The 7 National Ideas for Russia are:

Subednik: 10% more tax income. The Streltsy: 50% higher land force limit. Opprichina: 30% cheaper infantry, and 10% faster manpower recovery. Abolishment of Mestnichestvo: 10% more production efficiency. Siberian Frontier: +1 colonist, and auto-exploration of all territory adjacent to owned home territory. Table of Ranks: +1% army tradition/year. Curriculum of the Cadet Corps: 10% cheaper technology.

Welcome to another development diary for Europa Universalis IV. This time we focus on the great nation of Eastern Europe, Russia, one of the greatest nations the world has ever seen and a major player through much of the course of the time period represented in the game.If you start at the one of the early points in the game, there is no Russia, really – just a bunch of principalities and republics that, historically, were conquered or coalescaed into a Russian Empire. Most players start with Muscowy and then use that strong and historic base to form Russia, but you always have the possibility to start as another minor Russian state and form Russia that way. Russia has at least one major strategic advantage - once it has removed the Tatars and Mongol threats to its immediate east, its back is free of danger, so it can focus on expansion to its West (into Lithuania and the Baltic states) or to its south (into the Caucasus and Ottoman Empire). As Russia you have options to fight for warm-water ports in the Baltic and Black Seas, direct the conquest of the heartland and oversea the colonial progress through Siberia. A well-played Russia becomes one of the greatest powers at the end of the game, but there is always the risk of falling behind in the technology race.Russia has a rich and interesting history, and we are representing it with lots of interesting Dynamic Historical Events. They have two major chains.The first is the Time of Troubles. Europa Universalis III had a generic Time of Troubles series of events, and that one has been kept, but under a new name, so we could use “Time of Troubles” to represent the dynastic crises that rocked Russia for over a decade.In Europa Universalis IV, Russia runs the risk of running into their Time of Troubles at any point between 1550 and 1650 if its stability is low. This event series gives neighbors the chance to back pretenders to the Russian throne and extend the chaos within the Eastern giant. How will you handle it as a player?Now don't get the idea that all major Dynamical Historical Events are purely bad or challenging for the player! There will be event chains that are quite helpful as well. Russia has one of the most interesting big event-chains in the Grand Embassy dynamic historical event. If , past a certain date, Russia has not yet westernised, and its monarch has good stats, . the roaming king can then travel around Europe, learning various things for your country, and increase relations with neutral nations. This models what Peter the Great did in the late 17th century.The Russian missions are still mostly geared towards expanding and forming a Russia with historical borders, and we have kept the Russian decisions from Europa Universalis III, including the possibility to form Russia itself if it doesn't exist and you are a strong nation with Russian culture controlling the important cities in the region.The Russian idea set is common to all countries that have Russian as their primary culture, as our major goal is to get one united Russia – the state that forms it is not as important. We are still debating whether Novgorod should be unique or not; it is a major player in the Russian theater, but also has many attributes that distinguish it from principalities like Muscovy and Kiev.The Russians start with two traditions that should feel rather natural to anyone who played them in the previous versions of the game. They get 25% extra manpower and 20% cheaper infantry.The reward for gaining all seven is +100% on manpower.With these ideas, a Russian nation will be a country relying on a large number of infantry, and can easily afford them. The Siberian Frontier Idea allows them to colonise towards Siberia without being forced to take the exploration ideas that drive expansion for other potential colonial powers.As a little bonus today, I'm going to talk about the changes we did to the army and navy traditions for Europa Universalis IV. First of all, recruiting a leader does not reduce the military tradition, as you usually can only afford a few leaders at a time. You use Military Power accrued by the monarch and his advisors to hire them instead. It is also slightly harder to maintain a high tradition, especially in peace timeSecondly, military tradition now also gives a bonus depending on its strength. Army tradition gives you higher morale and quicker manpower recovery, and naval tradition gives you higher morale and better trade steering.Thirdly, you can now also increase naval tradition by having trading missions going with your fleets (scaled by your naval force limits) so that if your entire fleet is out doing trade missions, you get an extra +1% naval tradition per year.Finally, tradition is now changed each month instead of just at the end of the year.That´s all for now!Also make sure to check the Europa Universalis IV - Developer Walkthrough that just went live at Gamespot!Cheers,Johan