LS Civ Set 1: Hetmanate

This guide will function to explain the mod civ of the Cossack Hetmanate, which was a powerful force in Ukraine up until its integration with Russia. Focusing on guerilla attacks with mounted units, the Hetmanate has a unique take to war.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to this guide! Today we will discuss the second of LS Civ Set I's added mod civilizations: The Cossack Hetmanate. With a unique great person and an incentive to perform scorched earth, the Hetmanate show how total war can be used advantageously.

Dropbox Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2extxscqq4lcfhn/LS%20Civilization%20Sets%2027%2009%202014.7z?dl=0
Steam Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=181458959

Hetmanate History

The origin of the Cossack Hetmanate started with a war for independence between the the soon-to-be Hetmanate and Poland. Khmelnytsky, the leader at the time, lead many successful battles against the Polish, shocking them with their superior tactics. As a result, the Hetmanate was recognized as independent.
A period of disorder followed soon after after Bohdan died, leaving the ruling to his inept son. During this time, the fledgling nation lost battles and land, as well as respect. The decline ultimately reduced the nation to its lowest point.
Once a new Hetman was elected and Bohdan's son fled the state, the nation began a recovery. They built many cultural testaments and began rebuilding their nation, though they did not expand as they once had. During this time, they lost their status as a Moscow protectorate, something that would lead to their ultimate downfall, when Russia denied their independence and absorbed them, ending the Hetmanate.

First Impressions

The ability of the Hetmanate clearly favors them engaging in warfare, yet gives no bonuses proper to engaging in it. Despite this, they get a unit with a massively useful ability, and a great person that makes engaging in risky conflict a bit safer.

UA: Raids

The Hetmanate ability is simple. Gain food and production from pillaging enemy improvements. This ability is underwhelming to say the least. Not only is it a small bonus, but it is a war-based ability without a bonus to the warfare. It is best paired with the UU, which is the redeeming factor of the civ.

The abiliity is, in my humble opinion, best used against City States. An early war can be made on a useless city state, and having a Horseman, or other high movement unit, near the city to regularly pillage and run can help with some early to mid game resources. Early in the game, these raiding missions can yield a slight boost to production, making it easier to churn through a couple of staple buildings. Additionally, the food can be used to boost cities, even if just by a turn or two. The point of this ability is to burn through your opponents resources to grow your empire.

Late game, the ability loses traction, except for getting something our of total war. It might rush a unit by a couple turns, which, admittedly, is important, but it's not a miracle worker. By this point, however, the ability has kept you a step ahead of your other warmongering neighbors. While they wasted resources on expensive wars, you've been quietly minding your business burning your neighbor's fields. And now it's time to burn the world. Which leads us to...

UU: Sich Cossack

...the Sich Cossack. Replacing the Lancer, it fills a role similar to the Polish Winged Hussars. Lacking in the same brutish charge, the Sich relies on two important abilities:

• Ignore enemy ZOC
  
• Use enemy roads

These two abilities together, with a mounted unit, means you can run to ANYWHERE in the enemies empire and start the burning. Short of building a wall of units, the Sich Cossack can find a way to slip through and continue the burning. It can be used for precision kills on particularly annoying enemies, like flanking Cavalry, or hidden Artillery. When paired along with Barracks, Armory, etc, the Sich Cossack can gain access to mobility or shock/drill, and run circles around anything. This, in essence, allows it to become like English Ships of the Line: able to chase anything down and be anywhere. As stated before, it lacks enough strength to be powerful on its own, but with support, it can make the way easier for the real threat.
A nice bonus is that when it's time for Anti-Tank Guns and Helicopter Gunships, you can rip through the enemies armed forces one giant gun at a time.

UGP: Hetman

Named for the leaders of the nation, the Hetman is a Great General replacement. In addition to the normal abilities, the Hetman has the ability to liberate a captured city. This means that if you lose a city to an enemy early in the game, you can instantly reclaim it for your own.

I'll run that by you again: INSTANTLY

I don't normally emphazise that badly, but I needed to get the point across. If you walk an unused Hetman (more about what I mean by that later) next to a former Hetmanate city, you can instantly reclaim it. No damage to the city, the units around it, and no buildings lost. If your opponent built that city up from the two pop border city you settled for the easy trade route, now you own a 13 pop production powerhouse just because your flag was there once.

Because this only works on former cities, and not enemy settled cities, it's best used in the opening salvo in order to gain quick traction as your enemy is forced to retreat from full health cities that only moments prior were their own while your untouched forces take up the space. Paired with the Lightning Warfare tenet from Autocracy, you can catch your opponent completely unexpectedly and take back the front line of the war in turns.

In alternative to liberation, the Hetman can also use the ability to create a citadel for free. After making a citadel, they remain, so they are still capable of leading the war charge. Consider using non-liberating Hetmans for this purpose, as it will advance the borders of your nation while still keeping your armies primed for war.

Strategy: Make Them Sich of You

Early in the game, the Hetmans will like lean towards a wide game, but not by nature a warmongering one. In fact, escaping notice is preferred, since your best unit is a late game combat unit. Sticking to burning City States on weekends should be the best course. If you lose a city or two to early game warmongers, grin and bear it. You'll be the one laughing in the end. Of course, seeking out Horse resources is crucial, since your UU relies on them. Funnily enough, getting the Pyramids might not be a bad idea. Late game, most of the land you conquer will be burnt to hell by your own men, so getting it back in shape will need to happen quickly.

Mid-game gets a bit more interesting. With the prospect of upcoming war, you should begin tooling up for the day when you figure out how to make horses fight other horses better. AN opportunistic war or two might be good, since you can get a Hetman or two out of it. By this point, you should own plenty of land, due in part to your expansion and the rest to citadel spams. Due to the amount of free citadels, you won't have much to fear in terms of an enemy attack so long as you keep vigilant. The Hetmanate is like a tank. Slow to start, but defensible.

Late game is where things start getting fun. Your opponents will be left to wonder what happened as you retake your lost cities and burn swathes of the countryside in search of your national unity. Your Cossacks will ruin all their tile improvements, making war something they have to win in a timely fashion before all their cities start starving, or just stop working. Once you get Lightning Warfare, nothing will stop you from destroying the entirety of the enemies homelands. Soon, the world will be burning blaze, and you'll be the only one left to rule it.

Thanks!

Once again, shout-outs to the following:

• TeddyK, also known as LastSword, who is the maker of this civ mod!
  
• Zigzagzigal, who inspired me to write guides about civs.
  
• And of course, to you for reading.

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