woah buddy, no need to get that personal

russia, 1497.
we slowly emancipated ourselves from the marriage union with vladimir.
managed to have ryazan as a vassal in the process of integration; novgorod to the north is in my marriage union as well. working on changing union's laws so i can usurp their throne

been drilling the military for the past few months. soon, they will be ready to fight against vladimir, karachev, and kostroma. i've already been fabricating a casus belli and i'm waiting for the most opportune moment to strike…

winning not just on the battlefield, but in diplomacy as well

europe in 1545 is a bit of a mess

russia 1578
recently learned that it is better to not annex provinces; rather, you want to liberate and then immediately vassalize them. this causes less perceived aggression.
i managed to partition vladimir to the north (gordets) and also have kazan as an orthodox christian tributary estate. i also have samara. that's about two million people as vassals. i am starting to become quite powerful.
right now my goal is to make moskva as populous as possible. i have 275k people living there. i'm actively encouraging migration there, but it's hard.

1594
managed to get novgorod back under my wing. vladimir also suspiciously decimated in size, and their ally vanished from earth altogether. it's all coming to plan

1621
it's coming down to this. being king of muscovy, novgorod, vladimir, ryazan, and kazan, i must now seek rivalry with the principality of kyiv in the south.

i want that republic obliterated

nice

summer of 1665 (little ice age)
the summer invasion of 1665 starts with a massive offensive to the capital of novgorod. the goal is to siege it down before the great russian winter hits and decimates my forces

it is soon to be autumn and novgorod decided to siege my northernmost provinces that are already starting to get hit by snow. bold move, let's see if it plays out

winter of 1671, one of the coldest ones yet
this siege is quickly becoming a disaster, but i must press on. i need it all

are you kidding me

so many people are dying on both sides. i'm winning, but not as hard as i want to. if only novgorod accepted my very fair peace offer then a lot of this blood wouldn't be spilled right now

winter of 1673. the little ice age won't stop.
millions of people died. but on the other hand: some of my levies have little christmas hats :3

1674
after almost a decade of war, the grand principality of muscovy emerged victorious. it is now time to strengthen its rule in its newly acquired northern provinces.