Russia's economy is basic and revolves mostly around food and gold and wood. Stone is not worth a lot here, so keep more peasants on wood unless of course you build a stone wall. Make sure you have a lot of food too, food keeps Russia's massive Spearmen armies coming and supported and gold gives Strelets the upgrades they need to rule. Anyway, In the early game, use the strategy found in the economy section. Build yourself a good base economy like any other European nation, but make sure you are really bringing in the wood.
Russia's military is extremely strong in the early and mid-games and average in late games. While in the 17th Century have four barracks' up and as many stables as possible. Start mass producing those tough as nails Russian spearmen in groups of 72 with an officer and drummer. Once you have enough groups to cover your front lines and defend your city, then research their upgrades, a lot.
Russian Spearmen
Life: 100
Time to build: 180
Cost: 55 food and 15 iron,
Attack: 9 pike
Defence: medium
FU attack: 18 (no formation)
FU Defence: Good
The Russian military also gets vityazs and Don Cossacks. The Don Cossacks with an FU attack of 30, are good for lightning attacks. They move pretty fast and have good attack. The Vityazs are a standard heavy cavalry with an FU attack of 27, but they get a lot of power on good defense. And let's not forget the Strelets! They are one of the best shotting units of the 17th Century. Backed up sufficiently by the Russian spearmen, strelets have good potential. With the highest attack of any 17th Century musketeer and their only down side being a not very good build time (it is actually lower than a lot of the country's musketeers, but loses to the Netherlands and the standard European musketeer) strelets should dominate other musketeers, with sufficient upgrades and back up that is. (This doesn't completely cover the full potential of the economy, as that is covered by an entire section.) So, overall, Russia has a unique military with its perks and its down sides but for most players, if Russia can be played well, they defeat almost every single European nation.
