard. If your opponent starts making a lot of scouts, it won't be worth it to keep making spies. It's best to stop making new spies after 2 good attacks with them, since at that point your opponent will be spending resources on scouts. If you switch to making a military unit instead, his scouts will be largely useless in the third battle, giving you a definite advantage in military power.

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