Boyar Sons
They are not very amazing i must say, but they are very easy access. I prefer these to Kazaks any day though. It's hard to get druzhinas up early on with those weak Russian castles. (Low populated area).
Dismounted Druzhina, Dismounted Boyar Sons
These two are highly spammable mid-game units that are very strong. Yes they won't match late-game infantry of other factions but will be unmatched for a long time. They will make offensive sieges a lot easier. These will destroy mid game Latin infantries like nothing.

Dvor & Dvor Cavalry
Dvor is a hight spammable very decent all-round missile infantry. It can actually put on a fight against those latin missile infantries. One advantage Dvor has is that they are can do close-combat too.


The mid-late missile cavalry version, is one of the best all-round units. Some may argue that it's expensive, I think it's just the right price. Cavalry Dvor can play as an effective melee cavalry too. Dvor is a lot useful if you are expending towards south and east on your campaign.

Tsars Guard
Last and definetly the most expensive one of them all, the Tsars Guard. Goes without saying that they look like big investments, but they are worth it. It's one of those units that you can put ur trust upon.

Overall, I would say russian units are expensive, biggest advantage are those spammable mid game units that will become very hard to challange if you have a decent economy. Cossack, Boyar Sons etc. are not the strongest ones of their level. Your neighbors Poland and even Byzantine has stronger options for those.

Risks
There isn't a lot you have to worry about while playing Russians. Riga will be besieged early on by Denmark so you should be ready to defend it and then counter attack. Keeping one general here might be a good idea.

One advice I can give is to be careful not to drag on the existence of Polish. Invest early into eastern expansion and well, pray mongols don't come from north, If they do; you will have to give in a couple regions. After that if you hold roads etc. they will turn south.

If mongols come from the south however, you can easily finish the game before timurids even come.

Potential
I don't know why, I tend to change the line of duke a lot in russians. Long distances and having nothing to deal with those polish nobles in early game can be dealt with easily with good generals.

This is the european expansion of the Russian campaign, I also call this the neutral play since most of these factions will get offensive on you without you even moving a muscle. You can also conquer into Anatolia and lavant area but that will make things harder for you.

The yellow six-sided yellow stars are the castles I prefer to keep and white four-sided ones are the areas I use to send merchants. There's lucrative silk, silver, spice in the Lavant and slave trade north of the Black Sea.
Early Strategies
One detail about the expansion is that Russia has no decent castles. I recommend going into "Thorn" very early on. You can at least your boyar sons from here. Sending one general east early on is a good idea. Investing in these towns will get your economy boosting in mid-game since you can pretty much leave these towns defenceless, every penny you get is profit.
Then move along to "Hamburg" after Poland is Destroyed. You should make sure Poland gets a taste of your vodka very early on.

Mid Strategies
Taking "Bran" as your third castle will put you in a very good position. Sometimes hungary converts Bran into town, if that's the case you will have to keep Sofia. From here you can expand into Venice and from Hamburg towards rich german cities.

Late Strategies
You will end up fighting the Latin states and Byzantine. I do not fight Turks and French while playing Russia but I must say then can easily mix up in the fighting at this point.

Спасибо,